DAVID J. HAHN

See, What Had Happened Was

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Not a full song here, just a groove. Sometimes I just put together a groove like this to practice my Logic chops and to create a little something.

Alone at Home

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Here is a great song for everyone – intermediate pianists or even ambitious beginners. You can purchase and download the music directly through PayPal ($10), or if you’d prefer, I can mail you (or the pianist on your gift list) a signed copy.

If you need a little help getting it under your fingers, I’d also be happy to give you a mini lesson over the phone or skype with your purchase.

Thank you so much, I’m very grateful for your support.

Lute-Piano-String Minor Funk Groove

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Do you hear the Leonard Bernstein reference in this one?

Wake You Up Instead – Needs Vocals

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This little guy needs some lyrics and a singer – anybody interested?  It might be a fun thing to put together.  I’m not set on that name or anything – the name is a remnant of some stand-in lyrics I’d used.

Walking Music

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Here’s a little walking music for you.  I originally wrote this to accompany an animation of a clown in a beret walking down the street.  I thought it was a little too boxy (a little too “8 measures of this…then 8 measures of this…”), and it didn’t make the cut.  But maybe it suits your stride better?  Start walking!

Names Is For Tombstones

In 2008 I paired up with an animation student and we created a short film called “Names Is For Tombstones.” In the end, the music didn’t line up entirely how I intended it to, and I there are things I wouldn’t be so literal about were I to do it again, but there still some hip moments in the animation and, if you don’t mind me saying so, the music.

It’s an odd story, as you’ll see, and Tim Burton-esque. I went with that vibe and wrote some Danny Elfman-esque creepy music, but I didn’t attempt any of his more complicated marches or up-tempo compositions.

The high tremolo strings w/ bells and underlying, unsettling bass that start around 1:38 seem to fit the conclusion of the animation. I think it would have worked better to start off with something quicker and unsettling like that as well – rather than the “creepy-but-curious” music I wrote for the opening camera pan.

The video is about 4 seconds behind where I intended it to me, so the hits are off. But the delay actually makes some new hits that are also appropriate.

See what you think. Leave a comment if you have thoughts.

Johnny

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I don’t have anything up here with a good, fat, quacking clav, so I made something today.  My favorite clav recordings are on the Bob Marley Legend album.  It’s just so tasty when the Wailers play it.  I tried to put a little Wailers clav lick in the chorus here.

Doesn’t it sound like you’re listening to a record?  No? No. It’s a pretty weak attempt, I know you’re not fooled.  But to end a song with a needle scratch?  Classic.

One Day (Argentina)

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This is a sketch of something I wrote a few months ago. But I wonder if I actually wrote it. Doesn’t it sound familiar? Sometimes that happens.

I can never understand why people name songs with one part of the name in parentheses and the other part not in parentheses. Why do they do that? So I thought I’d try it and see how it feels – One Day (Argentina). It feels (pretty good).

This song is in Chopin’s favorite key, C#. I prefer to call it Db, though.

Books

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I like Kurt Vonnegut books, I’m a big fan. He did the percussion on this song. Or rather, his book did. Hear the beat? That’s me thumbing through a copy of Breakfast of Champions. Thank you, Kilgore Trout.

Inauguration Song

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…We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning—signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.

…Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

- John Kennedy, 1961