Ward Green - Take Me As I Am (WAV) © 2008 Ward Green
Ward Live - In Studio - Jazzify (WAV) © 2007 Ward Green
Ward Green - Tears of Love (WAV) © 2004 Ward Green
Ward Green - No I Won't (WAV) © 2004 Ward Green
Ward Green - Wonderful Thing (WAV) © 2004 Ward Green
Ward Green - Got The Blues This Evening (WAV) © 2004 Ward Green
Ward Green - Dream Baby (WAV) © 2004 Ward Green
Ward Green - Bells (WAV) © 2006 Ward Green
Ward Green - Forever (WAV) © 2004 Ward Green
Ward Green - Solo Medley 1 (WAV) © 2004 Ward Green
Ward Green - Solo Medley 2 (WAV) © 2004 Ward Green
Ward Green - Love Insight (3:35, WAV) © 2008 Ward Green
Ward Green - Crazy (2:29, WAV) © 2008 Ward Green
Ward Green - For My Girl (15:22, WAV) © 2008 Ward Green
Ward Green - My Baby's Got (4:09, WAV) © 2008 Ward Green
Ward Green - Endless Sky (6:31, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green & Anne Rutledge
Ward Green - Willows (5:27, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green
Ward Green - The Line (2:14, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green
Ward Green - Anywhere (3:38, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green
Ward Green - Thinking Of You (4:00, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green
Ward Green - Faster (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green
Ward Green - Faster'n (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green
Ward Green - Slow Down (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green
Ward Green - Slow Fast (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green
Ward Green - Upon Time (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green
Ward Green - Time Less (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green
Ward Green - Take Time (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Ward Green
You may download the song by clicking on the song title above.
``Ward Green - Take Me As I Am'' recorded and released February 22, 2008 by Ward Green. Produced by A. R. Rutledge. A couple of piano takes recorded on sequencer were done, with the second being used. The third and final vocal take was used.
``Ward Live - In Studio - Jazzify'' is a Ward Green release from January 02, 2007 . Praise especially goes to Jehovah God and his son Jesus Christ. My wife Anne is a source of moral support which is so precious.
Improvisational jazz by Ward Green.
Recorded in a single take on 2006-12-31.
Ward has regained all of the lost vision in his left eye, except for a flickering in the left periphery in bright sunlight. Not only that, but his health is unbelievable. He just finished installing a new subfloor, underlay plywood layer, and cork finished floor in the 18½' x 12' studio.
A problem with the original master was rectified about 0230h Jan 02 2007. We won't say how we did it, but it is MUCH better now. So sorry if you downloaded it earlier, but it's really much better to download it again if you downloaded it before this date.
Engineer: Ward Green
Produced by: Ward Green and A.R. Rutledge.
Recorded at: Greenledge Studios, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
All songs are original Ward Green material, written and recorded by him alone, with indispensable assistance from his wife Anne.
Ward Green - Take Me As I Am (WAV) All Words and Music Ward Green. February 22, 2008, 2:34:44 AM
Ward Live - In Studio - Jazzify (WAV) Music Ward Green. January 2, 2007, 1:36:24 AM
Ward Green - Tears of Love (WAV) All Words and Music Ward Green. May 2, 2004, 2:04:44 PM
Ward Green - No I Won't (WAV) All Words and Music Ward Green. April 17, 2004, 1:45:52 AM
Ward Green - Wonderful Thing (WAV) All Words and Music Ward Green. February 18, 2004, 10:06:38 PM
Ward Green - Got The Blues This Evening (WAV) All Words and Music Ward Green. February 14, 2004, 8:15:26 PM
Ward Green - Dream Baby (WAV) All Words and Music Ward Green. February 4, 2004, 4:52:28 PM
Ward Green - Bells (WAV) All Words and Music Ward Green. February 11, 2006, 9:34:49 AM
Ward Green - Forever (WAV) All Words and Music Ward Green. June 11, 2004, 11:00:28 PM
Ward Green - Solo Medley 1 (WAV) All Words and Music Ward Green. April 28, 2004, 6:36:58 PM
Ward Green - Solo Medley 2 (WAV) All Words and Music Ward Green. April 28, 2004, 7:02:36 PM
Ward Green - Love Insight (3:35, WAV) Words and Music by Ward Green. May 26, 2008, 8:44:06 PM
Originally called ``Laid Back Blues'', the rhythm guitar was recorded first as a single take. It remained unaltered for the duration of the rest of the recording, while no small amount of work was done to bring the subsequent tracks in line. Bass was included in the live rhythm track and was recorded with the left hand as the rhythm was laid down. Lead guitar was the second track recorded, and most of it was done in the first take, except that a considerable portion of it was removed to in the songwriting process. Drums were done third, and while they were recorded live they were reworked much more than either of the first two tracks. Vocals were actually an afterthought to this piece, with the vocal bridge in the middle of the song being the final thing added to the mix and done using computer audio recording. All other track recording was done on a Yamaha ES8 Synthesizer/Sampler/Sequencer, the master audio tool being used here for the first time by Ward Green. The project became almost overwhelmingly complex with the addition of brass and woodwinds as the fifth element, done on separate tracks for each of the saxophone, trombone, trumpets, and clarinet.
Ward Green - Crazy (2:29, WAV) Words and Music by Ward Green. June 6, 2008, 6:50:18 PM
All tracks for this song were done on the Yamaha ES8, as were almost all of the tracks for the song ``Love Insight''. Samples of humbucker pickups on an electric guitar were the basis for the electric guitar sound as is true also of that song, with the intro of the guitar in ``Crazy'' being redone near to the conclusion of the process in this case. Piano was the first track recorded, and was a live and unaltered take, with all subsequent additional recorded tracks having to be made to fit this track, as was also true of ``Love Insight'', except that in that song the keyboard was used to generate the rhythm guitar track first. In ``Crazy'' the piano intertwines with the lead guitar in improvisational jazz which Ward loves to play privately from time to time. The drums at the beginning of the song were done last, up to the end of the first verse (actually a chorus). A basic snare track was used for this song, with no bass drum and with some cymbals added on another track. Another drum track was the bongo segment which repeats throughout the song. Mixing was quite time-consuming for this song in order to enable the audibility of all the tracks, but it was particularly enjoyable for Ward, who was finding for the first time the powerful mixing capabilities of the ES8.
Ward Green - For My Girl (15:22, WAV) Words and Music by Ward Green. August 6, 2008, 1:58:48 PM
Recorded exclusively on the computer hard drive, the piano and cello sounds are both from the Yamaha ES8, and vocals as well as acoustic guitar (at the end) are recorded directly to the hard drive with that 4-track Master Tracks Pro Audio software bought at Steve's years ago. It uses a 44kHz sampling rate.
The words for ``For My Girl'' were not all written specifically for this song, but were rather several separate segments of verse which Ward wrote as the spirit inclined him, and which seemed (surprisingly) to go together during the process of getting inspired to recorded the earliest version of the song (which we do not need to hear). The music was inspired by the research on the Green family origins which Ward did and which revealed a possible Scottish origin for the Green family of Old Perlican. It was entitled, tentatively, ``Bold Perlican''. Then the words came along and the cello seemed a natural addition to the song, inspired by Harry Chapin songs and also by James Taylor (Fire and Rain). The piano track was recorded first of all with the idea to produce a Green family theme song, and it was digitally copied and pasted to repeat over and over (which is what it does). The acoustic guitar was just as much an afterthought as the vocal intro and (the guitar) was recorded with a Beyer MC740 microphone in the studio (as were the vocals).
Vocals were done during two separate periods, the second one being an intense cleanup of all (or many) clicks and other undesired noise created during the recording process, as well as volume adjustments to improve the overall mix. Cello was recorded after the piano and was worked on also during the vocal cleanup process. Cello accompaniment for the vocals and the acoustic guitar was recorded last of all.
Vocal reverb was done a Lexicon MPX-200 bought from Mike at Steve's Music in Ottawa, and all playback to the Tascam M-520 console was done using a Behringer Ultra-DI DI-20 direct box. Yes I am using it Darcy. A Peavey IA 10/4 did the job of recording anything from the board back to the computer, including the ES8 tracks and the final mix. Thanks Larry, Peter and everyone at Steve's (and anyone else Ward has forgot).
Thanks to Jehovah for Yamaha, of which Ward's acoustic guitar was also one!
Ward Green - My Baby's Got (4:09, WAV) Words and Music by Ward Green. December 7, 2008, 9:00:12 AM
The piano track was recorded months earlier and for some reason I didn't like it much at the time. It was recorded live to a snare metronome track. The snare track was left as it was.
Electric guitar was done third, then saxophone and then clarinet, using the same sounds synthesized with the Yamaha ES8 and used in the song ``Love Insight''.
Electric guitar is a combination of the track done at the time the piano was first recorded and some recording done on December 6, 2008.
Saxophone and clarinet were both done the morning of December 7, 2008, using basically two live tracks which were cleaned up afterwards by removing a few phrases.
Jesus Christ is my Saviour.
My baby's got love.
Ward Green - Endless Sky (6:31, WAV) © 2008-2009 Words and Music by Ward Green and Anne Rutledge. January 11, 2009, 2:45:20 PM
Instruments and vocals by Ward Green. Recorded piecewise after a rough live performance on the Yamaha ES8 Grand Piano. Piano was recorded first to some extent, with synth and horn parts being mostly recorded before the vocals. The harsh sounds of these instruments can be hard on speakers at high levels, but remixing resolved most of these issues.
Drums were done last, as two live tracks.
Featuring the vocal backup singing of Anne Ruth Rutledge, in her debut.
Remixed December 26, 2008 (version 4) using the original tracks and adjusting reverb and equalization with the ES8 internal settings. The first mix (version 1) had no drum tracks. Version 2 was the first mix to include drums, and the third mix (version 3) was rejected due to the fact that it was recorded incorrectly because of a computer glitch.
Remixed December 28, 2008 (version 5) with a number of track and sample edits, adjusting vocal sample volumes with digital fadeouts and altering track time-alignment for slide acoustic guitar, vocal samples, and editing isolated events for piano and drums. Full-band digital compression was also added as a master effect in mix 5.
The remix of January 11, 2009 (version 7c) restored the original piano track which was the first ever take of the song and brought back some of the original synth track (track 4) which was recorded early on after the piano. Also original was the horn track done the same day as the original piano and synth. Vocals for this remix were redone a number of times and took several days. Guitar was simply duplicated digitally using the ES8, while the drums were synchronized better and had some cymbals added. The overal mix has minimal equalization and is compressed somewhat using digital full spectrum compression native to the ES8. Because of the nature of the improvisational piano track (a single take) it was necessary to rework the vocals to fit the piano. Because of this the song may be improved significantly by composition and performance of the piano as well as rewriting or arranging of the vocal tracks. This version features the same debut backup vocals of Anne Ruth Rutledge as did the earlier mixes.
Mixed by Ward Green with thanks to everyone who helped inspire the song.
Praising Jehovah and his son Jesus Christ as always.
Ward Green - Willows (5:27, WAV) © 2009 Words and Music by Ward Green. February 6, 2009, 3:50:44 AM
Instruments and vocals by Ward Green. Piano was written and recorded first, a relatively work-intensive process which resembled Ward's early songwriting days on piano, specifically the hours spent pounding on pianos in that basement practice facility of the music building at the institution known as Queen's University. Work is not as intensely joyful as writing music, the latter a process of continual joy and discovery. Somehow the work creeps in there in the effort to achieve an end before it gets old. It took a number of days to develop the piano part before any words were written.
The piano was recorded by itself first as a single take (definitely not the first take, but the first completed take) which constituted one verse of three in the final rendition. But before the piano took shape in its final form, the first words were written. They were not those words heard exactly in any one of the three verses. The words for the three verses were written while away from the studio for the evening. After writing the words for the piano (the very first words, if memory serves), the piano could be written in its current verse form. It is easier to write than it is to remember and play. But it is not actually written down in the process of writing, just played over and over, being careful not to play it too much in any one place, so that all of the song gets developed at the same time to prepare for the important first take. Many other variations were also explored on the piano, and each time a new arrangement was created, it marked a new beginning, as though the song were only just beginning to be written. The first words, perhaps, are the real beginning of a song, since they permit the writing of music which may truly accommodate them. When the music is developed considerably before any words, a more appropriate choice of words is possible. Playing a song is more enjoyable when skill in playing already is there. So preparation helps, but actually writing words or music down is a left-brain analytical process and it kills the creative process.
Guitar and vocals were done at the same time as mixing, in the same session at least. This last session started sometime in the early morning of February 6, 2009, (or, perhaps late night, since no tracking of time was being done) just prior to the mixing. Master Tracks Pro Audio was used to do the mastering in Windows XP running on a Dell Dimension 8100 (with a Pentium 4 @ 1.4 GHz and 640 MB of RAM).
Guitar was played on a Fender Telecaster through a tiny Crate amp and recorded using a Beyer MC740 set to omni. Guitar was recorded into the Yamaha ES8 keyboard, where reverb was added.
The song was repeated twice more, thereby providing for the three verses. Very few vocal takes were done, about two or three for the first verse and I believe that the three verses were done sequentially in one take at that point. A little chopping of the first verse in the ES8, some moving of vocals for the first two verses to delay them, and some equalization to reduce the midrange that piles up, as well as some overall control delay used as a master effect to add depth (similar to a reverb), and voilà!
Praising Jehovah and his son Jesus Christ as always and with great joy, here are the words:
Willows bend and flow
Wind takes the tree half you know
When you wind starts to blow
Willows take the other half show
Willows bend and flow
Upside the root down below
When you wind starts to blow
Willows take the other half show
Willows bend and flow
Taking half of what you know
When you wind starts to blow
Willows take the other half show
Ward Green - The Line (2:14, WAV) © 2009 Words and Music by Ward Green. February 10, 2009, 3:55:52 PM
Instruments and vocals by Ward Green. Piano was a single take done after doing several days work building guitar voices and practising playing the blues pattern. Piano is improvised.
I liked the piano so much that it could have been left as is, as a solo track. It had taken so many days to make this track that it seemed likely to take a long time to make any further addition to it by adding other tracks. Then I decided to make a take of real electric guitar. A Fender Telecaster through a small amp is how it was done, but that is only for the intro. After that my fingers were worn out (no calluses), so the way to add more guitar was with the ES8 synthesizer, using voices created over the past few days.
Three different guitar tracks were laid down using the Yamaha ES8: one is a clean humbucker, one with feedback, and a third with distortion. Almost all of it is first takes with a later editing to reduce clutter by removing some bits. The cleanest guitar had one bit added at the end of the intro.
Trombone was added to the mix after the guitars, putting in a few bits, and beefing up a late piano solo to make it a duet.
Vocals were done last, written on the spot to express feeling and try to accommodate the song. The entire mix was then done by first making the vocals audible and reducing the midrange, as was also done for all other tracks. The piano was special, the equalization for it having been done before recording the track and with the intent of making it sound less bright.
Vocals were a single take, after severals missed tries. There is an accidental recording of Anne saying `all right' which I left in where it occurred at the beginning of the song at the time I was recording the Fender.
All tracks were recorded and mixed this day.
Evolution and luck fail to acknowledge the first place of the creative force. Jehovah first, then the Word Jesus Christ was created by him, and Jesus was the one through whom everything else was made.
Ward Green - Anywhere (3:38, WAV) © 2009 Words and Music by Ward Green. February 17, 2009, 9:47:44 PM
The tempo track was made first, with a variable tempo made to allow for speeding up and slowing down in the blues. Usually, this is done by speeding up slightly at the beginning of this pattern of twelve bars, then slowing down in the middle, once again coming back to normal speed by the end. It was only the first time that Ward has used the tempo track, and it enabled the piano to be recorded on the first take! Metronome is very distracting when it is too steady as a beat.
Piano was recorded after a snare drum track was created. This snare track was recorded in step mode using a dry snare drum, which was chosen at least in part because it was sensitive to how hard the key on the ES8 was pressed.
Ward's black Fender Telecaster was used to do the third track by feeding it through the Crate mini-amp, making it a sample, recorded by the sampling function of the ES8. First take.
ES8 guitar sounds were recorded on the keyboard next and each was a first take, using three different guitar sounds created for the earlier song `The Line'.
Vocals were done on two different tracks, and were made up as they were recorded, totally improvised and on the first take.
Cymbals were added along with some tom sounds on the ES8 as a single live track, first take. Bass drum was added in a small section of the song during this take and it is the first bass drum used in recent memory.
Trombone was added as a track on the first take, but a lot of the early part was removed subsequently, mainly higher notes. It was the synthesized ES8 sound which had been customized.
Mixing was accomplished by removing much of the midrange from all tracks as is usual because of pileup. Reverb was greatest for the vocals and the Fender Telecaster guitar tracks and it was a room reverb rather than a larger hall sound. The master was compressed using the full spectrum digital compression of the Yamaha ES8, recorded directly to the Dell Dimension 8100, a 1.4 GHz computer running SAWSE (Software Audio Workshop) as part of Master Tracks Pro Audio. SAWSE is four-track, but one stereo track was all that was needed to make the master.
Snare drum which had been used at the beginning to time piano performance was removed just before mastering.
All tracks were done digitally on the ES8, either mic samples or synthesizer tracks. Piano is synthesized from samples, and vocals are sampled using the Beyer MC740 microphone.
Everything was recorded this day, sort of a jam session ;) It was also mixed and mastered this day. My wife likes it. It is inspired by Eric Clapton in that song Further On Up The Road, recorded live as a track on The Band's `Last Waltz' album. It is pretty standard blues I believe, but his guitar on that is amazing as is Robby Robertson's when Eric's guitar strap goes off and Robby steps in for the emergency.
It was very enjoyable to relax and make music. Praise God. By the way, Jesus was a spirit being in heaven alongside Jehovah before the world was created, which is why he could say:
``Most truly I say to you, Before Abraham came into existence, I have been.'' (John 8:58)Instruments and vocals by Ward Green. Produced by Ward Green and A. R. Rutledge.
``Ward Green - Thinking Of You'' recorded and released March 25, 2009 by Ward Green. A single piano take.
Ward Green - Thinking Of You (4:00, WAV) © 2009 Music by Ward Green. March 25, 2009, 9:57:22 PM
The tempo track is the same as that used for `Anywhere'. Ward recorded the piano track as an improvisational piece, except, of course, for the introduction and ending. The four minutes, almost all of it improvisational, took dozens of takes, while no two takes were alike. He can't currently play it again, in case anyone is wondering.
Equalization was done to the piano to make it sound better on all speakers, and the drums were also eq'ed, both tasks being performed on the ES8 after recording the parts.
I really honestly believe that there is no such thing as luck and I know that a lot of people, including the Chinese, would likely disagree with me. It's just that every detail is known by Jehovah regarding every matter in the universe, so thus it comes about that he even knows our hearts, which we ourselves do not. What appears random to us is therefore, I believe, no more than something beyond our understanding, a piece of what God allows. Randomness is thus the consequence of complexity. Constant prayer to Jehovah through Jesus Christ was necessary during recording in order to maintain concentration. By the way, pi is 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510... to 50 decimal places. At least it was the last time I looked.
``Ward Green - Faster'' recorded and released April 03, 2009 by Ward Green. A single piano take, first take of the day and the fourth overall take.
Ward Green - Faster (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Music by Ward Green. April 03, 2009, 11:05:10 AM
The tempo track is accelerating from beginning to end, and it was created as the basis for the four takes which came after.
The rhythm track utilizes the drum sounds of the ES8. This is the second thing created by copying from a previous song.
Piano- spontaneous improvisation without warmup or rehearsal.
``Ward Green - Faster'n'' recorded and released April 10, 2009 by Ward Green. A single piano take, an unedited live performance (as usual).
Ward Green - Faster'n (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Music by Ward Green. April 10, 2009, 5:17:34 PM
The tempo track is the same accelerating tempo which was used for the previous version of the song, called Faster.
The rhythm track utilizes the drum sounds of the ES8. This is basically the same track as was used in Faster.
Piano- done at the peak of the day's performance ability.
``Ward Green - Slow Down'' recorded and released April 11, 2009 by Ward Green. A single piano take, an unedited live performance (as usual).
Ward Green - Slow Down (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Music by Ward Green. April 11, 2009, 8:04:12 AM
The tempo track is the same accelerating tempo which was used for the previous version of the song, called Faster'n.
The rhythm track utilizes the drum sounds of the ES8. This is basically the same track as was used in Faster'n.
Piano- morning rehearsal.
``Ward Green - Slow Fast'' recorded and released April 12, 2009 by Ward Green. A single piano take, an unedited live performance (as usual).
Ward Green - Slow Fast (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Music by Ward Green. April 12, 2009, 8:19:42 PM
The tempo track is the same accelerating tempo which was used for the previous version of the song, Slow Down.
The rhythm track utilizes the drum sounds of the ES8. This is basically the same track as was used in Faster'n. Here the snare drum and high hat were mixed louder than previously and were removed entirely from the intro to the song.
Piano- selected take, from evening rehearsal (third of four).
``Ward Green - Upon Time'' recorded and released April 14, 2009 by Ward Green. A single piano take, an unedited live performance (as usual).
Ward Green - Upon Time (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Music by Ward Green. April 14, 2009, 1:39:58 AM
The tempo track is the same accelerating tempo which was used for four earlier versions Faster, Faster'n, Slow Down, and Slow Fast.
The rhythm track utilizes the drum sounds of the ES8. This is basically the same track as was used in Faster'n. Here the snare drum is slightly less loud than in Slow Fast for the most part (60 compared to 63), the snare fader having been ridden to remove snare from the intro of the song.
Piano- practice session after sleeping all day, fourth take.
``Ward Green - Time Less'' recorded April 20, 2009 and released April 21, 2009 by Ward Green. A single piano take, an unedited live performance (as usual).
Ward Green - Time Less (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Music by Ward Green. April 20, 2009, 11:36:56 PM
The tempo track is the same accelerating tempo which was used for the five earlier improvisations Faster, Faster'n, Slow Down, Slow Fast, and Upon Time.
The rhythm track utilizes the drum sounds of the ES8. This is basically the same track as was used in Faster'n. This version is done by riding the snare track all the way through the song to make it sound more like a real drummer sounds and to remove it from the intro to the song where it served for a time.
Piano- late night practice, sixth take.
``Ward Green - Take Time'' recorded April 21, 2009 and released April 24, 2009 by Ward Green. A single piano take, an unedited live performance (as usual).
Ward Green - Take Time (3:40, WAV) © 2009 Music by Ward Green. April 21, 2009, 4:36:38 PM
God blesses us with his many provisions.