"FREE Download of One Of My CD Baby Songs - Help Choose Which One!"

FREE DOWNLOAD VOTE!

I now have Twelve Songs on CD Baby for your listening with Full Previews. I am asking my readers to select your favorite song. The Song with the most votes will be set for a FREE CD Baby Download. That's right FREE!

Artist's Page Link: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/KirkMathewGatzka

I need you to visit my CD Baby Artist Page, Listen to each of Twelve Tunes in whole or part (Free Full Previews) and PICK YOUR FAVORITE!

Comment on this below and the Song I will select will be from the total of what ones you VOTED for! That is correct Listen for Free, Vote on your favorite and the one with the most votes will be set as a Free Download $0.00 cost.

This song will be available after February 2016 to allow time for you to select and post (in the Comments) the one you vote for as your Favorite.

Artist's Page Link: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/KirkMathewGatzka

I will total up the votes and set the price to $0.00 for a Free Download for the most Popular Song!

So, go to the link of my Artist Page at CD Baby, Listen, Select Your Favorite Song, Then tell me in a Comment below on the blog, or a Direct Message on Twitter or Facebook (or a vote on Google+.) The Song that gets the most votes will win. 

Rules: You can vote as many times as you want for your Favorite Song! You can only use one email address to vote.

gatzkART! The blog will announce the winning Song and it's availability on CD Baby, with a Link to the Song.

Follow this link to my Artist's Page on CD Baby. (Note: You may share this with others you feel may be interested in a FREE Download of Music!)

Artist's Page Link: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/KirkMathewGatzka

Here is the thing, if there is not enough participation for choosing which Song will be FREE, I will select one and set it's price to $0.00 on CD Baby. So a FREE Download for one of my Twelve Songs will still be announced on gatzkART! Blog, Twitter, Facebook and Google+! It's a Win-Win situation!

Listen for FREE, Choose YOUR Favorite, Get the most Popular Download on CD Baby!

ACT NOW! Listen, Vote, Get FREE Music! It's that simple!

"Artists In The Plus 'Studio Sessions' Myrna Braza" Corel - Plus

Myrna Braza Artists In the Plus

I was not able to watch the Live HOA on Google+, but I caught the show on YouTube. I did a full screen capture of the band playing and Myrna Braza singing.

I took the clip into Corel PhotoPaint and cropped it then saved it to my first iteration. I used Picasa 3.9 to Warmify and also applied the HDR tool there. I saved again and opened with Corel PSP Pro X3.

In PSP Pro I applied the Skin Smoothing and a slight Soften to the image. I also adjusted the Saturation and the Lightness  in PSP Pro. I applied the lighting Effects Color Balance Fluorescent Standalone. I added my signature with the Visible Watermark and Resized the image to 300 pixels 1220 x 633. I saved that iteration for display. Before I displayed I added a Museum Matte and frame in Picasa saved and displayed.

Thanks to +Artists In The Plus +John Voshell and of course +Myrna Braza and her fabulous band!

If you missed the show here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr14zavPZ4E

"1,100th Post! Grunge Guitars" Paint.NET - Corel - Plus

Grunge Guitars

For today's image I selected a photograph of our two guitars upright, leaning on the couch. I opened from Picasa 3.9 with Paint.NET and used the Ink Sketch tool on the photograph. I ended up with a pen and ink, black and white, image.

I browsed to my Pictures folder on my external hard drive and went to Mayang's Textures. I selected a metal rust texture and loaded it as another layer. Still in Paint.NET, I resized the texture to fit, used the layer property Multiply, and merged the layers, saving that large iteration. I opened the file in Corel PhotoPaint.

I next went to the Internet to find some fonts of paint splatters that I could use for adding to the grunge look and feel. I found Split, Splat, Splodge and WTC Rhesus TT fonts for free use. I applied the paint splatters, and used the Distort, Wet Paint tool for the drippings. I changed the opacity of the splatters showing the background through them for effect of aged splatters.

I used the Filter Forge Photo Effects plugin for Vibrance to add some punch to the colors. Added my signature in white and resampled for display.

I played my 12-String Seagull last night and practiced for a couple hours. Some new chord progressions and a few tunes. Green Day's "Warning," Coldplay's "Clocks," and Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Lucky Man," (without the synth.) As I get older my calluses don't take long to begin hurting after only a short time, well I blame it on age and FMS.

All in all I really enjoyed my practice on the guitar, and the singing, too.

"Acoustic Magazine No. 3" Fake Cover -Corel PhotoPaint

Acoustic Magazine No. 3

Digital Collage is great fun for a creative exercise, so I did another "Acoustic Magazine No. 3" for today's image. Old magazine tearings and cutouts were used and scanned in with my Canon MP495. I used Corel PhotoPaint to assemble the pieces scanned at 300 dpi.

I used the fonts I have previously used on these projects (please refer to the first "issue.") I saved the large file with my signature and then resampled for display here. I don't know if I will make anymore of these fake parody covers or not, I hope you enjoy the humor and the balancing of text phrases and images.

Listening --- Blind Blake --- West Coast Blues

49 West Ed & Patrick (Sparks & Raymond) - Painter 11 - Paint.NET - PhotoPaint

Click for Larger Image

My Musician friend Edward Sparks shared this photograph with me of a performance at 49 West in Annapolis. He and a friend performing here made for a great image. After I got permission from Edward I saved the photograph and opened with PhotoPaint to resample it to 96dpi which gave me a larger file to work with. I sharpened the image with a Directional Sharpen and saved the larger file.

I opened with Paint.NET and applied the Effects> Artistic> Ink Sketch> for a bit of pen and ink look and feel. I upped the color all the way and backed down the ink. Saving the image I opened with Painter 11 and created a quick clone with a white background. I began with the Straight Cloner brush and painted in Edward and Patrick only. Then I selected the Artist's Auto Van Gogh and with the lone button selected began painting in the background with that brush.

I then selected the Smeary Bristle Clone brush and added some color around the two of them and painted in the bass guitar and banjo. I added some details from the photographs background. The next brush I chose was one of Skip's Digital Watercolors and added a bit more detail allowing the Van Gogh brushwork to show through.

Selecting another digital watercolor brush from Skip's I used the eyedropper to select the blue color to add to the right hand sides large window. This was a finishing touch for this image, it really balanced the composition out color wise.

I saved the file again under a differing iteration. Opening In PhotoPaint I resampled the file for display online and added my signature.

I want to thank Edward for this opportunity to paint this image.

Listening --- Edward Sparks --- No Perfect People Allowed

Eric Clapton - Before You Accuse Me

Eric Clapton
Tags:
Eric Clapton, MTV Music

Rust Upon Rust - Digital Collage

I really love the color of rust and this image demon-
strates that. I used a rust back-
ground from CGTextures.com and combined a rusty, very old style tractor, a rusted truck, a rusted farm implement, plus some Dover Clipart to create this Rust Upon Rust image.

I used PhotoPaint to combine all the mentioned pieces into this collage of rust. I added some clipart hands with old mechanisms at odd places to add some humor to this piece. Look closely at the larger image for the details.

I also found a bit of time to practice playing the 12-string and 6-string guitar which was so much fun I recorded a couple of covers of tunes. I have always liked JJ Cale's "After Midnight" with its chunk a chunk rhythm so I attempted this one for an enjoyable time. Using Audacity I recorded 3 tracks. Two (guitar and vocals) with my microphone only and a Detroit RNB Vocal setting in Gearbox. I put these opposite each other in the right and left channels. Then using a Heavy Guitar setting I added the third track of my attempt at lead playing, not my strong point. I used the 12-string guitar for this recording.

I have some Kenny Chesney (Live) songs on my PC so I looked for some of them and found "Live Those Songs" Tab and chords and lyrics. After some practice I adapted the song to my style a bit and recorded that using the 12-string and vocals. I used the same vocal setting and put the two tracks in the right and left channels. In the middle I messed up the chord structure, but since I only share this with family and friends I didn't bother to re-record the second channel. I know, I'm lazy!

All in all I had fun doing some digital art and recording which I haven't had time to do in quite a while. It was great fun!

----------------
Listening to: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - After Midnight Cover
null

Autumn Color Kensington Metro Park

Autumn color tours are common in the Midwest states, and we took a tour late Sunday at Kensington Metro Park. I took quite a few photographs and gathered some colorful leaves to scan in for artwork.

So here you will find an image made from one photograph of dried snowball flowers in the background and the scanned in leaves in the foreground. I used both PhotoPaint and Paint.NET in creating this piece.

I have an older scanner so I only did the scan at 300dpi 50% to keep the size workable. I used a white piece of paper behind the leaves and then using the Wand tool selected a lot of the white background leaving some of the 3d shadows intact. I took the photograph of the dried flowers and used it as a fill after I masked out the leaves.

Saving that file I opened it in Paint.NET to use the Effects> Artistic> Ink Sketch> filter with the coloring set high and the ink set low. This gave me the textures I wanted. I saved that and reopened in PhotoPaint and found a frame in my Dover Clip Art collection that I added using a filter on it for more texture.

I am reviewing some of my older songs right now in Windows Media Player. Before I had a good microphone and the Toneport, I did OK using Audacity to record with a condenser mic. Funny how things can change with better equipment. The content is still good but now with the Toneport to preamp and a Shure microphone everything is much improved.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Love Is
null

Rust Guitars - Vector Play - Guitar Chords

I've been listening to Raising Sand with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. I found the song "Polly Come Home" online and have been playing it on the 12-string. It is a very nice tune and simple to play and sing. I am really enjoying it.

I decided to play around with some guitars on a rust texture for today's image. I got the texture from Texture Lovers. And used a variety of guitar styles for variation.

I loaded up the guitars into CorelTRACE and changed them into vector graphics to use in CorelDRAW. I pasted the rust texture into a new page in CorelDRAW and individually added the guitars. Using the select tool I took parts of the guitars and burst them out of their places to create the jagged edges.

I copied this grouped vector image to the clipboard and opened from clipboard in PhotoPaint to add some splatters and drippings. I added a frame and resized for display here.

I added some text from a nonsense rhyme and the title along with a nice chord progression.

C Am
C Am
C Am
F G
F G

Fun to play with differing tempos and flatpicking, strummings. I also enjoyed playing the guitar with these chords.

I have joined a forum for users of Corel Painter, called PainterTalk and have been sharing my work there as well, even-though the images are not always done only in Painter I use many Corel products to produce my digital visual art works. It's great for feedback on one's artwork.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Watch the Wind Blow By Cover
null

Custom Cruiser - Corel PhotoPaint - Grunge

As a guitar player I like to do covers of other's songs. Some times I find a song, think I know it as I listen to the singing and lyrics only to find out that after I get the song it contains words I don't want in any song I sing. I am not asking for much, but just want a song to be clean and not dirtied up with cuss words and the like.

I just had that happen to me last night. I found the lyrics and chords online at one of the resources I use. And found objectionable content. Spoiled my intentions of covering that song. I could change the lyric, but it would not contain the original intent of the artist. Whatever that may have been, shock value, rebelliousness, superstitious nonsense. So I just won't use that song. I'll move on to another in hopes of finding a good song to cover. Fun to play and sing.

Today's image is a continuation of my grunge motif with custom cars. It was done in PhotoPaint, with a grunge texture from Grunge Textures as the background. It is a modified PT Cruiser, highly altered. I focused on the front end of the vehicle.

I used the Thredgeholder plugin filter, from Little Ink Pot, to create the sketch like appearance of the car. I added this using the object property Color Burn. Adding some guitar chords in a progression and a partial critique of a story I have written for children, (which needs only some illustrations to finish it up.) I again added some paint splatters and drippings for the grunge feel.

I do so enjoy a decent grunge piece, they are so much fun to do.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Alison Krauss - Rich Woman
null

Our House - Painter 8 Watercolor/Pencil

Detailed painting requires patience, the tiger lilies in our front and side garden required that as I painted today's image. It's another view of our house I used the watercolor clone brushes in Painter 8. I had run the original photograph through Paint.NET's Pencil Sketch filter and added that in PhotoPaint for some detail as well.

I enjoy the end result of the watercolors plus the pencil sketch together. Part of the piece is light and airy, part darker and full. That's why I enjoy them so much.

I also used the Tone Curve in PhotoPaint to lighten the colors a bit so the painting wasn't as dark as it started out. It allowed the pencil markings to show through and give it the detailed touch.

On the music front I finally bought an MP3 Player, it's only two gigabytes but it holds approximately 1000 songs. I am listening to some of my own songs right now using it. I got it for help with exercising. I have a treadmill that I can use in inclement weather, and of course can take it with me on walks around the neighborhood. I am too sedentary, I sit a lot before this computer doing art and blogging.

So it isn't helping right now as I listen to music on it while sitting. I need to move!

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Speedboat Waves
null

Flamed Mustang - Saleen Custom Made

Though Ford's weren't popular cars for my family growing up, I have always liked the stylish Mustang. This flame painted custom by Saleen is a beauty. Photograph was taken at twilight, you can see vehicles in the background lit up at the gas station pumps off Woodward Avenue.

I am still using Grunge textures and paint splatters and dripping for the overall appearance of my current pieces.

Here I used Paint.NET for a light ink sketch then opened the image in PhotoPaint. There I used a Sand grunge background lightened in the Tone Curve to allow for the texture to show through. I used the object property If Darker to overlay the texture. I added the paint splatters using the font WC Rhesus B Bta and the Effect> Distort> Wet Paint> for the dripping. I merged all object and layers.

Music is on my mind and in my ears as I listen to various artists. Waiting for the time where I am creative again with some songwriting. I must be patient.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Ben Harper - Strawberry Fields Forever
null

Hemi's Rock - Grunge Dream Cruising

Well the telltale sign that it's time for the Woodward Dream Cruise starts tomorrow is the fact my Brother has come down from up North to visit and make his trip to the Avenue.

It's official! He comes every year to visit and stay with us while he goes to the Dream Cruise.

I have to share today a Hemi based custom car, done in grunge mode. I used PhotoPaint and a concrete texture for this White Beauty. Adding the grunge is the fun part. But I tried not to take too much away from the clean lines of this car.

I also had some time to play around with the guitar last night. A real simple rock instrumental with a major chord progression. I am listening to the recording now as I post this. Some cruising music again.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - D C G A E Run
null

Jamming

Yesterday evening my friend David and I did a little jamming at my son's place. He had us over for a cookout. The weather was nice but chilly so we jammed inside.

I also had an opportunity to jam with another friend, Marshall, who played the violin in accompaniment on "Old Man" by Neil Young.

Both times we had great fun. It has been quite awhile since I had anyone to jam with, so I especially enjoyed it. It was all acoustic without any amplification.

Here is an image of the 6-string Lyon guitar that David played. I was experimenting with low light photography and the light came from LED lighting. I did not get any pictures of either jam as I was playing my 12-string and wasn't able to use the camera and no one else thought to use it. I am a little disappointed.

David's style of acoustic lead is impressive as was Marshall's violin playing. There is nothing like a good jam session.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Our House Cover
null

Painter 8 Plus Traditional Pastels

I have done today's image using traditional pastels and paper. I took the original photograph and opened it in Painter 8 where I made a drawing/sketch of the young lady. I printed this out in 8.5x11 format on drawing paper then I used my pastels to do the portrait.

After i was done with that scanned in the resulting image and opened it in Painter 8 once again. There I painted the image using textured brushes to give it 'body'.

I love the red hair of this young lady and it's fullness. I did my best to capture the essence of her attractiveness. One aspect of the photograph was her left eye did not show very well so one mostly sees the eyelashes and general shape of it.

I did some recording yesterday afternoon. I used the Toneport and set my microphone setting on "Detroit RnB Vocal". Then I recorded a cover of Neil Young's "Helpless". It is such a short song I lengthened it by singing it twice. I added a simple lead without using my pickup just the microphone with the same vocal setting. I's a sweet song. I am going to cover "Ohio" and "Our House" from the book based on CSNY's Deja Vu album for easy guitar.

In May was the anniversary of the Kent State ("Ohio") shootings, I saw the front page from the New York Times "on this day" blurb. So it has been on my mind.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Helpless Cover
via FoxyTunes

Singing Lessons

I've never had singing lessons, I didn't have them at school, or privately. This makes me wonder about the quality of my singing. I have a fairly nice voice, it has only a fair range, and low stamina for long drawn out notes. At times it can get gravelie, like stones in the throat, if I am straining too much.

I do all my songwriting and guitar playing and singing by ear. I am not a trained musician. I really wonder how much better I would be if I had taken more music in school and college. I did take some music theory in college, but it was only a low depth class, I did get a 4 point grade for it though.

So I have entitled this image "Singing Lessons" as it shows the parts of the body that are used in singing and it is backed up by the guitar image.

I looked up "singing" and found that Wikipedia talked about how singing takes place physically: "In its physical aspect, singing has a well-defined technique that depends on the use of the lungs, which act as an air supply, or bellows; on the larynx, which acts as a reed or vibrator; on the chest and head cavities, which have the function of an amplifier, as the tube in a wind instrument; and on the tongue, which together with the palate, teeth, and lips articulate and impose consonants and vowels on the amplified sound. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are nevertheless coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another.^[2] During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort. Exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles. The pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming."

Hmmm, humming, always with the lips closed. The image goes right along with this description. Singing involves a lot more than we usually think about when doing it. We just 'sing' and don't give it much thought.

I have found that the use of a capo allows me more range if used on the 2nd or 3rd fret. But musically I don't know what that means as far as what key I am singing in. Pathetic isn't it. A songwriter not knowing these things. I know the 3rd fret is the note 'G' on the 'E' string but that doesn't translate into anything intellectually for me.

I am certain I have many bad habits I have learned over the years without musical training. I know basics like the tuning of the guitar, some harmonics, some of the fret notes, but I am woefully lost in reading music or even tabulature. I can 'sight' read music by knowing that the note is either going higher or lower on the scale, and know that 'Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge' and 'FACE'. But is that really reading music scales, hardly.

All I do know is that by ear much can be accomplished. I do write songs, or do I "make them up"? I guess that is for the professional musicians to debate. I like what I do and that enjoyment for me is making music, even if I am untrained.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Train - Respect
via FoxyTunes

Grunge and Rust

There is something about decay, rust, and grunge. This photograph is one I took with a 35mm film Pentax K1000, and scanned it in. There is also something about Stencil lettering, it has a primitive look and feel to it.

Grunge as music is another story. I don't think I ever identified with the movement, but it did influence many mainstream artists. I have to admit I don't know a lot about it. Wikipedia states of Grunge:

"The early grunge movement coalesced around Seattle independent record label Sub Pop in the late 1980s. Grunge became commercially successful in the first half of the 1990s, due mainly to the release of Nirvana's Nevermind and Pearl Jam's Ten. The success of these bands boosted the popularity of alternative rock and made grunge the most popular form of hard rock music at the time.^[1] However, many grunge bands were uncomfortable with this popularity. Although most grunge bands had disbanded or faded from view by the late 1990s, their influence continues to impact modern rock music."

Kurt Cobain became famous and was a martyr of the Grunge movement. I read parts of one of his notebooks that was published, at a book store, and was left with a depressed feeling. He did not seem to be very pleased with life in general.

I think that over all much of my early poetry and songwriting was depressed as well, young and disillusioned without much life experience can do that to a person. Now I like to write Folk Rock, and bluesy music that is more positive and upbeat in its outlook. I guess I am showing my age once again. Life experience can make one bitter and resentful or you learn how to cope better and you can adopt a more constructive viewpoint.

Even though "Eve of Destruction" was a favorite song in the past, "Ohio" by CSNY is also one I have played multiple times, my outlook is not bitter. For that I am thankful.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Kirk Mathew Gatzka - Summer 2008
via FoxyTunes

Open Mic Night And You

A chair on a stage surrounded by many guitars. Open mic night, you can picture yourself there on the stage, imagining you are giving a great performance of your own music. Blues, Rock, Jazz, Folk Rock, Country, etc. What do you play and do you write your own works? Photograph credit Jim Anderson of Blue Front Blues Room.

Many of us have anxiety for performing and find it difficult to share in public. But a friendly audience is here tonight. Warm and welcoming. You relax a bit more as you move into your song. Your confidence builds as you play and become absorbed in the music. After you are done the audience applauds it's approval and you are ready for your next of three songs you can present tonight. Your patter is minimal, your stage presence is lacking professionalism. But that is not the point. You are sharing your music live!

Perhaps you have done this a few times, like I have. There is nothing like it. I recall one experience when I lost my song right at the last verse. I just stated "I lost the song!" and the audience empathized with me. So I announced that my mother n law was in the audience, 74 years old, she had come though not feeling well to hear me sing and play. At the time she was our only parent/grandparent left as all others had passed away. So the audience applauded her.

Then one of them began to sing part of my song aloud. This put me back on track and I was able to finish the song and play another two. It was a nerve racking experience but I was filled with adrenaline and I had to keep playing. The audience was so appreciative and supportive it really helped. Many of them were there to play and had experienced the same thing I had. I received a lot of encouragement after my performance by some very good performers.

It was worth it.

Here is a chord progression from Rikky Rooksby's book "How to Write Songs on Guitar". I found it enjoyable to play around with but with out a song yet. It is good for practice and inspiration to use these progressions found in his book. G Em G Em Am D Am D. Try it and you will like the way the minor chords give flavor to the structure.

By the way I have no affiliation with Amazon Books or Mr. Rooksby. I just have a copy of his book and find it very helpful for songwriting. Thus the reference and link. I owe the chord progression to his book so I owe a link to it. Perhaps you'll find it helpful too.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Sheryl Crow - Soak Up The Sun (Album Version)
via FoxyTunes

Mayan Band

I wanted to share the full image of the Mayan band playing. I used the same technique to create this piece as I did, described in my last post. I have a cassette tape of this band entitled "Ingapirca - Popular Pan Music from South America" ©1996 Jorge Panchi. So it has been more than a few years ago we were exposed to this band. I haven't listened to it in a while. But I have it out now so I probably will take a listen again.

I like some world music though some of it is so different that I have to listen a few times to understand it. I am more interested in the late 60's and early 70's music. Dylan, Beatles, Tom Petty, America, CSN&Y, Neil Young, Chicago and many others of that era. I guess I am part of the Baby Boomers era, but I do like newer alternative rock and country. What are your favorites?

Thank you to all my readers! I am slowly building a group of person who read my blog. I really appreciate your interest and encourage you to share my blog address with others who like Digital Visual Art and Music Discussions.

----------------
Now playing on Windows Media Player: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Free Fallin'
via FoxyTunes

Dan and His Epiphone

This is my friend, Dan, playing his Epiphone 6-string guitar. Dan is quite talented but is very modest about his abilities.

He knows how to read tablature and play it, and is willing to help me learn it too. But time constraints plague us all. So I haven't taken advantage of it yet.

We have similar tastes in music (he likes the Eagles) and he also likes to do karaoke singing. When we visit we have a great time singing oldies and laughing it up when we make mistakes and plain goof off with funny songs like 'Elvira', or some other odd songs he has in his collection.

I got this photo of Dan from him. I opened it in PhotoPaint and I masked him out. I did the background usings Harry's filters patterns then adjusted the pattern with PhotoPaint's Custom> Alchemy> filter. I saved the image and opened it in Paint.NET and using the Artistic> Ink> filter I altered it to have this inklike appearance. Oh yes, while in PhotoPaint I adjusted the Saturation by 15 to boost the colors.