This guy is REALLY talented. I think he's amazing. Rad!

Entertaining music, entertaining personality. =o

This one is rad too...



In case you were wondering what it sounded like w/o his beat behind it:

You're not the only person who thinks "He's amazing. Rad!" They use his music in most of their 2v2 video (pretty cool to watch as well)

Lewt Carries Me

Wow, thanks for sharing, great stuff. I especially like the last one you posted, dope as hell!

This dude is so....fucking....dope

I mean for fuck's sake, DOPE.

Yeah, he fucking kicks ass. I never pay for music, but I have bought his shit, he's the man. I love Ronald Jenkees.

This guy is the shit too:

Holy shit. I'm not a huge fan of hip hop but...goddamn. And he looks like such a fucking dork. I love how he comes across so honest and earnest in the videos. He shifted from dork to aww cute for me just watching one video.

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He is a dork he has a "rap" song about a 56k modem but his music is pretty good anyways.

The real Ronald Jenkees? Many people say it's all an act. I always assumed it was really.



Doesn't matter though, still dope as fuck.

lol @ the video. The guy is obviously a performer, it's not the first time a performer plays as a character. ;P

It's funny the paper trails that can be found on the internet. Heh. I still love Ronald Jenkees, the whole Paypal thing kind fo blew it out of the water though. Oh well, Jenkees rules and so does Benjamin Feltes or w/e.

Keep on rockin'. Shit is still, like my brother from a different mother said, dope.

Heh, that's interesting about his persona. I had seen his videos before and love his music, but had no idea he was acting. I wonder how much it's affected his busniess; I'd be more likely to buy music from the highly affable Jenkees persona than from your average guy (or worse).

But yeah, totally rockin' beats.

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I think it bothers some people because he kind of played on an idiot-savant reaction, IMO. My impression of the character was of a guy who was a little bit slow, but could make some great music. I think people like that sort of story, and some might buy his music in a "awww shucks, good for him" kind of way. When you find out he's an actor, you feel a little bit conned.

Personally, I still enjoy watching the videos. /shrug

No offense, but...

If you thought his uber-nerd persona was real you are too gullible.

That's about as nice as I can put that.

For me, the only reason I liked his music at all was because of the persona. This simply removes the reason for me to buy his music.

And I hate to sound like those asses that post on YouTube videos of performers all the time, but I don't think his music is all that great. If you have decent piano skills and loop sequencing program, this stuff seems easy to do. Maybe it's because I'm a pianist.

Now you can just pirate it, and still enjoy it

I call bullshit, prove it.

Agreed. I think Fribur is forgetting that people who play instruments aren't necessarily good at writing music. I'd love to see him give it a shot if it's so easy, though.

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oooo a challenge! This could be fun. I can't do it from home because I don't have the software handy, but I do have it where I work. Hell, I teach a sequencing composition class at my school-- we have Sonar Home Studio, and Sony Acid (for the beginners). Do you have a software preference? We have Pro Logic too, but we just got it and I'm really not very familiar with it.

Does it have to be the same style as him, or can I go my own way? I have to admit that there are other styles of music that I prefer much more, and it wouldn't be much fun to spend a lot of time on something that I don't particularly like.

Given my work hours I may not have it right away-- you'll have to give me some time.

Call bullshit all you like-- I happen to be a musician, and I do know how to use that type of software. And it is not hard, folks. All he was playing is the melody, and the drums / other sound effects are just planned out and added with a push of a button or pre-recorded.

I do have to say though, I'm not very comfortable putting myself on a video though-- probably self-esteem issues. Would an mp3 be ok, or if it's too good will you just claim I didn't make it? I hope in the 9 years here I've garnered at least a little trust, enough that you would trust that I wouldn't put someone else's work here as my own...

Tyral, regarding your specific comment about composition vs. performance, I do somewhat agree. I don't really agree when it comes down to pop music, though. It's the same damn 4 chords, forever. Change the words, change the lyrics, and change the instruments, and you have a new song. It's boring as hell, and it's why I don't really listen to much but classical music anymore. The only ones that I tend to still be willing to listen to are those bands that work hard to get out of the mold-- like System of a Down, or Metallica (especially early Metallica) for example.

For clarification, when I say "pop music" I mean basically everything created for common radio consumption since 1950 or so. Rap, Rock, Country, Alternative, all that shit.

*edit* ok, so I haven't listened to these in a long time, and I just relistened to a few of them.

It's NOT as hard as you apparently think. The very first video you posted, for example, is just two chords repeated over and over again with an improvised melody. The improv isn't even that difficult-- he's simply using a list of notes in his head that will ALWAYS sound good with those chords, regardless of the order in which he plays them. It's very very similiar in technique to blues scales in blues music that we do in our jazz bands all the time. Finally, he also has the keyboard set so that it repeats the notes if he holds down the keys. This let the music sound more complex without having to physically produce it with his hands.

I think, to save myself time and effort, I'll just record myself doing some simple improvisation like this, based on common pop chords, but I'll use far more than the two chords he uses in that particular video. If I show you that, is this evidence enough, without me taking up much more time to produce a polished piece? It would be a lot like a trick I do at school sometimes to entertain-- I take a student's phone number or other made up number, use the numbers as notes on a scale, then create a song on the spot based on that random number.

Again-- not that hard. There's a lot things I don't know shit about, and a lot of things I'm not very good at, but music isn't one of them.

I'd love to hear a blues version of this. Jazz would be cool too. Whip something up for us! heh.

If you want to "prove" it's you, just write Fribur-Lanys on an index card and set it next to your keyboard and videotape your hands or something while you play.

here's a cool bluesy version of jenkees song:



and yeah i'd love to see you do that frib lol

I really don't expect you to take the time Fribur, but I'm still calling bullshit.

I do similar things already-- it will be fun for me, and if I don't meet all of your expectations I'm not going to be bothered by it.

This is spring break for me, so I'm not at school. Tomorrow, though, I'm going up to speak at the Kiwanis Club (they have me come and tell about how I motivate kids every once in a while, what's going on in the band program, etc.) and it's right next to the school. I'm going to stop in and see what I can come up with in a few hours. There will be no video (I don't have a web cam or a digital camera), but there will be an mp3 of some kind. You can choose to believe it's me, or choose not to. /shrug

Fun cover of Jenkees messin with a guitar sound.


I like it lots.

honestly, with the right equipment that kind of stuff is pretty easy. now on the level of this guy (and he's got pretty excellent skills), you'd definitely need a lot of preparation to do that stuff with the minimal equipment it looks like he's using, but with a fat enough wallet, a stack of for dummies books, and some ingenuity, you could probably do this with much less talent than he appears to have.

but yeah this is good shit.

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Looks like it's going to be longer. I didn't sleep well last night (got about an hour), and so after speaking to the Kiwanis club this morning I got my work done and just now came back home. I'm exhausted, and I'm going to be taking a nap soon.

Want me to come over and spoon you?

I have serious issues with insomnia. A few nights a week I only get an hour or two. Some day I'll get off my ass and find a doctor about it.

Same here Frib. Every couple months I will go in a cycle that I can't get to sleep until 3:00 to 4:00AM then have to get up at 6:30. I will usually end up picking a weekend to stay up all night and the next day to force myself to crash. (I am NOT a pleasant person on those days)

oh now I feel bad. I was just a total ass on another thread with you, and here you go posting something decent to me .

Oh well! That's the internets!

Regarding my recording-- it may be longer than you guys want. My spring break is slipping away, and my desire to go into my workplace is really low, heh. Once spring break ends, my free time ends-- I'll see if I can put something together soon.

I have no intention of letting this slip away, but only because it sounds like fun to do even if you didn't challenge me :p

I still want to hear this. Skycrasher being gone is no excuse Fribs! Chopchop!

ok ok ok ... honestly I kinda forgot about it. I'll get on it, /sigh. I'll have more time in July though!

How much effort and time could easy really take?

Honestly, the playing takes just seconds. I make up shit on the piano all the time, on the spot.

However, setting up to do it for you guys here is what will take time, and it's not at home. For example, the keyboard controllers at the school are having latency issues due to some incorrect drivers having been installed. I haven't fixed that, and that will take time. That has to be fixed before I could do this for you. That's also not very much fun, and not really how I want to spend an afternoon (although I DO have to do it eventually-- by the beginning of the next school year).

I also work 80+ hours a week. 6 am to 9-10 pm, 5-6 days a week. Usually when I get off, I don't want to hang around.

If you choose to believe that I'm full of shit-- that's ok! I'm not going to be bothered by it . I accepted the challenge during Spring Break at my school, when I thought I would be able to do it right away. I got sidetracked, ended up out of town, and Spring Break passed. Now the next time I have considerable time off is for 2 weeks at the end of July. I'll try to do it before then, but who knows? Not super high on my priority list .