A while ago I discovered an artist on YouTube named Pogo who has a unique style. He takes spoken phrases, often from popular movies or TV shows, and sets them to music with sortof a new-age rap vibe. I really like a lot of his stuff and his videos are highly entertaining. The one he did on the Wizard of Oz is among my favorites.

So anyhoo, I decided to try and make my own. For the spoken dialog, I used snippets from a video I had shot recently of my brother Mike teaching a skill. I don't want to tell you what he was doing until after you listen to the song. See if you can figure it out, but I intentionally took out most of the specifics.

The title "Focus On Your Form" is a phrase that my dad always used when we were kids and he was teaching us how to do something, usually a sports skill like shooting a basketball or throwing or catching a football. The idea is that it doesn't matter if you are successful every single time; just keep doing it the way you're taught, over and over, and you will get better. Yeah, you can make up your own way to shoot a basket or throw a ball and you will sometimes be successful, but if you follow the guidance of those who have been doing this for years and have already learned from their coaches and their own mistakes, you can be far more successful. There is a reason they do things the way they do.

My version is not nearly as soothing or repetitious as Pogo's stuff, and it's a lot more upbeat. But hey, I wasn't trying to duplicate what he did; he already did it! So this is my own thing, inspired by what Pogo did. I like it so much that I never get sick of listening to it. I'll probably do more like this someday.


Technical Notes:

I did a lot of experimenting to get the auto-tune effect. The way I ended up doing it was with a free plugin called KeroVee. The way this plugin works is, you give it a MIDI guide track to tell it what pitch you want the audio to be shifted to. It took a lot of tweaking with the settings to get it how I wanted, and I wish the dialog was a little more clear on some parts, but it works and the price was right. In addition, I also did a lot of time stretching and chopping to get the words to line up with the music.

Scroll down when you're ready to see what the original video was about.

 
DID YOU LISTEN TO IT ALREADY???

 
He's guiding his son through starting a fire with a bow and drill. Here it is on YouTube.

All right, all right, let's do this.
So right down here, by way of demonstration
Not to embarrass my son, here
Not to embarrass my son, here.

Double wrap, double wrap, way out, way out here
Double wrap, double wrap, way out, way out here
With it closer to the backside of your palm, way back here
And his wrist is locked into his shinbone.
And his wrist is locked into his shinbone.

Not out here, not up here, not hangin' free, we lock it in tight.
Not out here, not up here, not hangin' free, we lock it in tight.

Let go, flip it around, grab it again.

All right; have at it. Make this happen.
With a double wrap; first time effort
In the wild!

Sock it! Sock it! Sock it, sock it, sock it!

Not out here, not up here, not hangin' free; lock it in tight. (yeah)

Sharpen it up a little bit though
Sharpen it up a little bit though
Sharpen it up, Sharpen it up, Sharpen it up, up up up up up up,
Nice. Like that.

Reduce the wobbling; it's less likely to slip.
Nope. Nope. Nope, nope, nope.

Not super sharp. Not super sharp. Not. super. sharp.
You know, there's something therapeutic about failing and then succeeding afterwards.
Burns really fast.
Continue to try.

Other key technique things here that I'm gonna show ya:
Flatten that out a little bit.
That gives you the best range of motion.
Another thing: another thing, another thing, another thing, another thing...
This is important right here:

Focus on your form. Get everything right.
Focus on your form. Get everything right.

Not out here, not up here, not hangin' free, we lock it in tight.
Focus on your form. Get everything right.

Let's go again (How's it lookin? You heat things up?)
All right (So that's nice)
Let's see how it goes (Lock the wrist to the shin)
Contain it just enough (Give it a little bit of air)
K, don't rush it, let it grow.
Let it grow, let it... grow.

You might have it there; no, I think not.
Really close.
Yeah. Uh-huh. Weird.
It just didn't quite go.
Super close. Failure is part of it.
Shoulda let that one grow just a little bit longer.
Dang it. Dang it. Dang it. Dang it.
Little bit less pressure might be ok.

That was rolling nicely.
Doesn't really matter what shape you have here. (There you go)
You just need kindof a divot. (Little bit)
Put this on that. (Forward just a tad)
Put this on that.

Not out here, not up here, not hangin' free, we lock it in tight.
Not out here, not up here, not hangin' free, we lock it in tight.

An alternate technique that a lot of people like to do (go up high like this)
Just wave it around in the wind a little bit (try it again)
Wave it around in the wind a little bit.

All right, one more attempt.
I'm confident the next one will have it.
You wanna go barefoot on that?
Very good; very good. (Move up)
You got it. K now, chunk that speed up a little bit
Oh, oh, OH! Check it out! Oh!
Really awesome! Really awesome!
Yep! Yep! Yep! We got flame! Well done!
Good job!

Not out here, not up here, not hangin' free, we lock it in tight.
Focus on your form. Get everything right.

Not out here, not up here, not hangin' free, we lock it in tight.
Focus on your form. Get everything right.

Good job! Good job!
And his wrist is locked into his shinbone.

Could let it go a little bit longer...

You can't have too many knives.