[Harp-L] Harptificial Intelligence

[David Fairweather]

Hey Richard, thanks for listening - and watching - with an open mind!  The
name of the song is actually "Calling All Cows" originally released by "The
Blues Rockers" on Excello Records in 1957 and subsequently covered by many
including Elvin Bishop who made it a regular part of his set.  There's
another song called "Calling All Cows" by The Wiggles but that's a
completely different tune.

My version was basically an AI "cover" of a lo-fi cassette recording of me
playing and singing it.   I posted it in response to the recent Harp-L
discussion of an AI harmonica rendition of "Sounds of Silence" which - to
my ears - was harsh and obviously AI and not something I'd ever want to
listen to again.   Hopefully "Calling All Cows' will engender a very
different reaction to most listeners.   The funny thing is, most people
will pay more attention to the cartoon which is also very different than
most AI animation, and may not even realize the music is also AI.

If you make it to SPAH this year I'll be pleased to go into more detail on
my workflows.

Regards.
David "Jazmaan" Fairweather

On Tue, 9 Jun 2026 at 08:51, Richard Hammersley <rhhammersley at xxxxx>
wrote:

> Congratulations David
>
> Milk and Cream is the 1st AI generated (or should that be assisted?) song
> I have heard that is actually enjoyable to listen to, plus the cartoon!
> I’ve only dipped a finger into AI apps with the possible plan of recording
> demos of my songs that sound ‘better’ than I do especially regarding the
> singing, but I can tell that, as you put it, it will be a real challenge to
> get AI generated stuff to “mellow out”; in other words take the AI material
> as a base then edit and select to get a final result.  You have inspired me
> however.
>
> With my other experimental electronic music hat on, I remember that way
> back in the 1970s synthesisers were seen as not proper music and cheating.
> Then in the late 1980s sequencing was also not proper and was cheating.
> Some people moaned about when Kraftwerk re-recorded their music this way,
> rather than using early Moog synths etc., that often went out of tune/
> time. Now synths and sequencing and re-tuning are mainstream and
> omni-present in popular music, both in recordings and live.  I am sure AI
> is going the same way. Indeed you apparently can already get pedals that
> generate backing tracks on the fly to follow what you are playing.
>
> When a robot can give a live sleazy maxed out performance in a dive,
> improvise with humans live or simply play a real harmonica well, then we
> will really have something to worry about :) It’s coming. E.g.
> robot.cellist.com. I think robots playing harmonica skilfully will take a
> long time.
>
> Best wishes
> Richard
>
>
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2026 13:09:58 -0700
> From: David Fairweather <dmf273 at xxxxx>
> To: harp-l at xxxxx
> Subject: [Harp-L] Harptificial Intelligence
> Message-ID:
> <CAHZ5whZ0T_jAPWvHbnhtUXpLGaOs+WR4H3nTSLWodDNtdck9oQ at xxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> I dare say I have more hands on experience with AI music and AI art as
> anyone on this list including AI harmonica. I know it's strengths and its
> weaknesses and I know it's already able to fool 90 percent of non harp
> playing listeners. But I'm not threatened by it and I have fun making stuff
> like this. Some of you might even think it sounds like me and that's not
> unintentional. Getting the AI to mellow out can be a real challenge. But I
> suppose that's true for many human players these days.
>
> Anyway everything you see and hear in this link is 100% AI. Don't get mad
> at me. "We're just singing about a little milk and cream".
>
>
> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iHxajqiTRqiLYr31bu8ZCX3YGwBSk3Xy/view?usp=drivesdk
>
>
>