Skip to main content

Day One Hundred Ninety Seven (Year Two)

So, I started the process tonight of trying to work out this album-in-a-month thing.  Initially, I was messing about with the electric, but that changed pretty quickly.  When I switched to the acoustic, it started to feel like I was moving in the right direction, but I discovered pretty quickly that it's tough after spending so much time on the hard rock stuff to get back in touch with my own voice when it comes to songwriting.

At the same time, it's exciting to feel like I'm in charge of the whole process again.  What I probably need to do is sit down with a pen and a notebook first and try to see what comes out lyrically.  I've always been torn about whether to start with words or music first, but really, when I'm trying to get a whole record done in a month, it doesn't matter where I start in, just so long as I do.  I'm fairly certain that, until I really find my groove with this, the songs will come in bits and pieces rather than in chunks or complete things.

I did manage to find a few ideas that may well make it onto the final product in some way, shape, or form, however.  It seems to me that the best way to do this is just to dive straight into it and try not to think about it too much.  After all, I don't really have the time to over-think anything if I'm going to get this done.

One other note of musical importance tonight:  Watched my first episode of The Voice... really, really cool show.

Oh, and Madonna pretty well rocked the Super Bowl Halftime Show too.

Comments

  1. L.M. ElmFebruary 6, 2012 at 12:59 PM

    Good luck on the record and getting it done in a month. Wow! The voice was pretty cool. So far, I really thought the talent was better than last year. Wish they would have had new judges though. Christina's comments get old... :-(

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day Three

Short one today. I've got a bunch of the DVDs that Guitar World has put out. Waded through those to see what I had, worked off of the lead guitar one. Just basic scales , but still a light place to begin. It was nice to just start loosening up my fingers again. Off from work tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get a lot of playing done. Said I'd mention the other project I'm hoping to finish this year. Back when I was living in WI, I started a hard rock band with a friend of mine. She was heavily influenced by Evanescence, and so, with her as vocalist, we started writing songs. We had written and demoed almost a full album's worth of music by the time I moved to IA, and had even purchased a P.A. in preparation for eventual gigs. We never did find a permanent drummer or bassist, so our demos sound very rough (and not nearly loud enough). I'd like to finish those songs, and make an EP of the 4 or 5 strongest, just as a way to put a cap on that project. More tom...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Three Hundred Fifty Seven (Year Seven)

Today was okay.  It ended up being quieter than I wanted it to be, but I got in a few things. 1.  I got the music from the car hauled in and sorted out in advance of my road trip to Dubuque for a little longer than a day.  I'm taking the Radiohead reissue with me for that, since I haven't gotten a chance to sit down with it yet. 2.  I'm also taking an empty notebook along with me, in the hopes that I might start to get some lyric ideas down on paper while I'm gone.  I watched some cool videos early this morning about the idea of writing all of the music before writing lyrics, and the way things are going that is looking like what's going on with me. 3.  I wish there had been more playing today, but I'm still feeling good about where things are sitting.  This next week needs to include a lot of writing.
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Three Hundred Fifty Four

Today was a hodgepodge of musical stuff. Here's a list of the stuff it included... 1) I uncovered two more songs to add to my ongoing list of "supremely catchy pop music." One of the songs is the first song on the latest record by the Smoking Popes, who I saw the other day. It's called "Wish We Were," and it's a glorious pop-punk distillation of unannounced love.  The second song is by a band called the Vaccines. It's called "Norgaard," and it comes off as a mix of 60's California pop, punk energy, and surf rock. 2) Found a poster frame for my Alkaline Trio poster. 3) Heard from B. via text tonight. Apparently she has rediscovered her knack for "creepy, cool lyric writing again." I couldn't be more excited about this. When she hits that kind of stride, B. usually comes up with some pretty great stuff. She tells me she got an entire lyric tonight. Some rough ideas about melody, but nothing concrete yet. As for me,...
Post a Comment
Read more