Skip to main content

Day One Hundred Eighty Two (Year Two)

I reached out to J. today in an attempt to find an easier way of figuring out tempos on the old demos than sitting with a CD of the songs and a metronome, trying to match the two.  If only we hadn't been in such a rush all those years ago, we might have had the good sense to record the songs against a click track of some sort.  Oh, how easy that would have made this process.  I hesitate to even think how much farther along we'd be with solid tempos noted for everything.  At the very least, it would have made the drum parts a whole lot easier, which would have given us a start on every song on the record.  Oh well, can't go back now.  We've just got to find our way through from where we are.

The other major music news that I somehow forgot to mention yesterday... the world has lost another one of its classic voices.  Etta James passed away yesterday at age 73. 

A link to her most well known (if not her highest charting) single: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9JOxagV9Pw

It gives me pause to wonder, as we lose these iconic voices, who will step up and replace them?  Will it be Adele?  Will Christina Aguilera finally shed her poppy desires and use the voice she got signed with?  The one that belted out jazz and blues standards to win over Clive Davis.  Will it be someone like Cyndi Lauper, who came to the blues later on, but has released an incredible record in the genre, and clearly has the vocal chops?

That discussion closely mirrors the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame discussion that I've had with various people over the last few years, but that seems like a post for a different day.  I'm off to continue trying to match up demos and tempos.  More tomorrow.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day Two Hundred Six (Year Four)

Today was the first official day of the second half of my "album-in-a-month" challenge. As for today's goals, I wanted to see what I could get done in regards to track order, and get at least a little bit of a start on the lyric writing process. I spent more time working on the track order question than I did on the lyrics today, but as a result of that, I ended up with something that I think will work in terms of order. I did sit with the notebook for a few minutes at the very end of the day, and got a solid starting line of lyric and some other ideas that I hope will be jumping off points for lyrics. What I'm thinking I might do, however, is switch my focus from the lyric writing part of the process directly to the recording part of the process.  That way, if I can get the music recorded and burned onto a CD, I can take the music with me in the car, and listen and try to see what images and thoughts the music brings up.  It's a tactic that has worked for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Two Hundred Ninety Two (Year Five)

Today was the last seminary village cookout of the year. While we were all sitting around the picnic tables eating dinner, I got a chance to talk with a few of the Mrs.'s classmates about guitar related stuff. As it turns out, more than one of them wants to be more proficient on guitar. I'm not saying that this will lead to more teaching opportunities, but I told one of them that I would throw a folder together for them. Essentially, anytime I get a chance to talk shop is a great chance for me to reinforce some of the things I have been focusing on. If nothing else, it gets me thinking ahead to tomorrow's day off and a chance to get into the studio for a decent amount of time.
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Three Hundred Forty Two (Year Four)

Tonight was a slightly unfocused night in the studio. It was a night of acoustic stuff, but most of what I got accomplished involved tinkering with different songs by Jackie Greene and Johnny Cash.  If nothing else, I set up the next list of songs I want to figure out. Tomorrow night I need to start getting back to the Acoustic Goldmine book, as well.  Every time I sit down with the acoustic for an extended period of time, I reconnect with the emotional side of that instrument.  There's so much to learn still in that book, so much information designed to improve my playing.  I need to take better advantage of it. I know it's crazy, but I'm already looking forward to Friday.  I really need to spend a lot of the day in the studio.  Getting a weekday off of work is such a rare commodity.  I need to do a good job of using my time wisely. 
Post a Comment
Read more