Skip to main content

Day One Hundred Eighty Five (Year Three)

Apparently I work better under pressure.

I spent all day at work trying to wrap my brain around why things hadn't gone so well for me writing-wise this month.  Following up on last night's post with my internal monologue, trying to sort it all out at least somewhat in advance, so that tonight, I could maybe feel like I was getting somewhere, by God.

I sat down tonight, bound and determined to sort out the issues that had been bugging me with this month's song.  It had less to do with the chords being fairly simplistic, and more to do with the fact that the verses and what I'd had last night for a chorus just didn't really seem cohesive AT ALL.

So, I did what I always do when something isn't sounding right.  I slapped a capo across the strings until I heard a sound I liked, and went from there.

The song is still mostly basic chords, but I'm happier with it tonight than I was 24 hours ago.  Besides, I don't think that one more song in G will unmake the world or anything like that.  That, and I got it all blocked out, verses and choruses, music-wise.  Each line in the verse and chorus progressions, anyway.  The only thing I don't know is the exact number of verses.  That's got to happen tomorrow, though, so that Sunday night can be spent laying down bass lines and recording basic drums.

Progress was good today!   

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 Three Hundred Fifty Nine (Year Three)

Finished up last night's project for the Start Experiment tonight.  It feels awesome to have the drums laid down for this first song.  It's amazing to me just how much more like music this progression sounds with a drum track behind it. Tonight's project is recording the bass line, which should go pretty smoothly, considering that it's already written... I just haven't gotten around to it yet.  Granted, it took me about an hour to get the drums set up so the patterns were recorded in the right order.  Even with notes, these things take a lot of time, I guess. Two things dawned on me today that need sharing: 1) I haven't done much listening at all this week, except for what has happened in the car.  It's still Drive-By Truckers right now, but that needs to change tomorrow. and 2) There hasn't been a whole lot of work on the Buddy Holly tune in the last couple of days.  That needs to change tomorrow and Saturday if I'm going to feel good abou...
4 comments
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