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Day Seven (Year Four)

And here we go again!  Back at step 1 for the third song of the Start Experiment.  All week long I've been going back and forth about what the third idea was that I was going to finish off, and when it all came down to it, I surprised myself by going back a ways into the vault and pulling out a chorus idea that I've loved for a few years now.  It never really had anything to go with it before tonight, when I finally sat down and finished off at least a rough draft of the rest of the progression.  I'm optimistic that it will hold up in the morning, but some of the transitions seemed a bit rough around the edges.  I'm pretty sure that I've also got the tempo close to right, as well, so that spells a full win for Day 1 of song #3.

In looking back on the last 17 days of work, being a rusty songwriter, the hardest tool to sharpen is the transitions between sections.  They're getting easier again, but it has taken some efforting.

Probably the coolest part about working on music again is the fact that I'm starting to hear bass lines and drum parts behind things again.  That fact will help me out a lot in the next two days.

Know what else needs to happen A LOT tomorrow?  Work on "That'll Be The Day!!!"

One more thing tonight.  All week at work, people have been so excited to hear about my progress.  And they have all asked me the same question:

"What are you going to do with it once it's done?"

Initially, that was a question I wasn't prepared to answer.  And yet, as the week has gone on, the answer has become obvious to me:  I'm making a power pop record.  For years now, I've told anyone and everyone who would listen that I had one in me that needed to be released.  It took a little while to dawn on me, but the three songs I'm working on definitely have a place on that record.  The other cool thing?  As I told a co-worker yesterday, and then proved to myself tonight, there have been so many ideas over the years (a few chords here, a riff there) that I've recorded and thought to myself, "that would fit nicely on my power pop record, when I get around to it."  So the song-thoughts are there, just waiting on my recording gear, for what I imagine will be a handful of other songs.  Don't want to get too far ahead of myself here, but somewhere in the living room is a list of the song ideas I was going to use the last time I gave the power pop record any serious thought.  I'll find it tomorrow.  Or I'll make a new list in the 15 minutes it would take me to go through all of the things saved on my recording gear.  Either way, there will be a way forward by the end of tomorrow.

Today was a really good day.  Hopefully tomorrow will at least be its equal.
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