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Day Three Hundred Sixty Three (Year Three)

Well, the second run of 8 days (i.e., the second song out of three) begins tomorrow morning.  I'm pretty sure that I've got the chord progression written for that one already, so it'll just be the tempo I'll need to hash out. 

Feeling as good about the second song as I am, I spent the night tonight trying to figure out what the problem was in the verses of the song I've been working on for the last 8 days.  And if I'm not mistaken, I solved the problem.  A change in the order of chords here, another switcheroo there, and bang!  I like what I have now a whole lot better than what I had at the end of the day yesterday.  It means I'm going to have to change the bass line a bit as well, but I've already got thoughts on how that's going to go as well.

Anne Lamott talks about "shitty first drafts" in her brilliant book on writing, Bird By Bird, and I think that what I ended up with this week was just that, a shitty first draft of a song.  Something where the structure, flawed as it is, is there, and the parts that are excellent shine through, but there are still things that need improvement.

Tonight I went forwards by going backwards.  I made something better by retracing my steps and trusting that the admittedly rusty songwriting skills I have were just out of use, and not gone entirely.  The bottom line, and the brilliant part, is this: I took a test run on a song that I know is better now than it was, and will soon be better than it is now.  It got me back in the mindset of writing and recording.  It forced me to pick up an instrument every day for more than five minutes at a time.  This week has made the work to come easier, in the same way that what I do in the next 8 days will make the third week easier still.

For a day that started out rotten, I'm heading to bed feeling pretty great about music stuff.  More tomorrow, as always, and better.
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