Skip to main content

Day Fifteen (Year Four)

Felt very stuck between START's for most of the day.  It's a weird feeling, finishing something awesome, and then having to wait for the next thing.  Part of the point of this whole thing, I know, is that you aren't supposed to wait for the next thing, you're supposed to make the next thing happen, or at least START to.  So I did.  I:

1) Hashed out the beginnings of another song.  I realized the other day that I was missing the typical, three chord rock song that sometimes becomes the centerpiece (or the single) of a power pop record, so I started throwing ideas around for that.  Not sure anything has really stuck, but I've got a few ideas.

2) Started in on the listening from the three CDs I bought on Tuesday.  Took the new Hugh Laurie in the car with me this morning.  His first record was so incredible, that I was a little bit afraid of the new disc.  I needn't have worried.

3) Spent a lot of my day running through the 3rd song from the last 24 days in my head.  Something has bothered me about it, rhythm & tempo-wise.  Stumbled upon an idea to try at some point, just to see if it will work any better.  Like I said, these demos were rough drafts.  Jotted down my thoughts before heading home tonight.

4) Taught tonight.  I've been badgering my student for at least a month to find a version of "Amazing Grace" she liked enough to learn.  I had tabbed out a little bit of the first verse for her by ear, but we hadn't gotten much past that.  Tonight, with two lessons left, she brings in a version of it that she likes.  I downloaded it, and promised her I'd tab the whole thing out for her by the last lesson (next week).  So, that'll give me a project to spend some time with until Round 2 begins on Monday.

Starting to make my own breaks, and loving it.

More to write about tonight, but I think I'll save it for tomorrow's post.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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. 

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...

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...