Skip to main content

Day Two Hundred Eighteen (Year Four)

I did something awesome today... I finished off the scratch guitar parts for the record-in-a-month project!  And I got them done a day ahead of schedule!

So many reactions to this whole thing...

1) At this point in my life, I thought that finishing a record was always going to be firmly stashed away in the "dream" category, as opposed to the "reality" category.  Okay, so at this point it's still a partial reality, but that is still closer than I've ever been in the past.

2) There's still so much to be done.  I have such great admiration for the people who do this every year, and manage to come out with a finished, polished project.  I know this was my first time really going for this, and I'm really happy with what I got accomplished.  I'm also happy knowing that I've got a list of things to focus on regarding this whole project.

- Having the rough guitar parts in place, I can now better evaluate the song structures, and see if certain sections need to be longer or shorter, need a bit more of a transition, etc.

- I also know what needs to happen regarding final guitar parts, and I can work on nailing those down at a (somewhat) more relaxed pace.

- LYRICS!

3) Here's what's interesting: I haven't even wrapped up this project in a releasable form, and I'm already excited to go through the whole month of insanity again next year.  Just knowing that people spend years on records these days, and I was able to rough one out in a month is really cool.  I'm certain that, if muisc were my profession, I could do even more amazing things with 28 days.

4) The other thing I can't wait for is to see what shape the songs take next year, with another year of practicing, playing, and improving my skills and my voice under my belt. 
Labels:

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