Skip to main content

Day Two Hundred Sixteen (Year Four)

So, I had just settled in with my coffee this morning, and was surfing the internet a bit, getting myself psyched up to go into the studio and start recording, had actually just said to myself "so, if everything breaks right today, I could get most of this done," when I got called in to fill a shift for a sick co-worker.  On one hand, I was happy for the extra hours... but on the other hand, I had guitars to record today, by God, and I was fast running out of days in the month.  I did the responsible thing, of course, and covered the shift, but doing so put me at a disadvantage when it came to hours in the day for recording.

That said, I got into the studio tonight after work, and roughed out guitar parts for 4 out of the 11 songs.  I had to make a few concessions in order to get as far as I did (the biggest one being that, for now, I would shoot for rough drafts as opposed to a polished, finished product), but I had gotten to the point where I just needed to see some sort of progress tonight.

So, no, the parts aren't perfect, but they have given me a rough outline of what the songs are going to sound like when they are polished up, and you know what?  For the most part, I like what I hear.  A lot.  There are a few spots where a better transition will be necessary, a few spots where a shorter verse would be a good thing, but even getting 4 demoed out, I'm starting to hear a cohesion to the tracks.  Maybe I'm not crazy to think that these ideas will fit together.

With three days left in the month, I've got 7 songs left to rough out.  I know I can get it done.  And, quite honestly, I don't care what it takes, it will be done by 11:59 PM Friday night.  Today going the way it did just means that March will be spent getting finished instrumental tracks nailed down and working on lyrics, that's all.

All of this means that I didn't get around to the listening I was hoping to use as a break between recording either, but that will happen soon enough.

Getting through another 4 songs tomorrow is probably more than I can hope for, but it would be fantastic.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

DayOne Hundred Sixty Nine (Year Eight)

Today was another good day.  I spent all of it with my brother, which I needed a lot, even though I just saw him over Christmas. Tonight we finally got around to some music discussion.  He took a look at my list of goals for the year, and sees it as a really good set of steps to get me where I'd like to be from where I am.  I picked his brain about a few of the nagging questions I still had as I get started, and he was able to put my mind at ease. Having a chance to sit and chat with him is always good for my musical soul, because he constantly drives me to be a better, more well rounded player, and I'm pretty sure that I can never thank him enough for all of the advice, support, and encouragement he offers every time we chat.

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 Six (Year Two)

Well, on first listen I was underwhelmed by Motion City Soundtrack's My Dinosaur Life .  And yet, while it wasn't the giant explosion of musical awesomeness that it had been billed as, I did find one diamond in and amongst all of the other rough.  It came in the form of "Stand Too Close," the seventh track on the album.  That , my friends, is a song that I can see generating a lot of plays in my itunes.  Another thing that dawned on me today.  At some point, I'd really like to own a ukelele.  They've had these unbelievably cheap uke packs at work for the last couple of Christmases or so, but the instruments appear to be so poorly made that it wouldn't even be worth it.  That said, I found a cool website online today that gave a few hints on how to simulate a uke on an acoustic guitar.  Apparently, if you put a capo at the 5th fret, and then play ukelele chord shapes on the 4 highest strings, you can get close.  Especially if you've got a ny...