I was bound and determined tonight that I was going to work on songs, come hell or high water. And work on songs I did.
I never seem to like everything on the first listen when I go back to work on things. One of the songs I was high on the last time I had worked on the record seemed to sound too much like something I liked a whole lot better, and something else that I had liked less was sticking in my head as better than it sounded when I had recorded it. Once I got past the initial "scrap the whole lot and start over in February" thoughts, I actually got down to some serious work.
First, I compared the two that sounded similar, and discovered that, aside from a minor 7th chord instead of a full minor chord, and a 5th chord in one versus a suspended 4th in the other were the only real "differences" between the two songs (aside from a capo placement). Evidently there was something about the idea that I liked enough to essentially use it twice. Either that or trying to write as much music as I tried to last February had me running on fumes by the end. Either way, I picked the progression I liked the best, updated the track listing, and moved on to the next song idea.
The one I thought should come across better than it did needed a single chord changed in the middle of the progression (from a D minor to an F major), and that served to open up the entire song. It worked well enough that the song got added to the EP as opposed to set aside for further work and consideration. That means I've got one more song to polish up and then I'll have something I can re-record next month and look into writing lyrics over. There was one other song on the original list that didn't need to have anything done to it.
I wasn't sure how things would go tonight, but in the end, it was a great night in the studio.
I never seem to like everything on the first listen when I go back to work on things. One of the songs I was high on the last time I had worked on the record seemed to sound too much like something I liked a whole lot better, and something else that I had liked less was sticking in my head as better than it sounded when I had recorded it. Once I got past the initial "scrap the whole lot and start over in February" thoughts, I actually got down to some serious work.
First, I compared the two that sounded similar, and discovered that, aside from a minor 7th chord instead of a full minor chord, and a 5th chord in one versus a suspended 4th in the other were the only real "differences" between the two songs (aside from a capo placement). Evidently there was something about the idea that I liked enough to essentially use it twice. Either that or trying to write as much music as I tried to last February had me running on fumes by the end. Either way, I picked the progression I liked the best, updated the track listing, and moved on to the next song idea.
The one I thought should come across better than it did needed a single chord changed in the middle of the progression (from a D minor to an F major), and that served to open up the entire song. It worked well enough that the song got added to the EP as opposed to set aside for further work and consideration. That means I've got one more song to polish up and then I'll have something I can re-record next month and look into writing lyrics over. There was one other song on the original list that didn't need to have anything done to it.
I wasn't sure how things would go tonight, but in the end, it was a great night in the studio.
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