The last entry, Passion Take 2, was actually for yesterday, Saturday, but I am not a slick enough blogger to know how to step back in time..........
So today: more work on the refrain drums, which are getting a bit better. I am doing something a bit unconventional in that on the refrain I am dropping the snare and using a rim shot - very un-rocknroll dahling.
I also spent more time experimenting with a DX200 sound for the refrain - somewhat a cross between a sine wave and a string section, way low in the background. I think it works. Even with a nice GUI, FM synths are still quite strange to program, perhaps as its been said only Eno can understand them.
More work on the arrangement, something more conventional than I usually do, more like verse/chours/verse. Maybe I don't have to re-invent the entire structrue of songwriting each time I write a song. I mean, I still like a good hook.....
So now that the computer is happy again, back delving into this song, or rather the refrain on it. One thing that can be difficult, is when you write the melody before the music - not a problem on the guitar, but it can be when you have to write the drums and everything else.
This song has a long and repeating phrase of 16th notes, and this gives it constant forward momentum. The refrain shifts gears, and actually becomes less regimented and breathes a little, and shifts keys. First I have to change the repeating pattern to match the key changes, but the driving 16th notes don't all make sense here.
I spend a lot of time tweaking these notes, to change the flow so it matches the vocals. The notes slow and get extended during the sung passages, and speed up during the vocal pauses.
I also keep working on the drums. I start in lots of cases with midi files of drum beats and modify them to make them do what I want. I spend a large amount of time trying to find a good beat for this refrain; in the end, I decide to simply use more of the drum pattern I have for the rest of the song, with some more tweaks.
So far I think I have spent maybe 4 solid hours, over several days, on the drums on the refrain, and they still aren't where I want them to be.
The computer returns to the land of the living, thanks to a new power supply and a new, and unfortunaley somewhat noisy fan. Will have to test that with recording, but for a whopping $38 I am back in business.
If only I could spend as much time on my music, as I do on computers in general, and still live this lavish and extravagant lifestyle in NE Portland, life would be amazing.
I think I will have to write an entry on how the computer has changed my way of recording and writing music, but for the moment, I think I will get back to that right now. So if you will excuse me......
Aren't computers great when they freaking work? Last night, just before starting to give a guitar lesson, I was all set to burn a song that I wanted my student to learn. Trouble was, the damn computer was dead, so dead. I didn't have a chance to look at it right then, or the next night since the garden - my huge garden project - needed immediate work.
So perhaps tonight I will be able to look at it. I do computer support for a living, and the LAST thing I ever want to do is work on it at home, I just want it to function as the center of my recording studio.
So my music production and my blogging will be slowed down, unless I blog at work. Sometimes I wish I had just stuck to playing the guitar!
First of all, welcome to songblog. As you can see from the little blub, this is going to be all about songwriting and the creative process. I have never done a blog before, so I don't know where this will lead - hopefully you can help me on this.
Inspiration:
So to start: I am working on a song with the working title of Passion. This is one of a set of songs that will be on my CD which I am trying to finish before summer....of this year!
So we are starting in the middle here, literally: I had written the music for this maybe six months ago, but I am quite picky and I would rather leave a song sit on the harddrive, than just say its good enough and release it.
What I am moving toward of late is to incorporate some elements in my music that I haven't used in some time: the guitar (thanks to Air for making me realize that electronic music and guitars are not mutually exclusive) and my voice.
Really, this could have been a finsihed piece of music but it was missing ... something... and finally I recalled a bit of melody for it from a long time past. Like many times when the muse hits, you get it all at once. I suddenly had a whole set of verse lyrics pour out, complete with a melody.
I remembered then another idea, from a song never written, and I recalled a section of that song. I started a new file, just to save this before I forget it, because it was really good. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this new section I recorded was a perfect fit for what I had been working on. Even the lyrics made sense with the rest of the song!
Perspiration:
Fast forward a week (yeah, this isn't in real time yet). Ok, so now I have a melody and lyrics for the verse, but man, do I need a beat for the refrain.