Well it wasn’t a complete failure. I did manage to get most of the music finished. Ran into a few snags so it couldn’t be completed in time. The song was originally written as a waltz (by accident) and couldn’t get the drums to sound right so rewrote the music as 4/4. Then the bass I was using sounded like turd so……new bass. Then some of the lyrics weren’t fitting with the music and sounded forced. You could tell a good song when the music and words just flow naturally and it wasn’t happening with this one. The last big snag was that the song file became corrupt due to some Windows updates I installed (by accident). I smell a Mac in my future, perhaps? I was able to eventually recover from that but by then it was too late and had to throw in the towel. There you have it in a large nutshell, the anatomy of a Song Fight failure.
Here’s what I had so far. I don’t usually put out an unfinished song but I’m in the sharing mood today. There’s an absence of a guitar solo which would be where the drums go to the splashy open hi hats and at the end also. The end of the song I was experimenting with a bunch of percussion and will probably take them out. I didn’t want to submit it to Song Fight because I am one of those that believes instrumentals should not be submitted. I do like the song and the direction it’s going and think it would fit nicely on the new album. As of this posting the new songs have not been put up yet at Song Fight, when they do, show your support and vote for your favorites.
Double Take
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Here’s my latest contribution to Song Fight (which is also my song #8). Check out the competition for this round here, or just click on the picture, and vote for your favorites. This might be my last Song Fight for awhile so I can concentrate more on my album that I’d like to finish sometime during this summer. If I can find the time, I’ll try to squeeze a Song Fight in here and there. Any collaborators out there?
Please Stop
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Download song here.
It’s been almost a year since I started this site, writing and recording songs. I’m having a ton of fun and I’m looking forward to starting this year off doing more of the same…… BUT MORE! Here’s some of what I have in mind for the new year. I don’t want to look at them as resolutions. I’m better when I call them “goals”, “deadlines” and “plans”.
Right now I’m in the process of taking a 12 week course about recording that Joe Gilder from Home Studio Corner is providing. It’s called the Production Club and worth every penny! If my math is right, it should be completed sometime in March. If any of you are thinking about getting into this, or kind of know what you are doing and want to know more, I highly recommend getting in touch with Joe. Check it out here.
I will be writing an album of new material for release in June, if all goes according to plan. So far nothing has been written for it, but I will start writing all or most of the demo songs for it this month. I’m real excited about doing this and it should be a lot of fun. I might be looking for other musicians or collaborators for this.
I’ll continue to write for Song Fight and maybe other song writing contests as long as I have the time and inspiration to do so. These will go into the Lets Go Swimming album, as well as older songs that have already been written but not yet recorded.
I am going to renumber the songs for my longtime goal of 100 songs starting with the first 4 covers I recorded. Seems a shame to push them to the side since they are still full blown songs. I’ll probably do some more covers, since I enjoy doing them, and put them in the Trials And Errors album.
That’s all I have for now. I think that’s more than enough for me. I was considering doing some videos and possibly playing out again but I would need a lot more time for that. Plus I would need someone to play out with. I’ve never done the solo thing before. Thanks to all who stopped by and thanks for the encouraging words. You’re awesome! Looking forward to a productive year.
In the meantime…
Ok. I know I put this one out there already, but this is the mo’ better remixed remastered “official” final version. I also needed to re-record a couple parts that sounded weird to me. When you only have about a week to write, record, mix, etc, there is always going to be something that was rushed along which can sometimes be a good thing, but more likely not.
I wrote this thinking that the girl in the song might actually possess psychic abilities to read minds, but now after hearing it about a couple hundred times, I think the guy might be just a little paranoid. So here ya go. You can listen right here and even buy it here.
She Already Knows
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One of the problems I’ve found since I haven’t been playing in a band, is that I never practice or play a song through to completion anymore. Well all that is coming to an end. I bring to you, a little side project I’m starting, where I’ll pick a song a week and do an acoustic take of it, and post it on or around Sunday evening. I know, not too exciting but it’s something to do, and since I’m always playing someone’s else s songs when I first pick up the acoustic, I might as well try recording it. What I’ll do, and I’m sure it will change, is pick a song and do a few takes of that song throughout the week, then pick the best of those takes and post it. All live with no overdubs and played straight through with no lyrics or chord sheets in front of me. I was thinking about posting the best of the takes here so you can vote for the best one, but that wouldn’t be too much fun. I’ll subjugate my wife to that task. I’m also trying to come up with a descent live sound. Any feedback would be awesome. Just send me an email with sound tips and even song suggestions. I have about the first 5 songs lined up. First song will be one of my favorite Jonathan Coulton song’s called Better. I’m also wiping out the Snozberries category (since I’ve never heard of a Snozberry) and I’ll put these under the new category called One Shot Acoustic Takes or just OSAT. This coming Sunday will have the first one.
***Changing name to “Acoustic Covers” since that explains things better. Sorry I’m late getting this started. I’m finally getting over being sick.