[By Terry on 03/11/2016 with
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This is a busy time. I am now working most gigs with a guitarist. This adds a lot of fun and better music to each gig. It allows me to put on stage each song a lot closer to the way it sounded in my head when I wrote it. At the same time I am working in rehearsal with a full band that will be out there as soon as I stabilize which players will be involved and they learn the material. Andi is playing guitar at the moment but will be moving to keyboards. The bass player Dan, is good as well. This means I need a drummer and guitarist to complete the line up. Gigs for the band are available but I am not going to schedule them until I feel good about the music we put out there. When it is right and tight you will hear. It shouldn't be long.
Also I am making videos on some new songs. This will be, most likely, a more acoustic approach than full band, upright acoustic bass, electric guitar and myself on acoustic guitar. I like this configuration. With the right players it can be very effective. I have the right guys scheduled for rehearsals with video shoot to happen in the middle of November, 2016. I am getting some help from a friend to bring up the production values for these videos. Most of my prior stuff was not up to what should be. From now on I think things will be better. It makes little sense to write something good, get good players to help play it then drop the ball at the last stage, recording and making videos. I am learning. What I can't do I will turn over to someone who can.
I read somewhere that a large percentage of success is simply showing up. I might add another cliche. Plan your work and work your plan. Words to live by.
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[By Terry on 07/08/2015 with
0 Commments]
Work on a new CD is going well. So far maybe about 50% along. I recorded a few of these songs on my old recorder before upgrading to the Korg D3200. In the end when I listened something wasn't right so I scrapped the tracks and started again. On the plus side it wasn't wasted effort because as the few months between starting out then and now I managed to write a few new songs I might not have written otherwise
.It's odd but when I am recording I usually am not writing. It's how that old right brain/left brain theory I believe in works. Recording is, in the end, a technical thing. There is creativity but mostly it comes down to mic placement and sorting between various takes for the one that comes closest to taking the song where I want it to go. I work with very good musicians so no track is bad. It comes down to which one works best for the song. Anyway that process seems to shut off the writing part of my brain until The CD is safely put to bed and I start to think about the next one. So now, after writing 3 new songs in the down time, I have about 15 songs of which I will probably use maybe 12. The remaining ones will either be recycled for the next CD or just left to live in my notebook. Like most writers I pivot between the belief I can write better stuff in the future and the fear I will someday come back to the well and find it has gone dry. So I don't throw anything away. You never know.
With this one though I have strong new material to work with and good musicians around to help me tease out the right arrangement. Recordingwise I have 3 songs with rhythm guitar, bass and drums + 3 more almost complete lacking only drums + 2 more in a more simple mode, mostly just acoustic guitar and vocal, complete. Hopefully the entire project will be complete in late September. I now have a firm idea what I want the overall sound of the CD to be and that makes every other choice much easier. So now my schedule is to play gigs weekends and record during the week. Between the 2 life is big enough for me. Between these things and hanging out with friends swilling cold beer and cursing the hot German summer life is happening quite nicely. I hope yours is too.
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