Second Recording Day

In the hours after my first session, the work I'd done triggered ideas for a song structure that I got excited about. I even heard a good guitar solo in my head. So I made more progress that day than I thought.

This morning I recorded riffs for a different song that I've been practicing for several months. It had lyrics, but I didn't like 'em, so I'm gonna turn it into a different song.

Then I went back to the first song and plugged in some floor stomps and tambourine hits. I came up with a percussive rhythm that works, but it's not as exciting as the one in my head, so there's more work to do there. But that song's comin' along, and now I can actually press play and hear something that sounds decent.

I'll be on a business trip this weekend, so I have a week off from recording. Next steps are to fill out the first song with more structure and make it into a whole backing demo track. Then I'll do the same for the second song.

First day of recording

Things went ok this morning. I recorded the riffs I'd practiced for one song until I got some pretty good samples. I made up a bass line, too. Then I had a short jam session and played around with some ideas for the song. I even did some percussion on the guitar body.

This song doesn't have any structure yet, so it needs a ton of work. Now that I have a lot of the basic sounds in my computer, I can use software to try and create a framework. Once I get something brilliant in theory, I'll be able to play the song on guitar with the structure in my head. Then I'll have something I can sing along with. I think it'll work.

Tomorrow I have to get up early so I can get a ride to the church, where I lead worship with the kids once a month. But on Tuesday I'll work on a different song that actually does have some structure. Then I'll have lots of stuff in my laptop that I can play with when I find some time.

Startin' Out

What this is
I've decided to cut down on sleep for a while so I can record a five-song EP. I'll be writing about the experience on this blog.

How to get it done
I've been itching to do some recording for a while, but it's been tough with twin little girls. They're two years old now and are getting a little easier to take care of. I sleep about seven-and-a-half hours most nights. But I'm still way too busy to write and record music. So I plan to get a little less sleep just three nights a week and get up early to get this done. It might be interesting to see what kind of effect this will have on my songwriting.

The basic idea
I've done solo home recordings before, including a full rock album with my wife Tara, so I have some experience. This time I want to try something that really sounds like a solo musician. So I'm goin' acoustic. That'll be consistent with what people hear me play at church.

And this time I want all the songs to be God-honoring, for His glory. But I wanna go for deep poetry in my lyrics, so it's not really gonna be a worship album. But it'll be biblically themed.

The sound
The sound I wanna go for is acoustic country-metal. If you're thinking of David Eugene Edwards of 16 Horsepower and Wovenhand, yes, my songs should fit right alongside his, but I don't think I'll sound like him at all. It'll sound more like Clutch gone acoustic. And my vocals will be gruff, like an old cowboy. This won't be church music, but it will be for church people and will hopefully appeal to non-Christians too.

I really like unusual time structures, as in math rock, so each song will have interesting timing. I also want to use unusual chords and other elements that will make my songs far from boring.

I want to add some percussion and maybe some bass, as long as it still sounds like a solo musician and not like I'm trying to sound like a full band. Instead of fake electronic drum sounds, I'm thinking of making some home-grown percussion sounds, such as drumming on the body of my guitar, stomping on our old wood floor, and adding some tambourine. And since I'm not a good percussionist, I'll use software to keep it on-tempo. I'll also use plenty of reverb to make it sound like the ghosts of cowboys are backing me up. For bass I'll use either my acoustic or electric guitar and use software to drop it an octave.

Progress
So far I only have a few riffs I've been practicing. I have no lyrics or any ideas for lyrics. I'll probably record some music for demos and come up with lyrics afterward.

Here goes
Prayer and Bible study will be part of this process. Hopefully blogging about the process will inspire me to keep it up. Your comments of encouragement would obviously be very welcome.

Basic weekly schedule
Sunday: Recording, church, reading, housework, sleep 7.5 hours
Monday: Exercise, work, How I Met Your Mother, housework, sleep 6 hours
Tuesday: Recording, work, movie night, sleep 7 hours
Wednesday: Church men's group, work, housework/guitar practice, sleep 7.5 hours
Thursday: Exercise, work, church group, sleep 7.5 hours
Friday: Exercise, work, family time, sleep 7 hours
Saturday: Recording, housework, family time, sleep 7 hours