Three songs finally done

I finally finished the lyrics to the third song, "One Drop." What a relief. Now I can focus on playing these songs well enough to perform them.

Slow, slow progress

I have a big project at work, and I haven't made much progress on my songs in the past month. I was out-of-state for part of it, too. But I've been keeping up with practice a little bit. I finally just wrote down the lyrics to "Southern Hills" on paper so I can actually practice singing it while I play.

I'ma try to get up early tomorrow and maybe get some real work done on song #3.

Song #3 getting started

I started working on song #3 this week and now have it running through my head as I work. That's progress, people. Got a nice 7/4 time signature with a 4/4 chorus. Probably gonna be something about "one drop of rain," or maybe "one sweet drop of rain."

Old lyrics are actually good

I just dug out my old lyrics for song number two, and I don't know why I didn't like them. They're actually really good, better than the song I just wrote. So suddenly I have two songs written. As soon as I finish recording number one, I'll move on to this one. This is great. Puts me right back on schedule for playing open-mic nights this summer.

Better guitar takes after breakfast

I cheated this morning and made a big breakfast before recording my guitar. I think it helped a lot. I did three new takes at 10% faster tempo than before, and while none of them are perfect, I'll do some editing to make it sound like two perfect, double-tracked takes. Should work well. I'll re-record my vocals this weekend, and maybe I'll finally get this first song finished.

I'm learning why people don't record music early in the morning before breakfast. My schedule isn't making this easy.

Not so bad

Ok, I waited a day to hear my recording again, and now I like it and want to show it off! But I know it can be way better. Hopefully soon I'll record it on a day when I'm playing better...like I was this mornin'. Then I can finally move on to the next song.

First full recording not so good

This morning I finally made a recording with vocals. It has its moments, but overall it's not too good. So I'm a little frustrated because I've been working on this song for several weeks and I'm still not playing it very well. On the other hand, it's good that I'm continually challenging myself. Maybe I'll be a better guitarist in the end.

Playing guitar is kind of like sports for me. You have your good days and bad days, and most are in-between. Thursday I'll pick the guitar back up and try again, maybe try it a different way. I won't give up.

Course it doesn't help that I'm doin' all this before breakfast.

Lyrics finished to first song

I just passed a milestone by finishing the song I was writing. It's been months since I finished a song and more than a year since I wrote one I halfway liked.

I changed the title from "Savin' Grace" to "Southern Hills," which is now a metaphor for savin' grace. The song is obviously about salvation, though.

I need to make some changes to my backup track, which means recording all the guitar parts again. I've made enough updates to this song that the old track just won't work. Then I'll record my vocals and put a demo together.

Then it's on to the next song, which has some old lyrics that I need to either work on a lot or scrap altogether.

Savin' Grace

In the last couple of weeks, song #1 has acquired a guitar solo, a chorus, a title, and this morning almost a first verse. It's called "Savin' Grace," and it's pretty much gonna be about the experience of salvation by grace. I was pretty frustrated with it this morning until a few words entered my head for the first verse, and I finally felt like it was heading somewhere.

The bridge is gonna be the complicated part. It's an unusual song in several ways, one of which being that the bridge will have far more lyrics than the short verses and chorus. So there's still a lot of work ahead, but it's all lyric writing. Once that's done, the song will be ready for live performance and a solid demo recording.

Have a Track

This morning went well, and I finally have a recording with percussion that I'm happy with. It's crude, but it's something. It lacks a guitar solo, so that will be something to focus on in the coming weeks. It also still lacks any lyrics whatever.

I have to be at church early tomorrow, so I probably won't work on this song again until Tuesday, but I'll try to think hard this week about what it should be about and maybe stick a lyric or two in there to get my mind goin'.

Dark Divine

For weeks I've been trying to think of a cover song I could learn that would fit into a live set. I wanted something by a band of Christians that's deeply poetic but gives glory to God. For a while I was thinking of doing "Beautiful Sun" by delirious, but yesterday it hit me: Fold Zandura's "Dark Divine." It's perfect, and I know just how to convert it into a cool acoustic country/metal song. It'll help with lyrical inspiration for my own songs, too.

Going Slowly

Slow progress this week...I have a rough drum track, but it will take a couple weeks of practice before I can play along with it well enough to make a decent recording. And I need to come up with a "solo" section.

Making Progress on Song One

This morning went well. I made a new recording playing through the first song, and I spent more time structuring the song with my beats. So now I have two separate, equally bad recordings of the same song that sound very different, but in my head I hear what I want it to sound like eventually. I still don't have any lyrics, but there's a melody forming, and at least I know where the words will go. I'm getting better at playing it too, which will be especially important when I perform it live, obviously.

On Saturday I'll try to finish a crude rhythm track and start playing along with it. If things go well, I could finish an entire demo of the song this weekend. Then I'll go back to song two and go through the same process. That one will go faster since it's been a complete tune for several months.

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