Seems Like Forever

March 12th, 2010

Since beginning this blog and the associated project, I have reached 65 and my spouse has gone through a long two-year period of serious health issues, which, needless to say, cramped my activities. Nevertheless, I have been slowly creeping forward on the project and am at the point where I need only background vocals on three songs and a cello track on two others before finally getting to the mix phase. In addition, my guitar playing has progressed to the point that everything I recorded four years ago sounds like crap. Sigh. What I do from here depends on whether or not I can deal with what I once heard described as “long-phase ADHD.” That’s me.

Return from the Near-Dead?

April 19th, 2009

It’s been quite a while - over a year - since I posted to this blog and for several good reasons. The recording process bogged down while the producer’s band got very busy, as was I, and only the session with Brian laying down guitar tracks got down. Things crept along and we were working on scheduling a session in August of 2008 when my spouse suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was hospitalized. Eight months and three surgeries, two infections and and many days in the hospital, she is recovered nearly completely and has a new prosthesis - a piece of skull replacement. During that time, I didn’t do any recording, although I played a lot for therapy.

Anyway, I have finally gotten back to the project, with a new producer Patrick taking over from Michael, who is busy with other jobs at LSRA. I drove down in March and recorded some additional vocal tracks, of which, after listening to some quick mixes, several were not satisfactory at all. Age does creep up and I clearly can’t sing studio-quality for two hours straight. So it’s back down to Lexington in May.

Through the Holidays and Back to Recording

January 12th, 2008

With the holidays finally behind us, the guys at Long Island Recording found a time slot for me Friday, so my guitarist buddy Brian and I went down to Lexington for a session. Working on “I Can Sing A Country Song,” Brian added second and third harmonic acoustic guitar tracks to the primary hook, then patched together an electric lead. This was the most interesting thing and was suggested by producer Michael T. Brian worked through the lead a measure or two at a time, while Michael listened and offered suggestions. Using LIR’s 192-track ProTools setup, he patched and punched in each little piece, until the whole lead section was done. (Using a Stratocaster). Brian was quite pleased with how it turned out, but jokingly offered me “$20 if you don’t tell anybody how this was done.” We grabbed a very rough mix and headed for Louisville. The session lasted three-and-a-half hours.

All this was happening following much discussion between Brian and me, plus our video director Paul T. and new marketing and sales person Leigh Ann about the current and future state of the recorded music business. Various commentators have been saying for some time that the major record labels are going belly-up, with lots of discussion about what this might mean to major artists and the like. It seems more interesting to consider what it might mean for local scenes and unsigned artists when there are no major labels breaking new acts. About this, there is little agreement among knowledgeable commentators and participants in the business.

Personally, I’m interested in getting this project wrapped up before the market for CDs completely vanishes and it becomes nearly impossible to get any ROI for the project. The digital sales are not generating any like the revenue streams that CD sales do. The owner of Long Island Recording vehemently disagreed that it represented a real problem to the labels. He argued that the labels will continue to sell recorded music digitally while avoiding completely the need to manufacture, market and distribute CDs, so the revenue streams can be much smaller while the profit remains the same. Of course, that is for already-existing recordings, not new work by new artists, who are now SOL.

What are new artists to do? Learn to record their own work, make money touring and touring and touring, selling merchandise by tracking their fan base obsessively. Forget the dream of national stardom, courtesy of a major label deal. Play music because you like to, not to be rich and famous. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Too Old or Too Much Fun?

November 21st, 2007

How to Keep Up With a Forty-Year-Old (If you’re Sixty)

The second half of October and the first half of November proved to be entirely too busy for this old man. Between a big weekend outing in mid-October, a newspaper deadline and delivery plus regular Monday practice, Tuesday dance class, Wednesday jam, Thursday TV shoots plus a Sunday night (nov. 11) out that went from 6 p.m. until midnight (MERF Event), trying to drive to Lexington for a recording session, then home, then go out with the above-mentioned forty-year-old for an evening for ‘bar research’ a.k.a. ‘bar crawling’ - even with a designated driver, proved to be wearing. The following Saturday, I crashed completely, did little or nothing all day and basically took the same road on Sunday.

So what advice for keeping up with a forty-year-old? Ha! Best be in excellent shape, not inclined to drink too much and take naps in the daytime. I have managed to get in pretty good shape for an old, sedentary guy, thanks to the Flamenco dance lessons. I gave up excessive alcohol some years back (I still drink beer if I’m out of the house in a bar.) and I’m perfectly happy to take naps. So that’s the only advice I have. Otherwise, don’t try.

Getting Back to Business

November 13th, 2007

After a quick trip down to Lexington in September to discuss how to proceed apace, we’re scheduled back in on Friday, November 16 for some additional guitar tracks. Michael T. is also looking to find some time for vocals. More later.

Fighting Off Doldrums

October 4th, 2007

The many organizational tasks related to recording can be quite daunting, especially when done long distance. The recording studio where this project is being done was tied up all of August and September, so scheduling in another session with my guitarist is proving to be a problem. With any luck, we can find some time in October, before we go out in the country on the weekend of October 19-21 for a musical interlude, countrified, as it were.

Playing is Practice

August 9th, 2007

Finding time to practice an instrument can be a difficult task for a middle-aged person: the schedule is likely to be full of work- and family-related activities and if there are children (or grandchildren) still living in your house, finding the space can also be a challenge. The answer: practice by performing. The point of practicing, aside from improving skills, is also to keep your skills from deteriorating, including memory ’skills.’ How often have you begun a tune that you learned years back, only to discover that the lyrics or the chord progression suddenly prove to be elusive? Getting out in a public space will provide you with considerable motivation to relearn those words and chords.

Of course, playing in public doesn’t necessarily mean gigging for pay; jam sessions and, to a lesser extent, open stages, provide opportunities to play in clubs. Likewise, church events, farmers markets, flea markets and similar gatherings offer chances for players to get up and pick some, without the obligations inherent in a full-fledged gig. Look around your neighborhood, gather a few like-minded friends and start playing. You chops will improve and, best of all, you are likely to be reminded of how much fun performing is.

Guitar Parts

July 23rd, 2007

On Friday, July 20, my guitarist friend Brian W. and I hauled ourselves down to Lexington to lay down some guitar tracks on a couple of tunes. We had been up late the night before, shooting “The Player’s Spot,” so we were just a tad bit draggy on the way down. However, once we arrived and toted in the four guitars Brian brought, we perked up.

First out of the box was the Taylor acoustic for “Slave’s Day Off,” for which Brian first retracked the rhythm, then added a Baroque-ish lick that he’s been working on for a while for this tune. It only take a couple of passes to get it right but as the day went on, producer Michael T. coaxed more and more out of Brian. He got some electric licks out of the Gibson hollow-body that had made the trip, then we went on to “Doubts,” which is a fairly straightforward blues/jazz tune. That’s when everything came out of the case, including the 1958 Gretsch Country Gentleman that I had lent Brian, as well as a Stratocaster for some serious rock licks. The Gretsch went first, with which Brian put down some “lazy, stoned” (my terms) licks, suitable for the tone of the lyrics. Then the Gibson for a bit of a clean jazz sound, followed by the Strat for a rocked-out feel. The Pro-Tools Michael T. was using also including an application that made it possible to have the guitar sound like any cabinet ever used. (I don’t recall the app name.) It was pretty impressive - no need to haul your favorite Marshall cabinet - it’s available right on the board.

Altogether, we spend three-and-half hours and got guitar parts on two songs. Slowly, I turned, step by step, inch by inch….

Where’s That Bullwhip?

July 11th, 2007

It’s clear that all the things that our parents told us about getting older will turn out to be true, more or less, for all us Baby Boomers, particularly the one about how time passes so much faster the older you get; the days just slip away. Since I last wrote a bit here, I’ve been down to 4th Street Corporate! Live! to see Michael T.’s band The Conch Republic play a set (but not “Madman on the Corner” - the new drummer didn’t quite have the rhythm down.). Imagine it - a six-piece party band with three soloists, playing sort of outside with a sound system perfectly suited for a trio in a small club and a sound man (provided by 4th Street) mixing from beside the stage and behind the speakers. Urk. (The speakers looked like they had a 10″ each plus a couple of tweeters - I’ve seen soloists with better gear). Poor guys did the best they could…

I finally wrangled a date from Brian P. and Michael T. to get down to Lexington before August, when they’re booked solid, and lay down some guitar tracks on the non-bluegrass stuff. It may be getting toward time to declare it finished - except for the vocals, of course, and mixing. And to think all this might go the way of the dinosaurs soon….

Flamenco Practice Yields Better Guitar Playing

June 11th, 2007

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since this project got underway - as always with recording, it takes longer than it appears likely at first but with a studio in another city as the primary, it certainly takes longer.

In any case, I have been working along in the back end of the project, in that I continue to practice and jam. I recently swapped lessons with my friend Brian - he needed to learn the basics of CSS formatting for HTML and I needed a guitar lesson or two, so we did the swap. Now all I have to do is apply discipline.

With the improvement in discipline that has come from taking Flamenco lessons, my overall musical abilities have also improved. In fact, the Flamenco lessons have resulted in now six+ months of very regular (daily) stretching sessions that have gotten more intense as the weeks have gone by, plus the dancing practice. Several weeks back, I realized that I could manage the footwork needed for Flamenco. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but, in fact, it’s a big step (think Spanish tapdancing).

I managed this trick as a direct result of one straightforward bit of practice - every day, at the end of the stretching session, I would stand on one foot with the other raised off the floor, bend a knee (in order not to raise the body) and lift the heel only of the foot on the floor, hold it for a tic and set it back down. I began doing that ten times on each foot; I’m now at fifty times per foot. Midway through this, I happened upon a video of a Flamenco dancer named Eva La Yerbabuena, who is one of the most highly regarded dancers in the Flamenco world. While watching her dance, I noticed that the rapid-fire taps were done by alternating tacons, taps made with the heel. She was just very fast at it. So I gave it a try and, sure enough, I found that I could make alternating tacons very quickly (though not at the speed of Yerbabuena). Suddenly, a whole section of the dance opened up and I realized that I could do the footwork, which had been the most difficult aspect of the dance. What a kick!

So getting a grasp on the footwork, I began to see that I could move around the floor in time to the music, making tacons as I pleased. I found a video of a male Flamenco dancer named Israel Galvan, whose style is unorthodox but very interesting; I could see that there was room for men in the Flamenco world. So now I practice every day and ‘jam’ with the Flamenco tunes: I dance around with the various arm and hand motions that I’ve learned so far.

Now all I need is for the assorted problems afflicting Flamenco Louisville to get worked out so I’ll have a teacher. And, of course, I practice my new guitar lessons, which focused on learning triads to go with my knowledge of scales.