Tue 17 Oct 2017: If nothing else, the disappointment of the last few days has reminded me that I have to write to the limitations of my voice. Humbling. Luckily it's better to remember that now. Time to adjust before I go too far. Yesterday, the feelings caused me to look closer at the verse lyrics for (D), so during the day I come up with a simpler melody and some stronger lyrics. By stronger I mean focussed more on the feelings. I'm happier and in the evening I finish verse 1. With the lessons learnt from the weekend, I record the vocal for the completed verse straight away. It allows me to sanity check the words and melody and make sure they will work for me. I think they will. It's a small relief and I'm feeling a bit more positive.
Thu 19 Oct 2017: I've been finishing off the new verse lyrics and melody for (D). The final piece of lyric fell into place during yoga class this morning! In the evening I work on writing up the music and finishing off the verse melody. On the weekend I will try recording some new vocals and record harmonies straight away to test them instead of leaving them until the end. I think recording little test bits of vocals as I go is the way I should work going forward. On a side note, looking at my web statistics I realise that no-one is reading this blog. No-one. Or at least, no-one has been reading for a number of weeks. It breaks my heart a little, it eats away at my self-esteem a bit, but it doesn't dampen my commitment to write it. In fact it helps to harden me more. To further connect the shell that is growing around me. Apt, considering the themes of this album.
Fri 20 Oct 2017: I spend a little of the evening finishing off the scoring for (D) and (NIW). I don't usually put this much effort into recording melody and chords so I can generate a score. Consequently I often waste time re-learning melodies and chord progressions when I come back to a song for recording. I think having the score up to date will help and it will also make writing harmonies easier.
Sat 21 Oct 2017: After last weekend's recording disaster I start to re-record the demo vocals taking on board the lessons I've re-learnt. Feeling much better so far. The aim is to get a vocal demo I can at least bear to listen to. I'm feeling super tired today, so I won't be doing too much though. I approach the process by recording phrases at a time. It's safer. After some pitch correction and editing I build new mixes and they're a huge improvement on last week's efforts. I have something to listen to now. I like both of the songs but I'll need to wait and see what else I write before deciding whether they will make it onto the album.
Sun 22 Oct 2017: Working on vocals yesterday exposed a line on verse 3 of (NIW) that really doesn't work. Today I revise the words and re-record the vocals plus a couple of mix tweaks; not too much because these are only rough demos, but I can't help myself. I have to say I'm pleased with the results. Finally! After lunch I decide to start on a new song. Experiences from the past few weeks bring one of the topics on my list to the front of my mind so I start there. Being a completely clean slate I start by messing about and the music gods must be with me today. Things just fall into place nicely for (TTM). And not in a safe predictable way (for me at least), but in an interesting and slightly quirky way (for me at least). By the end of the afternoon I have 80% of the lyrics, all the song structure and a demo including vocals (minus 1/2 of verse 2) all done! By bedtime the final verse comes and the lyrics are finished.