Probably not going to write anything too involved tonight, as I'm trying my best to get to bed at a "reasonable" hour so I can get enough sleep and still make it up before the day is already over. It sure is easy to fall into that default, at least for me. We'll see how long I can fight it.
The last few days (since I got back to SF from assorted worldly adventures) have been somehow filled almost exclusively with logistical matters. Figuring out health insurance; setting up this new laptop; car registration, etc, etc. Had lots of laundry to do. Actually, when it came to clean up time, I had a distinct worry that I was reverting to the old college procrastination technique of cleaning instead of facing the real work at hand. I think I'm a little nervous about really starting this experience, one that I've spent so long thinking and talking about. It's really the moment of truth now. Time to find out if I've really got it in me
Procrastination or preparation- regardless, it wasn't until this evening that I finally got down to business and fired up the music apps. I picked up a couple of records from the library today (a little something for me amongst the grown-up errands), and I decided to start by throwing one on and seeing what might be of use to me. I ended up going through the "Songs of the American Indian" LP, which turned out to have quite a few little tidbits that could be useful. Mostly the short rhythmic introductions to the songs, and a few chants and shouts and fun stuff like that. A few minutes recording, then some chopping and time-correcting in Live and I was done with that little exercise. I'm pretty new to the sampling thing (I've generally just gone with sound bank stuff or things I've pulled from the internet) but I think it was a good intro to the process.
It's a little tedious, but I think I'm going to try to commit to finding and capturing at least one new sound bite per day. That's not very ambitious, but there are a lot of days in a year, so I'm not too worried.
I started a new track tonight, starting with a simple shaker rhythm from that LP. I think I'm going to need to think hard about how to write "real" songs. I'm pretty good at building little loops of rhythm, melody, harmony, etc, etc, but I've hardly ever expanded those into anything with structure. I'm sure there will be plenty to muse about on that front. Ultimately I ended up with something decent, so I'll go back in tomorrow and try to lay something rough out before I go in and flesh out the details. Another commitment I'm making: a finished song a week. Gotta love deadlines for getting things done.
On an unrelated note, I'm finally heading back to the SPCA tomorrow to get back into the volunteer thing. It's been a long time, and I'm looking forward to seeing which pups have been adopted and which are still around. Hopefully not too many still there, but we'll see. More on that in tomorrow's post I'm sure.
For now, goodnight moon.
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