#Frail Autumn,, #Lyrics, #music, #songwriting

Stop this Heartache. A song in infancy. Drums, acoustic, plinkyplonky keyboard.

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STOP THIS HEARTACHE in its infancy.

AUDIO TRACKS ARE AT THE END OF THE BLOG.

I suppose you could listen and read at the same time. Or just skip the ‘progress up to now’ read. It’s good to provide a bit of choice.

Process! Over the next couple of weeks the focus is on the word ‘Build’. As a few of my good friends on here, who regularly visit to read already know, the project of writing songs to completion is going to be a presentation of layers and ongoings. A song with a bit by bit approach of development. Describing the journey of learning ‘How to….’ I suppose.

Stop this Heartache. First stage……..

Firstly, I chose a drum track from the GarageBand library. The Pop Rock drummer playing a Neo Soul beat. Tempo chosen at 130. Left it to it’s basic beat and kept adding the short example over and over for the same pattern equivalent of about 4 minutes playing. Nothing worse than playing your guitar over it whilst recording it and finding the drum pattern is at at end, suddenly stops… and the song isn’t. You can always remove excess drum length. But oh! For a real drummer to put down sound.

Next, the Shure MV5 microphone was attached into the Apple Mac Mini M2 Pro for recording. Chose the audio option for recording guitar on both microphone and GarageBand app choice. The ‘Echo Strum’ sound, found in the library of the ‘Acoustic’ guitar choice, was added as a track. I could have tweaked my guitar sound with the buttons, switches and dials showing Compressor, EQ, Echo, Ambience or Reverb changes. But my Guild dreadnought guitar is a beast of sound quality, so just left it how it is. This is a microphone recording an acoustic guitar….so is picking up on everything the ambience of the guitar offers.

The Apple Mac home recording system.

I played the whole chord progression with a ‘chunky’ feel. My guitarist brother will be sent this result so he can put his own slant and style on it with his electric guitar choices. Maybe add riffs, solos, etc. I want to use the acoustic track as a firm solid base to add other ideas to. Also, something to sing along to once the song is near completion.

To separate the total utter monotony of my playing a ‘chugging’ guitar and a bunch of similarly played chord rhythms. I thought it would be nice to add a simple tune on keyboards for separating intro, verse, chorus, bridge and middle 8 considerations. You can drop in and out with recording the keyboards by humming the vocal tune in your head and then playing, in my case naively, in the right places. Gets confusing if you don’t. The monotony of sound means I forget where I am in the song.

Lyrics and chords.

Choice of keyboards isn’t important at this stage because it can be dropped/deleted if it is irrelevant, simply doesn’t fit later down the line or just isn’t good enough. Sometimes though, a little unlooked for harmony or simple beat/note/cowbell/vocal note add can lift a song completely. A bit of a sprinkle of faerie dust as The Troggs were heard to argue about in the music studio. Music is holistic and gives you gifts of beauty at times.

Yesterday…..all my troubles seemed so far away…..

Keyboards came from both the Synthesiser and Vintage Electric Piano libraries. The Akai MIDI Professional system. I played loads of choices and went down many rabbit holes of strange sounds. Here is the ‘80’s Bitrate Synth’ and ‘Wide Suitcase’. The other one here to listen to I deleted. Captured it on an email sent to myself. But can’t remember if it was Summer Tines, Scarlet Synth Chimes or Perfect Mix Piano…….Oh for real musicians!

And so……… Here you have the very beginning of the process. I have tentatively written a decent bass riff and melody. But will need to finish it properly before committing to the recording on top of this. And….Of course, the ‘mixing’ process of total sound is no where near at present. I just downloaded a guide to ‘How to Mix in 6 Steps’. 600 is more realistic for my technophobe brain. It looks very difficult to get songs to a professional sounding level. Fingers crossed I have the wherewithal to achieve this skill.

Chords for guidance when recording. Nothing worse than forgetting where you are.

So, humbly presenting ‘Stop this Heartache’. Which is the beginning of a full song project.

Please remember….This is a drum track, a simple one note at a time keyboard play and an acoustic guitar only. No bass, electric guitars or additional acoustic. Just simple straight forward ‘chug’. I put 3 recordings down with little differences to keyboard choices.

Writing the song, the acoustic style I play when singing this quietly here in The Den, is more an open melodic one and not so ‘chunky’. But I feel it should be an energetic song.

Frail Autumn is definitely this project’s name for an album of the self written songs I have. Not sure of what to call the ‘band’ as yet.

BELOW ARE 3 SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT KEYBOARD SOUND TRYOUTS. I FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH THE FIRST SOUND.

15 thoughts on “Stop this Heartache. A song in infancy. Drums, acoustic, plinkyplonky keyboard.”

  1. I enjoyed every moment of each rendition. there’s something about a keyboard sound that speaks to me about a time and place. I came along way past the 1980s but that’s where I feel I time-traveled today. I have to confess to something, Gray: when you share pictures of your recording set up I always look beyond at the marvelous treasures in your home. today I noticed a drawing of a lady that resembles an icon. she’s near Paul. beautiful.

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    2. Thank you cookie. Each part of this reply is awesome. The Den is a little media room. Nice comfy atmosphere to just sit and do the stuff for keeping the mind chilled. Bit of reading, music, mindfulness meditation, cup of tea on a comfy sofa and journal and blog writing. After nursing and the stresses involved I count myself blessed to be able to have this little Nirvana.

      The basics of a song waiting to bloom hopefully here? I thought it would now be nice to complete a song over the coming weeks. The little ditties I’ve been uploading so far have been lovely learning curves. But the overall process of getting a song to fruition involves others too. So may have to compensate with maybe playing parts myself. The beauty of this system though is that it can be changed and bettered later down the line. Love that you like the 80’s vibe. My favourite artist of that genre was Gary Numan. On first hearing ‘Are Friend’s Electric?’ (Tubeway Army) it blew me away.

      The lady in the picture? It was in a charity/thrift shop and was an instant ‘have to have that’. I am looking after my grandchildren as I type down in England. So away from home. I can’t look at the artist’s name on the back. Will do when I get back over the weekend and let you know. Not sure of who the icon may be though. Cheers cookie. As said….Awesome.

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    1. It’s going to be a jump into madness Sheila. I used the little MV5 Shure mic when I couldn’t get the old 1970s Shure SM58, beefier and richer toned one, to connect. But I’m happy with the Guild sound overall. It’ll maybe fade into the background with electric getting the nod to drive in a more staggered riff style. Thank you for the ‘dear soul’ words. Lovely words. Thank you.

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  3. Thought I’d replied to this? It’s a mystery to me and then the game commences? Definitely 1 and 3 are the go. Nice to hear your travels down the rabbit hole. Can you get a bit of Hammond through a Leslie? Plinky Plonky good name for a song, or perhaps a donkey. Ch S

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    1. Cheers Shep. Nice observation. It’s one or three for myself too at the moment. You add a ‘game changer’ hoped for with the Hammond/Leslie reference. In and around 1966 and onwards I heard Revolver. Tomorrow Never Knows was a shock! Took years on years to grasp its importance. Finally just got to love the vibe of the song without realising the ‘well before its time’ bit. You never thought about genius back then. Life was for accepting everything thrown at you and revel in the groundbreaking sounds.

      With this current recording journey of rabbit holes there seems to be an infinite realm of possibilities in GB. You say to capture the Hammond and Leslie combination. Maybe there is that possibility of marrying those two sounds together with a tweak of the offerings when looking at reverb, the rate of elongation notes and waves of sound and other deep or high tones, with many additional sounds and dynamics available on the dials. That is why I say ‘Oh for a real life guitarist, drummer, brass, woodwind, strings, keyboard player’, etc. They do the tweaking and you shout ‘Eureka….that’s the sound I heard in my dreams!’. When I do it? It becomes a sense of ‘feel what works’ really. Instinct. As yet though, I can’t find sound in reality of GarageBand that happens in my head. Because this basic song recorded isn’t the one in my head for this song. Nor do I play it properly either. I’m saying the words ‘chug’ because it’s naivety and infancy. And reality. I’m a simple bass player. I need the Utopia Avenue guys in the room with me. Rabbit holes on GB are like the search for Nirvana. A techno vibe to spark and get the sound based on the instrument played through traditional amps and speakers for you to build around. Plastic and Perfection are so opposite it makes you want to weep.

      I was thinking of The Stranglers keyboard player the other day and what he gave to the band’s unique sound. Like The Doors…..it lifted the whole vibe. That is why I mentioned Faerie Dust really. A quirk that cements the uniqueness of ‘your own and your’s alone’ songwriting sound.

      Weird reply. But it would be fantastic to find that truth to how you want to eventually be heard.

      Fun in trying and searching though. It’s a graphic equaliser of finding the answers through experimentation.

      Plinky Plonky sounds like a cartoon intro theme song. 🙃 Or! Maybe I can write an advert for Super Easy to Make Pot Noodles for the TV. 😉 Cheers as ever Shep……priceless reply. Much appreciated.

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    1. Off somewhere nice I should imagine. Be good to read another of your blogs re: travelled to destinations. It’s one of those blogs regarding ‘The Journey’ of music and how it develops. Others may find familiarity in the successes and conundrums and share their ideas too.

      Just to say…..I enjoy your informative, reflective, analytical and insightful write ups Brenda. They give a fantastic positive pause for thought. So look forward to the next one. Have a great day and weekend too. All the best.

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      1. Off to Perth tomorrow for an Exhibition, and hopefully get to see The Stone of Destiny. I’m also off to Belfast for my October break. I’ve never been, so really looking forward to that. I seem to be struggling for time so much these days, but I’ve 3 posts ready to be typed up, so hope to share some insights soon

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      2. Wonderful. It’s good to know that you are in focused mode. You are always busy in so many areas. It’s so great that your love of what you enjoy inherently is enjoyable to read to your followers. 😊 Cheers Brenda.

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    2. Oh! And just started the book you suggested. Running over the roof tops part and just into the madding constrictive crowd parts only as yet. 😊 Enjoyed the descriptive intrigue and exciting scenario of the first chapter and a bit more a lot. So the rest should be brilliant stuff. Cheers.

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