Little places for song writing spaces open up gently at first. Sometimes you are looking in the right direction. Sometimes in the wrong direction.
Could be a sleepy middle of the night whispery sung song idea so as not to make too much noise because others are sleeping. But if you don’t capture the tune, sure as eggs is eggs, you will certainly forget it in the morning. You think it’s the greatest song ever written in the middle of the sleepy filled night. Daylight’s re-listen says differently. You wince. You groan. What was my brain telling me!
Sometimes it does have promise. Day’s light gives a better time to release the ideas a bit more. Pick up the guitar…..and strum. Subsequently, quality of ‘song catch’ changes from an iPad internal microphone debut try out and then over to the Mac M2 computer to grab more depth and song sincerity.
Sometimes you realise a tune sounds like someone else’s tune with a melody you applied slightly different, but far too close to sit comfortably with continuation. You subliminally sing ‘words of the prophets are written on subway walls’ from Sound of Silence by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, and then have angst that you’ve nicked a melody. So you need to really check that one out.
Sometimes it has the right vibe when instruments are added. Sometimes complexity results in the wrong vibe because you’ve thrown the kitchen sink in too.
Because….sometimes you are never quite happy with it and know it needs a little magic to bring it alive. The Troggs called it fairy dust. I agree. Question? Chase what is currently a definitive happy with choice. Or a different rhythmic choice ……. or multiple choices plus plus plus additional choices and ongoing other choices that are too many to nail down. A melody tweak. An instrumental tweak. An unlooked for and unknown tweak. A tweak on tweak on tweak to infinity. No….no…STOP! It becomes the point where….enough is enough.
Sometimes you bask in the glorious vibe that keeping it simple did, and still does, work just fine. Just needs a decent music producer to hear it differently to how you hear it and bring it truly alive. You are in the wood looking at too many trees when you are involved in all aspects of getting a song from A to Z. Sometimes only reaching A to C.
The song’s result? Well it’s certainly not finished yet. I look. I listen. I analyse. The whole listening back experience is…..where am I now? Can I actually get there realistically? Doubts on doubt.
Sometimes, like below, you sing an idea straight into the home studio computer and it provides a nice base to spring off. It would then be a simple build of recording track on track with ongoing ideas being able to be changed to new by deleting out the old. This case below? Vocal lyrics.
YEAR ONE WAS AN OLD SONG WRITTEN BACK IN THE 1970s. NO RECORDING OR MEMORY OF IT EXISTS ANYWHERE. SO I COMPLETELY REWROTE IT.
So I just recorded this myself below. I hear a completely different vibe on it now. So will record it all over again with a different version hopefully sounding how I really want it to end up.
Then you start all over again. Wonder where this one below will end up? Certainly not as a little be-bop tune like below. But still waiting for vibe instinct to kick in.
Wasting my time? Let’s hope not.
Gray Summers 
same. it sucks until it doesn’t, and sometimes it just keeps sucking until it decides to surprise you. at the donut shop, I mental floss a lot to keep my brain cells from totally crashing. this song comes to me looking all golden on the outside, but then I cut into it, and it’s just a gooey mess inside. you’re a great baker, Gray, always got something tasty happening in the oven.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You describe the angst and successes of getting a song realised so succinctly here cookie. Love the descriptive link to the perfect looking donut (song) from the outside and the realisation that it’s not all perfection when you begin to break it apart.
Your mental flossing is the equivalent of having in my mind a hologram ‘tech buddy’ that will suddenly drop by and take on the arranging and capture of the song’s sound. I mentally cosmically order to have a persona or muse simply appear, out of the blue, and put it all right. But I still logically live with the fact that it won’t never, ever happen. So just keep plodding along and hoping it all comes to fruition in the end.
If we don’t keep trying cookie, just imagine the alternative take of failure. Doesn’t bear thinking about. All the best cookie.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I am enjoying your process, Gray. A lot going on even in the simplest of tunes.
And yes, the whole “ don’t want to wake the sleeping spouse” is exactly why I don’t hum a new tune at night into my phone.
I am going to try putting the next tune that drops into my mind into the AI to see what can come from that. But we shall see!
Cheers!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Sheila. I suppose this need to show start to nearly finished songs has been nice to use as a blog theme. But I feel that I should simply get on now and focus on getting them finished and on Bandcamp or YouTube. If a tune does arrive, even the simplest of them, it is always worth nailing it down to see where it goes. If I can then hum them a week down the line, then they are hopefully catchy or interesting enough to be considered keepers. Sometimes just a little part of its melody can be used and put into a different song. Synergy and holistic philosophy is vital when building ideas. Like those sweets in supermarkets called pick and mix.
Your idea of giving AI a tune sounds positive. I listened to a recent podcast with Dill chatting about how and why his 1980s band God’s Toys split up. He didn’t call his current songs AI driven in the interview. He called them ‘backing tracks’. This new technology is getting confusing now with changing terminology.
Nice surprise the other day in the comments. John, the drummer, has subscribed to my blog. He wrote a comment. So now he is able to read up to date blogs with notifications sent to his email. He is definitely not a fan of AI Sheila. John loves traditional and raw. Great drummer of ours in the Team 23 and also played with the successful band King back in the 1980s.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now, I wonder if Dill was just referring to music backing tracks that singers and some bands have used for years during live performances (not having anything to do with AI)?
Yes, Gray, my mind is still in a flux over how to genuinely use AI and feed it good virtues than simply use it as a tool, the way people use to use synthesizers and all those guitar boxes, etc. to make guitars sound like other instruments.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dill is using AI. Not backing tracks as far as I understand. He spoke of his accessing AI in a podcast a while back. Dill is prolific and moves quickly. Very nice guy too. He used to visit and chat with my Mum very often back in the 1970/80s. She thought the world of him.
My brother Steve has a Variax electric guitar that is virtually a computer. Looks like a Les Paul in shape. It plays dozens of different sounds like sitar, banjo, acoustic, etc. Also different makes of guitar with individualised sounds like Rickenbacker, Gibson, Fender, etc.. He dials in all those foot pedal boxes too. Has a Helix to manipulate sounds on sounds. No need to own pedal boxes now. Can play live and simply programme his Helix for sound choice. GarageBand and Logic Pro does the same too.
As we were discussing before Sheila, technology in many forms has been around for decades. Like CGI in films has too. The Beatles were using the Moog synthesiser machine that George Harrison had brought into the studio for working on Abbey Road. So many dozens of manipulation of sound or visuals in so many areas of the various forms of arts over decades. Cheers Sheila.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah! Okay, so Dill is referring to AI backing music, eh? Yes, confusing verbiage. And I hear you about the Moog synth, foot pedals, and all.
I forgot to mention, glad your drummer has joined WP at least to follow your posts and audio clips!
I now muse that drummers may be the last musicians playing raw music in the traditional sense, though of course electronic drums have been around for years too.
It seems digital has nearly taken over. Perhaps a bongo type drum circle will be all we will have left that isn’t “plugged in” one day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interestingly, when I record, my bass guitar, acoustic guitar, percussion and vocals they can all be pure in the sense that they are not manipulated unless I push them through an enhancement. I can sing and strum acoustic normally or put, for example, an echo or effect on the voice or guitar. I can play bass guitar through the amp/speaker with a microphone picking up its sound. Or directly into the M2 computer with no enhancement. Or add enhancement. I can play djembe, Indian drums, tambourine, egg shakers, marimba, etc. by mic too. So in reality I can keep manipulation free if I want.
AI and copyright protection is a weird conundrum. If you give it a sung melody to lyrics you have written are these the only parts you own copyright wise if AI creates the backing music to support your song? Like paying session musicians in a way. Or letting those musicians have part of the song’s royalties if played on the radio, film work, etc. I have no idea Sheila. That is why I am so intrigued. And so, can the AI company claim reward if your songs were a massive success and money came into the equation. Weird!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, yes, it’s almost like we need to become lawyers to deal with all the copyright crap.
I hear you about playing unplugged acoustic. So true, Gray.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Until the whole scenario opens up and artists who create from their own inspiration start to see what is taken away or given to them, the stories of experiences await.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad I returned to this post to listen a bit to all of the audio files. Several gems here. We were watching an interview YouTube yesterday with the two remaining members of The Doors and they both talked about their songwriting experiences. Something you have talked about too. It’s good to allow song to unfold from band members bouncing ideas off each other. Feeding one another. It totally made sense watching them play a little at the end.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have watched a few of YouTube videos where the Door’s guitarist shows how he plays certain riffs. Like the drummer explaining influences too. I like to put back beat drums as Latin, etc. Not just straight forward rock and roll. You’re spot on with the bouncing ideas phrase Sheila. It’s how we used to work. It can get a bit narrow when I have to imagine all the instrumental parts alone. Especially when my brain is hearing stuff I haven’t got the skills to play.
Really enjoyed this interview Sheila. They both had fantastic memory recall too. I love insights like this. Cheers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, it was sweet. I loved it when they disagreed on certain memories too. Ha! Glad you enjoyed this, Gray.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did enjoy it. Loved the way they kept saying that memories were not really real, but from the ‘film’. Their take on AI at the end was interesting too.
LikeLiked by 1 person