Writing like mad!

It has been a very productive few months. It would appear that the muse has decided to come back and join me again. In the past two months 5 songs have either been completed, or nearly completed.

For the first time in ages I have written using free writes. Where I just write down an the unconscious stream of words, phrases, images, that come to the top of the memory stack. Once the free write is complete I then start structuring the prose into possible verses, decide on the number of lines per verse and if there is an obvious chorus or bridge. 

I have never written quite as fluently as this and the results are coming along nicely. They include a song about people watching, an anonymous victim of the serial killer Ted Bundy and a profile of a person I met a year ago.

I have also tidied up several older songs, including one about the effects of Alzheimer's on my mother, and how as a family we are losing a little more of her every day.

As soon as I get a chance to record some demos I will post a link to them here.

Changing guitars...

For the past 12 years I have had an Ovation acoustic bass. It is a beautiful instrument, and has a quilted maple top in green!

 

This is fine, but I rarely play it. In fact in the last three years I have only got it out to tune it or play it a handful of times. So I made the decision to trade it in.

 

I have an old Yamaha folk guitar which plays lovely and is great for acoustic gigs, but doesn't record very well. So I decided to get a new electro/acoustic for recording and plugging in at live shows.





After getting a very good price on the bass I decided to go for an Ibanez. It has a very clear tone and some amazing zebra wood on the side and back, with a solid spruce top. AS a bonus it not only has a jack output form the preamp, but also an XLR socket.

Over the past months I have been writing regularly and starting to record a few songs.  In September I am off to Arvon again and look forward to finding out how to prepare songs for publication/selling. I have never wanted to be the guy standing out front, usually I have let others do that while I play bass for them, but I am happy to write for others.

Playing with the Raw recording files

While I was at the Arvon song writing course, we got the opportunity to record a couple of song that we co-wrote. In my case these were done with Carolyn and Jerry. We had a lot of fun writing and performing and finally recording them. The final result was ok, but had loads of reverb and the vocals were too muddy. Kev who recorded us had to turn around all the work in a few weeks, so I asked him for the original raw master files so I can remix them the way we originally imagined it.

 

Running through a new song in the garden, with Donna and Carolyn

 

Laying down a guitar part in the make-shift studio in the Barn at Totleigh Barton.

 

 

It was great fun watch a new song develop over a couple of days. Even more so, when you heard the songs others had been working on.

 

I have re-mixed the first of the two songs we recorded and just got the raw files into my laptop software to see what we have. I think Kev ended up with about 12 tracks on the second song. The main problem is that a lot of them are fill-ins and have to be positioned on the correct bar/beat. But it really is lovely to bring them alive, as we originally heard them - light and acoustic with a good strong vocal bright and clear in the centre of the mix.

 

 

This is the path down to the river at Totleigh Barton. It was taken early in the morning.

 

This mixing brings me back to starting my own CD now that all the cancer treatment has finished. While the tablets I am taking affect my mood, they don't stop me playing or recording!

 

All the lyrics have been rewritten and tweaked and the changes just need entering into Word. I always write with pen/pencil and paper and only when I have a draft will I put it onto my computer.

 

Both remixes have been done and sound a lot better for it. E-mails to my two musical partners and one of them has already sent her approval back.

 

Now I am working on one of Carolyn's songs and getting one of mine ready for her to sing on. I love this ability to record something here and e-mail/dropbox it to someone for them to add their bit and send the raw files back again. Amazing. I know it's been going on for some time, but I am only just station to embrace the technology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Song Writing at Totleigh Barton

Wow! What an amazing time was had by everyone attending the Arvon Song Writing course at Totleigh Barton, in Mid Devon. As I have mentioned previously in a post, it was hosted by Chris Difford and Kathryn Williams.

 

 

Many thanks to Carolyn for this shot of me during our recording session. Two songs written and recorded by Jerry, Carolyn and myself. Can't wait to hear the results.

 

Also managed to record one of Carolyn's songs on my laptop/portable mixer set up. A good result for a demo.

 

Chris and Kathryn were amazing, helping me nail the issues I had with a couple of songs I want to record for my CD.

 

The exercises made you explore all sorts of ideas as a starting point for a song, and the collaborative writing was amazing. It was a joy working with Carolyn and Jerry.

 

More to follow...

 

 

 



We have moved...

We have finally moved. It is a downsize to a much smaller house. It was a fairly traumatic move, with all the family helping move a 6 bed (18 room) house into three storage containers, because our removal company couldn't do the day when our buyers changed it!

Still we are in and we are down to the contents of about 3/4 of a container left to find a home for.

My two wardrobes in the bedroom do contain 9 guitars, which stand up in their cases very nicely.

It was an emotional time as a year ago, just after the song writing course at Arvon, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Since then I have had a radical prostatectomy, seven weeks of radiotherapy and been on hormone tablets for nine months. So far, so good. The PSA tests I have had recently show no active cancer cells. So, here hoping that they have got it all. Next oncology appointment is on January 2015.

But at the moment I am deciding on what to take to this years song writing course! So, looking forward to it. Reb, my wife, went on a poetry course there earlier in the year. I got quite homesick when I arrived to pick her up. It stirred up so many great memories.

For the last few weeks I have been unable to pick up a guitar as I have either been running around for the move, or my fingers have had cracks/cuts in them making it painful to play. But they are all healed now, so I will get them hardened up again!

Off to Arvon again!

At the end of September I will be going on another song writing course at Totleigh Barton, in deepest Devon. This year the workshop, which lasts a week, will be run by

Chris Difford

 

 

http://www.chrisdifford.com/

and

Kathryn Williams.

 

 

http://kathrynwilliams.co.uk/

 

It should be amazing.

Last year (see previous post) it was run by Karine Polwart and Boo Hewerdine, but the real bonus was meeting all these like minded people. This year will bring a new group together, but will also include two faces from last year. It will be lovely to catch up with them.

As well as song writing I would like to question our tutors on their methods used for arranging their finished songs. What instruments to add or leave out.

Bring it on!

Moving House

It looks like we will be moving at the end of August/beginning of September. We will be saying goodbye to our lovely house on the hill, which is beautiful but expensive now there are only a couple of us living in it. It also has a fairly inaccessible drive and a long walk into town. We are downsizing to a Georgian town house in Barnstaple.

This brings up the crucial question of packing, and in particular, how to move all the bits of recording equipment and the guitars, flutes, percussion, etc. This time we are moving a lot of our packed boxes and furniture into a storage container prior to the actual move.

The hard cased guitars and flight cases will be moved by the removal team on the day. but the soft cased guitars and delicate gear will be taken to my parents house (nearby).

So the packing begins!