I probably shouldn't even bother to post this because I have nothing
new to report. I'm still on that damned 800-mile plateau with the
bass line for the new song. If I've gained any ground it's
been a couple inches or so forward at the most. One thing I will
say, I have the part committed to memory. Now if I could only
successfully play the whole G.D. thing without a myriad of
unacceptable imperfections, let alone finally nailing the two big
challenge spots. I kind of half-hoped last night that I'd be at the
point where I felt good enough about it to at least give officially
recording that thing a shot; but, no.
FIFTH STREET BREWPUB GIVES BACK ‐ DAYTON THEATRE GUILD NIGHT:
Hey Dayton area folk! Come support the Guild at Fifth Street Brewpub.
Share some great spirits (liquid and soul-energy). Eat some great
food. Maybe win something in a DTG raffle.
How it works:
10% of your meals & drinks go directly to benefit the theatre,
helping to keep the arts alive in our community. There will also be
raffles of Guild items and we will reap 100% of those proceeds.
Where:
Fifth Street Brewpub
1600 E Fifth St.
Dayton, OH
When:
Thursday, April 17
Starting at 5:00 pm
Mark your calendars, bring your friends, and let's eat some great
food, raise a glass (and some funds) for a great cause!
NO MOVEMENT:
It'd be great to report that I've gained some real ground on the
fuckin' damned challenge sections of that bass line, but, well,
you know: blah blah blah blah blah. I'm at a goddamn standstill on
the son-of-a-bitchin' surface of that son-of-a-bitchin' 800-mile
plateau! Usually I don't use my street language words here, but today
‐‐ fuck it. I'm more than a little frustrated, you see.
Stagnant zero-progress this past Tuesday, Thursday,
and last night!
Directed by Marjorie Strader
Produced by K.L.Storer
Chancers is a fast and furious comedy, set in Ireland, about
the lengths we will go to when our backs are against the wall. Aiden
and Dee are on the verge of losing it all. They've had to rent out
their home to a fellow from Dublin (who was previously Dee's boyfriend),
and move with their two young sons into the back of their nearly
bankrupt convenience store. And now Dee is out at a job interview
(which doesn't go well). Aiden never thought their situation would
come to this. But salvation may have arrived in the form of local
battleaxe, Gertie Graham. She literally has their ticket out of the
poorhouse ‐‐ they just need to get their hands on it without
her knowing. Chancers premiered to great acclaim at the Viking Theatre,
Dublin, in 2013, before touring the following year.
STILL TRUDGING ALONG ON THAT
MUMBLE-MUMBLE BASS LINE!:
The last few days I haven't pulled the bass out or otherwise worked
on any music, whatsoever. Last Wednesday was the last time I had my
Embassy Pro
strapped around me and ONCE AGAIN
woodshed-rehearsed that confounded bass line that's been a major
pain in my ass for far too long. If there was progress, it was
infinitesimal, but at least there was not regression. So, at the
very least, I held my ground.
Above is a DV movie from Wednesday with the full bass line all through
the song. There's no audio, but if there was, one would hear that
the trouble spots, especially the first one, don't sound as
successful as they may appear to visually. But one can easily see
in the DV movie that much of the bass line is pretty simple, easy
stuff.
GREAT FINAL PERFORMANCE:
I was in the audience yesterday for the final performance of
Chancers,
by Robert Massey,
at The Guild. As
much as it was posible for me, I took my
producer's
hat off and was basically there as an audience member.
I must say the cast was way on top of their game. Of course, as
producer I'd seen all the
tech week
rehearsals and a couple
full run rehearsals
previous to those, and the cast was doing great in all of them and
was getting better with each, but yesterday was the best I'd seen.
They were absolutely on fire!
It's the same, frustrating, aggravating, repeating story: I'm just
not gaining much ground toward playing the whole bass part with the
level of proficiency needed to lay the track down ‐‐ or,
to play it live, if that were ever to come up.
Woodshedding last Thursday night.
Tuning last night.
Woodshedding last night.
A GRAND TIME WAS HAD BY ALL!:
The Guild
fund-raising night last Thursday, April 17th, sponsored by and at
the Fifth Street Brewpub
was a most successful evening. We had a good representation from the
board and quite a few of our regular audience members were in
attendance. We spread the word to other patrons of the Brewpub that
night, and I believe we recruited some new audience members, not just
for DTG but for Dayton theatre in general.
I hit the actual gym yesterday after
work.
My last visit was June, last year, nine months ago. Thing is, I've
had two recent blood tests, and though most of the numbers have been
at least acceptable, my
HDL, aka: good cholesterol,
is a tad bit lower than it oughta be. I've also not been exercising
near enough for months now, which is, oh, um, maybe highly
likely why my HDL numbers ain't what they should be. So, yeah,
I have a doctor's appointment soon, and this is going to be a
topic of discussion. I have another appointment with another doctor
a few weeks later, and it'll be a rehash of the same discourse.
My gym membership actually expired a little while ago and I wasn't
able to renew until this week. But that wouldn't have stopped me from
taking more hikes than I did, or using my free weights at home,
which I barely did. So, I'm probably going to get a "talking
to," twice in the near future. And, for the record, as I've
written before, I find the topic of physical exercise germaine to
this blog because if I'm dead, there's no acting, singing, instrument
playing, writing of any kind, or any other artistic/creative endeavors....
THAT SCREAMING YOU HEARD; & MUSIC FOR SOME DV MOVIE ACTION
Christ this plateau I'm stranded on is becoming a very old,
old, pain in the ass. And last night, not only did I gain not one
fraction of a measuremnt on that damned bass line, I played it lousier
than I have in a while. It was deffinitely an off night. That
screaming you heard coming from south-west Ohio? That was mine....
Meanwhile, I'll shortly take a break from trying to master the bass
line that should have been mastered already to compose some music
for a sizzle reel
for our upcoming Guild
production of
Stephen Adly Guirgis'sBetween Riverside and Crazy.
I have an idea that I believe is fitting for the show. It's likely
that I'll also use the same music for the
promo trailer
I'll put togther in about a month. It's also about 99% probable this
new composition will be for the 2025 Music Adventure, as well. For
the DV movies it'll be instrumental, but there'll ultimately be lyrics
and a vocal.
MY NEXT STAGE GIG!:
I've just been offered a role in a
two-hander
for a festival coming up in a couple months. I was sent the script
and it's a sweet little story, and since I haven't been on stage
since last June, I accepted it. There will not be an abundance of
rehearsals,
so it'll only somewhat slow down the
2025 Music Adventure
rather than put it on any sort of real hiatus. More details to
follow.
MAYBE ‐ MAYBE ‐ I HAVE THAT DAMNED BASS LINE
LAID DOWN.....MAYBE
Woodshedding on the acoustic, Monday evening.
RECORDING! last night.
In what I'll have to admit is a case of running out of patience,
last night I made what is probably the first attempt to lay the
bass line for the new song I'm working on. I did twelve takes, many
of them only partial, before I got one that may be a final
take. I haven't yet migrated the new bass track into the song's
Logic Pro X
project, and I only listened to it once last night. It certainly is
not a perfectly pure performance and I am likely to decide, upon
further listens, to go back for takes #13-plus.
My original plan was to rehearse the bass part until I could
consistently play it well before I attempted to record it, but, I am
getting impatient. These weeks of working on the damn trouble spots
has gotten terribly frustrating. On the other hand, I'm not fond of
the idea of settling, and I really don't like the idea of going in
and "fixing" any part of it in postproduction.
Before last night's recording session, I did do some more
woodshedding, Monday evening, pulling out my
Giannini
acoustic bass so I didn't have to use headphones to hear myself
‐‐ for those who don't know, I live in an apartment:
(one man's ceiling...). Both the acoustic and my
Embassy Pro,
which I am actually using for the song, are strung with
roundwound strings,
which kept Monday's woodshedding in the right neighborhood, plus, I
could rehearse the song and watch TV at the same time, and not
bother my neighbors.
If I do more takes of the bass line, which I'm thinking the
odds favor, it's going to, from this point forward, be the
recording of all attempts to play the line. I really feel such a
need to move on, with the song and with the whole "adventure."
Before I set up for another round of attempting that aggravating
bass line, last night, I listened to the take laid down the night
before: take #12. There are still some inequities in the performance,
some things that could be just a little bit better, but, for the
moment, I'm going to leave it as "the good take." Though
I still reserve the right to revisit it later and change my mind
and rerecord it.
I listened to the playback in a basic
mono mix
on the
Tascam 24-Track recorder.
Having decided the take might work, I then migrated that
bass-line stem
into my Logic Pro X
to replace the demo version of the line that was already in the LPX
project for the song.
Also, in recent listens to the mix I've made of the song's basic
rhythm section, I decided the drumming at the end needed some
punch-up. I went into
GarageBand
and jazzed up the ending of the drumkit part for the song and added
the revised version into the LPX project; but, I did not replace
the drumkit part already there, rather I added in the punched-up
version. Then I
remixed
a new basic rhythm section demo.
I do still need a demo of the rhythm section to listen to
while I get back to working on the lyrics. It doesn't hurt to
contemplate the rest of the instrumentation while listening, either.
Plus, though some of the final mix is probably in place already,
there is the opportunity to evaluate the mix that is already there
for tweaking whatever sounds like it needs it.
Listening, last night, to playback of the
take-12 bass line from the previous night.
Migrating the new bass line from the 24-track
onto my laptop.
Remixing the basic rhythm track with the
new bass line and additional drumkit work.
As you five regulars will know, I've had recent plans for a third
new song for this musical project that is first planned to play
double-duty as the music for a
promo trailer
for the upcoming DTG
2024/2025 season-closing production of
Between Riverside and Crazy,
by Stephen Adly Guirgis.
The fundamental, general idea for the song has been in my head for
a couple weeks, with definite influence from the
"Motown sound"
permeating my concept.
Sunday, the 4th, I started to work on the music for the song by
creating a basic drumkit part in
GarageBand
to workshop the song. Then after I came up with the basic structure
of the song, I took that rhythm-palat drum part and tweaked it to
variations for the various sections of the song *(see next
paragraph). I then migrated the GarageBand rendering into
Logic Pro
so I could better prep the drumkit track for import onto my
Tascam 24-Track recorder;
which included making sure I had a 48 khz
WAV file
to migrate into the 24-track recording project. I migrated the drumkit
track onto the Tascam Monday night, along with a voice track where
I call out the start of each section of the song ‐‐
"verse," "chorus," "solo," etc.,
essentially the spoken version of a
guide vocal.
I suppose, in a sense, that technically means I'd began the
recording process, by starting a song project on the Tascam and
populating some tracks: numbers 1 (voice track) and 13/14 (stereo,
drumkit), to be exact.
Already having a basic concept in my head for what the bass line
would be, I first sat down and worked out the chords and the structure
of the song on my
Legato III piano.
I rehearsed that the second half of that previous Sunday evening and
then most of the next evening's session, both getting the section
changes into my head, and beginning to work out the rhythm and style
I'd used to play the chords: sustain? staccato? quarter notes? half
notes? broken chords? yadda, yadda....
The first recording session, this past Saturday night into early
Sunday morning was an EPIC FAIL with a serious amount of
takes of the "electric piano I" part, which I had to
return to when I got up for the day on Sunday. During a recording
session that lasted most of the day, in between several trips to
the apartment complex laundry room, I did get a good take,
but it took more takes than I care to admit to get it ‐‐
and I had to resort to
punch in,
which I didn't care for at all. Punching in may not exactly be cheating,
but I'd rather get through the whole song with a viable take. After
all, there's no punch in live. But I was in double digets for the
takes and saw my recording agenda for the day in jeopardy, so, out
of frustration and impatience, I punched in.
You'll note I labeled that keyboard work, "electric piano I."
The rest of the Sunday session was arranging and recording three
more keyboard parts on the Legato: "electric piano II,"
which uses the harsher electric piano voice on the Legato, which
is reminiscent of
Lennon's
electric piano in
The Beatles'
"I Am the Walrus,"
and two regular pianos, "piano III," & "piano
IV," each that has a slightly different piano tone from each
other. "II" through "IV" are supporting
instrumentation, though "II" is major support while the
"regular" piano parts are garnish, especially "IV,"
which doesn't show up until almost the end of the song. II-IV were
done in relatively few takes, five for each of III & IV, but
seriously, if my self-assessment of only being an adequate bass
player is true, I am barley adequate on the keys.
At the end of the day on Sunday, there wasn't much of a
"Motown sound"
going on, with no R&B bass line nor a "horn chart,"
but I think that once I add the bass line and the "horn chart,"
(see below), something in the bain of Motown will develop. The
musical concept I'm now hearing in my head seems to have turned
toward something akin to R&B that
Sting
might do, but we'll see how that turns out.
Last night I started work on the bass line, but I didn't get as far
as I'd hoped. I pulled out the
Viola bass,
with its
flatwound strings,
but I was getting nowhere creating something interesting, so I put
the bass away and set the Legato piano back up. I composed the bass
line, or at least the start of it, on the keyboard. I worked out the
bass in the intro. I may wing it for the verses and the chorus. I
am again going to be mindful that I might someday play the bass and
sing the song at the same time, so I'll probably keep the bass line
a bit simpler in the sections where I sing. I'll up the complexity
again during the solo sectin and the outro; and I'll likely work
those out tonight on the Legato, again. I'm not counting on any
recording tonight, maybe for a couple days. This song has to be ready
to use for the trailer by the end of day Monday, at the very latest,
so I can't have the endless workshopping of this bass line like I
did for the other song from this project. And as you'll see in the
entries below this, some of my time between now and Monday is eaten
up by other things, some related, some not.
The next instrumentation will be that faux horn chart via
MIDI
voices through the
MIDI interface
between Logic Pro and my
M-Audio Oxygen Keyboard.
I'll probably start with the sax that gets the solo. I'm not sure
yet if this will be a trio, a quartet, or more. I do know that I'm
going to aim for more synchronized precision than I ended up with
on the horn chart for the bridge section in
"Cozy Anxious Chaos,"
which I had initially accepted because it has a loose vibe, but
now annoys me when I hear it.
I have not yet much gotten to lyrics nor a vocal melody. These aren't
needed for the trailer. But remember this will ultimately be a
song with words. I may also expand the instrumentation for the later
version. On another note, I'd originally thought I'd retitle that
later version with something quite different from the workshop title,
however, I've had an idea for the chorus which may just lead me to
keep the working title, or something based on it. So, in a limited
way, I have started the lyrics, I'm just not deep in; but I
do have ideas for a few lines I like, and an idea for at least the
vocal melody for the chorus.
As for those first two new songs, I still have the vocals to arrange
and record for the second one, and loads of instrumentation to arrange
and record for the first one, as well as finishing its lyrics and
composing the vocal melody.
The drumkit part in GarageBand.
Writing down the chord progression.
The notation of the chords and structure of
the song.
*) ADDENDUM: The playwright's name, as indicated in the
updated event icon, is Dave Carley.
I kicked off my
script study
with my standard practice of creating flashcards on index cards. It
being a ten-minute play, there obviously are not a lot of lines,
but, they still need memorizing. I also have been simply reading
the script for more
character study.
As a ten-minute play, digging into the character and the story is
not a monumental task; that's not to suggest there isn't depth; it's
simply not as major of a job as climbing into the lead character
and story for a
full-length.
And Facedown in Buttercups is a light-hearted little play,
so there's not some deep, dark, intense message here. As I wrote,
a few posts ago, "it's a sweet little story."
Thursday night we did our initial rehearsal, our
table read,
using the DTG board
room ‐‐ apparently, one of the cast members is connected
at that theatre. The show gets
blocked
tomorrow night. Being that it's all one ten-minute scene I am sure
it'll get completely blocked and that we'll run it several times.
I'm not off-book
yet, but that won't be too long in coming; I have a grand total of
twenty-four lines and only a couple with anything even close to
substantial word counts in them; and we're not talking marathon
monologue
word counts.
Earlier in the week, making my flashcards during my
lunchbreak at
the rent-payer.
Drilling lines yesterday, again at lunch, again at
the rent-payer.
CRANKING OUT THE PROMO TRAILER, OR, THE BEST LAID PLANS...:
There's often a monkey wrench, ain't there? I've run into a few
litte scheduling glitches for producing the
Between Riverside and Crazypromotional trailer.
My SOP for the trailers is to shoot on the Monday night of
Tech Week,
then I have Tuesday to edit the DV movie to
final cut
and get it on-line. However, I discovered yesterday that the show
will be dark
that night. I don't want to wait until Tuesday evening to shoot,
that puts the publication too close to
Opening Night
for my liking.
Director
Robert-Wayne Waldron suggested that I shoot on
Tech Sunday,
but as you'll see from the next entry, that day is tied up for me.
There are
full run rehearsals
this Thursday and Friday. I'm going to drop in Thursday to watch
up to the scene both Rob and
Producer
Rick Flynn think is the best moment for the trailer. Then Friday
will be the
principal photography.
I have to meet with the show's
sound designer,
David Sherman, on Thursday, anyway, to orient him to the quirks of
the DTG sound sytem.
I'll still probably need Saturday and Monday to finish off the
music for the trailer, so it looks like Tuesday will still be when
I edit to final cut.
GAFFIGAN AGAIN:
Regardless of my current artistic agendas, I do get to take a break
from it all on Sunday when I head to the
Taft Theatre
in Cincinnati
to see
Jim Gaffigan
‐‐ for the fourth time, I might add. This was originally
on Nov 3, but that was rescheduled because Jim was offered a gig to
play Tim Walz
on
Saturday Night Live
on November 2nd. Jim had several appearances at The Taft scheduled
for that weekend; he understandably moved them for that stellar
opportunity.
And it's most UNFORTUNATE
for America, and the world, that Jim playing Tim on SNL
didn't end up as a standing gig, for four years, plus!
THE ORIGINAL MUSIC FOR THE GUILD PROMO TRAILER IS UP IN THE AIR:
Having a
mastered
recording of this new, song #3, before Tuesday, when I have to edit
the DTGpromo trailer
for
Between Riverside and Crazy
to final cut,
is starting to seem like a slim possibility. I am becoming skeptical
that I'll get something completely written, arranged, recorded,
mixed
and mastered by then that will be good enough to use for the DV movie.
Nevertheless, for the moment I'll keep working on it to see how far
along I can get. If it starts to look like it's a no-go to make
the deadline, I may shelve the song and return to one of the first
two, probably the first one, the one that has the bass line that gave
me such a hard time getting down and recorded.
I've been working on creating the bass line for #3. I've sat down
and worked some notes out on the
Legato III piano,
then I've used my
Giannini acoustic bass
to play those, getting familiar with the fretting. I'm using the
Giannini right now because I don't need to amplify it, and I don't
need to use headphones to keep from disturbing my neighbors in the
adjoining apartments. The bass part I've composed thus far is
bringing the feel of the song into the range of the
"Motown sound,"
as I hoped and expected it would; I further hope the planned
"horn chart" will wrangle it all the way in.
But I'm not going to rush the development of the song just so it
can be used for the trailer. If I can get it where it ought to be
in time, great; if I can't, well, that will be fine. I'll just buy
some
royalty-free music
that fits the Between Riverside... trailer ‐‐ even
though I've been hoping to avoid that particular expense.
BLOCKED ‐‐ PLUS:
Last night was our
blocking rehearsal
for Facedown in Buttercups, but there was a bit of
script analysis
and character analysis
as well. We're not going to have a whole lot of rehearsal time
logged in, so it was prudent to multitask our time.
On my immediate agenda for this show is get
off-book,
which, as previously indicated, will not be a difficult task. I'm
already, just by virtue of having read and rehearsed the text a few
times, on my way. It's those
beat changes
that my character initiates, those introductions of a new, or
virtually new, subjects that will be the sticklers; but it's not at
all going to be insurmountable.
On another note, in Tuesday's entry about this play I said how I
had forgotten the
playwright's
name. It's Dave Carley, as you can plainly see from the updated icon
for this event. I also added the location address, date and time to
that graphic, as you can see.
It was a nice idea, but I've had to abandone plans to use new song
#3 as music for the
promotional trailer
for The Guild
production of
Between Riverside and Crazy.
It was already looking like a pipe dream but now I've had a sudden,
short-term obligation come up that has sealed the fate of the aim
by rendering it clearly impossible to have a finished work in time
to use for the DV movie. Number 3 is still on the agenda for the
new album, but I am likely going to shelve it for the moment, as I
said I might, and go back to working to finish #1.
Despite that HRTC is the local
regional theatre
and I could scheduled an in-person audition, I elected to go
with the DV movie due to my schedule this weekend. Exactly what
time I would have open to make the appointment was quite uncertain.
I'm not wholly sure I'm
typed
for anything on the season, but, it seems better to audition with
no roles the theatre will see me good for rather than skip a year
when there's one or more role where they might see me as a good type.
It's been almost seven years since I've been in a mainstage production
at The Race.
We had another rehearsal this past Wednesday of our little
ten-minute play
and plan another tomorrow, though that will mostly be a
line run rehearsal,
as both Rachel (Oprea) and I work toward being totally
off-book.
I must admit, maybe reluctantly, that I am not as far along in my
off-book status as I expected to be at this point, certainly not as
far as I wanted. Last weekend was much busier than I'd anticipated
it would be. Plus, I was sick on Monday and spent most of the day
asleep in bed; so, the
vacation
day I took from the rent-payer
would've been more fitting as a sick-leave day, but, se la vie.
I'd put myself at around 70-80% off-book, when I would rather be
in the high 90s, at least
I saw Mr. Gaffigan
for the fourth time this past Sunday. It was a really good show.
I liked it much better than the last time I saw him, in 2022 at
Fraze Pavilion;
He didn't seem to be in a very good mood that night, and didn't
seem to want to be there.
But this Sunday he was back on top of his game.
His opening act was a native of Cincinnati,
Josh Sneed,
and he too had a really good set.
They both talked a lot about their marriages ‐‐ as Jim
usually does, as well as him having material about parenthood, as
usual.
It was a satisfying night out. More details to follow....
Saturday, Rachel Oprea and I
ran our lines
for Facedown in Buttercups, by Dave Carley, for the
Yellow Springs Theater Company's
2025 Ten-Minute Play Festival. As with our other rehearsals, we
met in the boardroom at The Guild,
(AKA: The Dennler Room). Nether of us was wholly
off-book,
but I'm gonna have to say that Rachel was much closer than I, though
I wasn't in horrible shape, at all. We first ran the whole play once
with blocking,
but found that we were tripping on lines too much, so we abandoned
that for line runs.
I'd done some
line study
in the morning at
Pearl's Fen
and
Oakes Quarry Park
before our rehearsal, drilling with my trusty flashcards. I discovered
during our line runs, later, that I'd transcribed some lines incorrectly
from the script onto my index cards, minor errors, but errors all
the same. So, yesterday I redid my flashcards then did line drills
at the
Siebenthaler Fen,
moving myself closer to off-book. I will definitely be doing more
drills today ‐‐ well, everyday until the second, final
performance on June 7.
By-the-way, my understanding is that our
playwright,
Dave Carley, is "from" Pennsylvania, but apparently, if
that is correct, it's where he lives now, but he's from Toronto,
Ontario.
Line drilling (Saturday): Pearl's Fen.
Line drilling (Saturday): Oakes Quarry Park.
Line drilling (Yesterday): Siebenthaler Fen.
VIGNETTE'S FROM "THE BELONGING PROJECT" AND
TALKING WITH...:
The rest of Saturday was still about theatre, but now in the vain
of being an audience member for performances.
First was the
public reading
of Vignette's from "The Belonging Project," by
Dayton Poet Laureate
Sierra Leone,
which took place at
The Guild shortly
after our Facedown in Buttercups rehearsal was over. It was,
of course, a
Human Race Theatre Company
project our Guild board welcomed to our space due to the
NATO Parliamentary Assembly
in downtown Dayton that rendered HRTC's
Loft Theatre
inaccessible on Saturday. The it was the first public reading, of
the forst draft of the script. It was an interesting work, taken
from interviews with Daytonians about their ideas, concepts, and
experiences of belonging, and in some cases, exclusion. It will be
most interesting to see what the final product is.
That evening I attended a performance of
Talking With...,
by Jane Martin,
at X*ACT: Xenia Area Community Theater.
I knew a couple actors in the show: Mandy Shannon, a most excellent
actor, whom I both want to work with on stage and direct,
and by god I will do both before it's all over. Also, Connie Strait,
whom I've seen a few times on stage, and whose work I've always
liked. This show is a series of diverse monologues by women, and it
was entertaining with a lot of fine performances. And, it was the
directorial debut of Catherine Shannon (Cat), who, as I described
in a text group, is an "associate" of Mandy's (i.e.:
her daughter). And the young woman should be proud of her first
outing in the director's chair. Unfortunately, the show closed
Sunday, so my recommendation to see it would be useless.
Wednesday evening we had another
rehearsal
at The Guild for
Facedown in Buttercups, by Dave Carley. It was Rachel Oprea
and I
on our feet,
with, of course, our
director,
Matthew Smith on book
and taking notes.
We did a few runs through the whole ten minutes, on
our feet, using some
do-fer props.
We ended the session with a
line run.
We actors are both definitely in the high 90-percentile on our
off-book
status; Rachel is still a bit ahead of me ‐‐
dang her
‐‐ but I'm certainly in much better shape than I was last
Saturday, due to drilling my lines since then. During the Saturday
line runs, I caught a few mistakes I'd made when I transcribed my
lines from the script to my index cards, so I threw them out and
started over, only to discover at Wednesday's rehearsal that I'd
omitted one of my lines in the recreation flashcards. But that line
is now in the deck.
And, for the record, I had not been told that our
playwright,
Dave Carley, was from Pennsylvania; I misheard that; it was Columbus,
Ohio. Then, as some of you may have read, I discovered that he is
from Toronto, Ontario. I assumed he was a resident alien here in the
states. He is not. The info that he lives anyplace in the
states was misinformation. Dave is, however, coming to the festival.
To be honest, were I Canadian, I'm not sure I'd risk crossing the
border into the U.S. right now, so, kudos to Dave.
Hey, June 6 is one week away!
Yep. Once again memorizing my lines my favorite way,
drilling myself with flashcards in forestry. First,
another pic from last Sunday at
Siebenthaler Fen,
then two pics from Monday at
Eastwood Metropark.
We rehearsed Saturday at The Guild
again. I'd say overall it was a good rehearsal, though there were
some line issues during the first few runs, especially from yours
truly.
Of course, when I was drilling that morning and the days before, I
was hitting
off-book
at pretty close to 99+%, but
on our feet
at that rehearsal I was garbling and losing words, and several
times I went up
to some extent.
I've probably written this in this blog somewhere before, maybe more
than once, but, it's like how you always feel like your'e singing
like Freddy Mercury in the shower but more like Florence Foster
Jenkins in public. More line drilling was already on the agenda
‐‐ good thing. Any line issues aside, the characters and
the energy were certainly there Saturday.
We have another Facedown... rehearsal tonight, again at The
Guild. Then tomorrow is a
full run rehearsal
of the festival at the event location, followed Thursday night by a
full tech run.
Then, of course, Friday is
Opening Night
for the two-night run of the festival.
Yep!
Friday is Opening....
RETURNING TO THE ADVENTURE:
AFter a break that's been longer than I prefer, I am about to get
back to work on the project, although the work will be thin to
non-existent until after this coming Saturday, when I am
wrapped
from Facedown in Buttercups at the Yellow Springs Ten-Minute
Play Festival. My first push is to get my first new song to
mixed-and-mastered
status as quickly as I can, because I have decided I want this one
released as soon as possible.
I intended to end this hiatus from the "adventure" over
last weekend but stuff got in my way, again. And I had a BIG
target drawn on last night, but alas: no. The hopeful optimist in
me thinks I may get at least some work done on the song during the
rest of this week, after the Yellow Springs festival rehearsals are
done each night, but the grounded part of my brain expects that's
probably pipe-dreaming. Still, I am determined that Sunday, either
before or after the closing DTG performance of
Between Riverside and Crazy,
and its
set strike,
I'll get some work in; maybe I will both before and after.
I also have a
soundwork
consultation Monday afternoon ‐‐ really more an engineering
thing ‐‐ but after that I have no more known theatre
production commitments for the foresable future; i.e.: my summer is
open creatively, and getting the song finished and out is the artistic
priority. The first thing will be a chorded bass rhythm part, and
because of the tone and attack that I have envisioned, I'm using
my Viola bass,
pictured above in the living room "studio," waiting for
me to pick it up ‐‐ which may be tonight, after
Facedown... rehearsal is over.
During these coming sessions I'll also finally use my new
Whammy Pitch Shift Bass Pedal,
(which I purchased last December but as of yet have not even plugged
into), for the faux lead guitar work. If I decide on two rhythm
chorded bass parts, I may also use it for at least one of them. The
primary goal is to bump the octave up in real-time while I'm playing,
rather than in post-production while I'm mixing. But there are other
features of the pedal, especially the
whammy-bar
feature of the pedal for bending notes as one plays. The Whammy pedal
being a new toy that I have yet to even begin exploring may mean
that the journey to completion of the song is slowed down a little
as I feel my away around the pedal. I'll just have to go with that
flow if it's the undercurrent I get caught in.
As for the single graphics and the music video: there definitely
will be graphics for the release;
CD Baby
requires them, and, really, why would I not create some, anyway?
Don't have a concept yet, but that's a minor detail. I also don't
have a concept for a music video. If I could afford it, I'd
commission one of a couple people I know to direct it, and maybe
collaborate with me on the concept; one of those being a movie
director
who has turned his focus to animation, which might be a good fit for
this song. But I don't have the finances to pay either what they
should get, nor I imagine what they would ask for. So, if there's
a video, it will most-assuredly be me directing; the rate I charge
myself is very reasonable.
Last night was our last
rehearsal at The Guild.
We worked in the actual
props,
rather than
do-fers,
and the real things are a bit more complicated to handle and manage.
Thus, my being
off-book
was challenged quite a bit. I actually totally
went up
more than just once. And we're back to that Freddy-Mercury/Florence-Foster-Jenkins
analogy. I was doing great with the lines before THE rehearsal;
Rachel and I even ran the lines once before we did it with
blocking,
and with one minior glitch, I did well otherwise. Then we got
on our feet
with me working with the real props and
BOOM!:
mental blanks all over the damn scene! So, I worked with the props
after rehearsal last night at home, and will probably do so before
rehearsal tonight, and will tomorrow as well, that, if I feel it's
necessary. Last night I also ordered a
costume
piece, on-line, for my character, Carl. Theoretically it'll be here
tomorrow during the day, delivered to me at
the rent-payer.
Also last night, I put my Viola bass
back in its case. It's pretty clear that I have to concentrate on
Facedown in Buttercups until the festival is over. I once
again thought I'd get to the music last night after Facedown...
rehearsal, but I needed to work on that damned prop handling while
speaking my lines debacle. Looks like it's Sunday for the return
to "The 2025 Music Adventure."
So, Opening Night
is tomorrow and we have our
Full tech run
of the festival this evening. Last night was the first
full run rehearsal
for the festival. It was a bit glitchy, but that's to be expected.
We are third in the line-up and for various reasons we all left
after we were done ‐‐ me, because I hadn't ate dinner yet
and I was hungry.
As you can see from the screenshot from Weather.com
above, there is a good chance we will not be doing the tech rehearsal
tonight on the out-door stage, as there is a 56% chance of a
thunderstorm in the
Yellow Springs area.
In fact, as the graphic shows, one or both performances may end up
at the rain location,
First Presbyterian Church,
which is where
Yellow Springs Theater Company
usually presents its productions. Granted, 24% and 15% are better
than a 56% chance, but, you know:
Murphy's Law....
How did my degree of
"off-book"
go last night as we were
on our feet,
with the
blocking,
and the
props,
you ask?: Meh. It certainly wasn't another Freddy-Mercury/Florence-Foster-Jenkins
scenario, and I didn't go up,
though I came close at least once, but I also was not word-perfect
from the script. There were a few paraphrases, which does not please
me, at all.
There were also those almost-going-up moments where
my mind was blank for a split second or so, and that really
doesn't please me. And, of course, those split seconds feel like
a couple minutes when you're in the momentary panic. So, more line
drilling, and working with the props for much of it.
Rachel Oprea and myself last night during our turn
on stage during the tech run.
‐‐ Photo credit: Matthew Smith
Well, it ended up not raining during
tech rehearsal
last night. There was intermittent cloud cover but the rain
was earlier in the day, then, later in the evening and overnight,
so we did do the
tech run
on the outdoor stage. The sun was out quite a bit during the rehearsal,
as you can see from the pic on the right, taken during one of those
times.
From what I was there for, the whole rehearsal seemed to go pretty
well. Overall, I was personally satisfied with Rachel's and my ten
minutes on stage. I did flub a couple lines; I don't think in a way
the audience would detect, by I knew. Nevertheless, we had
good energy and the characters were fully present, so we were
ultimately successful.
As to whether tonight's performance will be on the outdoor stage*
or at the rain location* is a good guess. Though light, the rain has
been relatively consistent since about midnight last night through
this morning, as this entry is being wrapped, so the indoor venue
is looking a bit likely, at least for tonight. Even if it soon
completely stops raining, hours before the 7:00
curtain,
the lawn will be pretty wet and muddy, which may be a factor. I
guess we shall find out....
(*: See the poster above for both location addresses).
Glad to report it didn't rain last night; the performance was at
the outdoor venue at MVECA. It
was overcast and rain seemed imminent for much of the evening but
there was no precipitation during the whole show. But, once again,
the question is: will it rain tonight? Are we going to be
on the lawn or in the church auditorium? It's late morning as I
write this, and the sun is shining, though the weather forecast is
calling for a 61% chance of rain this evening.
In respect to last night's performances, Rachel,
Director Matt,
and I were all quite satisfied with our ten minutes on stage with
Facedown in Buttercups. The pacing and energy were good. I
did have one slight paraphrase, but it wasn't an error the audience
would catch, but it wasn't what is written in the script (!). I've
already shared that I find our play a sweet little story. The other
plays are all nice, too, spanning a range from silly to a bit darker,
with a couple of them being most clever.
Our playwright,
Dave Carley, was not there last night, but I believe he will be there
tonight. I'm looking forward to meeting him. In the
YSNews.com article,
"10-Minute Play Festival Returns This Weekend at New Location,"
Dave says, "This play is based a bit on a real story featuring
a neighbor who lay in wait at the corner postbox, hoping to retrieve
a bit of mail she had rashly written. (She was not allowed to have
it.)"
Well, our two-day run of The 2025 Annual 10-Minute Play Festival,
(produced by
Yellow Springs Theater Company),
wrapped
last night. The theatre goddess, or the weather lord, or Mother
Nature, or serendipity, or happenstance, or something, was again
kind to us, and it again did not rain until well after the show
was over. It was also again overcast, and there thankfully was a
nice little breeze to combat the slight mugginess.
Facedown in Buttercups went quite well, though, once again I
had a couple line flubs, and one spot where I
went up
for a split second ‐‐ but I made it look like a
"dramatic pause," an "actor's choice," if you
will. But Rachel and I brought full characters to the stage and
there was again a strong pace and good energy.
The overall festival went well with some fine performances and
some clever scripts. It was fun. I appreciate that Matt Smith cast
me in this. It was also the first time that Rachel Oprea and I have
been on stage together. We've worked together on quite a few shows
over the years, but I have always been
crew,
usually producer
as well as
sound designer.
Apparently, the performances were DV recorded for a local cable
access channel and will be available to watch sometime soon. I always
have mix emotions about watching video of myself acting on stage
because it's never the performance I imagined I was giving, and it's
jarring to me. If you've read much of my blog or know me well enough
you may know that I'm a bit self-critical, which is both good and
bad. But, if it's possible to view the festival on-line (I don't
have cable), I'll probably watch it at least once.
The Friday night crowd.
The Friday night crowd, again.
The Friday night crowd a third time.
Last night's crowd.
From the playbill.
One of our props.
Myself and castmate Rachel Oprea.
Directed by Robert-Wayne Waldron
Produced by Rick Flynn
This play won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the 2015
New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, the 2015
Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, the 2015 Outer
Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play
and the 2015 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Play.
It closed on Broadway in Feb 2023. Walter "Pops"
Washington is a retired NYC policeman, and he has had enough.
He has been pursuing a discrimination suit against the Police
Department, because he, a black police officer, was accidentally
shot by another (white) police officer. Meanwhile, his landlord
won't leave him alone, his wife recently passed away, and
the liquor store can't keep up with his thirst. Pops' last
living relative, his son Junior, has recently gotten out of
jail and moved back to Pops' house with his girlfriend, Lulu,
and his newly sober buddy, Oswaldo. With his heels dug into
the floor of his rent-controlled Riverside Drive apartment,
Pops holds onto old wounds, both physical and emotional.
Pressure reaches a boiling point when an ultimatum comes from
an unlikely source, pinning Pops squarely "between
Riverside and crazy." This Tony Award-nominated Pulitzer
Prize-winning play, is passionate, contemporary, and bracingly
funny.
The Cast of BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY
CHARACTER
ACTOR
Pops
Franklin Johnson
Junior
Shaun Diggs
Oswaldo
S. Francis Livisay
Lulu
Ronda Ogletree
Lt. Caro
Nathan Finley
Detective O'Connor
Karen Righter
Church Lady
Carly Risenhoover-Peterson
The promotional trailer for BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY
Today my mother would have celebrated her 108th birthday.
FINALLY,
after what amounted to a somewhat too-long hiatus, I got back to the
new album project last night. I pulled out my
Epiphone Viola bass
and worked out the lion's share of a chorded rhythm bass part for
the first new song. I may have completely finished the arrangement,
I'm not 100% sure; there could be some tweaks; it's certainly not
outside the realm of possibility.
No recording was done, obviously. There'll likely be at least one
session of rehearsal. But I think I should be able to get this part
laid in the mix soon. There's a strong chance ‐‐ virtually
100% ‐‐ I'll do another chorded rhythm bass part, most
likely with the
Epiphone Embassy Pro
and finally utilizing my new
DigiTech Bass Whammy Pitch Shift Bass Pedal.
That would/will be next, before I get to the rest of the instrumentation
as well as finishing the lyrics and composing the vocal. I'm trying
to push to an official release ASAP. I should probably set myself
a hard deadline.
Last night I both rehearsed and recorded the first chorded
bass rhythm part for the first new song, on my
Viola bass,
of course. I was able to get the track laid in three takes.
Clearly, this part was not the ungodly challenge the bass line was,
that which took so damned long to conquer. The performance for this
rhythm track was not an absolutely perfect one, but it works quite
well.
Now I move on to the second chorded bass rhythm part, using my
Embassy Pro
and finally employing my new
Bass Whammy pedal
‐‐ acquired six months ago. Since I'll be playing with a
new toy, this may not be as quick from instigation to completion as
the first chorded rhythm bass part was...
In a surprise to myself, I actually got to the recording of the
second chorded bass rhythm part, last night. As planned, I used my
Embassy Pro
running through my new toy, my
Bass Whammy pedal
and then my
Overdrive/Distortion pedal.
And the true miracle of it was that I only did one take.
One Take!
ONE TAKE!
I'd anticipated it taking a few days to get this laid, not because
I would have to rehearse the chord progression, but because I thought
I was going to really explore this new pedal's features, and there
are a lot of features to investigate and experiment with, but my
instincts were that the song doesn't need me to do that. So, I kept
it simple; all I did was bump the octave up once on the chords I
played.
I didn't play different chords from the first rhythm bass part,
though this second rhythm bass part doesn't come in until the
second bridge, more than halfway through the song. And I was happy
with the first take, so, it's time to move on.
I did migrate both rhythm bass tracks over into the
Logic Pro
project, but as of yet I've done nothing further with them in that
project. But. I'll probably re-do the demo
rough-mix
with these parts added in, soon, maybe tonight, possibly even during
my lunch break at
the rent-payer.
The next things to be worked out and recorded will be the faux lead
guitar, with the Bass Whammy pedal and one of my basses, or the faux
sax part, a
MIDI voice
played with my
Oxygen 61 Keyboard.
Standing by the
Little Miami River
at John Bryan State Park, yesterday morning, the
venue for some of my work on the lyrics.
Thursday I wrote that the next things to be worked out and recorded
would be the faux lead guitar, using the
Bass Whammy pedal
and one of my basses, or the faux
MIDI
sax part, played on my
Oxygen 61 Keyboard.
I was wrong.
After adding the chorded bass parts into the
Logic Pro
project for the song, I
mixed
and mastered
a new demo of the rhythm section, and in doing so, I realized a
couple section were not percussive enough, that the drumming needed
to be punched up a bit. So I added a new
GarageBand
ride-toms drum part to those sections, and remixed and remastered
again. While I was at it, I also tweaked some volume levels on
other instrumentation.
By-the-way, I'm not wholly satisfied with that second remix,
so I might do it over shortly.
The last few days I've also worked some on the lyrics, both
rewriting lines and adding lines. Yesterday I hiked at
John Bryan State Park
and used that excursion in the forestry to work on them ‐‐
I have a word processing app on my
iPhone
and a copy of the lyrics document there. I got some ideas from the
No Kings protest
I was at on Saturday. I had some ideas based on it, already; one
was a line about standing in the rain, because there was a 60% chance
forecasted, but the rain ended up not starting until after the event
was done, so that idea got nixed.
It has one more weekend at The Guild, showing next Friday and Saturday
at 7:30, and Sunday at 2:00. Adults: $15, Seniors & Students: $12.
Tickets may be purchased at the door (cash or checks only) ‐‐
Open Seating
Not long ago I wrote in a blog entry that I probably should set a
deadline for release of the first new song. I've set one. I want
it to premiere in the wild on July 4. Whether that is as a single
or a pre-single release
music video
depends on how quickly I can get the recording sessions wrapped
and the song
mixed
and mastered.
Almost 100% guaranteed, the single will only be a digital release,
mostly for expedience's sake, but also because I can't afford the
manufacturing costs of a physical CD at this time. And it's not
like I've moved a lot of any of the music CDs I already released.
Of course, I don't think there's been even one sale of a digital
copy of either previous single, nor the album.
Taylor Swift, beware!
I won't be doing any recording this weekend, because of the nature
of the weekend. But I will be making an effort the finish the
lyrics to the song over the weekend. And I'm pretty sure that July
4 will see the premiere of the music video. Though I have no idea
what the music video concept will be.
I wrote this free verse poem yesterday and posted it on social
media. Apparently either almost no one saw it, or almost no one
thought it was worth reacting to. Okay, so it ain't
William Carlos Williams....
I'M FALLING INTO DESPAIR
I'm falling into despair.
The ugliness,
the vicious hate.
The wholescale abandonment
of the better principals
of being a member of society,
of being a citizen,
of being an American.
It's crashing down on me
and smothering me,
smothering any sense of hope
I've been desperately clinging to.
I wept tonight,
painfully,
full of agony,
as if the person I loved most
in the world had suddenly died.
The sorrow has finally soaked
into my nervous system
and the depth of my melancholy
is becoming overwhelming.
My sense of helplessness,
that I have nothing much
to offer to stop it all,
and that what I might offer
won't be enough,
that burden crushes me tonight
like 500 pounds of dead weight.
And the terrible thing,
the condemnation of
too large a swath of my neighbors
in this country,
is that millions of them
would/will relish my distress.
Certainly it would bring a smile
to his face.
It's what he wants;
it's what they want:
The broken spirit,
the despondency,
the despair ‐‐
that's the point.
So, for now they're winning,
at least with me.
Tomorrow? I don't know.
I hear and read rumblings
that their day may
be meeting its sunset.
I truly hope that is true,
that it's not a wishful pipe dream.
In the meantime,
what ugliness,
what hate,
what violence,
what desecration of
the Constitution and
the rule of law will happen?
What further damage
that may never be repaired
will this country be assaulted with?
And what do we do
if their time has just begun?
What do I do?
Tonight I feel
so insignificant,
so irrelevant,
so sad.
As planned, over this past weekend, while on a camping
vacation
*(see next entry), I put serious effort into the lyrics for
the first new song, that song that is intended for immanent single
release
I wrote the lyrics for two stanzas and completed the first half of
another, a total of ten lines. There is one four-line stanza left
to write; I'm just about 90% finished with the lyrics ‐‐
well, save for the fact that I'll inevitably be revising here and
there. I'm already second-guessing some lines.
Still, I have no concept for the
music video,
but I'm contemplating it, giving it mental bandwidth. Of course, as
I wrote before, even if the song is not
mixed
and mastered
in time for an official single release by July 4, I do want it
mastered and a video in
final cut
for a July 4 publishing debute.
Me, early Saturday evening, working out the chord
progression for new song #4 on my Giannini bass.
Just to complicate things, or make them interesting, or to create
minor chaos, or something, I started a fourth new song during my
camping trip ‐‐ again, see next entry.
I guess I didn't technically "start" it over the weekend
since I've had the basic idea, or the snippet of one, for several
weeks, maybe a couple months. I want to say it's in the vein of
Richard Thompson
but my friend who's a major RT fan will probably say, "Nope,"
when he hears it. At least I can say in my mind it's influenced
by Thompson's musical province.
I worked out chords on my
Giannini acoustic bass
*(see left). Before the weekend all I had was a sketch of
both the melody and lyrics for the chorus, plus the concept of the
theme. The chord structure is simple. I may tweak it later, and
maybe on the piano rather than the Giannini, though I believe I'll
use the Giannini on the recording. I wrote two four-line verse
stanzas, and slightly revised the chorus lyrics, which I came up
with when I first conceived the song. Of course, the chords and
lyrics are all free game for tweaking at a later date.
FINISHING A STAY ‐‐ TWO YEARS LATER:
You five, or at least one of you, might remember that back in
August of 2023, I went
on a camping trip to
Cowan Lake,
but I had to cut it short because I lost my wallet on the trip and
not only did I have no way to purchase anything, I had a lot of
collateral business to take care of in light of the loss. That,
by-the-way, was the last time I'd been camping; I could not fit a
trip in during Spring-Autumn of 2024. I was also too busy the rest
of the 2023 camping season.
Well, By Gosh, I finished that damned Cowan Lake camping trip this
past weekend, almost twenty months later, but I finished it! There'll
be more detail when I finally post the entry about it in the
Vacation
& Recreation section, but
I will say that it was much needed and, as you see above, I got
some 2025 Music Adventure
work done. Of course, I did some hiking. I also did some kayaking.
I'd planned to kayak twice, but during the first excursion, my
lower back was finished with the outing before my two-hour rental
was up; it kept saying, with increasing annoyance and urgency,
"Dude! We are DONE! Get yer ass
back to shore...NOW!" So I nixed the Day 2
kayaking. But, of course, there were nightly fire pits.
Here are a few pics:
In case you can't read it, the inscription on my
new hiking stick reads: "Hike More
Worry Less."
THE SHOW IS 100% CAST:
Andre Tomlinson has joined the cast, filling it out. Andre, of
course, was my aggravatingly dynamic co-star in last year's
Superior Donuts
at DTG.
"Mumble-mumble
steal MY thunder, mumble-mumble-mumble...."
Since my weekend camping
vacation
has ended, I'm back in recording-session mode for song #2,
working on the faux electric lead guitar work. I've been on my
Embassy Pro bass
and again working with my newest toy, or to be more serious, my
newest music tool, my
Bass Whammy pedal
as well as again utilizing my
Overdrive/Distortion pedal.
After some exploring and experimenting with the Bass Whammy and the
distortion/overdrive, I came upon the sound that will work perfectly
for the "lead guitar" work. Last night I worked out most
of the part. My hope is that this evening I can get it to the place
to record, then lay the track. One note: I'm using a pick for this
"guitar" part; I usually only use a pick when I'm playing
chords; there are a couple chords in the solo, but for all the past
faux guitar solos I've played, I've finger plucked. *(See the
"Just One Shadow" music video).
Actually, the planned arrangement has the faux sax coming in earlier
in the song, but I plan on that sax doing some harmony work with
the "guitar" counter melody during the third verse section,
but since I haven't completely worked that "guitar" part
out yet, I can't yet know what to play on the faux sax, so the sax
will get recorded after the faux guitar.
The use of the pick had more to do with sound than the incorporation
of a few chords into the solo; also, since I've started playing
again, I've not been using a pick for any bass lines and I want to
start honing that skill a bit. I may use a pick for some official
bass lines on this new album.
As I've listened to my
mastered
rhythm section demo of the song, I've noted a few things that sound
a bit hot, i.e.: distorted because a volume or gain is too high for
a particular instrument. I think mostly it's the bass line, which
pushes the low end quite a bit. I did a little experimenting with
the compression,
the EQ,
and other audio settings in the mixed-master, but that has not seemed
to solve the problem. I think I'm going to have to
remix
and adjust components of some
stems
in the
multitrack master recording.
There was always going to be tweaks to the mixing and the mastering
after the recording sessions were wrapped, anyway, so this is no
kind of interruption or setback.
The part's not wholly composed just yet; I also need to hone some
of the execution a little bit. But I'm reasonably confident it'll
be ready to record this evening. I have a good hope that I'll get
the faux sax part and the vocal recorded by end of day Saturday. I
might also even have it mixed
and mastered
by end of day Saturday.
My goal is to have the
music video
in final cut
within a few days of this coming weekend. I have most of a concept;
it'll be a pretty simple production, but I think maybe effective.
I certainly believe that, at the very least, the music video can be
published July 4, even if the single release can't make that deadline.
I forgot to note in yesterday's blog post that I have written all
the lines for all the stanzas in the lyrics. It's not terribly
probable that it's a final draft of the lyrics, however. Tweaks,
at the very least, will happen, I'm sure. For one thing, I'm not
certain that some of the lyrics aren't a little forced, or awkward,
and such. Although I do usually second guess my lyrics. I should
probably run them past a couple people; the thing is, I kind of want
to hit all those particular people, whom I'd get feedback from, with
the finished recording. It's a silly dilemma, for sure, but there
it is....
MY NEW SINGLE, "BACKWARD IN TIME," WILL DROP IN FOUR DAYS:
As you can see above, the single, "Backward in Time," will
officially release this coming Friday, as I'd hoped. The last
several days have been mostly about finishing the recording and
getting it ready for release.
Despite that at 30, this was almost three times the amount of takes
I did for the regular bass line (12), this was not the bear that
was. For one thing, I didn't have to rehearse for weeks and weeks to
master the part for this "lead guitar" like I did for the
bass line. Also, the impurities I couldn't live with this time were
much smaller than the late-April sessions for the bass line.
Most of the take count, this time, can be attributed to me plucking
the strings with a pick rather than with my fingers; as I wrote in
last Wednesday's blog entry,
I've not been using a pick for bass lines since I started playing
again, five years ago, only when I'm playing chords. And I'm now
wanting to hone the skill of using a pick for bass lines, rather
than just when playing chords. The goofs that caused me to reject a
take where far more minor than the sloppy sort of errors in April.
This time, I would occasionally slightly miss the beat, or even miss
hitting the string, with good impact, or altogether, especially in
parts of the solo that move a little faster. But don't get the idea
there's any "shredding" going on in this lead solo, there
is not. The errors were just enough to make the takes unacceptable
to me, but I was not pulling out what's left of my hair, this time.
As for the "fixing it in post": There is one spot
in the ending of the song where I don't quite hit on a high,
I believe it's a 16th note, and since it's a section
where the "guitar" is repeating a riff, I decided,
rather than go back in and rerecord that section just to fix
that little stumble, I'd just copy and paste the same note
from nearby in the recording. As I've written here before,
any postproduction adjustments I make to performance will
not be to get something I could not do live, but to avoid
the inconvenience of rerecording.
The next night I recorded the
MIDI
sax, using my
Oxygen 61 Keyboard.
I composed bits of it, beforehand, but I improvised a lot of it
during the recording session. I had a template of the part, which
I riffed on, but with a few moments and sections where I played
something precise from the pre-recording composition. And there
are a few parts I had conceived right when I decided on the sax
for the song.
I also recorded it in bits and pieces, starting and stopping as I
went along, sometimes re-recording a section due to errors in
execution or because I wasn't enthused with what I'd just
improvised. I ended up with what I tally as ten takes.
Like I assured I would, I did change the lyrics. Also, I
did have a small handful of people read the lyrics and give
me feedback. I didn't take heed of all the responses and suggestions,
but I took note of many of them; and I took them all to heart. I also
revised lines during the recording session, which I figured I would,
based on possible awkward rhythms of the lyrics married to the melody
and music.
Saturday, I had to delay recording the vocals until later in the
afternoon because it began to rain just when I was about to record,
and there was occasional thunder. Since I wasn't in an actual
recording studio, my mic would have registered the thunder, which
I obviously did not want. It certainly interfered with my hopeful
agenda of getting the
mixing
and maybe mastering
finished on Saturday.
But I was able to record the vocals Saturday evening: the lead
vocal and and a unison vocal. The main vocal took twenty takes,
but like the sax work, each take was only the recording of one
section. Rather than recording the the vocal for the whole song in
one take, I recorded each of the nine stanzas individually. I did
the same for the unison vocal, which was seventeen takes.
One issue I realized early this morning is that I'd planned to see
a theatre production saturday evening, one with many of my colleagues
associated with the production, and one that was getting rave
responses by others who saw it. I completely forgot about it, being
so focused on getting those vocals recorded. And, frankly, I would
have had to skip it had I remembered, but still....
Yesterday was pretty much all about getting the song ready for
release, starting with the mixing and the mastering, which took up
a LARGE part
of the day. I'm not exactly
Geoff Emerick
with a mixing console, so getting the recording to an acceptable
product took a lot of trial and error; but, I guess I am learning
stuff as I trudge close-to blindly through this stuff. Anyway, by
early evening I had the master that the world ‐‐ or a
quite modest percentage ‐‐ will hear on Friday.
The next task was to create the artwork for the digital single
*(see it centered in the promo graphic, above); it's pretty
simple stuff, but I believe effective for its purpose. Then I
submitted the audio file and the artwork to
CD Baby,
and got official notice this morning that the single is " has
been finalized for digital distribution and is about to be delivered
to digital platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Instagram,
Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, Pandora, and 150+ more."
So, it looks like the digital CD should be published at least on
some platforms on Friday, my goal date for release, but the email
did caution that "Each of those services has a unique
timeline for processing new releases, but if you're primarily
concerned about Spotify or Apple Music, it takes between two days
and two weeks (though it's usually pretty quick)."
The music video
will be up on July 4, regardless of how many platforms won't have
the digital single up yet. I'm in the process of creating all the
graphics for it, and I should be able to at least start work on the
production proper in
Final Cut
this evening. I've already loaded many of the images, as well as
the audio file, into a Final Cut event. It's going to be a
lyric video,
which may be a mistake. Those of you who see it will understand
what I mean by that. It'll be on
my YouTube channel
sometime during the first part of the day.
Recording the "lead guitar."
Some recording session notes.
Recording the "sax."
Spiritual, mental, and physical health maintenance at
Oakes Quarry Park
on Saturday, earlier in the day.
