With every song I've come up with, the process always ultimately turns
downhill toward: Is this even a decent song anymore? Will anyone even
like this? Do I even like it anymore? The mistakes always honk out to
me, and I always wrestle with re-recording, which would take up time but
to be honest they're never gonna be perfect and really I'm just
fooling around on a bunch of instruments and posting the results on the
internet. The goal is to insert
different sounds like organ, or piano, or bass, or drum into a song and
hopefully internalize the effect and understanding how much a sound or
instrument can disrupt the balance of a song. Then hopefully down the
road, if I do figure out how to come up with great great text and
melodies, then my memory will be there to call on what instruments would
be best to deliver the complete package. I don't really have a lofty
goal other than just trying to extract as much intel from completing
each post whether its a cover or original.
Takeaways
- I probably shouldn't have put space in for mini-drum solos. I
foolishly thought I could just come up with something or imitate
something, but as I should have expected, its really difficult.
Drumming is difficult because being even slightly off just sounds
sloppy... In the end I just said fuck it and had to move on w/ tackling
the new video software.
- Johnny Cash's guitar picker was Luther Perkins who really contributed
significantly to JC's signature style. At first I wanted to scrap the
song because I didn't think there was enough to learn from attempting
this style, but I was wrong. When you play bass, you're super exposed
because if your timing is off, everyone can tell instantly - perhaps
because there are no other frequencies down there to obscure if you're
on time or not. Well I think this guitar picking is even tougher
because you have to try and be exactly on time and the shrill sound
honks out even more if you're late or too early on the beat.
- I copied Johnny Cash's own guitar style of strumming on an unmic'd
acoustic. On youtube he's always singing and strumming along on a
guitar, but you can't hear it because theres no microphone picking it
up. I used to wonder why he'd even bother - but I guess it would look
pretty strange if he were just standing there and singing.
Ishida