The reason its been so long is because I failed to finish another song
that just wasn't good enough for sharing. The abortion was another
multi-instrument mess with a hard guitar solo, drum pattern, synth
stuff, and a fast tempo. In the end, each part was so rushed and thrown
together, that it really wasn't cohesive. I also didn't want to post
another "lets see if we can even do this" song because since the
cassette, I want to work on getting things to a more pro sounding level.
This song is slower, predictable, and only guitar and voice - but it
still gave me problems. I wanted to learn all the guitar fills of
expert guitarist Ken Pattengale (the other singer's name is Joe - so
they're just like me and my brother), and rehearsed it modularly.
What I mean by that is instead of learning each part all the way thru
and then recording each individually - this time I learned each part verse by
verse. So I learned the tenor part of verse 1 with the accompanying
guitar, then the alto part of verse 1 w/ its accompanying guitar, then
did the same for verse 2 and 3 and in the end learned the intro because
its the same as the outro. Then once I could play the whole song thru
both parts, recording one and then the other was much easier. This
method was also much more enjoyable.
The difficulty is blend. I'd over sing the tenor part because I guess
its easier / lower and the guitar part is easier, and then undersing the
Alto putting me on the verge of falsetto nearly all the way thru - so
you get voices that don't convey 2 sides of the same coin like a duet
should be.
In the end, I re-recorded it by hanging back on the tenor part, and
staying strong on the alto while going super light on the high notes - I
had to recall a lesson from choir where you gotta lighten up on high
notes because they'll stand out naturally because they're high. Anyway -
its way way tougher than I thought. On headphones I think it sounds
all right, but on small computer speakers it sounds too falsetto again...oh well.
Ishida
