Visiting that realm
KeithHandy posted in Uncategorized on January 10th, 2008
I’m gonna go easy on my Personal Web Assistant and keep this one “text only” until the hosting switch-over is complete.
What? You don’t have a Personal Web Assistant? I thought everyone did.
Anywhy…
Little reminder about how to keep your spark lit without feeling overwhelmed, even though I’ve pontificated on this at greater length in my big ol’ SERIES: Forget that you have “work to do”. Just turn on the freaking software that you use, load something in, and listen to it. That’s your only requirement. It’s as easy as sitting around listening to iTunes, only instead of clicking on the iTunes icon, you click on the Tracktion icon. Or the Audacity icon. Or Logic, or Audition, or Pro Tools, or whatever you use. Don’t worry about getting work done; just go in like you’re there to listen. Be curious about it. The initiative to start monkeying with it will come on its own, and even if it doesn’t come immediately, that’s fine. You’re visiting that realm — that’s the most important thing!
(FUNNY PICTURE)
Today’s thing to listen to is… big drumroll… the lengthy title track from Through Forbidden Black Doors. Kind of a hidden gem because, a.) it transcends the overall quality of the rest of the opera, and b.) it’s buried somewhere in the later part of the first half. And it’s one of the bits I did so nicely right out of the gate that I won’t have to lay down any new instruments or anything… oh, except the vocal. The lyrics will need re-examination.
Here, pretend to take a listen to the basic track, naked, before putting down guitar, horns, or little tambourine-drum-toy-thingy:
(IMAGINE THERE’S A CLIP HERE)
Okay, a few of the piano runs kill the illusion by being a little too nimble. But is music all about creating illusions? Can’t it just be about throwing notes at people? Sometimes that can be fun too, ya know.
While you’re at it, listen to the overdubs in isolation; some neat stuff there too:
(PRETEND THIS IS ANOTHER CLIP)
That, by the way, was the first time I ever recorded Paul Gaspar improvising. After doing a few sessions of people reading stuff off a sheet, I realized this was where it was at, and I’ve done it that way ever since. I really don’t want to bring in guest musicians anymore unless they can improvise. (If I’m going to orchestrate something more carefully, I’ll use samplers instead of humans, so I can micromanage the notes without feeling guilty about it.) What I love to do is record several tracks of raw madness, and then shave away all but the best bits. The result is furious brilliance. The cherry-picked improvisations sometimes overlap (nice word for “step on each other”), and sometimes leave gaping holes. And that turns out to be more of a great thing than a bad thing.
As for this other project of mine, called “pay your bills, idiot”, I have to say that… overall, I’m cool with the job. One thing that I’ve found helpful is to divide the day up into thirds, rather than halves or quarters. For some reason my mind can reconcile with three parts more easily than two or four. So I’ll be eating two mini-lunches. And I schedule my coffee at an offset from that, so I have another little guidepost.
(ANOTHER FUNNY PICTURE)
Another thing I’ve found helpful is to hear from another co-worker at my previous job, who just got fired herself (for having too many medical problems — nice, huh?). She has few kind words to say about the place, and it helps to remind me what I’ve escaped from, and to put where I am now in perspective.
