my folky blues original music

987baz

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
Just to give some context and sort of tie this in with "the work" on myself, this first track has been, like so many of the songs I write, waiting to be recorded and released.

I spent a decade chasing the illusive music career, mostly rock and metal stuff, before finally realizing a) that fame wasn't something that I really wanted and b) I wasn't going to be able to make a living out of it. So a uni degree and a decade later I started something new, musically, the problem being as I have found out is that I have this perfectionism program, that until recently has held sway over me. Long story short, the songs are never good enough, recorded well enough etc. etc.

So the plan is to record the songs live, no waiting to record "properly" although I will get to that at some stage, but simply to sit in my studio and record the song as is with a couple of mics, raw and unedited.

feedback welcome :cool2:


Little one
https://soundcloud.com/machines-of-me/little-one-live
 
Hi 987baz,

Thanks for sharing, first I must say that you’re a lot braver than I’d ever be. And in light to the context you provided I think recording a song like this is very appropriate and maybe even liberating?. Perhaps the question id ask you is, now that you’ve faced up to a fear of yours in this way, how do you feel? Does the world look so bleak without the perfectionism? :) I’d be interested in reading the lyrics to the song.

Im not a native English speaker, so I had a hard time picking up the lyrics, but I think that’s related to the recording method as the guitar overpowered the vocals. But this might be expected, the melody was very mellow which I enjoyed :)
 
Hey Baz, nice work! I really enjoyed the song. I would like to know what you are saying; would you mind printing the lyrics?

Thanks man.
 
Alejo said:
Hi 987baz,

Thanks for sharing, first I must say that you’re a lot braver than I’d ever be. And in light to the context you provided I think recording a song like this is very appropriate and maybe even liberating?. Perhaps the question id ask you is, now that you’ve faced up to a fear of yours in this way, how do you feel? Does the world look so bleak without the perfectionism? :) I’d be interested in reading the lyrics to the song.

Im not a native English speaker, so I had a hard time picking up the lyrics, but I think that’s related to the recording method as the guitar overpowered the vocals. But this might be expected, the melody was very mellow which I enjoyed :)
To be honest, it is a bit liberating, I am already planning which song I'll do next :)

I'm still a bit conflicted as well though, I mean it's a very raw version of the song, when I listen back to it I hear all the "imperfections" so I'm still coming to terms with the program I guess, but yes it's out there imperfect and all and the world hasn't ended haha.

I think the perfectionism is an excuse not to put myself/the music out there, if I don't put it out then I can't "fail", but once it's out I can, people might not like it, people might think I have a crappy voice or whatever, in the end it doesn't matter, but being a musician is part of who I am, maybe that's part of it, maybe if nobody likes the music, somehow that's makes me less valued or liked, I'm not 100% sure, I'm still dealing with the whys and hows and I think it will be a process, but I am commited to it and at the moment feel like I've taken a big step forward.

The interesting thing is, it's only recently that the perfectionism has enslaved me, I played in bands for over a decade and although I was picky about songs, I never let it stop me, so why now is it more important? maybe it's the vulnerability that comes with solo/acoustic music, it's just me, no band, no wall of guitars and drums to hide behind.

just some initial thoughts, I will post more as I have time to reflect.

Thank you both for your comments :)

Little One.

Humble the dawn, simple the seed
Distant the stars in your stream
A thimble of light begins symboling life between
the chaos and order of living inside this dream
And I will be the one to help you see

Under the sun, tall as a tree
meaning becomes part of me
the tin man the lion heart the scare crow and all they've seen
A perfect reality for proving what's meant to be
And I will be the one to help you see

So rise up little one, begin your fight
tomorrow we climb the mountain, one step at a time
And I will be the one to help you climb

In the this kaleidoscope, feeling coal to gold
Signal the lightning trumpet, erasing the old
and starting anew

Come through the door, love is the key
A calling is born inside me
The wolves and the animus, a mountain without its peak
Let's open with gratitude and see where the spiral leads
And i will be the one to help you see

So rise up little one, begin your fight
tomorrow we climb the mountain, one step at a time
And I will be the one to help you climb
 
Nice one! The guitar has a vibe that reminds me of David Gilmour on "Mother" and sounds great. I agree with the others that the vocals are a bit low in the mix. Well done! :)
 
Nice one baz. I can hear a nice 6/8 drum track over that. Would give it a nice feel. Almost power balladish..

But as it is, I like the version you posted with just the guitar and voice. :thup:

The vocals are a bit low, but that does give it sort of a haunting quality that I like.

Cheers


(PS: I did try to do some drum tracks over it, and it indeed sounds cool, but I did find a couple of places in the song where the 1 beat was replaced with the 4. Sort of inverting the back beat if you know what I mean. Not sure if that was intentional, but it is kind of cool...)
 
Hithere said:
Nice one! The guitar has a vibe that reminds me of David Gilmour on "Mother" and sounds great. I agree with the others that the vocals are a bit low in the mix. Well done! :)

Thanks Hithere :)

Hello H2O said:
Nice one baz. I can hear a nice 6/8 drum track over that. Would give it a nice feel. Almost power balladish..

But as it is, I like the version you posted with just the guitar and voice. :thup:

The vocals are a bit low, but that does give it sort of a haunting quality that I like.

Cheers


(PS: I did try to do some drum tracks over it, and it indeed sounds cool, but I did find a couple of places in the song where the 1 beat was replaced with the 4. Sort of inverting the back beat if you know what I mean. Not sure if that was intentional, but it is kind of cool...)

Cheers Hello H20 :)

I have started tracking this song for a "proper" recording and yes, the 6/8 beat sits nicely in there, the inverted back beat is intentional, just for a something a little different. Most of the metal stuff I was doing was all odd timings so I guess that just carried over into this project, thanks for noticing :)

I agree that the vocals are low, the irony is that normally I would have never just recorded something and put it out straight away without even mixing or EQing it, but this is part of the letting go process for me. The idea was to put the rawest unedited version out, stripping away all the recording techniques and tricks to make things sound better, nothing to hide behind, but maybe i have gone a bit too far..haha...I might throw some EQ on there and bring that vocal out a bit more over the weekend, if time permits I may even get time to work on the proper recording. Again, thanks all for the feedback :cool2:
 
Hello Baz, I hope you don't think ill of me for this, but you asked for feedback, and I'll give you my honest opinion.

The guitar sounds like it's out of tune. Do you have a tuner? Electronic ones are available and they are good.
A twelve string guitar would go well.

I couldn't make out the lyrics, and English is my first language. The words were kind of drowned out by the guitar, I would guess that you need to play around with the positioning of the microphones, maybe more up toward your face.

I thought that the rhythm was too slow, it ended up making the song sound dreary, maybe a little more upbeat on the tempo wouldn't go astray.

I think it would sound much better if there were more voices, but that's your choice if you want to go solo.
By the same token, other instruments to add character to the music, a violin would be folksy.

Keep up the good work, and don't worry, I never made any money out of music either, the main point is that you are doing what you like to do and having fun with it.
 
MusicMan said:
Hello Baz, I hope you don't think ill of me for this, but you asked for feedback, and I'll give you my honest opinion.

The guitar sounds like it's out of tune. Do you have a tuner? Electronic ones are available and they are good.
A twelve string guitar would go well.

I couldn't make out the lyrics, and English is my first language. The words were kind of drowned out by the guitar, I would guess that you need to play around with the positioning of the microphones, maybe more up toward your face.

I thought that the rhythm was too slow, it ended up making the song sound dreary, maybe a little more upbeat on the tempo wouldn't go astray.

I think it would sound much better if there were more voices, but that's your choice if you want to go solo.
By the same token, other instruments to add character to the music, a violin would be folksy.

Keep up the good work, and don't worry, I never made any money out of music either, the main point is that you are doing what you like to do and having fun with it.

Hey MusicMan, thanks for the feedback, honesty is always appreciated :)

haha, yes I do have a tuner, the reason it may sound out of tune is because the guitar is tuned down a full step (d) and is not in standard 440hz it's tuned to 432hz which may account for why it sounds out?

yeah as others have said the mix isn't great, to be honest I just wanted to do it and get it up, otherwise I spend way too much time placing mics and overthinking everything, (trying to make things perfect) which usually results in me not "doing" anything. As I said before maybe I went a bit "carefree" and need to make a few adjustments for further live recordings. Also due to the fact the the frequency range of the guitar and my vocal are very similar, and that I not only had a mic on the guitar but added a DI and ran the 2 extra tracks with effects, so too much guitar haha.

The properly recorded version is a bit more upbeat 67bpm and with the drums, strings and bass, it does flow a bit better, although I am still tracking it. I might post what I've done so far to see what you guys think, if you're interested?

I'll be adding some harmonies too, and at some stage hope to get a few different vocalist friends of mine to help out with backing and maybe a duet or two down the track, but for now the solo thing is part of the process for me to get over this perfectionism thing.

What instruments do you play? I would love to hear some stuff if you have any?

Thanks again for your input!
 
Hithere said:
Nice one! The guitar has a vibe that reminds me of David Gilmour on "Mother" and sounds great. I agree with the others that the vocals are a bit low in the mix. Well done! :)

Yes, after listing and then reading what you said about Gilmour, indeed, similar in this song.

Nice one, 987baz!
 
voyageur said:
Hithere said:
Nice one! The guitar has a vibe that reminds me of David Gilmour on "Mother" and sounds great. I agree with the others that the vocals are a bit low in the mix. Well done! :)

Yes, after listing and then reading what you said about Gilmour, indeed, similar in this song.

Nice one, 987baz!

Cheers voyageur :)

It's interesting to see how songs take on a life of their own when you let them, and I also find it interesting how people react to them, what influences they hear etc.

Having come from a rock/metal background, it is a very different challenge to keep things simple as far as the guitar chords go, but some of the best songs are simple, it's all about the melody, and for me in the vocals, especially the emotion in the vocals
 
Thank you for sharing it 987baz! As someone whose biggest musical achievement has so far been learning to draw the treble clef I can't comment on the technical aspects like others here. But I definitely liked the song a lot! You have a really nice and deep voice with a kind of vibration to it that gives it a lot of character and it sounded very well with the guitar.

I listened to the song while looking at the lyrics you posted but I think without it it would be tough for me to understand the words. But this may also be caused by the fact that English isn't my first language. :)

I can see how recording a raw version can be helpful in overcoming the perfectionist programs. Well, I think you should definitely do it more often!! :wizard:
 
Ant22 said:
Thank you for sharing it 987baz! As someone whose biggest musical achievement has so far been learning to draw the treble clef I can't comment on the technical aspects like others here. But I definitely liked the song a lot! You have a really nice and deep voice with a kind of vibration to it that gives it a lot of character and it sounded very well with the guitar.

I listened to the song while looking at the lyrics you posted but I think without it it would be tough for me to understand the words. But this may also be caused by the fact that English isn't my first language. :)

I can see how recording a raw version can be helpful in overcoming the perfectionist programs. Well, I think you should definitely do it more often!! :wizard:

Thanks for your kind words and encouragement Ant22 :)

Indeed, doing the raw versions certainly does trigger my perfectionism program, so I guess I will have to keep doing more :evil:

Eventually I will share the proper recordings as I get time to track them all, but for now, I just need to keep the momentum flowing, so my aim is to do 1 a week, I might even throw in a few covers, which is something I've always been against doing, not sure why, but maybe the fact that 'it" doesn't want to is a good reason to do it.

anyway, thanks again for taking the time to listen and comment, much appreciated :)
 
987baz,

Thanks for having the courage to share your music. I agree with some others having difficulty hearing the words. Maybe another part of the programing is being afraid of letting your voice be heard? I like the lyrics and I think they deserve to be heard a little more equally with the guitar. I like the way you put a bit of rhyme into the lyrics. It's like something I used to try to do years ago.

I think it would be difficult to switch from an electric/metal sound to an acoustic one. I am 69 and actually trying to learn more about the electric effects etc. Strangely my son is kind of going the opposite direction and playing more acoustically.

Recently I bought an acoustic amplifier and wow what a world of difference there is using an amplifier that is designed for acoustic guitars. I just never realized there was such a difference.

I don't know what you are using. Maybe you already know the difference with acoustic and electric amps. Another thing I have learned from listening to one of my cousins playing on acoustic guitar is the touch that can be used to go from soft to loud as the song needs more expression. I don't know if I will ever be quite as good as he is with that since I play a more nylon style finger picking style and I am not great using a pick.

I like the David Gilmore sound too and I think you are just getting started developing what you want your sound to be. Don't give up just having fun with it. Like you said not many ever make a living at artistic endeavors but if it is something you love to do go with where you are in enjoying and hopefully others can enjoy it with you. I am already enjoying it. :)
 
goyacobol said:
987baz,

Thanks for having the courage to share your music. I agree with some others having difficulty hearing the words. Maybe another part of the programing is being afraid of letting your voice be heard? I like the lyrics and I think they deserve to be heard a little more equally with the guitar. I like the way you put a bit of rhyme into the lyrics. It's like something I used to try to do years ago.

I think it would be difficult to switch from an electric/metal sound to an acoustic one. I am 69 and actually trying to learn more about the electric effects etc. Strangely my son is kind of going the opposite direction and playing more acoustically.

Recently I bought an acoustic amplifier and wow what a world of difference there is using an amplifier that is designed for acoustic guitars. I just never realized there was such a difference.

I don't know what you are using. Maybe you already know the difference with acoustic and electric amps. Another thing I have learned from listening to one of my cousins playing on acoustic guitar is the touch that can be used to go from soft to loud as the song needs more expression. I don't know if I will ever be quite as good as he is with that since I play a more nylon style finger picking style and I am not great using a pick.

I like the David Gilmore sound too and I think you are just getting started developing what you want your sound to be. Don't give up just having fun with it. Like you said not many ever make a living at artistic endeavors but if it is something you love to do go with where you are in enjoying and hopefully others can enjoy it with you. I am already enjoying it. :)

Thanks for the comments goyacobol :)

It's interesting that you bring up that the program may include fear of letting my voice be heard. In a recent session with my kinesiologist it came up that my throat chakra was out of wack and she pretty much said the same thing. I guess with the rock/metal thing the voice is not as important and with a full band and a bunch of effects on your voice you can "hide" it a lot more. So yes I think doing this is going to prove quite fruitful :)

It's definitely different to do the acoustic thing, I play both with fingers and with a pick, more recently I found that using the fingers gives a much gentler tone for sure. I have both steel string and nylon string guitars, maybe I'll record the next one with nylon as it's a lot softer.

I'll put a bit more effort into recording next time too, rather than just chucking a couple of mics in the room and hitting record ;) (the exact opposite of what I would normally do)

I actually don't use an amp, I just record the guitar directly into my computer via a DI and into my recording interface, I find that amps colour the tone of the guitar and I'd rather do that when I'm mixing. Having said that, I agree that having a nice acoustic amp for playing live can make a huge difference :)

thanks again for your input :cool2:
 
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