The Megaphone

It was June 20^th when the muse last paid a visit, granting me another song to share with the world.  Song writing remains very mysterious to me because of how the seeming events unfold.  For the most part the resultant effort in this past event, seems or otherwise feels as though I, the human within this body, was not present and involved.  I can recall portions of the experience, yet in this moment I am unable to recognize and or recall what I will refer to here as the enzyme causing it to erupt.  I do recall being in my living room in movement, walking past the end of my couch, when the flood of word and inspiration struck, which in turn stopped my forward progression to briefly pause then abruptly pivot 180 degrees with a thought that there was something here to capture.  This type of situation has struck me many times over the years under differing circumstances, causing me to quickly get to the computer enabling the capture of what seems magical.

Soon there after, I found myself before the word processor’s screen, engaged in writing an impression of this thought flood.    In the flood was an auditory influence that had a shape of its own, illusionary holding the words to its shape in both pitch and cadence.  I wrote out 7 lines of text, containing two separate forms, before grabbing up my guitar to actually find the shape of audio provided beside or with the words.  After a bit of fumbling with notes on the fretboard the pitch resolved as an AA (the second A below middle C on a piano or, an open A string on a standardly tuned guitar), and from there the guitars standard A first position was established, being the key for the piece.  The  entire musical phrase for the verse quickly took an understood shape, where as shifting into the chorus was a less fluid process, with some intuitive searching for the shape of it, I experienced a couple of stutters along the way, as finding the shape of this chorus seemed illusive for some time.  I played through my impression a few times yet, there was a flaw, as the resolution from this progression (in a D) back to the AA was impossible.  I then realized the solution, a somewhat different play in the chord structure of the chorus.  As fast as a spark, the chorus had its shape, allowing me to sing the words I’d written.  

At that point, I put the guitar down and concentrated on the lyrics.  The muse was still alive in me, allowing the words to flow out effortlessly.  From beginning to end the song was written completely along with its composition in what must have been less than 15 minutes.  Taking to the guitar again, I began singing the lyric with its accompaniment, smiling along the way, having an impression of the song’s essence solidifying in my mind.  Yet experience has shown that at this point in time, I could easily have a lapse in my memory as to this song’s true essence. 

Thank you Linux OS for the ease with which it has become handy to record raw audio.  I turned the system on (Ardour), set up the inputs for the microphones and recorded a rough draft to preserve what was in the moment, raw thought inside my head.  It worked flawlessly.  I now had the new song captured in essence, and after a Save As and giving the file a name, I had a new song. 

With a raw copy stored and a feeling of accomplishment in the unexpected, with the muse lurking somewhere overhead in the ethers of being I happily began the process of properly recording this new song.  I opened the drumming software (Hydrogen) and with my mechanical metronome, determined a fitting tempo.  I then input this number into the software and set to making a very basic drumming pattern with just a bass drum on the 1, 3 and the backbeat snare at 2, 4.  With  this pattern running in the background I then recorded the piece over, in its entirety with this to hold the tempo while re-recording.  This produced a better impression of the song.  I then began composing a bass track to glue the tune into its form.  After hooking up the electric bass guitar into the system a multi step process due to lacking a bass amplifier here, I recorded a bass track beside what was previously done.  Fact is I am less than proficient enough at playing the bass, to create a usable bass track.  I could overcome this were I to play the instrument but… that is not in my card deck now.  I can play it well enough to use the recorded track as a template for creating a good midi bass track.  I did both of these things to create a good bass track for the recording.  Upon completion of the bass track in midi, I then switched back to the drumming software to create a drum track that might do more than hold the tempo, one that could add too and compliment the song, fitting beside the bass.  From the moment of inception to near done, I had a reasonably completed song in under 2 hours.  To me, amazing.

Since then I have done only a little bit of work to this recording as other demands had to take precedence.  I had a scheduled performance of 2.5 hours, 5 days hence and had great need to practice and rehearse, having excluded most public performances for well over a year.  And the beat goes on.

In This World So Blue (II)

It is now nearing on 2 years since I wrote the song “In This World So Blue,” followed by writing the post here in regards to writing the song In This World So Blue - May15, 2015.  Shortly after writing this song, I became involved in a different recording project.  The new project is to record all of the songs I have written in this life.  And thus I put the song down for a year, or more.  A couple of weeks ago, the big project attracted this song.

I had no clear reason behind selecting this song to record as the next one that gets started, other than it came to mind to do so.  It came up as an inspired impulse.  I almost always begin a new recording by recording a rough draft with acoustic guitar beside my vocal.  When I begin a recording project, I use separate tracks for capturing these parts, a helpful tool as the audio tracks begin to shape the eventual complete recording.  Tempo is also critical, so usually I employ a metronome to follow during that initial recording.  In recent months I've been learning how to simulate drum sounds using software.  It took me months to figure out drumming and where drums intersect with the time line.  Threw-out my past, I'd by-passed thinking critically about the technical side of drumming, where beats, off beats, etc., fit on the time line, in a measured musical format.  I am not a drummer and have never wanted to drum.  In the physical world my rhythm is too imperfect to be a drummer, which had formed my lack of understanding as to the technical side of playing drums.  While in the process of learning Hydrogen, drumming software, I was shocked to discover this technical side of drumming.  Drums as compared to the melodic instruments requires a very different set of rules, either imagined or real.  I've yet to see musical score for drums, thus my thoughts about what it would actually look like, where on the time line beats are placed to form a good syncopated rhythm, and similarly which symbol should be selected to create complement to the tune.  Since I had no idea about drumming it took me quite a long time, months to figure it out well enough to apply it or think myself competent enough to create this more complete rhythm section in my recordings.  Having gone through this process with several songs now, I decided that with this song, I'd add the drum track early in the process, and follow that up with a bass track, before I attempted to create the audio tracks to be used in the final mix.

In general, the methodology I use in recording, as I do with most of life, is free form, living in the moment, following the inspiration at hand.  I'll often start a song's recording process, then leave it for extended periods of time to come back to later, when an inspiration takes me there.  This freedom allows what feels good in the moment to take precedent.  If for example, I attempt using a schedule, the muse seems to retreat and the project becomes forced, rather than inspired.  The other side of that is that were I to focus on one song only, from its first track through to completion, it can sometimes narrow my view of music temporarily, by disallowing practice of other songs, in favor of the song of the day.  Yet with, “In This World So Blue,” the process went with an unusual ease.  It took me several evenings creating the rhythm section of the tune.  With this method of making recordings, one person doing it all, it is a different approach than it is when working with a musical group of personnel to try creating a similar result.  The process is rather new to me and I have to create my own methodology, having no peers to work with, within the process.  One of the most missed aspects of this is the limit of ideas within any individual.  Working with others brings with it, a broader background of experience to reach into during the creative process. 

When I create the rhythm parts, I follow along with the rough draft recording, writing out the midi track note by note within the software interface (piano-roll), for the bass, while the drum track uses an entirely different interface style that captures short patterns that can be repeated at will.  When creating bass tracks, I generally write out the entire track note for note, rather than creating patterned pieces that could be used in a, copy and paste method, to form the whole.  The pattern method offered in the drumming software, uses a limited time length system, with each pattern being equivalent to a single measure in music.  I use Ardour (audio multi-track recording software) to create my music recordings.  Ardour's  midi system offers the user to choose the duration of each segment or pattern if one wishes to use a pattern type method to input a complete track.  I finished the rhythm section then recorded the vocal track, followed by a rhythm guitar track and finally a lead guitar track.  It took some time with my limited abilities, a lot of do-overs, and punch out sections.  I then used the automation portion of Ardour to edit the final mix.   This is a really powerful tool that assists to keep the sound levels of the individual tracks to be at their preferred level, throughout the recording's duration.  Being an imperfect musician, I am seldom, if ever perfect in my presentation, volume levels very slightly in different sections of the tracks of captured audio.  The automation is designed to adjust these variations in the volume for the final output. 

I think I created a good overall feel and sound with this song.  You can listen to it yourself if you wish.  I allow those who desire to experience my art the opportunity to do so.  Go to the website thomasepeterson.com and see for yourself.

Another October Day

Another October Day

I continue to work with the music although creating new material has not occurred for what seems an extended period of time.  Without creating new stuff, there is plenty left to do in the recording efforts I am intending.  Most days I work at it in some way how ever abstract it may seem.  Learning how to use the software remains a big part of the recording process, an obstacle in many ways.  Yet I am making progress.

Lately the bigger part of the learning process remains with drumming or drum imitation.  I am no drummer, never have been, nor do I believe I want to become one.  Still musically, with the type of music I have written and work with, as a whole, without drumming included, the overall sound produced reflects as half baked, incomplete.  So I continue learning the software of choice, or at least of known choice.  I admit that ignorance plays a large roll in the choices available to me, because of the isolated existence I live.  Hydrogen is the software I have been dealing with to make drum sounds that can complement my musical output.  I would much prefer having a real drummer which would allow having little personal effort where drumming is concerned, but a person who could fill that roll remains unknown to me.  Hydrogen then has taken on a really unwanted importance in the process.  I have been spending a lot of time tinkering with the program trying to figure out an ease to the methodology required in making this software work, producing complementary rhythms suited to the music I am attempting to achieve.  Some days it falls into place, and other days it seems quite a struggle for me to create suitable rhythms that will match the themes intended.  I don't know why?

Now a couple of nights ago I decided to take on a new recording of an older tune I wrote back in the mid to late 1990's.  I had previously attempted to record this song yet the syncopation in the rhythm is such that I was unable to determine the tempo.  I realized a couple of months ago, through teaching the song to my associate, that this situation comes of how I have played the piece solo, having to incorporate a dominant theme sourced in the songs essence.  In order to create this feel while playing the piece solo, I had to play a syncopated part which distorted what I thought or otherwise perceived as part of the rhythm, when in fact the playing of this syncopated part actually altered my perception of what the beat was actually doing.  It was actually an illusion, imposed by the way I was playing the piece when doing it solo.  When teaching this tune to the bassist, the way I played the song could be altered by allowing the bass to take the syncopated part, while I held to the basic continuous rhythm.  The two parts individually create the essence I had envisioned when I wrote the piece.  Having played it so many times by myself, the habitual nature of doing so prevented my brain from finding the separation of these individual parts.  It is an odd situation to attempt writing out with clarity.  Still, having finally determined that this syncopated riff distorted my sense of timing, I have been able to determine the tempo, I successfully made a draft recording of the song Wednesday night late. The process went along very smoothly, with its parts coming together in the digital world with a remarkable ease.  

My process of taking the idea and converting it into an audio file that reflects the essence of the idea rarely follows a given course, like taking steps 1, 2, 3, 4, … end.  This could be a demonstration of my ignorance, yet having no education or friends that show me a methodology, I am forced to make up my own methodology.  Generally step one is to determine the Tempo, followed by the Time signature.  After those are determined and input into the computer's software, in this instance "Ardour," (thanks and a shout out to the Ardour team), there are several options as to where to continue.  In this particular case, I chose to use the metronome of Ardour as a guide and with two tracks engaged, I recorded a guitar and a vocal track as rough drafts for a starting reference point.  After this is accomplished, I use this as a guide to facilitate creating an audio recording to share.  With the basic outlined in the rough recording, I can then create a solid midi bass track and a drum track, the order with which this is accomplished I decide arbitrarily.  Generally I will write out the bass line first, but in this case I decided to do the drumming first.  I chose to make it really simple in this instance, just a bass drum with snare and a riding symbol that expresses a basic beat.  Because it is software, the result can always be altered later if so desired.  I was quickly pleased with the simplistic rhythm I created, and leaving it simple for a start provided what I desired as an initial beat track that can hold the song in place as I worked through the process.  Having a basic drum track and the rough audio tracks, left the bass track to work up in midi.  Having played the song with only guitar for many years, I found it rather easy to write out the bass line and assign it an instrument representative, in this case acoustic bass.  

Having the basic tracks of the song now completed the first review with these 4 tracks hit me as quite satisfactory to hear.  However there was a noted error in the construction of the ending that required a rather involved redo of the bass and the drum tracks.  This issue was dealt with, creating the desired result.  The process also revealed some tempo drift in these rough audio tracks. This is common for me when using this method.  The metronome is a very good tool, yet it can and is easily overpowered when playing a rhythm beside it. Because of this and my own lack of ability in playing real instruments with absolute proficiency, I expect to redo the initial rough audio tracks. This is the next step in my process, recording solid audio tracks of instrument(s) and vocal part(s).  To facilitate the audio recordings, I rehearsed the guitar and vocal parts several times, beside the drum and bass tracks, ingraining the nuances of the various sections both lyrically and with the acoustic guitar.  I had chosen the Taylor guitar for this recording, its sound is quite exceptional, and it offers the opportunity to use two input methodologies, the analog and its internal electronics, separately.  I can recognize these two tracks as different when switching between the two sources, yet I have no real preference, nor have I determine which interface provides the better sound.  They are both good.  Having gone through these dress runs a few times I decided to make the recordings for these two parts simultaneously, knowing that I can always re-do them individually if I choose.  To my surprise The recording of these two parts came in one try with but one error in the lyric that required an edit.  I have experienced this process as troubling at times in the past.  It was easy to redo the vocal error with the punch-out capability of the software.  By the time these final audio input tracks were completed, the time was late, and I shut down the studio for the night.

The following morning shortly after happy coffee time was complete for another day, I found myself reviewing the previous night's work.  The audio recordings I judged to be very satisfactory, while noticing some conflict with both the bass and the drum tracks.  I spent a couple of hours editing those tracks.  The drum track especially needed work, it being simple actually created a very desirable result, but there were some sections that I thought wanted some emphasis with symbols.  That and the chorus sections were wanting of some variation from the main verse sections.  I did all I thought I wanted (for the time being) then went on to a different activity.  I have not yet released the recording,  because I want to get away from it for a while with a hope that a revisit later will bring some clarity to my judgment as to the songs essence.

************* post-edit *****************

February 4, 2020

The song referred to above has been recorded with a degree of success allowing it to be posted on the website. Time For Change

From Composition to Delivery

I have gone a long time now without writing new music. I did write an instrumental piece in December of 2015, but forgot to write of it in this space. In other words, I have neglected writing here for these many months. The condition remains, having failed to write any new lyrical music since last summer. I have however been staying busy with music without writing new pieces. I came upon the resolve to record all the music I have written in my life, for the purpose of creating a presentation of it, in its best available form, to allow you the opportunity to hear it at your own will. This has in general presented a whole new and different challenge.

If you want to listen to it, you can do a web search for, “the music of Thomas Peterson” and you should find it easily. You are also free to use this link the music of Thomas Peterson.

The recording process is very complex, beyond what I had previously recognized. The old days of using the audio tape medium is long gone. Now it is all digital, requiring both hardware and software to make quality multi-track recordings. Being a poor man fiscally presents its own complications. Over the years I have attained adequate instruments along with sound capture devices (microphones) for performance yet more is needed to enter the digital recording world. Having no education in this area, I had to first figure out what is available to facilitate the process, then discern which of these tools are in my budget. I have a rather good computer, but old as technology goes. Many years back I had arrived at the conclusion that for profit computer software is ridiculous in costs, because it goes obsolete so rapidly. I turned to the free open source software available for a Linux operating system. This meant learning a lot about computing, rather than concentrating on music. It has been a big deal however, but through staying at the course for an extended time I am finding success. None the less it remains difficult to do it all by myself. It is challenging enough to be a musician by itself. In this process I am also the recording engineer. I play all the instruments, or program the computer's midi processor to play specific parts (generally the bass and or drums), plus I sing all the vocal parts. In its entirety it is taxing upon my capabilities. Probably the most difficult part of the process is learning to use the software, because my lack of computer education which is compounded even further by the lack of directions that covers the entire process.

Over this long haul, I have made a great deal of progress mostly through trial and error. Each song project delivers a bit more understanding in the process, and how to create the desired results. All I know to do is, to stay on the path using these tools to continue building an understanding in the process while attempting to achieve better results through the repetition of trial and error. Learning to mix tracks together with each track being optimized to its unique best potential is one part of the puzzle that I find illusive. I am finding it all too easy to bury or otherwise loose the aliveness in a song in the process of production. Slowly I am developing a better understanding along with better results.

The fun never ends.