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.

Expanding into the drum-like

It seems that this music I make has, as an end result been incomplete as a solo artist.  I am referring to the sound of one man, one voice, and one guitar, set within a slice of time.  In other words, as an individual I have been unable to create the sound I know this music could attain were there others participating in its delivery.  The limits of the individual comes to the forefront as hindering.  The past few years I have taken to recording this music in a Linux Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that employs a multi-track capability.  The system further allows its potential to fill in the gaps that this limited, one person, with but two hands and the single brain can produce in any singular instance.  Where as I would prefer to create the music with a group of individuals, I lack this said group of musicians within my circle of acquaintances and friends.  For several years I have been writing midi tracks that simulate having a bass player beside me (or other instruments).  It is pretty good at filling that piece of a rhythm section.  Although it is helpful the result of recordings that use this capability have continued to be rather hollow sounding.  I can build layers through singing harmony vocals beside my main vocal track.  I've also recorded differing guitar or mandolin riffs that can provide additional depth to these pieces.  Still the end result of these works has never been fully satisfying to my ear.  I have known this lacking to be the absence of percussion.

One of the many qualities that working with a robust DAW is its flexibility.  Similar to the work of learning to use the midi functions for creating bass, string sections (individually), and or horns or horn sections, I have recently taken advantage of learning how to make percussion instrument sounds that can be added to the recordings.  The results are changing the overall sound I spoke to above.  It has been a challenge to learn what drumming is really about in its musical sense, because though I have listened to drums throughout my life, even enjoyed the sounds they make while contributing to their respective pieces of music, I've not taken the time nor had an interest in learning or studying percussion.  This has changed. 

I am now past the stage of wading to ankle deep into the rhythmic part of drumming and stepped off a ledge into the deeper waters where what I have heard is coming to be something I know at least a little bit more about.  The software I am using for percussion is called Hydrogen.  It employs a rather logical system to create patterns in drumming on a time line.  It is very similar to that of written musical score, in that it has a time-line that consists of a duration, flexibly set to coincide with the time signature and tempo of the piece it is synchronized to (the multi-track recording software package in the DAW, in this instance Ardour).  I am still far from being expert at the use of this part in the music puzzle, yet it is really providing good results.  There is yet a lot to learn about drumming as a whole.  I am still finding it shocking to discover the seemingly odd timing that is required to create drumming patterns.  I do so love creating music! 

**************Edit**************
I've added an example of a this drumming technique here: Bomb Train

Bomb Train

Yesterday morning, early in my day as I started my normal routine (if in fact I have one), I began watching Democracy Now on the computer. Amy was going through the details of the daily headlines, the story was about another oil train exploding, this time in Mount Carbon, West Virginia. The programming showed the video a fireball raising upward into a cloud covered snowy sky and an observer obviously frightened by the intensity of the explosion. Seeing this triggered recent thoughts of this very subject as the theme of a song. I have been carrying around the idea since last summer, yet until today it remained solely as an idea. By chance, the previous night I had watched an episode of the early 1960's television show ''Rawhide'', who's musical theme seemingly remaining in the forefront of my consciousness, obvious to me now, came to mind. Those words, ''rollin, rollin rollin,'' popped into thought, in its musical form. The words can logically describe the movement of a train, and the musical theme in that very brief stanza in music formed solidly immediately followed by a differing stanza retaining that rhythm, yet entirely original. A phrase of ascending notes, followed a similar phrase of descending notes. This event happened in a time span of seconds and I immediately realized this could be the song. I grabbed the computer mouse, pausing the news video in play, followed by the opening of a word processor and began to write. ''Rollin', rollin', rollin', when the bomb trains come rollin, on into your town...” and continued, words quickly coming into place, telling a new imaginary story about the observance of an oil train passing by, the observer stopped behind a blocking railroad crossing gate, awaiting the train's passage. A poetic description of how it could be to be forced from the intended path by a railroad crossing gate and the train rolling by directly behind it. I think on that scene now, although imaginary, I painted it up pretty well, the hearing of the train horn, the wheels striking the joints in the steel track causing that distinct sound and waiting there in a state of limbo or in a position of being on hold. From there the story goes on tho the threat these oil trains pose in real life, to anyone who might happen to be near one of these exploding bomb trains, in which the story line concludes that the train will explode when it reaches ''downtown.'' I stopped somewhere after writing out the first half of the verse, 4 lines of rhyme, to grab a guitar to compose this music that was now rather clear in my minds eye.

The music created is in the key of E minor, in 2/4 time, in a fast moving tempo of 194 BPM. It begins quite like the theme of ''Rawhide,'' only long enough to get through those three words, creating a brief illusion that will bring up memories to the listener of that theme song, but then with a brief walk-down conclusion of that stanza, the ascending phrase takes hold, altering this illusion of known, into what will be unknown to the listener. I decided to make the first half of the verse, those four lines, in the key of E minor, then the following second half of the verse being different, in the key of A minor. This half concludes resolving back to a similar resolution as the first half, that is a B7th which follows a F# , making a somewhat apprehensive shape in its musical presentation.

Having now at least somewhat formed the complete musical theme, I put the guitar back down and went back to the keyboard, writing out more lyrics. I went back again to the introductory stanza, rollin', rollin', rollin', adding a complementary phrase, bomb train to it, as though it were a following tag, then went on to another verse. Along the course of the process, I went back and forth between writing and review while playing guitar and singing these new lyrics. The purpose being that of integrating the music into my memory while analyzing the lyric for meter and rhyme. Along the course in process, I became stumped to rhyme a particular line closing word that seemed important enough to retain rather than replace. I did something new to me, I used a search engine asking it for a rhyme to this word. To my surprise I found website, new to me rhymes.net, which provided a solving of the word in wanting. Later in the process, I came to another desire for finding rhyme and tried the website again without having a successful conclusion. I was however able to find a rhyme after some thought, and on I went.

With the concluding verses of the song I had the desire to make this work hold some historical significance. Having no actual factual information on hand, I did another web search finding several instances in fact, of locations where oil trains have exploded in recent history. There are surprisingly and sadly, too many to choose from. I found several names of communities, cities or towns, wrote them down, along with the human death count from a specific location and disaster. I incorporated these names and figures into the lyric, giving the song historical reference.

I concluded the song as I started it, back to that opening theme, including the complementary, ''bomb train'' phrase, again followed by those ascending/descending stanzas. In the end, I practiced playing and singing the song for a long time, then made a rough recording to hold the song. My memory is really getting leaky.

**An edit addendum**

I have added a refined recording of this song and video, mp3 page of my website: www.thomasepeterson.com

Still In The Madness

Again I worked on New Years Madness. I was able to finish up the piano part in midi and it took quite a while being that the ending is rather complex and with places of syncopation. I will have to go through it again, making sure it is actually right, but I need to remove myself from that after the hours spent working at it today. I have yet to fix and again alter the tempo transition. That change goes from 120 to 230 BPM or nearly doubling the tempo. I am unclear right now of how to best incorporate that transition using the midi structure that actually holds the tempo, in a way that allow for a smooth duplication with instrument and vocal recordings. I do know that making the shift in tempo from existing will cause those analog recordings to fall out of sync when the new tempo change begins. I won't attempt to keep the existing part that will remain correct for a preference to make it all anew and hopefully better.

I also went through the mid piece lead guitar parts as practice, to keep it fresh for when the time comes to record it correctly. I may get to that tomorrow, or then still I might move on to a different song for a day or three in order to keep myself from burn out. I have found that burn out due to the repetition in this process is a big factor of why I am so slow to finish anything. It is because I have never kept a schedule that rotates the music from time to time or regularly. I've always simply stayed on one song with the hope that I would reach completion, though only a couple of them have actually made it to their end, completed in these past ten or fifteen years. I have to remedy that. Hopefully working with this list can solve this issue, leading to a bunch of finished works by years end.

Time has come today and so forward we go creating more with the memory of this song burned in my mind.

Another New Piece

I did not actually think of writing into the blog until I was in bed last night, to late to capture the moment, as is the intended desire for writing this. But in any case I did a bit of musical creation last night. I was, as nearly always after watching some sort of musical programming, inspired to play. I had just finished watching the movie, A Prairie Home Companion, an amusing construct, typical of the GK tradition. And immediately after turning off the video screen's power source, I opened my guitar case and for some very odd reason sat on my couch, which doesn't actually lend to playing the guitar very well.

I quickly found myself involved in something new, imagined. As these things usually seem, it was like something given to me, yet there is no giver and the melody felt complete. It was a lead riff, bluesy, later discovered to be in the key of C. I went through its progression several times, there, on the couch, where this melody must have been waiting me to find it. In any case, I realized this was something worthy to capture for all time, and thus I got up, guitar in hand, carefully carrying it across the room by its neck, with the weight yielding to gravities pull, I guided it into the guitar stand for reliece. I quickly then went about preparing the recording equipment, as nothing was turned on. I fired up the computer, its monitor, moved the microphones on stands, into an appropriate position, then went to the PA system, turned it on and adjusted the volumes to isolate the Shure SM-57 for recording the guitar. The old computer takes a long time to boot up so I had ample time to sit this time in the armless swivel chair and go through this melody again, keeping it ripe in my mind for what I wanted to become a captured musical thought. At this very moment, as I write this, the following morning, I can not recall the structure or even the melody of that tune, but I did successfully capture it. That is why I find it so gleeful to have the capability to record music, since my mind is one of holes, where memory takes time to capture the seemingly fleeting melodies that float around in there.

Having prepared the computer and other hardware for input, I first recorded a rough draft of the lead guitar melody I had found. Its durration was 2:20 something. I replayed it and discovered an appropriate metronome cadence (96 BPM) then with the metronome to hold the beat steady I recorded a separate track of rhythm guitar beside the melody. Both were rough, having not really played my guitar for a couple of weeks due to some other struggles in living. Yet with this I then over wrote the original draft of the melody, somewhat bringing it into a better state having the beat consistently delivered in the headphone. I was then somewhat satisfied with this result as a very rough draft that captured the essence of this piece. I wanted to then construct a Bass line that could further round out the piece. Back to the controls and the computer I went. The Bass line has to be constructed of MIDI having no Bass in my house. I chose an acoustic Double Bass because I prefer its tone and ability to reach for the bottom. All in all I think they possess a better sound than a Bass Guitar. With the MIDI window in the “piano roll” function I wrote out the Bass line. At first I wanted to initiate the use of some walk up lines to the theme, though I later realized that to be improper so I went a different way creating a very simple bass part.

The structure of this piece is like this. It is in 4/4 time in the key of C. The chords are C, 4 beats, C7, 4 beats, F, …., Fm …., repeat, then somewhat resolving to a G. There is also a b section though right at the moment I can't recall its structure. The above process took well over an hour. I refined the parts by muting the existing recorded tracks at will and now with a solid Bass line to follow, re-did both of the above guitar tracks. I then realized that the Bass line is lacking although, I was unable to recognize what exactly was incorrect about it. Thus I concluded that I could likely improvise the equivalent of a Bass line with the guitar, during play, where as after I could transpose that to MIDI, hopefully to create what my mind's eye sees. The obstacle of the night was having not played guitar the past couple of weeks. My fingers gave out as did my brain due to the late hour.

I then moved to the Piano where I played along with what I had recorded, just for the learning experience. I am still quite amateurish on the piano, though what better way to learn than to play something new. So I did that for a while by repeating the recorded material and playing along.

Another night in the music.

More, New Years Madness

I struggled to get into playing tonight. I turned on the computer early and prepared to do some rehearsal, then tried most of the afternoon to get up the motivation and energy to actually do it. Finally after watching a movie, I mustered up the motivation and had a good session. It seems this blog writing is going to become redundant if I continue in the same pattern used previously. Yet my initial goal has been to chronicle this activity. So...

I reviewed a bunch of older music through the evening with the hope of finding some spark. I did set down then with guitar in hand, opened the New Years Madness files and away I went. The first thing I realized in the review was that the tempo increases needed some adjustment. I just didn't like the result of what was. That took quite a while to get through because of the number of changes needed to bring the tempo up from 120 BPM to 240 BPM, transitioning smoothly. Any shift of the tempo in the midi track removes all possibility that the wave tracks within the same file set can be used, thus after making those changes I then had to tell myself this is okay, and then I went ahead and deleted the existing wave files of the song and started over. That was truly fine as none of those recordings were correct and flawless. Along with that I needed to change the corresponding flags to indicate where the changes actually are in a visual way, for tracking while playing along with the midi. Dealing with the computer part of the recording is tedious. I also find it detracting from the pleasure of capturing the music. Finally, I practiced the rhythm Guitar part. I went through it 4 or five times, then noticed yet another need to alter the tempo changes in two places. The end result of editing made a good difference. I practiced through the song a couple more times before deciding I was sufficiently ready to record the track.

And again the set up gets in the way of flow. I had to adjust the mics physically for recording as well as adjust the sound levels to use the mic to record the acoustic 6 string. Finally all is ready so I practiced another time through the tune, before actually pushing that mighty record button. I didn't get the track quite right through that tempo increase. In any case I saved the recording, wanting to then get a good vocal track recorded. That will allow me to better follow the timing through that transition on the guitar. I then had to change the recording setup, adjust the input levels for the vocal mic. I practiced that two times to be certain of the transition area. It is relatively easy to hear the drum beat while singing, where as I find it more challenging while playing Guitar. I was successful at getting a good vocal recording in one take. That is progress. All there is to show for the night actually, editing the tempo changes and recording a poor quality rhythm guitar track and a good vocal track.

At that point I had a desire to work at some electric Guitar parts. It may have been better had I gone back to the rhythm Guitar part but... So I went through the counter rhythm Guitar part, highlighting with off beats and putting emphasis on the 3 beat to create a contrast to the 1. I never felt quite on top of that part though I played through it 4 or 5 times. To prevent total burn out I then shifted to a lead guitar part for the introduction and an ending. I have yet to actually compose what these parts will be though I have some general ideas that will complement the split two part lead riff between the verses.

This kind of process does become really challenging to me, the switching back and forth between being the musician and the sound tech is mind shifting, distracting from the mental flow that can otherwise be achieved in rehearsing. All in all I must have played through that song 20 times tonight, at 4 plus minutes per. That is a lot of time when adding the technical adjusting of the electronics and the digital. I even remembered, with desire to write this while it was still ripe. :)

Recall From Memory

Another couple of sessions with music and its production has passed without my entering any information into the blog regarding those events. I rarely recognize what I do with music as eventful though there are times when I am able to capture the real essence of my work that personally seem as crossing some sort of milestone. I am not reporting on any milestones today though. It is also true that counter to my desire to write these essays while the event remains fresh in mind, a couple of days have passed and thus I may be unable to write fully of all that occurred during those sessions, due to the illusiveness surrounding my personal ability to write completely of what is now a fleeting memory.

I got back to the song New Years Madness on New Years day. The eventual result was a lot of practice with the Guitar. I had recorded a lead Guitar riff through a short break section all those years ago, though the recording has many errors. This is a short break, maybe 20 seconds in duration. I made a duet electric Guitar part using a wah-wah and quite a lot of distortion with heavy overdrive. These simultaneous Guitar parts use a 1 and 3 straight harmony, with the 1 track adding the wah. Quite honestly I am quite a novice with electric Guitar, having only owned one for 14 years, I seldom use it, as I retain a preference for my Guild Acoustic Guitars. Still I enjoy learning the tools and fully appreciate the American Standard model Fender Stratocaster for the quality instrument it is. I did record what I played, though it remains less than satisfactory for a finished recording. I was able to identify and correct the faltering errors in that original recording where its end is a diverging direction. This type of sound is unattainable with an acoustic Guitar, yet the electric stuff is still quite foreign within my own acquired use and my own abilities. All in all I found that session to be a success. There is a lot yet to accomplish before that song has reached the state equal to what I know it should be as recognized in my mind's eye.

From there after an hour or so of fooling around with the practice of it, I felt I had accomplished all I could in that session and I was in need of moving on to something else for a while.

There are so many songs that I have yet to move from the rough draft form to being a completed work that captures my image of what I know they will become. I have been doing the music, writing, composing, and playing for myself, my own entertainment mostly, for so long now that the numbers of songs yet to complete is immense. One at a time they all need attention, yet none hold a position of priority. That was not the case last month, when I grabbed the now failed idea of completing New Years Madness before the new year arrived.

On this particular evening, I did shift to the song I call Birdie, a song about playing Disc Golf. Disc Golf is a sport that I used to avidly participate in, before becoming physically disabled. Thus the song holds a unique place in me that goes beyond the music there in. It is a simpler song in its structure that repeats 2 core themes, the part "a" and the part "b" and eventually resolving with a variation on the a. I made this song with many layers of Guitar parts, all being played simultaneously atop Bass and rhythm Guitar track. There are three lead Guitar tracks, though one is a complement to the rhythm Guitar, the other two are quite different from one to the other. On this night I basically reviewed the old recordings, again having to sort through the old versions, though only two of them. From there I again realized (as I had when I left this song behind or otherwise quit working on it) that the lead parts had many errors that need correcting. I practiced one of them, the main "lead" part, for several repetitions of the song, regaining the theme in my mind. I didn't record anything of this song work session.

I believe that was the extent of the session, which I believe was on the evening of New Years Eve. I did similarly on New Years day, in reviewing and practicing, though the focus was more on Birdie, and yet another song. This one is called Thinking On Rhyme. This is a song I wrote in the Fall of 2010. It is a word painting on being trapped, thus taking the form of prison as metaphor. I actually believe the lyric is in reality about my own feeling of being trapped in this broken physical body, though I can but speculate on the lyrics. As Bob Dylan said, the songs are out there and we (songwriters) find them as we move through time, or something to that effect. I believe that many of the songs I write simply flow into me from some other place of consciousness, rather than coming out of my own conscious effort to create them. This particular song, Thinking On Rhyme, employs acoustic Guitar with a finger picking style atop a Bass track. It is a very simple song musically, having but three chords through the main portion of the piece. The ending leaves that pattern walking up the theme's key scale through three or four cycles, from position 3 to 6(7) (on Piano). Thus far I have yet to write any other instrumentation into the song though I believe it is deserving of something more. I have made two versions of this song also. One uses a musical halt of about one second in every line of the melody, the result of which is now not preferred. It was fun to make the other version, as the process is so enjoyable. Recently I learned this song on the Piano and may incorporate that part into the eventual final recording.

Now it is another day, with another opportunity to practice, something I have yet to do, though I believe I will. I really want to try to write these blog entries in the moments immediately after the conclusion of practice or recording rather than ignoring this potential to capture the event while fresh. I guess it is a discipline I have yet to master. It is far easier to simply let the time pass by shifting to the physical and mental comfort of watching a movie from the recliner chair with a glass of red wine, my usual evening pastime.

BaCoNatureMuse

I had originally written up most of what will immediately follow this, though with what was allowed in the Heading, I have edited that which became redundant.
Again, Welcome to, BaCoNatureMuse.
The name of the blog, BaCoNatureMuse can be understood if, and only if "you know." If not in the know, there is speculation, though you will never possibly guess the meaning in a name without knowing me. As I write this blog, I may refer to our little mystery from time to time, just because, throwing out a hint, then another, disguised of course. That is part one of this blog, the other more important part is intended to talk of my life as a singer songwriter. Music has been a life passion since somewhere around the age of 17. I started at 13 and am now more than forty years into this musical relationship. I want to express the inner workings, what it is, being in the process of composition, as stated from its sequential order. The words need to come out while the memory remains ripe. I start today, from today and move hence. I realize it to be fair to at times, review history, forming conclusions. It will become my instrument, to analyze hopefully answering the question as to why I don't work more at my music. Recent time has proven this personal path, to be trending more toward less of the passion, than I would like and actually need to continue moving forward. These activities are: playing instruments, practicing, recording, writing, editing, fiddling with recording setup, testing microphone input,mixing the recordings, Singing, strumming, learning and feeling the joy from being in the process.
Good Luck to Me! Actually since this is the beginning, a slight history is in order. I wrote New Years Madness in the late 1970's and have yet to complete recording with quality and completeness. I recorded it many times over the years on a stereo cassette tape player. This process of learning how to record through intuition, the method that brought me to where I am, is probably lacking but it is what I have done, leaving me at this point on the learning curve. I started working on it a few years ago. At that time I wrote a couple different Bass tracks (in midi) and recorded a rough draft with multiple tracks of Guitar a track along with a vocal track.

I had to review the many previously attempted versions stored on the hard disk (6 of them) before actually heading into working on the project (altering, adding, editing). In that process I found the two differing Bass tracks and what looks not to be a lot of wasted time and HDD space. As always when I wish to work with music beyond simply playing the Guitar or Piano, I have to start the old desktop computer that is now dedicated strictly to music. For what I do and the software (Cakewalk Pro Audio 9) I have and sort of know how to use and old P3 system with Windows 98 of all things. The system seems quite flawlessly stable since this is the only thing I do with it. I also realize in all likelihood I am again a dinosaur, but I don't care at this point. My goal is the end result which I can gain with this setup. I also use a Pevey PA system for gathering analog audio through Shure mics. That is fed into the computer sound card, on through the software to make individual wave recordings. It takes several minutes from the decision to work, until the old computer is booted up and some non essential programming is shut off, for the computer to be ready. It seems cumbersome. Anyhow after my review, for the sake of preservation, I made yet another copy of the preferred Bass track, to use as a guide, saving it, in yet a "new" file.

This is a complex song. Its tempo changes many times. At one point there is a transition over many measures where the tempo accelerates every second measure by a few BPM through 6 or 8 increases. In my writing the Bass line in Midi, I over looked that there is also a musical time change three times during this transition, where the time shifts from 4/4, to 3/4, to 2/4, and then resolving back to 4/4. Though having missed this during my initial writing the Bass part's score, when practicing the rhythm Guitar part, each time I entered this section of the piece, I lost the beat. It took a few times playing through this section before I realized just what it was that was causing me trouble. At least Cakewalk offers an easy editing method for this kind of a situation. After completing that edit and rehearsing a couple more times I was content with the resultant track and its flow. I rehearsed it three more times then although I was lacking absolute confidence in my guitar part through that transitional part, I went ahead and recorded the rhythm Guitar part. It was not perfect or up to the standard I will insist on with this recording. I can either do some punch-out editing over those errors or most likely I'll simply re record the track maybe tomorrow.

It was a good session. I made some decisions about the Bass track, and realized the error in the time through that transition section. I also did some editing in the metronome settings to allow for better enunciation of the one beat. That may be one of the glitches with this program. because I found there was a shift in those settings somehow. It could also be that I actually changed them at some time, having no recall of doing so. That was my experience for this day in my own musical being.