Reflections
Something for the discomfort….
Yesterday’s Bonus Round hints were centered on an instrumental approach to spring and winter, as is the great John Denver’s “Season Suite: Late Winter, Early Spring (When Everybody Goes To Mexico)”, one of several “Season Suite” songs from the 1972 album “Rocky Mountain High”.
Well, I’ll not be doing anything about the weather here, so despite the threat of afternoon thunderstorms, it looks like maybe next week we’ll top 70 degrees for the first time in 6 or 7 months. Huzzah.
John Denver’s song has me in a reflective mood today, so a little about my personal journey. I started out several years ago with an older, now very mellow Yamaha guitar with electronics built in. Realizing it was too important to me ( it was a gift, and the only brand new acoustic guitar I’ve ever owned) to be hauled around to lessons/rehearsals, I bought an older Martin DRS2 (their “Road Series” guitars - sturdy and heavy and doesn’t mind being knocked about a bit). I used the Martin through a beginning guitar class at a local college, then bluffed my way with it into a church praise band, then started lessons with a local guitar instructor recommended by a local (and locally owned) guitar shop. See why I constantly recommend these starting points?
Along the way I realized I really needed to get much better at both playing and more importantly, understanding what and why I was playing. That led to a couple of semesters of music theory classes at again, a local college. I was fortunate to have a fantastic teacher there, a “name” in the jazz world, and a Berklee peep! Finally a beginning piano class, and a break from lessons as I tried, with some small successes, to discover what I could. I started writing, then copyrighting, then recording, my own songs at home, while constantly improving my extra bedroom into a studio. I took an online course to learn Logic Pro X, and had used my student status at the college to purchase a Mac laptop with a bundle that included some other high end software at a reasonably affordable (admittedly that’s a somewhat elastic term!) price.
A couple of years went by, and I’m now at the point where I want to redo less than perfect recordings, have them mastered at a professional studio and released. I’ve chosen Songtrust as a publishing administrator and CD Baby as my distributor. I want to emphasize these two aren’t the only games in town and I urge any of you thinking of an independent writing/recording journey to research EVERYTHING before you make a decision. Don’t just read their pitch lines, they all sound great there. Really research and read all the reviews and independent articles you can. There are many choices, make the right one for you, your style, your budget - both dollar budget and time budget. The same can be said for your guitars, your instructional choices such as guitar instructors, online vs in-person college level courses, your studio equipment, subscriptions to industry publications, and everything else you can learn from. Never think it’s time to just stop learning and start doing - the only way forward I know of is to do both with balance. Learn from everyone you can, do what you’re capable of, then start that cycle over again.
With that in mind I started back to guitar lessons this week. There’s a ton of stuff I know I don’t know. I’m going to learn some more of that! Fortunately, my guitar instructor is eligible for patience sainthood, so I’m taking full advantage of that.
Along the way I’ve found some books and other instruction I think is helpful and I’m setting aside an hour a day for reading - I’m currently in an older Berklee Press book called “Melody In Songwriting”. Apparently Berklee Press has high expectations of achievement through high levels of complexity, it’s definitely not a book for anyone without a good grounding in music theory, but there are plenty of materials out there that are.
I’m also subscribed via Patreon to a course/video blog by a gentleman named Scott Paul Johnson. His course starts several years ago with the very basics and proceeds - and all past episodes are available with the subscription for reference.
So that’s where I’m at today, writing this newsletter since the last time it was in the 80s temperature-wise around here has helped a great deal. Me, more than y’all, I’m sure!! I put a lot into researching topics and subject matter and mostly get it right (I think!!). Thanks for being along for the ride, and now let’s get to the important stuff: links and a Bonus Round!!
But first! I want to reiterate I receive no sponsorship or remuneration of any kind from any of the business entities/brand names I mention in my posts. The main reason this is a free SubStack is because I just like doing it, but I also want to remain completely independent of sponsor or subscriber influence on what I write. In any interviews I do via email, I encourage those folks to pitch their own business or newsletter, but I do not expect, nor will I accept, any financial or other benefit, the only exception is the joy and fun have writing it!
Links:
Input List I’m including this because even though it’s aimed at doing a show with a sound person, you may find it handy for a home studio - cable management is a constant source of headaches with a system of much of any complexity.
Stage plot Same idea, diagraming your studio may give you insights for better organization
Aggregate Devices This is specific to Mac users who may have graduated to more complex audio interfaces, but kept the simpler ones. Now you can utilize them all in Logic Pro X or GarageBand.
Sync Licensing Sync licensing generates revenues from a specific source (movies, TV shows and ads, and video games are examples) if your song, or a portion of your song, appears there, as opposed to live performances of a cover of your song (your PRO collects royalties) or streaming services (Mechanical Licensing Collective collects revenues).
Bonus Round: “Love like it was a drug…”
Cheers and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic