13th February 2009

13th FEBRUARY

Today my day at home was spent on completing the recording plan.

As for the pieces:

STATION RELOCATED: Recording this one was beyond me. It wasn't integrated in the hands, actually even the form wasn't clearly defined (!) I couldn't get anywhere close to honourable/acceptable recording of it.

BE, HERE: The recording has been completed about an hour before leaving to work. A lot of struggle and tension along the way. I don't think the mood of the piece reflects it, but delivery of it certainly does. I think with few more days available it would mature and benefit from it. Tuning was the main issue here. I'm not really satisfied with this recording, and for sure i'm going to re-record it. To my far from impartial ears at the moment, the tuning in the piece sucks. But I'm happy with the piece itself.

Here's the link to it:

http://www.4shared.com/file/87606420/81b5d1d1/be_here.html

Some reflections/comments:

Simplicity can be deceivly difficult, excessive thinking interferes with the process.

Acoustic recording exposes every detail of playing - there's nowhere to hide here, really, with no effects, or overdrive.

Something to improve for the future - scheduling/pacing the work. When it came to the recording the pieces were not really ready. I think it added to the difficulty and stressed me out.

There were too many takes. Next time once I have the piece defined, I'm going to practice it (and underlying Primaries), until the hands 'got it' - then just 3 takes.

I was too critical about myself. I think this was rather unhealthy, it wasn't very constructive criticism.

Each piece seems to need its own time to grow on its own, projecting on it in a rush doesn't help. There wasn't enough time for this piece to grow in its own natural way.

A work colleague commented that he thought the writing should be spontaneous. My plan with the deadline was just one specific approach to writing. This technique is not only about guitar/recording/music. And without this challenge this piece wouldn't be written for sure.

Many lessons in this process. I enjoyed one aspect of it: writing for 3 guitars. Wonder at discovering the parts, balancing the piece out.

My sense is that it's not a piece for My Space site, so I decided to trust it and let the site go for now.