Week #45 - Bewilderment

The irony here is that I feel anything but bewildered this week. In fact, I think this song is the best one I've done in 3 months. It's been a struggle lately, but it started to turn around a couple of weeks ago - I started getting ideas again, found more time to develop them, and writing and recording became fun instead of a chore - and now I feel like I'm ready to finish out the last couple of months strong.



Description:

I wanted to write lyrics to this, but once again I couldn't seem to put it together. That's the one hurdle I have yet to get over, and I think this piece in particular could have benefited from some wordage. It was very hard to hear what bewilderment sounds like. My thought was that we're often bewildered when circumstances don't live up to our expectations, so I developed this song around not meeting expectations. None of the sections are really far out or anything, but I don't think they necessarily lead to one another logically. In fact this song was developed quite organically one section, one part at a time.

Tools:

Propellerhead Record 1/Reason 4
Epiphone Les Paul Custom electric guitar
Takamine Jasmine acoustic guitar
Fender Jazz electric bass

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Notes:

- This song basically has 4 sections and the structure is A-B-C-B-D-A.

- The A section (intro/outro) is based around a little bluesy Gm riff. This was the first section I wrote so I decided to begin with it. Originally it was recorded only in the descending version, but then I thought it would be interesting to play it in reverse as well. You end up with these quick chords that start an octave apart, move toward each other, hit the #4th in unison and then move apart to end an octave apart. Meanwhile I panned them wide and put them through a tape delay to get things bouncing and swirling around in ping-pong fashion. This sort of represents confusion of being baffled.

- The B section grew from the first as I thought to make it contrast. It's still a Gm riff on the classic blues pentatonic, but I pushed the delay t the background and went for a more straight ahead, electric blues sound. The change sort of comes out of nowhere, but it's as if things were coming around and beginning to make sense.

- I didn't stick with that long before I changed things up again. This time the C section drops an acoustic guitar riff and changes key to Dm. It's a related key, not entirely jarring, but it also goes to a half-time feel.

- After going back to the B section for a more extended stay, I again through an acoustic change as a transition to the D section. This is a simple two-chord part: Am | G |. So thing have moved up a whole step, and the rhythm changes again to a slightly Latin rock feel (or at least that's what I was going for). This is the solo section so I improvised about 4 takes and comped together a solo.

- Finally, the A section fades back in for the outro, and it's again coming completely out of left field.

- As for writing the individual sections, there are a lot of guitar tracks, and that's where everything started. Once I'd built the guitar parts for each section and laid out the basic arrangement, I added a synth drone to provide a nice harmonic foundation for everything. It plays pretty much continuously so it helps link the sections together. Next up was the bass, followed by the drums. I know it's sort of backward to start with the lead parts and fill in the rhythm section underneath, but I thought it would be more organic this way. Often when I start with the drums or bass, I end up editing it so that it's so rigid that there's no room to be expressive. This way is tougher in some senses, but I like having the bass and drums follow the lead. I thought about adding piano, but there are so many guitars filling up the mid-range I thought it best to avoiding adding more clutter.

- With all of the parts down, I only had to tweak the arrangement a bit, adding some sustained guitar chords, comping the solo, and editing some sloppy drum playing (especially on the fills). The drums are my weakest instrument, and I could really benefit from a real drummer, or at least maybe lessons and more practice.

- Finally it came down to mixing. I rally like Record's mixer. It's so much better than the mixers in Reason. And even though Live's session view can function very much like a mixer, there's something to be said for the way Record is modeled on an actual physical unit. I did use the MClass EQ individually on most tracks, and the Compressor on a few, but I mostly mixed on the virtual board. With it's own dynamics and EQ, 4 master inserts, and 8 sends, it's go plenty of power and flexibility. I'm pretty happy with this mix. I'm still learning the program, but it was really fun to mix with - much more interactive (even though I"m using a mouse) than usual. Normally mixing is a chore at the end of the process, but this feels more like part of the creative process.

- I didn't put this through any further processing, but if i were to release a track like this I"d probably do some home mastering with the TrackS 3 plugins as well.

- My only real disappointment was that I once again didn't write lyrics when I intended to. I don't know why I have this writing block. Maybe it's just been too long since I've written much of anything, or maybe I'm too old to have anything worthwhile to say, but that's the one area I'd really like to get moving.


As a bonus, here's a short video of me playing through the changes for this tune on my alternately tunes acoustic guitar:


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