Let the sessions begin

The sessions have begun! Cindy, Preston, Dave, all traveled to the studio to put down some bed tracks. It was the Friday of a long weekend and I wasn't sure if they'd run into traffic on their way across town, but they showed up right at seven.

We played two songs, Thank You and How Can I Keep From Singing Your Praise. Cindy played the keyboard, Dave on rhythm guitar, Preston on bass. I sang guide vocals in the isolation booth and Cindy contributed secondary vocals.

We put down two takes for Thank You. Cindy suggested playing the instrumental break based on the tag but I hear it as being based on the chorus so that's how we did it in those two takes. I wanted to do a third take with the instrumental based on the tag as per Cindy's idea, to see where it could go, but we didn't have time for that. The chord structure for the tag is similar to the chords in the chorus so the end result may not have been that different from what we did anyway.

We also recorded three takes of How Can I Keep From Singing Your Praise. The third take felt the best. I really felt on, especially the last time through the chorus, and built it up through each repetition of the final take.

I listened to the session mix while driving home and got really excited about it. I was singing harmonies in my car and waving my arms around, playing air drums. I think the next step will be to focus on the percussion and rhythm on Thank You, especially on the tag. I'll want to bring in a drummer and I think a bass player too, so that drums and bass can play off each other.

Click on the play button below to hear an excerpt from the session.


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