First mix of Thank You

I have four songs in the process of being recorded now. Make that five, if I count the Holy Spirit Rain Down/Let It Rain medley as two separate songs. At tonight's session I went back to the first song of the bunch, Thank You. The last time I worked on this song was when we added the vocals and guitar solo (see Recording vocals).

There are still some guitar parts I've thought of adding, but I've got a lot of tracks down already so I decided to do a "premix" using what was already there. I've come back to this song after letting it rest since July and I have to say that I really like how it sounds. I am proud of the work that the musicians have put into it. A few times I've heard them tell me Remember we're not professionals, and I just have to ask them to stop saying that. They are all experienced, skilled and talented people.

We made three different versions of the mix tonight. The differences between the three are minor though, and lie in how we handled the lead guitar on the ending. In the first version we kept it the way David originally performed it. In the second version we edited his performance so it sounds like he sustained the final note rather than repeatedly picking it. In the third version we edited his original performance so that it sounded like he repeatedly picked the final note longer than he actually did.

I considered making a couple of alternate mixes, one with more emphasis on the piano performance and one with more emphasis on the rhythm guitar - there are so many different things that I can do with this song that if I try out all my ideas I will never finish this project.

Started Let It Rain medley

I had a recording session tonight. I wasn't sure what I was going to record because some of the musicians I wanted to work with where not available (see Opening the floodgates).

A few weeks ago I had a session and started a new project - the remake of Magician's Plea that I'd been thinking of starting for some time now.

So it all came down to Steve O. If he was available tonight and confident enough to track on Let It Rain then I would focus on that, otherwise I would continue building Magician's Plea.

It turned out that Steve O was available and willing to come to the studio. I had envisioned him playing acoustic guitar but he said he was rusty on the acoustic and preferred to play bass tonight.

So it all came together. Three of us at the studio - the two Steves and myself.

I brought a lo-fi recording of the arrangement we played yesterday at church, a medley of Holy Spirit Rain Down and Let It Rain. We used that to chart the arrangement, which we tweaked a tiny little bit.

Steve O played bass and Steve S contributed acoustic guitar. So I now have four songs in progress, four songs being recorded. I've got a lot of balls up in the air now, which is fine with me. It suits my INTJ personality. Plus I have lots of options and flexibility for moving forward even when musicians are not available for a session.

Steve Teller called me a bastard

I think it's cool that Steve Teller called me a bastard.

Who is Steve Teller? you might be wondering.

He is one of the characters in the book I am working on. (See Feet back on home ground). I am developing a scene in which four characters are doing an exercise called This is what I want you to know about me. This is an exercise in which the participants open up and reveal themselves to each other.

In order to write this scene, I have to know what each character is going to reveal about himself - since they're all fictitious characters I have to invent or discover who they are.

A tool I use to do this is the Interview. I ask the character questions and I write down their responses. And sometimes their responses are surprising and colorful.

During his interview, Steve Teller answered one of my questions using a euphemism. So I paraphrased him using direct, blunt language. To which he replied, "You bastard". I must have struck a chord!

Why I think it's cool that he called me a bastard, is that his character is coming to life. He's starting to interact with me, the writer. I like the exchange so much that I'm going to keep that dialog in the story.

You'll have to read the book to find out what I said to him that prompted him to call me a bastard.

...and the show's about to begin!

I've been trying to set up a recording session to start Let It Rain but have not yet coordinated everyone's schedule. I had a window available at the studio for tomorrow night but key members of the team were not available then.

So I decided to book the session anyway and start that project that I meant to start in 2007 but hadn't got around to it yet - a remake of Magician's Plea. (See Come, let me show you my tricks)

My original version of Magician's Plea is some eight minutes long and has some long instrumental passages. My thoughts for the remake are to shorten some of the long instrumentals to the more standard 8 bar instrumental. However, I think some of those instrumental passages that I wrote are interesting so I'm not throwing them away completely. Instead I'll spawn them off into a few side projects - stand alone instrumental-only songs, along the lines of the instrumental version I made of The Great Escape in 2006. (See Should I change the name?) So the result I am envisioning is a collection that I think of as Magician's Suite, featuring a redux of the original song plus a couple of new instrumentals.

Opening the floodgates

After taking a bit of a summer break from my recording project (see Recording vocals), I am starting to move the ball forward again.

I met with Steve O tonight in an offline rehearsal to work out an arrangement for Let It Rain. This song is both simple and complex. It is simple in that it uses only about four chords, has a simple melody, and has only four lines of lyrics and three of those four are the same line repeated. It is complex in that it has potential for rich harmonies and textures and dynamics.

Because the song is so repetitive I wasn't sure how to structure the arrangement. How many times to repeat the verse? Where should it build and where should it come down? How many times should the verse repeat before the instrumental break, and for how many cycles should the instrumental repeat?

Steve O found a chord chart on the CCLI website. I learned that the chord progression is not as repetitive as I thought - there are some minor variations from verse to verse.

So now I'm clear how I want to approach this in the studio. To put down bed tracks, I'd like to invite Steve O to play acoustic guitar, David (who played guitar on Thank You and How Can I Keep From Singing...) to play bass, and Cindy to play keyboard, and I will do guide vocals. Once the bed tracks are done, I will have a second session to add layers and textures and to build the dynamics.

In the meantime I ponder... could all the thunderstorms we've been having this summer have anything to do with all the times that I've been singing this song? Let it rain, let it rain, open the floodgates of heaven, let it rain.

How dating is like football

So without going down to the level of crudity, here is how I see the Dating Game as being like football.

The Dating Game is like football except I have an unlimited number of downs to make touchdown - I am not limited to three or four downs before I lose possession of the ball.

There is no opposing team to tackle me. I may fall or fumble the ball. If I fall it is not because someone has tackled me, it is simply because I fell. Maybe my shoelaces were untied and I tripped over them - I get up, retie my shoelaces and try again. Maybe the most I can run is six yards at a time so I advance the ball as far as I can before I stumble, then get up and move the ball the next six yards. I challenge and stretch myself so that I reach the point where I advance seven yards at a time.

I never lose possession of the ball. When I stumble I might drop the ball and lose track of where the ball is. I find the ball then continue my next play from there.

When the pond is dry I cast my line in another pond. I haven't figured out a football analogy for this one yet so I am murphing my mixaphors.

Shaking the tree

One of the commitments I made at my recent Twenty First Century Leadership retreat (see Rebuild, reimagine, renivent) was to become proactive, and learn what steps I can take to accelerate the process of finding a match to be my Little Brother. I have been waiting for a match for a long time now (see The Big Brother waiting game).

Since returning from Seattle, I've started shaking the tree - I've made several follow up calls and have made some progress. I've learned that the lady who took my application last year is no longer with BBBST. I've learned who has taken over my case file. I now have an appointment set up for an interview with the new case worker.

As far as my leadership commitments go, I am on track with this one. I think I may actually have a match by the end of the month, and I'm getting excited about this new adventure and about writing this new chapter of my life.

Feet back on home ground, mind is miles above

I've been back home from Seattle for over a week now. My feet are back on home ground now, but my mind is miles above.

One thing I took away with me from my 21CL experience this year was a detailed plan to complete a first draft of a book by the end of November. That sounds like an aggressive schedule, considering that I've been working on Mission: Dawn for some four years now. I've learned some things about organizing myself to write a book during those years, and I think my schedule is doable.

This book is not Mission: Dawn, but I think that by following my plan I will gain the experience to finish Mission: Dawn.

This book is about four men who transform their lives when they become involved in a men's organization. I am creating a fictional organization for the book, but am modeling it after the real world Mens Division that I belong to. I have plenty of real life experience to draw on for creating this story - unlike my science fiction novel, for which I work a lot more in order to "discover the story".

The first milestone in my schedule is to write Character Biographies, Character Interviews, and Character Arcs, by August 3. That's just a few days away - I already have most of my Character Bio's done, but I'll have to get motoring to get everything else done by the 3rd.

Improvisation and inspiration

I've completed Twenty First Century Leadership last week and I am now taking advantage of the extra days in Seattle before returning home. I am now a three-time graduate of 21CL.

Last week I came out to Seattle without booking my accomodations for the days that I would be staying after the workshop ended, or what I would be doing with those extra days. Work out the rest when I get there, I told myself. Well that is just what I've been doing. I'm learning to trust my instincts more, trust myself more, trust that I will handle whatever situation comes up. Trust that I have all I need to get where I'm going (physically as well as metaphorically); trust that I need to deal only with the next step and that I will handle the next step after that when the time comes.

My coach often tells me that to inspire others I need to be myself inspired. I am learning that the more I trust my instincts, trust my intuition, trust my gut, and act on that trust and see things work out, the more I find myself in a place of inspiration.

Rebuild, reimagine, renivent

Just a couple more days before I head out back to Seattle, back for another Twenty First Century Leadership workshop. In some ways it's going to feel a little strange, returning to the journey I took last year. A journey I took last year when my life was quite different than how it is now. A four year chapter that ended with a sudden plot twist.

I will be staying in Seattle for a few extra days after the workshop ends. Where - I don't know yet. I haven't booked my accommodation yet. It's not like me to leave this kind of detail so close to the wire. Yet a part of me is saying go with it. Go to Seattle on Monday and work out the rest when I get there. That wouldn't be like me at all.

ITIL certification

I passed my ITIL certification exam this week. Now I'm in recovery mode.

I did a lasagna Mile tonight to get out some of the stress I've been handling this week. The lasagna Mile was one lap jogging, one lap walking, one lap jogging, and one more lap walking. Did it with wrist weights on.

I'm starting to slip from my goal of doing my Mile three times a week. Only got it in twice last week - preparing for my ITIL exam took quite a lot out of me. As for this week, well - it's already Wednesday and I just did my first Mile for the week. I can still hit my target though, if I do one on Friday and one on Sunday.

Recording vocals

Tonight was the third session in this series.

One thing I learned after the first two sessions, when it comes to coordinating studio schedules where several musicians are involved, is to pick a focal person and coordinate everything around that person's schedule. The first session, the focal person was Cindy on keyboards. The second session, the focal person was Aaron on drums.

The focal people I wanted to bring to the third session were not available due to summer travel. However, David (guitar) suggested that he and his wife Diane (vocals) come in and do their parts in the same session so that they would only have to make one trip to the studio. Now logically I would not plan to do vocals and guitar solo in the same session, but the circumstances directed that this was my best option since I wanted to move forward and not wait until August. So David and Diane became my foci. Steve O and Vern were both available tonight as well, so I had four vocalists (including myself) plus one guitarist.

This was a challenge for me because it was the first time I'd done a session with multiple vocalists - in past projects I've always worked with one vocalist at a time.

It was particularly challenging syncing up the vocals on Thank You. There are many syllables and most lines are sung in unison, so it is very important to get the syncing bang on. We did a couple of run throughs and found we were most off on the verses; the chorus and tag were fine. A couple of run throughs of verse 1 and it just wasn't coming together. So we did it line by line and finally got it together the best we could. David then added his guitar solo to the instrumental and added some picking to the tag, and that was the evening.

There are still some guitar and vocal dubs I'd like to add, but those will wait; I'd like to move on and start recording some of the other songs.

The Mile is getting flatter

I did my Mile last night. I've been noticing that each time I go out to do it, the uphill parts seem to get flatter.

Jan decided to get out and do her own version of the Mile. I felt a sense of accomplishment in thinking that by being an example I may have inspired Jan to take this action and further her own recovery.

I find a certain irony in this as well, a sense of coming around full circle, because I myself had been inspired by Jan's example years ago. After she did her 21st Century Leadership years ago, she continued to do her Mile regularly afterward. She continued to do that for some four years after. It was knowing that, that inspired me to start doing the Mile last year after I returned from Seattle.

My new Mile

One thing I brought back from my trip last year to Seattle to do Twenty First Century Leadership was the Mile. The Mile was a ritual I started practicing last July; doing the Mile was going for a jog around the park. It started off as a goal just to get out the door in the morning and do it. Then it became a goal to do it daily throughout the week. Once I succeeded in making it a regular habit, I measured my progress by how many laps I would do.

I kept up with this habit until around October. I got up to around four laps. By October the days were much shorter and the weather got colder so it became too difficult to keep going with it. I got off my Mile last fall, and my body sure felt it.

I'm living in a different place now than where I was last year. One of the joys I had in settling in was finding a new route to be my Mile. I have found a park near by and have adopted it for my new Mile. I don't know if the distance around the park, one lap, is longer or not than my old Mile. I don't even know if it's longer or shorter than one physical mile. It doesn't matter to me what the actual distance is, it is still my Mile. It is the ritual of it more than the actual physical distance.

I had been doing my Mile regularly on a week to week basis until last month when my life got really busy and I was staying up a lot of late nights and decided that my body needed the extra sleep in the mornings more than it needed the exercise. Well I might have been fine with that decision for a few weeks but it just doesn't do for me to keep avoiding. So I gave myself a kick in the ass and got some support from a member on my men's team and recommitted. Right now my goal is to get out and do my Mile three times a week. I hit that goal last week. I did Day #1 for this week tonight so I am tracking to hit that goal again.

My old Mile was all on flat ground; my new Mile has some hilly area. That suits me fine - that means I am training myself to run uphill. There is something about that which reflects my personality.

On Sunday I went out with the goal to break three laps. During my final lap I realized that I had lost count; I wasn't sure if it was my second lap or third lap, and I wasn't up to doing an extra lap just to be sure. This evening I went out with the goal to do three laps and to remain aware of my lap count. I can happily claim that I accomplished that tonight.

Gala squared

I just got back from an evening out at the Gala of Hope - a fund raiser sponsored by Children of Hope and HELPS International. There was dinner and a silent auction. I had fun during the auction. I bid on a sailing cruise; had some competition that kept me on my toes but won it in the end.

This is my month for Galas. Galae? Last week I attended the BBBST Big Night Out Gala. I wrote about that event in my post titled The Big Brother waiting game. After trying for several weeks to connect with the volunteer coordinator for that event, Wayne, I finally got an email from him the day before the event with the volunteer schedule.

At the event I started to understand why I'd been having difficulty getting in touch with the volunteer coordinator. The event was huge and there was a ton of stuff to coordinate. They were expecting some 700 people. They had an auction too. One of the prizes was a guitar autographed by the Rolling Stones. The starting bid was $3,500 and it went for $5,000. (I didn't bid on it - are you kidding?) My volunteer job was parking lot attendant, during the beginning of the evening. After that I got to go inside, have dinner, and be one of the silent auction monitors. I got to talk to Wayne about volunteer possibilities with the Men's Division, as well as the grant my employer is offering. At the end of the evening I felt wiped from being on my feet for so long in the parking lot, but I had a nice time.

I had a nice time at tonight's Gala as well. It wasn't as big in terms of numbers, but I had fun bidding on the boat. I also picked up a pair of folding Muskoka chairs - I figure they'll be my Father's Day present for my dad tomorrow.

Tale of Two Steves

Had a drum session at the studio on Friday night. Once again the session went well. It took an hour to set up the drum kit and mic it. Then we spent one hour on Thank You and one hour on How Can I Keep From Singing Your Praise. Aaron played the drums. He's probably the youngest member of the worship team, at 17. I had invited Preston to come in again to play bass and give Aaron someone to play off but Preston was unavailable. Steve O. came - I had thought to have him play acoustic rhythm guitar but we ended up having him play bass to accompany Aaron's drumming. So we now have two sets of bass tracks. Will we use Steve O's bass track or Preston's from last session? Steve Sherman recommends using Steve O's track because it was performed in sync with the drums.

What we did was a bit unusual, bringing in the drummer after we already had the bed tracks. Steve Sherman was concerned, given that we hadn't played to a click track, but it seems to have worked out and I think it was the right way to do it. Will I do it the same way when we do Let It Rain? I don't know yet, but it is the way I would prefer to do it. I prefer to treat the drums as an instrument rather than to require the drummer to be the timekeeper for the band - we can use a click track for that purpose.

How Can I Keep is finished from an instrumental point of view; it doesn't need anything else and is ready for vocals.

Aaron and Steve O. both said they had fun. Aaron got to make a lot more noise than he usually gets to at our Thursday night rehearsals! Steve said he hoped to be back to the studio do more work. Amen.

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.


powered by ODEO

The Big Brother waiting game

Over half a year has passed since I had the personal interview with the Big Brothers association (BBBST). I wrote about that in my post, Prologue to my Big Brother Adventure.

I went through a major disruption in my lifestyle in the winter months when I moved, so I was not in a place to provide a sense of stability to a Little. However, I'm settling in nicely following my move, so I want to pick up that part of my life again, of becoming a Big Brother. I've left a couple of follow-up messages with the volunteer coordinator I met last year but have had no response yet.

In addition to becoming a Big Brother, I see another opportunity for leadership. The company I work for wishes to encourage volunteerism and is offering a grant to employees who volunteer 40 hours within the next fiscal year. So I see this as a personal challenge and a leadership opportunity for me to qualify for that grant on behalf of BBBST.

Forty hours in a year averages to about 4 hours a month. I know the BBBST is having a Big Night Out event in June and they have asked the men's division I am in for volunteers to help with the event. So this looks like a great place for me to start working on that goal.

I've sent a couple of messages (email and voice mail) to the designated BBBST representative to get more information about volunteering for the Big Night Out event, but have not heard back from him either.

So while I play this waiting game, I have some choices. I could be frustrated about this lack of response. I could decide that I've done all I can here and put my energy into something else instead. I could think about a concept I learned last year at 21CL, called stretching my line of ownership.

What does stretching my line of ownership mean and what does it look like in this case? For now, it means I continue to hold the vision of a successful event put on by the BBBST with all the volunteer help they need - including me and other men in the men's division that want to help. It means I hold the vision of a mutually satisfying relationship developing between BBBST and the men's division. It means holding the vision of BBBST benefiting from the grant that my employer wants to give away. It means holding the vision of myself forming a mutually satisfying relationship with a Little, and moving forward in creating or attracting my own family.

When I hold this vision in mind, I am moved to make different choices and take different actions, be more persistent, proactive and powerful, than when I remain frustrated or discouraged.

Pivotal moments

Tonight at my men's team meeting, we were led through an exercise in which we were asked to think about a time when someone said something to us that altered the course of our life.

One such experience that came up for me was when I was still in university. I had completed my first year in an Arts program and I was dissatisfied. I recalled that in my final year at high school I had really put myself to it and did really well in my Math classes. I often stayed up until three in the morning studying for my Math tests and I got 80s and 90s on my tests. In my first year in Arts I would sometimes stay up until three working on an assignment and only get a C. When I was in Math my marks were proportional to the amount of effort I put into my assignments and tests. In Arts, my marks seemed completely arbitrary. I started to think about transferring to a Math program.

I made some inquiries and learned that I could transfer to the Math department. However, I hadn't earned enough transfer credits in my Arts program. This meant that I would have to start over at Year One if I were to transfer - and graduate a year later than if I stayed in Arts. Should I do it or not? I had the summer to decide.

One night I was at a weekend long beach party up in cottage country. I met a girl on the beach at night and we chatted away. I mentioned to her the decision I was facing, that would mean delay my graduation by a year and cause me to graduate later than my peers. She said, "When you're forty and doing what you want, that one year won't matter."

I took her point and decided then and there that I would do it, transfer into Math. As for falling behind my peers, I realized I would meet a new set of peers. The girl's comment to me that night on the beach encouraged me to make a decision that affected the rest of my adult life. I know too, with the benefit of hindsight, that I made the right choice. She was right - I am in my forties now and it doesn't matter that I took an extra year to finish school.

Rolling the music ball

After my failed attempt to start the Come Now Is The Time To Worship remix (see Now is the time) I'm picking up this recording project again, with a different approach.

The archives still have not appeared so I've picked two other songs to start recording first. One is Thank You - no, it's not the Led Zeppelin song. It's a song the worship team learned last year. It's one of those songs that I get goosebumps when we perform it at a service. The other song I've picked is How Can I Keep From Singing Your Praise. The worship team learned it last year for Vern and Angie's 20th wedding anniversary (see Twenty Years).We practiced it a lot for the anniversary last year and if I do say so myself, we really did a good job of it.

I've got a session booked at the studio for next Friday. I've booked it around Cindy's schedule. Cindy is the worship team leader and keyboard player. The guys on the team describe her as the glue that binds together all the instrumentalists. Dave, one of the guitar players, won't feel confident to put down his tracks without having Cindy's cues to follow, so I've got them both booked to come to the studio with me to start putting down the bed tracks.

I am really excited about starting this project.