Mad Musicians for Hire

Sunday, PT II

Posted on March 1, 2019 by Musicman

Just to clarify, this day of the week approach I only use when I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you’ve got something going, by all means continue and don’t move on just because it is not Wednesday!!! There is nothing more satisfying when a project flows smoothly from start to finish….

So, on that note, I dug deeper into this piece and decided the original ending was a bit, or maybe very, sloppy. I think it is because when things aren’t filling in exactly as planned, I sort of have a tendency to just want to get it finished, which of course, is not the way to publish any work of art….

So, instead of the original fade-out ending, I would try and resolve the ending into something more conclusive. To do that, I extended the piece to make room for an Outro of some sort. Two weeks, between mixes and I still don’t feel 100% good about it but it’s getting closer…

A wise man once said, “A mix is never finished. It is just settled for.” Or maybe that was in a fortune cookie….

So, here then, is an alternate ending, if you will, of both versions…

E. Piano in Intro

No E. Piano in Intro

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Sunday

Posted on February 11, 2019 by Musicman

In my last post, I spoke about my approach to getting out of a rut. This is an example of a project I began and ran out of steam before finishing. I am still uncertain that it is in fact finished but this is the 2nd time I have gone into it and came out still not sure, so I suspect I will be revisiting this track again sometime in the future.

In the first take, I created this Intro that sort of sounded like Steely Dan (Or, at least in my head!!!) Then I couldn’t seem to coax it along, probably because I am not Donald Fagen, so I shelved it.

When I returned to the project, I decided to remove the Electric Piano from the Intro and I kind of liked hearing the Cajon and some of the other percussive instruments in the Intro. I still haven’t made up my mind whether to use the Piano in the Intro… The result being I have (2) rough mixes (One with the EP in the intro and the other, the same track without the EP in the intro).

Maybe you can help me decide….

Don’t forget to V-O-T-E !!!

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In a Rut? What’s Today?

Posted on February 3, 2019 by Musicman

This tip is geared mainly for Keyboardists, though parts of it might apply to other instrumentalists or musicologists:

Often there have been times when I start working on a project only to find I cannot finish it or worse can’t even get it started. Hours spent on a project that will never make it to the “Masters” folder.”

The name of the project may be something like “My New Project – No. 14.” It is likely the next time I open the project will be when I am cleaning out my hard drive…

I developed a unique modification to my work-flow in that when I run across these situations, I name the file for whatever day of the week it is… So I wind up with 7 folders each named for a day in the week. Next time I am drawing blanks, I just open up the folder of whatever day it is and revisit whatever it was I was working on at the time. In addition to this, I start each new project from scratch (I don’t use any project or track templates). This works because these files are not created sequentially, as their is a 1 in 7 chance, depending on the day of the week. Chances are, I will have moved on from whatever it was that was originally stuck in my head and the result is I will have a bunch of different projects and configurations.

So what exactly is the benefit? Well for one thing, chances are better I will revisit an idea rather than abandoning an idea. Eventually, the 1 in 7 chances will bring me back.

Also, and this is where this system really pays off, is that I will have a bunch of different project and track templates, since often I may come to a dead end after creating a bunch of different instrument templates w/ dialed in effects. Even if I never finish a project, the hours spent on creating different track templates is not wasted. More often than not, I can climb back into the project with a refreshed approach…

Try it!!!

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Creativity Has No Rules or Boundaries

Posted on December 26, 2018 by Musicman

I posted an extended version of Gentleness (I added a 1:27 prelude).

The unique thing about this track is that I used a recording, from a different session and “sewed” it together (Mom would be proud!).

We often browbeat ourselves searching for ideas. Other times, we just stumble on them… When it comes to Creativity in Music, there are no rules or boundaries.

(Click Here to Learn More)

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