Jul 26 2009
Archive for the 'Songwriting' Category
Jul 06 2009
The Official GatorReview of Sonoma’s FourTrack!
Sonoma Wire Works has had FourTrack out for a while, but I’m just getting around to iPhoning myself so I’ll give a review of it! First off, FourTrack is a four-track. What the heck is a four-track? Let’s look at some brief history.
Back in “the day” (as in way back in the early 1960’s and before), recording was a little bit different than today. Good studios had things like record-cutting lathes, driven by a falling weight. Gravity was much better at keeping time than motors of the day. In these olden times, you didn’t mix tracks, you mixed people. You moved the people around to balance the sound into the mic. I guess if you told them to move closer in certain sections, they were the original automated faders! They played live, it cut the wax, and if the take was good it was done.
I’ll skip the Les Paul part (you should read up on the man, we wouldn’t be here in recording without him), but the jist is it was figured out how to record more than 1 track at a time, with tape. It cost a bunch of money, but it was doable so over time studios with a bunch of money started putting them in. Let’s keep the cliff notes version going…in 1967 the Beatles released “Sgt. Pepper’s” which was recorded on…a four track.
Feb 13 2009
The long unfinished history of Gator’s songwriting
Let’s step back in time. Way back. Like 1979 back. I was 12 and had been playing guitar for a year or two, my $35 Acoustic from the MAE store in Ft. Lauderdale. In 1979 I wrote a song, and played/sang it in music class. I don’t know what possessed me to do that, but I did…and my friends were amazed at the whole thing. When I think back, I had a lot of song ideas back then. I probably was some child prodigy genius to them lol
Alas, it was 1979. Double-digit inflation 1979. Stagflation 1979. Jimmy Carter 1979. Let’s just say money was tight, and unlike these days people didn’t take any little glimmer of talent in their kids and blow a million bucks trying to make them into the next baseball star or music sensation. So while I had all these ideas, there wasn’t much I could do with it. At 13 I “upgraded” to a $50 electric guitar from Sears (with action about as high as a 2 story building), not exactly a shred machine, and after a while I got busy with other things and didn’t do much with it, just messing around from time to time. I saw some friends going way beyond what I could do so I didn’t see much point then.
Sep 26 2008
All over now!
After 17 years and some-odd months, my career at Nortel is over. Okay, it was probably over several years ago but I kept trying to find that “spot” where I fit and could make a difference and get rewarded for it. It hasn’t been the place to have that happen for me, too many criteria I don’t fit in and the place has been going downhill for a long long time.
Sep 03 2008
Holy Crap…I got forwarded!
I joined Taxi in early January 2008. I was pretty sure I wasn’t ready, but at some point you have to go with what you have and get to the show! There’s a lot of piece parts that go into all this, from production to songwriting to the various performances, to matching the song to the listing. Everything has to be just right. I started out by trying some of the songs that already existed, basically to see where I was at and how far I had to go. The critiques came back (along with the songs!) and showed I had a lot of work to do…but also seemed to indicate I could get there. They gave me things to target, and though a bit cryptic at first (just like the listings) I learned to dissect and read them and get some pretty good insight on what to work on. And oddly they seemed to think my vocals and musicianship were good.
Aug 24 2008
Rehashing old songs
It’s Sunday night in Gatorland, and I’m in the studio working on some old songs. My wife asked me yesterday why I keep rehashing old ones instead of doing new ones…I guess perception is the reality! Personally I’d much rather be writing and recording some new tunes (okay, I snuck in a new acoustic instrumental to get a fix).
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Here’s the scoop. There’s a lot of new songs still in my head, and a fair number that have been born into the world in some form. I’m working on my songwriting using Taxi as my main guide right now, and as the listings and critiques go, so goes me! Taxi is certainly not the only way to get your tunes into the marketplace, but Taxi has more opportunities for me than I can handle at this time. Every 2 weeks I pour through the listings, categorize the listings I’d like to go after, and prioritize them. Most of them never get a submission, due to time contstraints of the ol’ day job and the ol’ night/weekend job here at Gator-Studios.com. As time goes on, hopefully my catalog of songs will get bigger and I’ll be able to submit and write more.
Aug 03 2008
The Songwriting Plan
About a year ago, I was sitting in RDU Airport before a flight, thinking about what it would take to make money at music, specifically songwriting. I could see the boat sailing on the career I was in, and I wondered a bit about the “other” path I could have chosen way back when.
From most accounts, if you have potential it’s gonna take about 5 years to build up enough songs, deals, and placements to start seeing any money. There I sat, 40 years old thinking “it would be great to actually be getting somewhere when I’m 45″ and so right then and there I pulled out a notebook and started jotting down a business plan of sorts. The first thing to tackle was all the things holding me back from starting, so I made a list. It turned out not to have much on it! Item one, potential…I’d have to go on with it to find out. Item 2, workflow…how to crank a song out in a lot less than a few months, more like a few weeks, then down to a few days. Workflow turned out to have lots of interesting twists, of which I’ll leave for another blog. But I spent 4 months studying it, just to get to t=0 at the beginning of 2008.
Here’s the plan I set out for myself, now for all the world to see:
