In a previous post I mentioned I had recorded a number of song demos to help teach the songs to the band quickly.  This means I needed worked-out parts for guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, and vocals.  The keyboard parts have been a bit of a challenge since I don’t play keyboards.  In this post I talk about the challenge of creating keyboard parts when you’re not a keyboard player.  My hope is that listening to a bunch of excerpts will be somewhat entertaining, even if the subject matter is a bit in the weeds.  

 

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Lyrics are hard for me -- songwriting is hard in general -- but lyrics are especially hard for me.  Constructing lines that "scan", making them rhyme, oh no now I need another verse, sheesh!  Can I get away without having a bridge?  In the post I talk about two different approaches I used in two different songs, and you can listen and judge for yourself.

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I am starting a band to play my songs.  This is the first in a series of postings where I report on progress as well as share quick takes on the process of starting a band.  My first impulse is to keep quiet, working, working, until the “launch” of STORYTOWN.  But I think it might be interesting to some of you if I check in along the way to the band’s big first event, sharing thoughts, recordings, etc.  It’s not my natural impulse to share this “sausage making”, but on the other hand it’s a way to connect to you early on.  I will try to share a song or fragment with each posting so it’s not just text.  Check out the full blog entry to get a first taste of the music.

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