Daniel's corner of the web
Music
Noodles lead to sore fingers…
Jan 15th
I’ve started working on an instrumental to get back in to the swing of recording.
It’s called ‘Noodle’ because it’s what I’m doing… from the definition on Wikipedia: Musical slang for aimless playing on an Instrument… which is what it’s pretty much going to be.
Should have it up in a couple of days… at the moment it’s just a basic drum track, a rhythm guitar (needs to be rerecorded), bass guitar (and lead guitar to be recorded soon). I made it up so I could have something to practice lead over the top of. The initial idea which got me to sit down was more of a fast country type instrumental, but as I sat down with my bass and Reaper it turned more into a rock riff, then flowed with with power chords…. ech.. it’s a start…
Will try and get someone to record a live drum track for this track so it has some feeling at least…
First hurdle…..
Nov 4th
New laptop, new sound card, old power amp and speakers…. don’t seem to mix.
I have a power amp which is older than me. When my laptop and it are plugged into the same power circuit there is a HUM 
Now if I run my laptop off batteries it works fine, so I think it might be a grounding issues or something. My second set of speakers seem to work fine.. which in some ways good because I will have more room on my desk, however they don’t provide the same clarity as the others. I’ve posted the situation on to a digital recording BBS which a frequent to see if anyone might be able to provide a solution… so will have to wait… otherwise I’m working on my newer old set of speakers.
OK…. finally I’m going to set a public goal….
Nov 1st
December 2008 (or before) I will release a CD of my songs… mostly fresh material written between now and then. I’ll publish all my new lyrics on the site when they are written and will post the songs when recorded.
I’m not going to mess around with the likes of programming midi drums as I have friends on line who will be able to help me with this (plus the programming takes up too much of my time). So keep watching this space and see how it progresses.
Last song you hear before you leave the… wherever
Nov 1st
Unfortunately for me it’s the house of a morning. As my son enjoys watching ‘Playhouse Disney’ it means it will either be a ‘The Wiggles’, ’Johnny and the Sprites’ or even ‘The Doodlebops’ song. Now as I am hearing more of these songs I’m actually appreciating how well crafted some of these songs are. As 1/2 of the Wiggles were a rockabilly/rock’n'roll band before they were, listening to the music you can hear the rock’n'roll influences showing. Johnny and the Sprites, some of his songs remind me of Broadway musics… and guess what.. ‘Johnny’ was on Broadway with Aveneue Q. Doodlebops… will again, repetitive songs that are usually played twice an episode. Dan Zanes is also on that channel… he has some pretty cool stuff and is touring Sydney for the Sydney festival it appears… so we will see him at some point then.
Mind you, I can also have songs pop into my head after someone says something something the triggers a memory (yes I relate songs to memories), as soon as I get home I have to find it and listen to it.
But yes.. it’s quite annoying where half way through the day you start to remember songs and start to sing them…. people look at me strange.
Lack of sleep = creativity
Oct 18th
….. NOT
I seemed to think that most of my songwriting ideas came just before I was about to go to bed in the early/late hours of the morning, or after 11pm at night. I didn’t know if it was because I was physically exhausted and I was so relaxed that ideas just flew out of my head..
Well myself, in Mythbusters style decided to test the theory <spoken in Robert Lee’s American accent (yes, he’s an Aussie)>Does lack of sleep equal creativity?</Robert Lee’s voice over>.
Adam: So for this Myth we need to test if lack of sleep makes someone more creative
Jamie: Well that sounds kind of simple..
Adam: Yes and no. So what we have to do is deprive a songwriter of sleep for say a week and check out the quality and quantity of their output compared to their previous week. The only downside for this myth is that there is no baseline, but I hope the result will be quite obvious, either there will be an influx of songs or there will be next to zero.
Jamie: Sounds like a plan
So I stepped up to the plate…. for one week I slept for about 3-4 hours a night… by about the 3rd day my work and creativity were slacking. Although there is no hard evidence for this, for me it doesn’t work.. if anything it just makes me grumpy and edgy which affects everyone around me… So for me, this Myth was definately ‘busted’.
Best time to write a song for me… you guessed it, when on the throne… and after a good nights sleep. I just seems to be the location where I can think of one liners which can turn into songs… it’s not the nicest location to come up with ideas and I hope to move away from that option.. but hey.. if it works…