Multi-track recording - 2024 09 06

 

Last night I was able to sit down at my downstairs recording desk and record 5 tracks - click track, Bass, Ukulele - melody, Guitar - chords, Guitar - melody.

I can see my progress from the previous attempt. What I want to do next is to record each instrument 2 x - first to chime on the first beat, then to play the melody on all three instruments. I'm curious to see how the sound combines.

Once I have all three instruments chords and then melody, I can experiment with volume from one verse to the next, and also with the instrumental verses and then the vocals.

I am pleased and I can see how this process is going to improve my playing.

In the past I was intimidated to try recording because my recordings sounded so inferior to highly produced professional recordings or highly unusual young artists captured early in their careers. Of course I don't sound like either of those examples. My example is an amateur musician, 68 years old, recording for the first time. So that is my genre.

What is interesting to me about this process is that it helps me deal with the isolation and loneliness of my life looking after Mom. But it also helps me deal with the isolation and loneliness dictated by my PTSD. I get easily exhausted in social settings, even though I do need social connection.

I'm inspired now to keep working on my song collection, including the new songs I have written about caregiving and Neighbourhood Folk.

Multi-track recording is like drawing. First, I can do it on my own. I don't need anyone else to be in a certain place at a certain time to do it with me. Second, it is a layering process to build up an image. It can start with abstract shapes and gestures that aggregate in layers of sediment to give shape, texture, form; to evoke a sensation, a perception. Third, it is unique to me, and it doesn't have to look like anyone else's work. It is what I make, the way I make it with the resources I have at hand. That is the singularity of each piece, and also the body of work.

My creative works help me to attune to something bigger than myself, they help me 'tune' to the mystery and energy of forces beyond my comprehension. These are the organizing forces that I may either swim with or attempt to swim against. At this point in my life, all that is left is to swim with the current. I don't want to, or need to swim upstream.