Sound Sketches of Remembering

Listening Room and Liner Notes

0608 Sound Sketch of Remembering
Obviously the beginning of the beginning. At the time I had a new guitar, new effects, new DAW, new MIDI controller - and old forgetful fingers. All I knew was that I had to start somewhere, so I started here. In retrospect it's trying to do too much without any intent. In the moment it was just poking buttons and learning how to even record audio and put things together.


0609 Sound Sketch of Remembering
As I was recording this, I realized something was wrong - was I so far out of the realm that my timing was this bad? Was my computer lagging? Something is wrong and it's apparent even though I pushed forward with getting something done. As for the music itself, I enjoy a good oompahpah type waltz - it's evocative and transports me easily to another place. I think I discovered this feeling with Kate Bush's "Suspended in Gaffa" - any time I put together something like this, I am probably thinking back on that masterpiece.


0610 Sound Sketch of Remembering
Before actually recording anything, I decided to do several tests to determine if I was really that bad with timing or if I was dealing with some sort of latency. I am using FL Studio at this time and eventually found that there was some strong latency with the FL native ASIO driver. I replaced it with ASIO4All and was able to actually make it work. It helped me realize I wasn't totally inept. I also recalled those songs I was doing so many years ago. One thing that I think helped me grow was a series of overlapping phrases in different time signatures. This process was heavily inspired by Discipline-era King Crimson and Robert Fripp's work with the California Guitar Trio. I decided to actively do this as Sound Sketches every 3 days - so this will be a recurring theme.


0611 Sound Sketch of Remembering
This was designed to be a standard little chord progression and mood piece. Just playing where my fingers took me. I wanted to work a light amount of MIDI into the process as well - here as an organ and the bass guitar. This was, however, a turning point in a way because another problem was revealed. The new guitar I had was having some issue. The action on the strings was too low and the frets would buzz on higher strings. I guess it's a lesson in online purchasing. Before recording again I would return that instrument and go find a used guitar that worked. I would be able to replace that guitar with a used guitar and a bass. The reality is that this wasn't a big investment in the first place, and I feel lucky to have stumbled into something that works.


0612 Sound Sketch of Remembering
This is the first of the Sketches that I still like. While the guitar work is basic - which most of mine is - it's played rather honestly. I experimented with some pad-style MIDI as well, but the real part I enjoy is the simple melody with the chorus type section. This type of simple melody is something that really appeals to me. While I appreciate some complicated music, and I feel good when I land something complicated, I admit the part of me that finds joy in music usually finds it in the simple expressions. It's a melody I stumbled on, but is probably out there a million different ways. That's part of the game, though - understanding that "two chords and the truth" is real. We present the same stuff over and over again with our signature on it. Something novel is great when you get there, but it's rare, and that's absolutely OK. You are still creating.


0613 Sound Sketch of Remembering
So, we are back to layered guitars. The idea behind this as practice is to keep fingers moving in a pattern, to hear all the noise building and to focus on the moment - the one phrase you are completing. Being a part of the whole, but not letting the whole overcome the execution of the part. In this take at the philosophy, I added some keys with a similar philosophy - one is repeating a pattern, though, and the violin follows it at first, but drops a note after a couple measures. I enjoy how it sounds like there is something being reversed. This type of fluidity appeals to me a lot in music.


0614 Sound Sketch of Remembering
For this sketch, I was feeling a little more adventurous with the MIDI. I was interested in exploring more of the sounds available in the FL Studio plugins - but to be honest was very unfamiliar with the process of managing and manipulating them. I guess practice makes perfect, but the earliest stages are always the roughest. As someone who doesn't read music, I was also experimenting with transposing a melody from MIDI to guitar. Interestingly, the timing of my fingers is different on the keyboard - maybe because I am using a different hand? So that yields a little honestly in the flow of both versions of the short melody.


0615 Sound Sketch of Remembering
It occurred to me that, after finishing the last sketch and listening to it, that it had the feeling of an introduction to a song. For this sketch I decided to try a quick little song with the same progression. I also decided to use my native instrument - my voice. Perhaps the one that I have the least skilled with. It begins another journey in a way - how to use my voice effectively now that I have aged and lost even more control of it. I completely understand if this is a roadblock to listening - there are voices that grate at me as well. But trying to balance honesty with efficacy will be another thing to practice.


0616 Sound Sketch of Remembering
This track is another with layered guitars. In addition to the various phrases of different and odd times, a couple ebow lines were added to provide an ethereal spin on the idea. It seems to me that this may be one of the better runs through that philosophy as a listener well after it's creation, but the truth is, this was a busier evening and the timing for a more straight forward project was welcome.


0617 Sound Sketch of Remembering
One of the more "difficult" entries in the list simply because it takes some time to get to a very short point - but then again, that was possibly the whole of the point in the first place. I was reading "Waiting for Godot" during this time, and it's essentially a conversation between two people waiting for someone. I felt like these were two good friends who had been friends long enough to forget their bond, and in the end their friendship is really what they were waiting to rediscover. Like Godot, though I guess we don't know. So this is a conversation between Vladimir and Estragon which finds them in unison at the end. It was just a quick experiment, but it was fun!


0618 Sound Sketch of Remembering
This track was an attempt at a purely electronic / MIDI tune. I decided to play with some of the "cheats" available, like quantizing and cleaning up missed notes - somethings that I think have value, but need to be used sparingly for the most part. I do believe in the human creating the music, and sometimes wonder if "programming" it is a step too far. Having said that, I have experiemented further with the ideas since and think that a balance is possible with human invention and post-production cleanup that's honest. I also have to acknowledge that some types of music require the mechanical nature of perfection - and hope experiments with those go well too. Here, the violin remains as played, while the other sounds have been... helped a long in small ways.


0619 Sound Sketch of Remembering
Until this night, I had been alone. My family on vacation, me left to my own devices. This evening, though, they returned and my son wanted to participate a little. It's an odd night, being another one of layered rhythms. You can hear his flute at the end and his voice mumbling at the beginning. This is another of the tracks that may be a little more difficult to jump into, and in fact, this is the first one that received an edit after the day of creation - and the only Sound Sketch to receive that. A gentle fading in of the various phrases gives each the space to grow - the original edit bombarded you with all the sounds at once.


0620 Sound Sketch of Remembering
Well, this is a bit of a change of pace. While working on the song from the night before I found a couple of chords I liked. I didn't realize they were "weird" chords. When I went through all the work to try to find their key and scales, I realized I was in over my head, but ended up building this out by ear. If I am being honest, though, this is one of my absolute favorites from the Sound Sketches - with the others yet to come. I felt, that night, like I could find the things I was looking for when presented with their circumstances. The rather odd timing on the guitar is actually due to some rather odd timing on the keyboard. I wanted to push myself to try to transpose something from MIDI to the guitar, and as I followed along, it became a little wobbly.


0621 Sound Sketch of Remembering
After what felt like a little success from the night before, I decided to venture out and re-record a song from my initial experience in creating music - one of my favorites - "The Scenic Route." It doesn't have the energy and psychadelia of the original few times I recorded it. I don't think I will return to many of the old songs so much - maybe a couple others are asking for attention after all these years, but it will be rare if it happens again.


0622 Sound Sketch of Remembering
As we continue our pattern of layering phrases, some are beginning to take on a different feel. This one begins very quiet with the layers being slow and delayed, only to allow for some space that invites in the essence of the exercise. I think it could be better if revisited. I do like how it's a slightly more bittersweet look at the style, and in fact it has some minor emotional resonance that doesn't make it all feel like just an exercise.


0623 Sound Sketch of Remembering
I discovered some of the 90s work by Dawn Penn the previous day and it took me down a dub and reggae rabbit hole. Having said that, I recognize that I cannot and probably should not adopt a cultural sound that is not mine, but rather allow it's realness to influence me. To retain my own voice and experience, but foster an exploration of what has made the varieties of music essentially human in the way they bond us. I don't know if I did that well here in this experiment - it doesn't sound like reggae, for sure, but it isn't supposed to. It's intended to share a breath with it, though.


0624 Sound Sketch of Remembering
Once upon a time I created a piece that was just a choir - distorted - with a woman crying over it. It was public domain audio. I was very new to making music - perhaps 19 - and I remember playing it for a friend who had said they had never heard anything like it. In retrospect I realize this type of thing is out there, but it is not everywhere. Sound collages, however, are very interesting to me, and I hope to explore this more deeply at some point - perhaps in an album context. The spoken words are from an interview with Bertrand Russell, and the choir is from an early 1900s recording of a Russian choir. Transcriptions and links to the sources will be on the lyrics page.


0625 Sound Sketch of Remembering
More waltzes - but this time the context is the multi-phrasing. In this case, the various phrases are lower in the mix (and may reveal themselves at certain times), but they are used to provide an underlying texture - which I think is their best purpose. Allowing them to live as little creatures in a very busy forest - where you see the sun so clearly, and hear the wind through the trees first - under that, though, is the hustle and bustle of many little beings going through their day.


0626 Sound Sketch of Remembering
I realized I hadn't been doing much strumming, and I don't find myself to be too good at that, so I figured this would be a good place to work on that and build it around a little 70s rock concept. The lovely - but possibly annoying - high pitched squawks are just a quick hit above the nut on the head stock. I do love that area of a guitar because it never seems to make the same sound.


0627 Sound Sketch of Remembering
Well, this was the one. The one I realized I was ready for the next phase. Why? Because it wasn't an exercise it was a creation different from anything I had done before. That isn't an essential part of it all for me - but to have it happen as it did, naturally, was the signal that I could get away with spending more than a night on a single song.


0628 Sound Sketch of Remembering
And here we are - three weeks after installing FL Studio, ready to close this phase of work - yet still committed to the exercise of various phrases. Here I used one of my favorite old tricks from this method - to bring the several guitar tracks into a single chord for a few moments - to break the riff and rhythm only to bring together the parts into a whole. This one is loud like a rock song, and has energy, and is a sufficient close to an experiment of daily creation.