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Never Gets Easier

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 One thing that never seems to get easier is thinking about the release of a song with personal lyrics that really do mean something.  Always get that realization that other people are going to hear it (at least the opportunity is there) and will judge it endlessly.  When something is so personal and relevant to others in my life, sometimes it is easier to just hold onto the song instead.  Well, confidence and experience definitely make it easier.  After releasing music to a global audience for years now, which still dumbfounds me, it definitely becomes easier.  I’m not saying I have a group of passionate fans that I’m aware of, but it is cool to pay attention to where all the listens are from in my stats.  But, I do know that staying true to oneself seems to be the ticket to connect with people through music.  I’ve had acoustic songs and I’ve played heavy hard rock, punk and sometimes touch the metal genre, and even currently am working on the heaviest music I’ve ever been a part of i
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Busy Night!

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 I went to my acoustic tonight with the intention to only practice the guitar parts for the first song I plan on recording for “Light in the Shadows”.  That went great…but then I decided to pull out those lyrics I discovered from around 11 months ago.  I now have that whole song written…besides knowing that I’ll be editing the lyrics a little bit.  There are times when songwriting just becomes fluid and automatic.  Tonight was one of those times. I plan on recording the guitar parts soon.  I also have a bass part to record for the Minus Context project’s third song.  So, it might depend on which way the wind blows to decide which one I’ll record first.
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Decision Made - First Song

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 I have some songs lined up that I will be recording for this album, but I’ve decided that I will start with a brand new song that I’ve never released.  I’ve actually been writing it for months.  If anyone has followed my Threads account, I had a few different occasions where I posted about the lyrics and how often I will edit them.  That feeling kept coming from a section of the song just wasn’t hitting me right.  It was at least three weeks ago or so when, all of a sudden, I just knew what I needed to do.  It was ONE LINE that needed to be changed of the whole thing.  It meant exactly what I was going for.  Once again, patience held the key. This song will be melodic, gentle, but also have a rhythmic way of spicing up song dynamics. More info to come.
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Lyrical Surprise

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 Tonight, I experienced the reason why one should never throw lyrics away just because they don’t fit into the song you’re working on. When I write lyrics, I exclusively save them to my Google Drive.  Anything that I type saves automatically, and I’d have to purposefully delete a whole document in order to lose the work.  I’m glad I do it this way, because I came across a gem tonight that might need a couple edits here and there, but these lyrics really hit home for me again, like I had just written them yesterday.  They were actually written almost 11 months ago.  I can’t wait to put them to music.  So many ideas…
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Acoustic Influences

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 I wanted to make a quick playlist showcasing some of the songs that influenced my love for acoustic music by heavy rockers. Acoustic Influences - YouTube Music The top of the pack is "Bleed" by Cold.  They were one of my biggest influences in music in general, with their dark melodies, pounding drums, crushing guitars/bass, etc.  "Bleed" stripped out all of that, bringing a different, but so relevant, mood to the table.  Such an incredible song with intense introspection with poetry, melody and sincerity. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like for someone to have such respect for a song that I wrote that it would influence them forever like this song has for me.  Thank you, Scooter Ward.  You did that for me.
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Writing Lyrics

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 I'm currently working on lyrics to a new acoustic song.  For me, writing lyrics is one of the strangest things that I do because I don't really have a pattern.  Sometimes, I can just randomly shoot out a full song of lyrics (of course with editing later).  Sometimes, I have a few words that I want to make sure to use because they will strongly describe the content that I'm after.  Sometimes I will just write a poem about whatever is on my mind.  This time, I wrote a really good chorus (at least I'm excited about it).  But, writing the verses isn't working very well...yet.  Not gonna force it.  It is really strange, but most of the time, I just all of a sudden know what needs to be done.  The verses will come.  Not worried.
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Guitar Tune-up

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 In preparation for this project, I brought my acoustic in for a tune up by an expert in town.  I knew it had a few strings that were buzzing, which I had attributed to playing so hard...especially since it is my songwriting guitar.  It turns out that there were multiple frets that had been raised, and other pieces were loose and needed tightening.  Plus, the neck had to be adjusted to allow more room.  He also convinced me to put on medium thick strings.  I picked up my guitar yesterday and played it.  The sound is a heck of a lot more full, and there is less clanging .  I especially noticed that the buzzing on the strings is gone.  When I drop the strings to the tuning of Drop C, I have to be a lot less lazy about how I play the chords, but I'm able to play without the buzzing. Who tunes their acoustic to Drop C sometimes?  I do I do!  I also use Drop D, but I also do use standard tuning.  It all depends on what the song needs.  There are lots of tunings out there, but these are
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