The Sound Ninja - Light in the Shadows

 I'm excited to say that I full recorded the guitar track last night!  It's sounding good! It is also very apparent that need to use a different compression on the guitar track when there aren't going to be any other instruments...aside from the vocal.  It is so easy to hear when it's isolated like that.  I made the adjustments and saved the settings for more songs coming in the future.

  I'm excited to say that my first song for this project is fully written.  I will be firing up the recording equipment ASAP to get the acoustic guitar recorded first! I've actually been working on this song for a few weeks.  This isn't always the case for me, but I wrote most of the lyrics first, before even knowing what the guitar was going to be like.  When I wrote the guitar part, I quickly found a melody line that quickly fit right in!  The lyrics have been molded since. More information to come!

 Whenever I write a new song, the lyrics always seem to take the most time.  Interestingly enough, the first thing I come up with is the title of the song.  After I have the title, I start brain-dumping into my Google Docs document, just typing whatever lines fit that title.  That title using comes from a whole bunch of thoughts that metaphorically relate to one another on the same topic...like details of a painting.  After the brain dump of lyrics, I match them to a chord progression I've written in the past.  One that fits the mood, and sometimes the mood AND the rhythm.  Or, the lyrics inspire me to write a new guitar chord progression/riff.  But, whenever all is said and done, I have to admit...sometimes I write the lyrics to a guitar part I have in mind.  The freedom is never ending. That is when I start really getting picky with word choice, because I want to say a certain thing with each line, but making it fit the rhythm can be tricky...

 I'm so glad to be starting this project back up.  I always make sure not to take for granted the fact that I get to do this.  I'm a family man and work full time outside of music.  I love doing this music thing so much that I carve time time out for it.  I know I'm not alone as I've met so many incredible musicians/artists that are in the same boat, or a boat of similarity, and it isn't easy. While on a hiatus, I've definitely solidified what this album is going to be like.  It will be fully just acoustic and vocal.  Nothing extra.  It will have a darker tone, moody and melodic.  It will have a mixture of new originals, plus old originals brought back to life.  I will work on one song at a time and release each one to the same album on BandCamp.