Friday 29 March 2013

The challenge

We are now nearing the final scene of our story. Anthony has been living with Pamela for some time now. He does not have a job. He drinks a lot, stay out late night with his friends playing pool, and just pass out in awkward places.

Pamela had no alternative. She allowed Anthony to take advantage of her just because she did not want to end up all alone. Now things have changed a bit. Hugo appeared on the scene. Now Pamela has a choice.

In the previous song, Hugo told Anthony that he is not welcome anymore. Anthony however told Hugo to get lost, as it is not his choice who should stay with Pam. She is the only one who can make that choice.

In this scene, Pam steps up. She is however not telling Anthony outright to take his bag and walk. She is giving Anthony a last chance by telling him that she will marry him if he gets a job and start to behave.

Track: The challenge

 

PAMELA

(1A)

LISTEN TO ME ANTHONY

YOU ARE ABUSING THE HOSPITALITY

MY SON HAS ALLOWED YOU TO MAKE

A NUISANCE ONLY FOR MY OWN SAKE

 

(2B)

YOU SAY THAT YOU WANT TO MARRY ME

LET ME THEN GIVE YOU THIS OPPORTUNITY

I WILL ACCEPT YOUR OFFER TODAY

IF YOU WILL DO WHAT I SAY

 

(3C)

STOP DRINKING WITH YOUR FRIENDS ALL THE TIME

FIND A JOB TO EARN YOUR DIME

START ACTING LIKE A MAN OF MINE

AND START TO PROVIDE FOR MY NEEDS

 

(4A)

I ASK THIS OF YOU ANTHONY

I ASK YOU TO DO THIS IF YOU DO CARE FOR ME

I ASK YOU TO OBEY

AND I ONLY ASK YOU TO CHANGE YOUR WAYS

 

(5C)

STOP DRINKING WITH YOUR FRIENDS ALL THE TIME

STAY AT HOME AND TALK TO ME

NO MORE PLAYING POOL EVERY NIGHT

OR PASSING OUT IN THE LAVATORY

 

(6A)

FIND A JOB TO EARN A WAGE

RENT A HOUSE AND GIVE ME SOME PLACE

BUY ME WHAT I NEED

ONLY THEN CAN YOU MARY ME

(7C)

STOP DRINKING WITH YOUR FRIENDS ALL THE TIME

STAY AT HOME AND TALK TO ME

NO MORE PLAYING POOL EVERY NIGHT

OR PASSING OUT IN THE LAVATORY

 

(8A)

FIND A JOB TO EARN A WAGE

RENT A HOUSE AND GIVE ME SOME PLACE

BUY ME WHAT I NEED

ONLY THEN CAN YOU MARY ME

 

Wednesday 27 March 2013

Time for you to go

Hugo is back. All formalities are now dealt with. Tyler made up with his mom. His mom made up with Hugo, and Hugo... Well Hugo now have to deal with the realities.

 

Tyler has already told Hugo about everything that was going on, and especially about his mother's business with Anthony.

 

Hugo now approaches Anthony to confront him. Anthony is however not going to disappear that easily.

 

HUGO

(1A)

ANTHONY, I KNOW WHAT WAS GOING ON

IN THE YEARS WHEN I WAS NOT AROUND

I KNOW YOU TREATED THIS WOMAN LIKE YOUR SLAVE

AND I KNOW YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE JUST THE MAN

 

(2A)

BUT THIS IS ALL GONNA CHANGE TODAY

CAUSE I AM HERE NOW TO TAKE MY PLACE

I KNOW THAT I HAVE NOT ALWAYS BEEN AROUND

BUT THIS TIME I AM HERE TO STAY

 

(3B)

NOW IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO GO

YOU BETTER GO WHILE YOU STILL CAN

I WILL GIVE YOU ONLY ONE MORE CHANCE

TO LEAVE THIS PLACE ON YOUR OWN

 

(4A)

NOW IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO GO

YOU BETTER LEAVE THIS WOMAN ALONE

YOU BETTER LEAVE THIS HOUSE TODAY

NOW IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO GO

 

ANTHONY

(5C)

MY DEAR HUGO, YOU HAVE NO IDEA

WHAT HAS HAPPENED WHILE YOU WERE NOT HERE

I WAS THE ONE CARING FOR THIS GIRL

I WAS THE REAL MAN OF THE HOUSE

 

(6A)

WHAT A CHEEK OF YOU TO WALK IN HERE

THINKING YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BOSS ME AROUND

YOU HAVE NEGLECTED YOUR DUTY AS THE ONE

AND NOW YOU SAY THAT YOU WANT ME GONE

 

(7B)

YOU MUST GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE FROM

YOU BETTER NOT COME BACK HERE AGAIN

YOU CAME HERE ONLY TO START A FIGHT

A FIGHT THAT YOU CAN NOT WIN

 

(8C)

IT IS NOT FOR YOU OR ME TO DECIDE

FOR THIS WOMAN MUST MAKE UP HER MIND

IF SHE SAYS THAT I SHOULD LEAVE THIS PLACE

ONLY THEN WILL I GO

Sunday 24 March 2013

When I needed you

In act 2, Hugo returned home with Tyler. When they arrived back at Pamela's home, Tyler explained to Pamela where he's been. Then Hugo entered.

After an awkward moment, Hugo and Pamela started talking about all the years since he left her. One most important piece of the puzzle had to finished now. Hugo wanted to know why Pamela lied to him. Why did she never tell him about their son?

After clearing up the most important details, Pamela tells Hugo that she missed him.

PAMELA

(1A)

WHEN I NEEDED YOU, YOU LEFT ME ALONE

YOU LEFT ME TO BRING UP A CHILD ON MY OWN

ALL THESE YEARS YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN AT HOME

WHEN I NEEDED YOU

 

HUGO

(2B)

PLEASE FORGIVE ME I WAS NOT ALL AT FAULT

I LEFT IN CIRCUMSTANCE BEYOND MY CONTROL

WHEN I LEFT THAT DAY YOU TOLD ME TO GO AWAY

WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME A CHILD'S ON THE WAY

 

PAMELA

(3C)

WHEN YOU LEFT YOU TOLD ME TO FORGET ABOUT YOU

HOW COULD I WITH YOUR CHILD TO REMIND ME?

EVERY DAY I WAS HOPING YOU WOULD WALK THROUGH THE DOOR

ALL THAT HOPE WAS JUST IN VAIN

 

HUGO

(4D)

I DID NOT KNOW. I WAS NOT TOLD

IF I KNEW I WOULD HAVE RETURNED TO YOU

YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME

 

PAMELA

(5D)

IF I SAID A WORD THINGS WOULD HAVE BEEN OBSCURED

YOU WOULD HAVE STAYED AND LET YOUR DREAMS SLIP AWAY

IF I TOLD YOU

 

(6D)

ALL THROUGH THE YEARS YOU DISAPPEARED

WHEN THE TIDE HAS TURNED YOU SHOULD HAVE RETURNED

'CAUSE I NEEDED YOU

Friday 22 March 2013

Where did you go

Tyler returns home, where his mother is waiting for him. He has much to tell her.

Pamela asks Tyler why he left without telling her where he went. She is just a normal mother, worried about the well-being of her son.

Tyler starts to tell Pamela everything he has done for the last weeks. He tells her how he and Melissa went to Melissa's father to find out if he could give them any news about Hugo's whereabouts. Unfortunately, her father could not help, but he at least send them in the right direction.

Tyler tells his mother they went to London, where they met Manual. He told her that Manual still had regular contact with Hugo, and gave them Hugo's address.

Tyler tells his mother how they visited Hugo in a little apartment at the university. He tells his mother how he met his father and how they talked for hours. A father who did not know about his son.

Pamela tries to explain. Tyler tells Pamela that she don't need to explain anything to him. There is somebody else who would like to hear her side of the story.

Before Pamela can say another word, Tyler calls somebody else into the room.

Hugo enters.

Sunday 17 March 2013

A feast to my eyes

Act 2. Scene1:

 

We have closed act 1 at the pivotal point in our story. Tyler went all the way to London to find his father. Even though Hugo dreams about his home country, he could not immediately agree to return with Tyler. However, after learning the truth, he recalls the promises he made. The next morning, he decided to return home.

That was where act one ended. In act two, we will follow him home and find out what happens.

Scene one opens where Hugo is wakes up the first morning in South Africa. As he walks around outside, he is surprised with how much has changed over the years.

Track: A feast to my eyes

(Click title to listen)

HUGO

(1A)

I WOKE UP ONCE MORE UPON MY LAND

I HAVE BEEN AWAY FAR TOO LONG

THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE I BELONG

THE MOST WONDERFUL SIGHTS ARE A FEAST TO MY EYES

 

(2A)

I REACH MY ARMS TO THE HEAVENS UP ABOVE

I GAZE UPON THE WIDE OPEN PLAINS

THE MOUNTAINS THAT REACH TO THE SKY

THESE MOST WONDERFUL SIGHTS ARE A FEAST TO MY EYES

 

ENSEMBLE

(3B)

WHAT IS THIS PLACE WHERE HE LANDED HIS FEET

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE THAT ARE WALKING DOWN THE STREET

THE PLACE HE LEFT BEHIND

LOOKED SO MUCH DIFFERENT AT THE TIME

WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE WALKING SIDE BY SIDE

 

HUGO

(4A)

I LEFT THIS PLACE IN A HASTE

BULLETS FLYING AT MY HEAD

NOW I HEAR THE SOUND OF CHILDREN PLAYING ROUND

THESE ARE THE MOST WONDERFUL SOUNDS TO MY EARS

 

ENSEMBLE

(5B)

I CAN SMELL THE CLEAN AIR ON THE BREEZE

AT NIGHT I CAN SEE THE STARS IN THE SKY

IN THE MORNING I CAN SEE ALL THE BIRDS IN THE TREES

THESE MOST WONDERFUL SIGHTS ARE A FEAST TO MY EYES

 

Friday 15 March 2013

The big plan

Planning is an essential skill for anybody who wants to get something done. This can be anything from writing a song, or recording a whole album, or even putting up a live show. Every musician can benefit his or her carreer greatly by following this kind of process. It is simple and takes little extra time, but saves a lot of time later on.

If you have been following the previous posts on this blog, you will remember how I embarked on this exercise of planning. First I identified the problem. Then I deided on a mission, and then I broke the problem down into detail tasks. Today, I will show you how I visualized my plan on a simple spreadsheet.

Spreadsheets are handy for this kind of task, as most people have Excel already on their computers, or can download many alternatives for free.

To visualize the plan, I start by listing all the songs that I need to do more work on for each project. Then I added a column named YTD, meaning Year To Date. Here I make a note for everything that is already done on each song. For reference, my legend is shown at the bottom of the spreadsheet, i.e. W for words, M for melody, B for backtracks and V for vocals.

In the first column under YTD, I added a WM down for each song that the words and melody is written. A WMB means that the words, melody and backtrack is done. And an added V would mean the vocals are recorded as well. I changed the color of all the cells with work finished to green. Green means good.

Now, I add more columns; one extra column for each week. Next I start to plan time slots for every task. Let's look at an example.

First song listed under The exile is Singing comes cheap. Under the YTD column I have WM, meaning the words and melody is written, and I marked it green. Every song needs to have words, melody, backtracks and vocals, i.e. I still need to plan backtracks and vocals for this song. I added a B under the next column with a heading of 13/3/10. This means I have to finish the backtracks (B) before 2013, March, the 10th. Next I added the V under the next column, meaning then that I want to finish the vocals by March the 17th.

Then I moved on to the next song and plan a time slot for all the Bs and Vs, and so on. When I get to the songs where nothing is done yet, I added slots for the words and music in one week (WM). Preferably we should not put the B and V in the same week, to give the vocalists more time to record the tracks.

I estmate that each task will take about 5 hours to complete. In a normal week, where I work a normal 40 hour week for my day job, I can fit in another 20 hours at nights to work on this project. That means I must plan such that I do not have more than 4 tasks in the same week's column. When planning time slots, always start with projects where the time slots are dependant on other commitments. I started with this plan around the Rock fable project, as that also involve some collaborations with other people.

After finishing the whole grid, I ended up with the possibility of 20 songs that will be finished and recorded by June 16th. That will be pretty good going, and most likely a bit optimistic. That is more songs than most artists or bands record in two years, and they do it full-time. Ambitious, but let's give it a shot.

So, we can summarize by saying our objective is to record 20 songs by the middle of this year.

As we go along, we may sometimes fall behind in our plan, or at other times, we may get ahead. We will keep on updating our schedule every week by marking things in red when we fall behind, or in green as we finish things off.

Keep on watching this blog to see how I progress.

 

Thursday 14 March 2013

Finding Nemo to sing

Now that we kickstarted our project to record the rest of The exile somgs and got it back on track, we have to face the problems. The biggest problem in this project will be to find enough vocalists to sing our songs.

For The exile, the concept album recording, I chose specific vocalists based on some restrictions, e.g. I hade to make sure that I have one vocalist per character and that vocalist had to sing all the tracks where that character was required. I also choose the timber and the sound of each voice carefully to it the written vocal ranges and to ensure that the characters for Tyler and Melissa sound younger than the other characters.

For the rest of this project, I will not restrict myself in the same ways. The only requirements are that the vocalist must preferably be a a specific gender and the vocalist can do the required voice range. I will not try to match voices to characters. This approach may sound strange for a musical, but the idea is not to end up with a cast recording, but rather something that will sound like a compilation or concert recording.

There are not many sources for finding vocalists. First possible source is friends. That means I must have friends, or at least ones that can sing. Failing that, I can try to make friends. That is a long and hard process, and assumed that I frequent the places to find them and the ability to befriend them. Failing those avenues, I can hire local musicians. For the concept album recording, that was also not so easy. It is a slow process and they charge standard union session fees. Each vocalist wants to be paid a session fee for rehearsing and recording the song. Recording of chorus lines or backup vocals require the same, multiplied by at least 3 musicians. I will also have to be present at all sessions, requiring me to take leave from work. All that then need to happen in a studio that cranks up studio time. All and all, it works out to about R10,000 per song (about $1,00), plus my own time and cost of leave (yes, we buy our leave).

For the concept album recording I opted for Studio Pros. Each vocalist now charged $150, and that includes a lead vocal and one backing vocal track. That has brought the costs down to about $300, or R3,000 per song. Studio Pros includes all studio time and everything was mixed in my home studio. That is still pretty expensive going at about R30,000, or $3,000 fot the whole project, but for a final album that can be sold, that is a possibility we may wish to keep in mind. Another advantage of this route is the time saving. Turnaround times for Studio Pros are usually a few days. Even a large project like the concept album recording was finished within three weeks. And best of all, it needs very little time from my side to revord the vocals after I upload the files.

However, we first want to see if we can get away for free. There only a few places you can get people who are happy to sing for free, and most of them I have not found yet. The one place I have used before is Indaba music. I had a huge successful recording of Ghost town there. So, I will try Indaba again.

Progress is sure to be slower than what I planned for, as I will rely on volunteers only, but let's give it a chance and review our strategy as we go along.

 

Sunday 10 March 2013

Building sets for Bottom up

This week was a very busy week all round.

To kick start the execution of the plan we started to work on last week, I spend my Monday and Tuesday evenings recording back tracks for a song, Singing comes cheap, from The exile. The tracks was uploaded to Indaba, but I have not yet started searching for singers.

Then there was the meeting with Anne on Wednesday. She loved the song I wrote so much that she promoted me from songwriter to producer X 3. I have to decide if I take the job(s) of producer, but it does sound exiting. That is producing the demo CD, which will be used to get sponsorships exited, then produce the album and then the show. We've spend most of the evening talking about stories for songs to write and the overall vision of the show and album. We might have been a bit over exited for a first production meeting, but we discussed target listeners markets, venue sizes and stage designs. A rough date for the first recording has been decided as well.

There is no way that I can produce a show while I'm holding down a full time job, so I will have to do some serious planning, including planning my leave around the show.

Next we went to Cape Town for the dealers awards. This is suppose to be the annual celebrations day, but whenever a dealer sees me, they read "complaints department" written on my forehead.

The dealers at my table did not disappoint. At least, the whole evening was not a drag. The entertainment from Elvis Blue and his team was as good as it can get.

Back home on Saturday. I had some time Saturday night to work on my song writing, by slowing the song for Ann down from 160 bpm to 140 bpm, and transpose it down from soprano range to alto range. As any songwriter knows, you can not simply transpose a song few semitones and forget about it, so I still have a few notes to work around.

Sunday morning was spend at the Protea Stage Productions warehouse, putting a set together for the show, Bottom up.

It may not look much like the final stage set yet, but after a few adjustments and paint brushes, it will look great.. I have been honored to observe professionals in action. These guys have dome it before, and know what to do as efficient and cost effective as possible.

 

Thursday 7 March 2013

I'm going home

Today I wish to interupt our discussions around the busness side of things and return to our story. Last week we left our story where Hugo's life has been thrown upside down. For all the years he believed that all his ties back to South Africa has been broken. There was no reasn for him to return. Now for the first time, he learns that he has a son back ithere. As he went to bed, he thinks about what this means. In his dreams he remembers the promises that he made. Promises that he did not keep.

The next mornng, when he wakes up, he has made up his mind. He will go back to talk to Pamela again.he buys a ticket and packs his bags.

In this song he is ready to leave. This is his goodbye song.

Track: I'm going home

Album: The Exile, concept album recordingArtist: Eric Swardt

(1a)

Tyler, my dear son

I thank you for taking me home again

Even though this is something I wanted

but I would never have been able to do

but now I'm going home after all

(2a)

Manual my old friend

so I say farewell to you one more time

so many years and so many thingshave we gone through

and so many things that we have done

but now I'm going home after all

(3b)

While you were aboard to claim the reward

I was a fool who never played the rule

now it is my turn to claim what I have earned

and go back where I belong

(4a)

Goodbye my dear

You were a true friend for all these years

Please do not cry

Have a last drink with me

Wish me joy until eternity'

cause now i'm going home to be free

(5a')

I bid you fare thee well

I wish that one day you will be happy again

and one day you will find

someone so kind who will make you happy again

Someone who deserves someone like you

------------------------------------------------------

 

Anybody remembers that epic scene from Rocky Horror picture show when Frank 'n Furter says goodbye?

 

 

 

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Planning to get more done

Today we will start to do some serious planning. If you remember, we started this all when I realized that I have a problem. My problem is that I have too much to do and not getting anything done. Having too much to do and not finishng anything is just another form of procrastination. This is a very typical problem that millions of people all over the world suffer from. Lucky for me, there is a solution. It is called planning.

Before I draw up my plan of action, I have to establish the extend of what I have to plan for. Let's call this my scope. I start to define the scope first by giving it a mission statement. This is simply putting into words what I want to accomplish; into a single generic sentence.

So, what is my mission? I want to write songs and I want to record them. To be more specific, I want to write and record songs for the musical shows I am working on. Now, that sounds like a mission to me. Let me refine that into some generic words that I can put up on a signboard.

My mission is to write songs and make recordings of the songs from the musical shows I write.

Let's read that again. Not bad. Now we can start to get creative.

Now that I know what I am doing, I can start to break that down further into more detail. I am talking about musical shows I write. I have a long list of those, in various states of completion. Let's look at that list again:

1) The exile

One concept album with 16 songs dne. Nine more songs written (words and melody) to be recorded.

2) Wake not the dead

One song recorded. Three sng, words and melodies written and needs to be recorded. Nineteen more needs words, melodies, and recordings.

3) The nightingale

One song recorded. Five more, words and melodies are written and needs recordings. Twenty six more needs words, melodies, and recordings.

4) Ghost town

One song recorded. One more with words and melody. Total extend unknown.

5) Christification (bet you did not know about that one?)

Book and story in progress, but no songs yet.

6) Denise (this is just single songs)

Two songs submitted.

7) Rock fable

One song with words and melodies written. Backtracks recorded. Needs vocals. Many more to go.

 

I will leave the other activities like Protea Stage Productions off this list for now. Rock fable includes full production responsibilities (album and stage show). Butbfor the purposemof this excercize, I will listbonly the initial songs required for the promo.

Next, let's see what work needs to be done for each song. Every song needs lyrcs (or words) and a melody. Then we need to record backing tracks (guitars, drums, piano, etc.) and then we will submit it for a vocalist to do his or her job. Often it needs second lead vocals and backing vocals as well. After vocals are recorded, we spend some time on mixing it together and then upload it for general public consumption.

So many works in progress, and so much work that needs to be done on each song. We will have to prioritize. After reviewng the list, I decided to prioritized Rock fable, The exile and Wake not the dead at the top of the list. We can get quickest results with them. If we see how much we can get done on these few, and then tackle the others.

The next step is to list all the work that needs to be done. For this I will use a simple spreadsheet like the one shown here. A spreadsheet is easy to use and a very effective tool. In the next blog post I will explain my spreadsheet in detail.

 

 

 

Monday 4 March 2013

So much to do - better planning will get more done

In a post earlier I gave a list of all the projects I am working on, which are all work-in-progress. One question that I received was: why is nothing finished yet?

This week I will break my normal Friday-Sunday-Wednesday blog schedule and fit an extra Monday blog in as well. With so many things just going along, nothing ever gets finished. There are some things that have clear deadlines and time schedules. For the rest, if I continue on the way I am going now, I might end up retiring in 10 years with all those projects still in progress.

<rant warning> Another incident on Sunday made me think a little bit. I was really excited to get invilved in a certain project. At our last meeting, a certain person went off for about half an hour about how she needs help and we must get involved. Exited about getting the opportunity to be involved, I pledged my support. She gave me the time and address where I should meet her on Sunday. Well, I waited for almost an hour at the designated place and time without anybody rocking up. Not only did I waste that hour waiting for her, but I had to let my family down who wanted me to spend the Sunday with them. (It just so happen to be my birthday comming up next week and it is family tradition to take everybody to a restaurant for such occation). Later on I found out she gave me the wrong time and I was an hour too early. This is her project and I can not do it without her and her team, so I can not exactly say stuff her and go on on my own. Well, I am still a bit miffed about wasting my time and be disrespected like that. </rant over>

Ok, so this got me thinking. I have so much to do, but I do not get anything finished becauce I am doing too much at a time. I do not have clear goals. If I set myself specific goals and specific timelines for each project, I would be able to get to a point where I can move on to the next project. I have to take control by myself and not be dependant on others who disrespect my time.Unfortunately nobody works in a vacuum, and I will have to rely on other people from time to time, but then at least I must make sure I am in control and if people let me down, I can just move on and get somebody else.

So, let's set priorities. Anybody have any suggestions on what I should finish first?

There is the Exile. What can we do to finish this up? First I must keep up the blog posts about all the songs. That is easy. That part is going fine. I just keep on posting in my spare time. I do not want to change the schedule there. Next there is the question about the songs that were not included in the concept album recording. Some people did ask questions about that and it was suggested that I record them as well. Great idea. I will put a plan together for that.

Next we have Wake not the dead. There are a few songs written, but not yet recorded. Great songs, great story, and besides, I love horrors. Let's add this one to the list as well. Then the Rock fabel. One song in development waiting for feedback. This project is in collaboration with Anne, and I think we must give it some priority as well. Not only do I hate letting other people down, but I can greatly benefit from this both in networking and in exposure. Then we have The nightingale. Some songs written, one recorded. Then there is ghost town. One song recorded. Great song by the way and definitely a candidate for my greatest hits album one day.

Mmm. See what is happening here. Too many things. I must not fall in the same trap. Let's prioritize. Who's got any ideas what should come first? Leave your comments below in the cmments section, or email me, or phone me, or use telepathy to get your ideas accross to me.

By the middle of this week I will come up with some priorities and a rough plan.

 

Saturday 2 March 2013

One week in the birth of a song

Monday afternoon: Meet client. Get general instruction and guidelines, style of music needed and some reference artists. (Aprox. 3 hours)

Monday evening: Research. Listen to reference songs. Listen to more songs from same artists. Listen to more songs from same era. (Aprox. 3 hours)

Tuesday evening: research. Download lyrics of reference songs and analyze tempo, chords, lyrics, form and structures. Make notes. Went to bed very late. (Aprox. 5 hours)

Wednesday evening: Start writing lyrics with Celtx on ipad. First just write ideas for the story. Freeform paragraphs. Start to convert paragraphs into one-liners. (Aprox. 3 hours)

Thursday morning: Decide on a song structure. Verse, verse, bridge, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, chorus. Decide on song tempo and rhythm. Got general idea of melody in head. Start rewriting lyrics to fit form. (Aprox. 2 hours)

Thursday evening: Spend a lot of time with dictionary.com and rhymezone apps to write lyrics. Get some ideas for chord progression. Start Band in a box (BIAB), type in chords and search for style. Keep working on verse 1, bridge and chorus. Keep playing and singing over and over until it fits. (Aprox. 3 hours).

Friday morning: Refine lyrics more. (Aprox 1 hour).

Friday evening: Start BIAB and loop over and over, changing lyrics to fit chords and rhythm. Refine chords when required. Export midi files. Start Notion and import midi files. Start writing melody in Notion and add lyrics. Keep changing lyrics to fit melody. Go to bed about 2 a.m. (Aprox 6 hours)

Saturday morning: Listen to song. Keep changing lyrics to fit better. Write background vocals in Notion. (Aprox. 4 hours)

Saturday afternoon: Export audio files from Notion for vocal guide tracks. Fire up Sonar. Import midi files and vocal guide tracks. Fire up BIAB and search for real tracks. Export to audio. Search BIAB for piano tracks. Ended up with 5 options. Mix and match piano tracks. Mix up scratch mix in Sonar with Steven Slate drums, Virtual Piano, Sampletank C7 piano, Dim Pro on Bass, Realband on 2 x acoustic guitars and 2 x electric guitars (Aprox. 3 hours)

Saturday evening: Export audio 1 mix with instruments only and 1 mix including vocal guide tracks. Print pdf with lyrics from Celtx. Write pdf with vocal music from Notion. Upload to web site and send email to client with links. (Aprox. 2 hours)

Saturday evening: Wait for reply from client and write blog.

Not bad. About 35 hours on a song. I have written song before in less time, but most of the time a song would take much longer than this. This song is far from done. Next the client will want to make changes. If we are lucky, not many. Then at least a three hour session to record the vocals. Another 3 hour session to record back tracks. Depend on client budget, the final tracks may go to another studio for mixing. That is another 6 hours. All in all, we may have a song at the cost of 50 hours.

How much shall we charge? At a minimum union wage rate this song is worth some. I would be so lucky. Let's face it. I will be only to happy to make one tenth of that amount and hope life time royalties will make up another few bucks. If one song out of every 25 songs get some radio play or gets accepted on a movie soundtrack, it might make up for a bit more and might actually earn half of what it cost. The other 24 songs? We keep on reminding ourselves that we do this because we enjoy it.

And yes. We do do this because we enjoy it.

 

Friday 1 March 2013

Memories long forgotten

Today we look at a "dream sequence" song. (A name I just made up).

Hugo is confused. What he believed for so many years now suddenly seems to have been a lie. Many of his actions were motivated by this lie.

That night, when he went to bed, he did not sleep very well. With all these thoughts milling through his mind, he eventually fell asleep. His dreams took him back all the years before he left South Africa.

He dreamed about Pamela. He dreamed about the times they were together and the promises he made.

Track: Memories long forgotten

(Click title to listen)

Album: The Exile, concept album recording

Artist: Eric Swardt

Hugo

(1a)

The two of us will be together

and my love for you will be forever

There will be no more tears

and in your heart will be no more fears

I'll be by your side forever

I won't leave you, no never

Please you do not have to fear

for wherever you are, I will be near

Pamela

(2a)

Tell me again before you go away

I just wanted to hear you say

You will be back again

and tell me you will never make me cry

Some times we will have to be apart

I know that you are here in my heart

I know you will be back again

Where ever I am you will be near

Hugo

I promise you

Pamela

Promise me

Hugo

I will be back by your side

Pamela

Promise me you will be back again

Hugo

I promise you that I will never leave you alone

Pamela

Promise me

Hugo

You won't have to face this world alone

Pamela

Promise me you will be back

Let these fears that bring me tears

melt away and dissapear

Hugo

Forever through bad weather

we will always stay together

Pamela

Please remember what you said

Don't forget the promise that you made

Soon all promises made

are just memories long forgotten

Please stay by my side forever

and don't leave me, no never

I know I do not have to fear

Wherever I am, you will be near