challenge

Edgar Rescues the Damsel of Garstaang Tower

Many blog posts ago, going back perhaps 15 to 20 years, I wrote about a condition I had both invented and decided I suffer from: Salieri Syndrome. I have alternatively described myself as “praying to St. Salieri.” In days past, most people would have immediately gotten the reference, but as I sat down to write this post, I now realize that it’s a reference to a 41 year old movie.1Or a 46 year old play, if you want to be pedantic. Or even more than that, as Amadeus was, itself, based on the 1830 play Mozart and Salieri by Alexander … Continue reading

Time Keeps on Slippin’

Well. Here we are. January 31. Song-A-Day has officially started for me, and I have a feeling this is going to be a doozy of a month. Once again, I have no ideas going into it, so I have no idea what’s going to happen. That’s not really anything new, though, and not something that bothers me much anymore. In fact, there’s reason #1 for doing Song-A-Day in the first place. I’m no longer afraid of the blank page. It still frustrates me … Continue reading

Small (Esme D Cover)

Cover day. Many Song-A-Day folks really enjoy this day. I normally find it to be a huge source of stress, and am normally disappointed in my results. The stress comes from trying to sift through the hundreds of tracks that have been posted and choosing one. I wrote about all of this in far more detail the last two years, so if you’re interested in that or my criteria for what a good cover song comprises, check out my entries on this day for 2021 and 2022. This year, it was a song by Esme D that ticked all of … Continue reading

Lapis

After finishing up Laska’s Dream in the early afternoon, I had both the time and motivation to get today’s track written and recorded before a reasonable bedtime. I’ve definitely been fading a bit with the reduced sleep schedule so far this month. I didn’t rush back into the studio, instead doing a bit of housework, watching a little TV, having a relaxed dinner. It was around 6:00 PM when I got started. This one only took about 90 minutes to get into near-final shape, and much of that was listening to specific bits to get the balance between the various … Continue reading

Sineposts

Now here’s a track that’s certainly adequate. I’ve satisfied the requirement of Song-A-Day by writing, recording, and posting. It’s more involved than many that I’ve done before, and maybe even better produced. So why am I negative about it? Because it’s not what’s in my head; it’s not living up to its potential. Now, often when I have this feeling about a piece, it’s a failure on my part. It’s missing something, but I don’t know what, or I do know what but don’t know how to do it. That’s not the case here. My negativity is entirely the product … Continue reading