challenge

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

Relativity

One month. Four weeks. 28 days. 40,320 minutes during which the 30-odd Song-A-Day participants that gather on any given year write music. A lot of music. More music than many of us might have thought we had in us in total, much less annually. And yet, here we are with thousands of songs and recordings behind us. A famous quotation about the theory of relativity, often attributed to Einstein, but probably just a good anecdotal joke by a reporter goes like this: When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when … Continue reading

Villa Greenleaf Community Orchestra

February 22 is the traditional day for cover songs. These can be fun, but they can also be a lot of stress. It’s bad enough when I’m murdering my own compositions, but I worry a bit when I’m committing attempted murder on someone else’s. It’s natural to want to sing or play a song you like, and with somewhere between 15 and 30 tracks being posted every day, there’s bound to be something catchy. But this is where my philosophy on covers potentially comes into conflict with the spirit of the community. In my opinion, and it is only my … Continue reading