Friday Night Beat Lab

Creative people don't need social lives.
So meet one of my best friends - Muse.

That aside.  About a year ago, I decided to start making beats.  Authentic beats - not messing around with the pre-made loops on garageband like I had been doing, but actually creating my own.  Still using garageband, but nothing premade, but all my own doing.

A little bit after that, I conceived an idea for Girl Conception - the comedic rap duo that I'm apart of.  An EP consisting of six tracks - most of which Nina and I had already talked about - with beats that I'd create.  So throughout last summer, I eventually composed beats for six tracks.

Flash-forward to now.  We recorded and released just two of the aforementioned tracks - the rest have been weighing heavily on me, because when you've been conceiving something for a year, you just want to go forth with it already.  But I've sort of strayed from the EP idea, because since last summer, I've composed four more rap beats for Girl Conception that I really love.

So I'm thinking about expanding this project into a LP.

The thing is - I've gotten tremendously better at composing in the past year.  Now my earlier work is nothing to scoff at, but there is definitely a difference that's relatively noticeable.  So I wondering about mixing together the two stages of my creative development into one.  I certainly still want to release my earlier beats, but maybe in a separate volume.

Anyway.  Tonight I spent some time mixing some beats, because I've had a sort of creative musical blocks for months now and can't really seem to compose anything new.  I have been able to change some things in my pre-existing work, though, which is also part of what I did tonight.  And right now, I'm pretty satisfied with the collection of nine instrumental tracks (plus one of our pre-recorded tracks) that I hope to turn into a LP.

Do you know that feeling - when you've created something that you know is a hit?  The final track on this LP is that.  As objectively as I can say that, I do - I'm very satisfied with it.

So I'm hoping to release some demos pretty soon.  Like 45 seconds to a minute long, showcasing the beat and also the lyrics I've written to go with it - hopefully to both get feedback and sort of strike interest.  Then ride off the momentum of people's interest to get this LP recorded and released.

But it's all in God's timing and will.  So we'll see.

Documenting Improvement

I am convinced that with enough practice and energy, I can become relatively skilled at anything.  And I love being able to see my improvement in a certain area - it's intriguing and exhilarating.  Everything is like a muscle - the more you use it, the more adept it becomes.

So I've witnessed this in a few things, from running (which literally is the strengthening of muscles) to guitar.  Speaking of the latter, that's what I want to do a minor experiment in.  I want to see how it takes me to master a few songs.

So I'm starting with Hey Jude and A Day in the Life - both by The Beatles.  The latter is a bit easier, so I'm already well on my way.  Hey Jude is a little more difficult.  It's a piano song, but I don't have my keyboard here, unfortunately, so I'll learn it on the guitar.  The tab I found sounds close enough.

So.  As for Hey Jude, right now I'm working on getting down the C7 and C7sus4 chords and actually being able to effectively transition between them and F without taking ten years or it sounding cacophonous.

For A Day in the Life, I can play the first part okay - so I'm just working on getting that to sound nicer and smoother before I start working on Paul's part of the song.

And since this is a creative blog - I guess I'll mention that I'm starting the shot list for my screenplay!  It's really a "rough draft" - something mainly to try and estimate how long it'll take to shoot it because that's right - I'm gonna make this movie this year!

So there you go.