What are you working on musically?

I've actually written a couple of new tunes, and we have one well sorted. I wish we played more often so I could get some more stuff done. I've been on the road the last month working on some big projects. The last two weeks were hell. My body hurts and I need a sabbatical.

Last weekend, I was in a studio with my old bass player. He is working on a project where he wanted me to take the updated version of Scorpions "Wind of Change" that swaps out Russia for Ukraine and rewrite the lyrics in German. I asked my cousin in Mainz for help as he's a high school English teacher and could help me make it flow better without sounding like I just used google translate. Now I know why Klaus always said "you don't want to hear us sing these songs in German." Some of the verses needed complete change, but we finally got something that stayed well within the spirit of the song. First time I ever did anything as just a lead singer. I think I did a total of twelve tracks. Four lead, four slightly higher harmony, four lower harmony (which ended up being the lead). He'll be starting to mix stuff next week. His step daughter did some amazing high harmonies on the track. It's an acoustic track, otherwise I would have pitched for playing the solo. I can't wait to hear what he does with it. I've heard nothing but good things about the engineer and studio.

Now, I'd like to get a few more songs written and maybe record them. Don't know who I'll do that with, but I'll figure that out when the time comes.
 
Hey, my doctor didn’t whip out the steroid needle for my thumb! He said, “I like playing with sharp objects, but we’re miles from the last resort.” Took an x-ray, it’s osteoarthritis, he gave me some hand exercises and said it should feel better in a month. If not, he’ll hook me up with PT. Couldn’t be happier.

I’ve got Robben’s crazy 12-bar blues and/or jazz chords down and can almost play them at tempo. Speed will come. To take a break from study, I spent an hour dialing in a long-sustaining patch on the Katana. That’s almost finished, too.
 
I'm refining seven songs, and plan to track them in the studio at some point, probably with session players. I'm just not connecting with people any more. Tired of waiting to 'join or form a band'. Probably do one song, see how it goes, and move from there. Waiting for finances to align.

No Music On The Moon - sad ballad
Rudis' Basement - Indy rocker about revenge at the amusement park
Fathom - fun surfy tune set deep under water
Easter Island - giant heads, mysterious phenomena, purple dragons
Don't Touch The Door - set in the Twilight Zone

All are at the 'open mic' stage, chords, lyrics, melody. The kind of stuff I'd bring forth in a group... if I were in a musical group.
 
Last summer at Dominic Miller's concert he played La Belle Dame Sans Regrets. I thought that this could probably also be transferred to the bass. It turned out to be more difficult than I had expected, but in the meantime I've fumbled my way to something that works reasonably well. And now I'm working hard to be able to play it nicely and evenly, in time and without too much background noise.

I find it too boring for an arrangement when the melody of the “guitar” and the vocals are in unison. So I'll probably have to come up with a second accompaniment... maybe chords or a second voice above the bassline. We'll see.
 
I’ve been mostly learning new chord voicings from Robben Ford. One in particular that made me rewrite an old song of mine, and while I was at it, I rewrote the lyrics, too. Which required exporting an old file from Digital Performer as an AAF and importing it into Logic. Which worked! So one chord set off a flurry of activity.
 
I been working on Mary Jane’s Last Dance in 440hz tuning (the album is about 1/4 step sharp). Not an overly complex song for both the rhythm and lead parts. But, this is gonna be the first song I try to sing with the band. It’s not really sung, but more like a white guy’s Rap song. :rolf:
 
human123 said:
I'm refining seven songs, and plan to track them in the studio at some point, probably with session players. I'm just not connecting with people any more. Tired of waiting to 'join or form a band'. Probably do one song, see how it goes, and move from there. Waiting for finances to align.

No Music On The Moon - sad ballad
Rudis' Basement - Indy rocker about revenge at the amusement park
Fathom - fun surfy tune set deep under water
Easter Island - giant heads, mysterious phenomena, purple dragons
Don't Touch The Door - set in the Twilight Zone

All are at the 'open mic' stage, chords, lyrics, melody. The kind of stuff I'd bring forth in a group... if I were in a musical group.
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While I'm thinking about it: Yay! I finished No Music, Fathom and Easter Island, available on my channel:



Also just finished writing Rome, about corruption, greed and power. Probably work on this and Mercury next meet up. Arg! We need a vocalist!!
 
Well. When I wasn’t just banging out chords…. Which I was a little bit…

Doing some Neil Young. The Who. Tom Petty. And some other stuff.

And while a couple days late…. Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
 
Just got back from jamming for the first time, and I hope not the last, with a trio of total strangers that I’m hoping will gel into my new band. Two hours of blues and jazz, longest I’ve played that hard in a long time. I’m wiped out! The drummer is excellent, the bass guy brought a fretless Rickenbacker he’s owned for 37 years and could really play it in tune. I had a blast! So what I’m working on musically is trying pull some musicians together for regular jammy thing.
 
We have a gig coming up on 12/7. We’re working on adding 2 new songs each practice on Wednesdays. Last Wednesday we worked up Two Tickets To Paradise and Can’t You See. This Wednesday it’s Superstition and Jailbreak. We do a 3 hour practice session.
 
Don O said:
We have a gig coming up on 12/7. We’re working on adding 2 new songs each practice on Wednesdays. Last Wednesday we worked up Two Tickets To Paradise and Can’t You See. This Wednesday it’s Superstition and Jailbreak. We do a 3 hour practice session.
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Always liked "Two Tickets." Fun song.
 
Don O said:
I really dig the opening signature riff. I’m still working on parts of the 32 bar solo !
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As I recall, the song came out back in the day when MTV actually did music videos. I think the video may have helped hook me on the song. Again....fun.
 
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