For those of you who have wondered where I went with my music, I'm still here and alive. It's just been... a strange time for me. I have been hit with sudden bouts of inspiration and I have about 12 half-finished songs floating around (around 50% of which are really sad ones about my dad which are hard to sing without crying).
One of the songs I'm dying to finish is a racy-bluezy-country-rock number that is all girl power and tequila - as inspired by an awesome riff and chord sequence that Jasper came up with. It's got a freaking AWESOME hook and the makings of a potential hit single and I can't WAIT to finish it. I just haven't found the right lyrics yet. I think I'm almost there with the last draft of lyrics, but it's still too bulky and at this rate, it's going to sound like I'm rapping. Lol. I do want to keep the fast pace, but I don't want it to be too overcomplicated that I trip over words when we're live.
OMG.... overthinks
I feel like an overcaffeinated squirrel with ADHD.
I have also been planning to do a cover for here and for YouTube. I haven't done a home video for ages. I even finally bought my "own" (property of MobeyDick) selfie stick thingy. I just need a mic stand oO.
The idea was to do one part with the auto harp and the one harmony and then the other half with the guitar and the other harmony, but I discovered my autoharp was HORRIBLY out of tune... due to some gremlin tampering, I presume........... hmmmmmmm then on top of that, the tuning spanner went missing during the Christmas chaos so I couldn't even fix that 😭
If you're an artist like me, you know you'll get bouts of creativity at the most inappropriate times (got a work deadline coming up? Well fuck that, you're writing a song now) and if you ignore it, your creative self goes off to sulk and you totally forget or lose inspiration for whatever brilliant idea you had. sigh
Thank god, @merenludick found my missing spanner and I successfully tuned the autoharp yesterday! After giving it some much-needed dusting, I dove in. It was super nerve-wrecking. It's a finicky thing and it's not like you can just pop down to your local Paul Bothner's (music shop chain store) to pick up a set of strings if one snaps - and there are a lot of strings 😱. trick is to start with all the same notes and tune up as you go, so the 1st string on the autoharp is an F, so you tune all the F's then move on to the next string which is a G and tune all the G's and then just carry on like that. It's easier, especially if you cheat a little and rely on your musical ear (if you're lucky enough to have one) Jasper and I discovered it's cheaper to buy a whole autoharp than it is to import strings, which is the story of how Jasper bought me "my" autoharp - it's not really mine, it's MobeyDick's, just like the Ibanez guitar we won that I've swopped out with Jasper for the red guitar that has a slimmer frame and is easier to get my stubby little arms and fingers around (I can hear you moaning about my strumming there Jasper and that I don't play enough and you're right 🤦♀️... I'm getting there though).
Anyway, I DID tune it, thanks to the lovely online app my late uncle Barry sent me last year and it sounds bright as a bell!! A million times better than it ever has!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4PkV3AbBcJ4
Looks like, as soon as my book deadline is done, that I will be completing that video after all :) Maybe @jasperdick can even help me with it and do the guitar bit and I'll do the autoharp bit. It is a male/ female duet traditionally, anyway. I just used to do it with my (estranged) sister, so I thought it would be more powerful if I did it on my own, even if it would be a little more technically challenging. It will have to wait for my book deadline on the 2nd of March though, as all my energy is going into that.
As for gigs, Jasper has been jet-setting and we haven't had a chance to have our 2024 Powwow about where we want to go and what we want to do. I feel a little lost having not done one for a while, but that's not the only priority. All good things come to those who wait, I guess...
Let's see what this year has in store for us!