Normally I maintain one midi file for a song, changing it as necessary. Sometimes I make a backup copy when I'm about to make a significant change so I can revert to the previous version if I don't like the change, but this time I decided to keep a new version of the midi file as it was at the end of each day's work so that I could trace the path of changes from day to day. Of course, I haven't referred to any of those files, but fortunately a midi file doesn't take up much disk space.
After a few weeks' work, the arrangement was as close to complete as I could make it. All that was missing - as usual - were the words. I didn't really have the time or mental space to write words for a while, but one day last week on a long walk with the dog, I came up with some ideas about a blind date. At the end of last week, I wrote the words, getting out of bed at 11 pm on Thursday night to change a couplet (with the immortal line 'a wilted lettuce leaf' replacing whatever was there before).
On Friday I tried to record the vocals. The range of the song is from A below middle C to A above middle C - one octave - which normally would give me no problems, but on Friday I had a 'frog in my throat' that prevented me from singing the low notes. After many abortive attempts at singing the song, I had a break and considered my options. In the end, I raised the song up a tone (so easy to do with midi) and found that it was now much easier to sing.
A 5/4 rhythm usually requires very precise phrasing; the lyrics needed the odd syllable to be pruned in order to make the song singable, but by the time of the key change, I had the phrasing almost completely fixed in my mind. That said, I introduced a little syncopation in the tune that hadn't been there before (this song normally has four syllables in a bar, where the first syllable is on the first beat, the second syllable on the 'and' of the second beat, the third syllable on the fourth beat and the fourth on the fifth beat, or in musical speak, two dotted crotchets followed by two crotchets) - I delayed the third syllable by a quaver.
Then comes the part that is for me the hardest - finding the correct equalisation and volume levels for my vocal track. For the last few songs, I've kept a template file with all the settings, making this part less difficult than it was before. Even so, today I decided that the vocal was too shrill, so I toned it down a little.
The idea for the song came from something that I was reading about mirror neurons and how people signal their feelings, or rather how person #1 can read what person #2 is feeling by looking in person #2's eyes. I think that I'm not very good at reading other people's expressions; I asked my wife whether my face betrays emotions and she says that for most of the time I keep a poker face. The idea of the blind date was supposed to have the protagonist failing to read his date's expressions, but in a sense, I ran out of space to write about this. The third and final verse reads
By the evening’s end, I am unsure of what to do
Share a taxi cab or make my farewells, say adieu?
What were the signals I was sending, tell me what they mean
Will she find me worthy of her time and will she
Want to see me again?
That condensed the entire almost autistic inability to read expressions into one verse, which was not my original intention.
Listening to the song now, there seems to be a mis-match between the music and words (not in musical terms) that is not too surprising as I have been listening to the music for a month whereas I have been listening to the words for only a few days. That said, the words are sounding more integrated with the tune now.
Nearly always it happens that I am very impressed with just an instrumental arrangement but become deflated after I listen to the recording with vocals. This song was no exception......
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