As always, my blog is http://www.elkvoice.com/flute_blog
Finally, summer opened up and gave us some clear and sunny weather at the beach. However, the water was a bit brisk…holding at 54 degrees. Actually, in my book that is terminal. So I contented myself with snoozing in the sun, on the beach, and taking a couple of strolls with Shilo down along the shore. The rest of the time was just watching clouds come across the lake and climbing the dunes with Zuri.
I’ve been doing some recording in the barn these days. It’s been kind of refreshing just putting a stereo mic source out and recording some songs straight acoustic. No drums or bass or keyboard on these tunes. I have some other material that I’ll be putting together that has more complicated arrangements, and that will be coming soon. But, in the mean time, I’m just working through a bunch of simpler material.
I even have some drafts of some flute music recorded now. Not that I’m ready to put that out for public hearing. Geez my fluteplaying has picked up many many many rough edges. So, I’ll need to do some refining of the raw material I guess.
fluteplayer Just me
… as always Fluteplayer Blog: http://www.elkvoice.com/flute_blog
Mid-July is a great time around our place. The wild (black) rasberries which grow all over woods on on our lot are coming into season. The kids love this. They just walk around, pick ‘em and eat ‘em at will. It’s the one kind of snacking all day we don’t mind. It’s natural and full of vitamin C. Plus with all the rain, I have to admit they are very very yummy this year. That’s if you can get past the brigade of mosquitos that seem to be guarding the rasberries.
Yesterday, Zuri grabbed a quart ziplock baggie and filled it up just walking the trails through our woods. I’m pretty sure he ate as much as he stored in the baggie as he went along. And, that’s just fine by me.
Pretty soon, the tomatoes in the garden will start ripening. Salad time, oh yeah.
Oh, and our first batch of home grown rhubarb grew just enough to make rhubarb topping for vanilla icecream dessert. Very yummy, but my wife still won’t let me classify that dish as health food, even if the topping is all natural. ….sigh….
fluteplayer Just me
Flute blog: http://www.elkvoice.com/flute_blog
Well, I finally wore my sound card out. I didn’t know that was even possible, but it seems so. I was in the barn, jamming with the mice (and boy were they rockin’ to my flute music). I kept getting an increasing hum on the input channel that ended with a loud pop. Kinda chews up the recording, not to mention scares away the creative atmosphere.
But, on the good side, I have about 8 new flute songs that are just in the “draft” mode. That means the playing is still technical. It’s sort of like building a large sculpture. You have to build a frame work, or your artwork will come toppling down into a heaping pile. Unless you are into performance art, that’s generally a bad thing.
Same with flute. You have to pay as much attention to the space in between the notes as you do the notes themselves. That’s the secret that eludes so many fluteplayers. It’s that quality that makes the instrument so extremely expressive – it’s what makes the instrument relevant source in contemporary music. Not that it needs to be the center of a five piece rock band mind you.
Even if you choose to play traditional songs – like I prefer to do – it’s the emotion you express that makes it real to the listener. People can always tell if you care about what you are playing. My flute music is never to be considered a museum piece, but a continuation of an existing story. That’s what makes it traditional as well. After all, stories are about the people we love, care about, and live in community with.
I’ll post this stuff soon.
fluteplayer Just me
So we have our garden in now. And the first event of the new garden was for a local rabbit to chew his way through the fence and head straight for the tomato plants and green pepper patch. I hope he enjoyed his fresh salad.
We responded by putting up a second layer of fencing that was wire based around the base of the garden. I am positive I could feel his beady little eyes boring into the back of my neck while I was putting up the fence. In the back of my mind I could hear Bugs Bunny’s voice saying “…of course you realize,…this means war….” Nobody ever won against Bugs Bunny, but maybe we’ll be the first, and our local rabbits will go pick on the neighbors instead.
fluteplayer Just me
So it’s finally warming up enough for me to consider moving the studio/lab back out to the barn. I reeeaaaallly like making music out there with so much space. I used to read about bands in the ’80′s recording albums in barns, etc. – and I thought they were nuts. Change of opinion for me.
Something about the space – it lets you out of your head. This doesn’t mean that I haven’t been writing over the winter. To be sure the little music box in my head continually cranks out new riffs, lyrical ideas, melodic strains. But somehow I was less inclined to put it together.
NO BRINGING on of the discipline for me up to this point.
Something about the barn makes me less lazy. Maybe it’s all those mice, birds,and bugs all working diligently on their respective projects that guilts me into getting my artistic game on.
As usual, my blogspot is at my website: http://www.elkvoice.com/flute_blog
fluteplayer Just me
As usual, my blogspot is at my website: http://www.elkvoice.com/flute_blog
We were visited today by the power company for the purpose of clearing the power-line access. We thought it was going to be some tree trimming as usual. However we had a big surprise when one of these (see the link below) started clear cutting huge amounts of our lot. I’m just sick at what has been done to our little forest and all the small creatures that live there… let alone the migratory species that also run through our place.
http://www.consumersenergy.com/images/BrushHog.jpg
We’re contacting the local Nature Preservation organization to see how we can heal this violence to the land with replanting of native plants: bushes, trees and wildflowers. It will recovery, but I still feel sick over it. Especially, when the power company doesn’t seem to be following their own published brochures. I notified the township as well.
Ok, just my ranting. I don’t like to see places where I go to pray getting mowed over and laced with poison.
fluteplayer Just me nature, Power company, wildflowers
Just wrapping up a very long week. Not a lot of good vibes happening in the air this week. But I was reflecting on the separation of denominations, races, neighborhoods, and neighbors, and found some odd rhythm lyrics coming into my mind. Perhaps there is a new song lurking there. I still have about 4 other songs I’ve written that I haven’t recorded yet for one reason or another.
I used to get uptight about not committing new material to a recording. But some songs, it seems, need to breathe for a while before you record them. On the other hand, some songs need the desperation of the recording studio to bring them to a final form. There have been tunes that were only riffs in my mind before I started into the studio with them. And suddenly, boom….there it is.
But back to these songs, I think they are timid of the hard love approach. These songs seem to need some air, a little daylight, some doom and gloom, and lots of re-interpretation.
I wonder if it’s the same for physical artists working on sculpture…????
fluteplayer Just me
Spring seems to have everyone in the dumps …mostly ’cause it’s not warm enough to do anything outside. We want green. Can’t seem to get inspired to write any new music lately…or even transcribe something.
I think I just want to get the lab back out into the barn – that seemed to be a good place to let the music ideas flow.
So for the time bein’ I’m just updating software, blog spots, mp3 encoders, recording pluggins, and buying new microphone cords. whew hew
fluteplayer Just me barn, music, recording, spring
To use a musician’s term, I’ve been headed to the woodshed of late to spend some time on my ax. Only problem was I am completely lackluster with my guitar playing just now. No reason – it’s just not there at the moment. But what is there is a collection of 6 new songs for my flute.
So, I got the sound effects board dusted off and have gone to work on these songs. The more I work with them, the more I think I’ll go for a nice recording and then post on my website. Be looking for updates.
I have a jumbled collection of my songs and arrangements of some traditional songs I have never recorded. It should be nice,…kinda like a mini flute album.
Something new to get the juices going…
fluteplayer Just me Native American Flute
I have plenty of bricks,…in the form of a wall. Well at least metaphorically speaking. I went into my studio today and found my faithful muse had taken an all expenses paid vacation to Mt. Olympus or Jamaica or somewhere’s. Just not finding the musical momentum I’ve had running for a while.
This isn’t writer’s block…By no means no. I’ve had tons of ideas of late. Perhaps that’s what is going on. Too many ideas and I’m bored with the process of figuring out how to make my gear achieve those sounds. I’ll get over it, I always do.
In the mean time, I’ll just go back to pencil and paper and try not to get bored with myself being bored with myself.
fluteplayer Just me blahs
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