Big steps, little steps

I'd have written earlier in the week, but this has been a rather exhausting whirlwind.

Friday evening I watched my niece (the eldest of the crew) glide around in her beautiful prom dress. She absolutely glowed with happiness, hope, and anticipation. Do you remember that feeling? Fresh out of high school, brimming with plans and potential?

I couldn't remember it. But I did find that lonely empty corner those thoughts vacated. I wish I had remembered to keep them.

Sunday was a whirl of Father's Day wishes, chaos and kids. I travelled into Fredericton to spend the evening with my brother and his family. Asa, my seven year old nephew (with a mohawk) kept me company on the drive. Rather, he attempted to keep me company, but after twenty minutes of various lizard attacks on the dashboard, he fell asleep.

Monday was a long but rewarding day. I worked in a recording studio for the first (and definitely not the last) time. If you aren't a musician, it's a difficult process to explain. Actually, I lie. It isn't difficult to explain, just time consuming. Basically, here's how it worked for me:
I walk in, record a "scratch track" of me playing and singing my songs. Fun. I then listen to it and realize how horrible it sounds. Not fun.
The sound engineer, producer and I break down the song into the separate parts (instruments, vocal, thunder, goats, etc.) Since it was only me and my guitar, that should be easy, right? Heh. This is the part where Joanne laughs.

I then recorded all the music tracks separately. That means playing the guitar for the whole song through, then maybe playing it again with the chords in a different location, or with picking, etc. to make it sound good. For the five songs I had selected, it took me almost five hours to do this. A little less counting coffee breaks.

Did I say coffee? I meant water. Black, steaming, coffee-flavoured water.

Anyway, after the guitar came the vocals, since I'm too broke to hire a bunch of musicians. I sang. And I sang. And I sang. Then, when the vocals sounded good, I sang harmonies. Again. And again. and again. I had told the producer I don't have much practice at harmony singing, and he asked me to try. I hit the first harmony bang on, first try, and he laughed.

An hour later, he wasn't laughing, but neither of us threw anything and all went well. By the eighth hour I was fading quickly, but managed to finish what I started.

So what does that mean? That means I get to listen to my songs all mixed on Friday, and pending final approval, my CD will go to replication. Booya! As soon as I get them, I'll let you know how you can buy them. I wish I could give them all away, but a girl's gotta make a living, you know.

I haven't been posting here as often as I'd like, and for that I apologize. I didn't think you'd want the blow by blow description of the rather mundane days I've had here at home. Saturday, however, I fly over the Atlantic for six weeks of European adventure. Fingers crossed that I'll be able to update this more frequently.

I miss and love you all.