Is it just me or have certain tasks become harder to finish? Tasks that ordinarily take a day have become a lot longer. I am finishing up on a CD project for a client that did a project in the studio a couple of years ago. I made 100 CDs at the time and got them out to her in just over one day. This time it has taken me three days to complete the same amount of CDs and that doesn't count a delay regarding a printing issue. I can only surmise that I have so many irons in the fire it just takes longer to get to a project than before and gathering materials takes more time and effort as well.
I have to marvel at the Lord's blessings. Where once I had only a few things to accomplish in a week, I now have dozens and they seemingly get done on or near deadline; but it takes longer to do them.
How does that work? I do more in less time but it takes longer to do the job. I think it's 'workflow'.
I plan better than I used to and I gather pars up in advance of a job and keep more supplies on hand anticipating the next project and what it will take to get it done.
I'll soon be 64 years old. I look in the mirror and don't recognize the funny face looking back at me and then I wonder where I went and who is this ugly old man staring at me so intently? I don't feel nearly as old as I look but I certainly can't do a lot of the things I used to do so easily and so quickly.
Do the words "uphill battle" sound strangely familiar to anyone? They do to me. My next question about what I'll do next is ..."how do I get there from here", and ... how hard do I have to push?
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Saturday, February 16, 2013
... what keeps you going?
I got up and downed a good cup of coffee and headed for the studio.
This would be the first time I had recorded with my new pedal and I wanted to see what it would or would not do. The recording wasn't a big deal, in and of itself, it was the fact that I was recording at all. I hadn't done any music on my own in months. Yes, I have been working on a few projects with other people but I was producing and engineering and not actually playing. This would be a good test.
I took my time getting everything ready and even turned the heat up so that the room was good and cozy and then turned it off and settled into the chair.
I tried a few settings and then hit the record button and began playing. Oh man, it was 'nice'. I don't have 'the sound' yet, but it will come. I can't decide whether or not to even use the pedal. "Lil Brownie" sounds so good on his own.
I stopped for a time to rest my hand and went on to more mundane tasks for awhile eventually returning to the board for a second go at it. It was better but still not what I had hoped for. I can see that it will take a bit of tweaking to get there, but that's the beauty of recording for me. The pure sound; catching it as it happens and listening back to a passage that swells and then descends and then swells again. I only hope I can do justice to the songs. We have been given some wonderful new material of late, some of which were 'born on stage' just before a service began. You'll ever know how hard it was to stay up there and play the 'regular music' our group does on Sunday mornings when a "new one" has arrived and needs 'tending'. There's nothing like the burst of energy that comes alive as a song takes shape and spreads it's wings for the first time; haltingly flapping ... gaining height and distance until it soars across the heavens and announces itself!
They're like little children to me, each in it's own right, each in it's own 'shell', each in it's own world. I marvel at the thought of where they came from and how I got to be the one that 'found it'.
...what keeps you going?
This would be the first time I had recorded with my new pedal and I wanted to see what it would or would not do. The recording wasn't a big deal, in and of itself, it was the fact that I was recording at all. I hadn't done any music on my own in months. Yes, I have been working on a few projects with other people but I was producing and engineering and not actually playing. This would be a good test.
I took my time getting everything ready and even turned the heat up so that the room was good and cozy and then turned it off and settled into the chair.
I tried a few settings and then hit the record button and began playing. Oh man, it was 'nice'. I don't have 'the sound' yet, but it will come. I can't decide whether or not to even use the pedal. "Lil Brownie" sounds so good on his own.
I stopped for a time to rest my hand and went on to more mundane tasks for awhile eventually returning to the board for a second go at it. It was better but still not what I had hoped for. I can see that it will take a bit of tweaking to get there, but that's the beauty of recording for me. The pure sound; catching it as it happens and listening back to a passage that swells and then descends and then swells again. I only hope I can do justice to the songs. We have been given some wonderful new material of late, some of which were 'born on stage' just before a service began. You'll ever know how hard it was to stay up there and play the 'regular music' our group does on Sunday mornings when a "new one" has arrived and needs 'tending'. There's nothing like the burst of energy that comes alive as a song takes shape and spreads it's wings for the first time; haltingly flapping ... gaining height and distance until it soars across the heavens and announces itself!
They're like little children to me, each in it's own right, each in it's own 'shell', each in it's own world. I marvel at the thought of where they came from and how I got to be the one that 'found it'.
...what keeps you going?
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