...as in a dozen strings on one guitar? I'm sure you've heard a 12-string guitar at some point but maybe didn't realise that was what you were hearing.
Well, my shipping from the UK has finally gotten through US customs and is in my possession, safe and sound. So I have my acoustic back, and also my 12-string acoustic, plus my other guitars and recording gear. I'm extremely excited to have all my gear again as in the past 9 months I've only had it with me for about 6 weeks, and that was last June. I had some of it when I was back in London in Nov '10 but a lot it was packed in storage, in anticipation of being shipped.
So I've been playing around with ideas on my 12-string tonight. Here is a couple of them.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Lucky Man
I've been a little absent with my blogging over the past week as I've been very focused on the mixing and recording for my brother's band's Demo EP. I've still been writing and finding different ways to be creative, some of which I'll share in another blog soon, but today I just want to share this song.
My brother and I wrote it with his band in fairly impromptu fashion, at a rehearsal in September when I was last in LA. It was quite an organic creation. Luke had lyrics he'd been planning to write some positive sounding music for. I then just started playing the intro guitar idea from this song, basically as the first fun and happy idea that came to my head, and he started making a melody around his lyrics. Before the night was out we had the song basically finished. I really like the song and in some ways it was the start of my move back towards this style of writing. I feel it has a certain musical stamp that puts it stylistically in with my recent songwriting. We wrote some other songs, one in particular I hope to have finished recording, mixing and mastering and have posted on this blog soon. Stay tuned...
I recorded the acoustic guitar, ukulele (my Dad's new ukulele - thanks again Dad), bass guitar and backing vocals on this track. Luke recorded the lead vocals, some backing vocals, lead guitar and a couple of rhythm guitar parts. His drummer Bruce recorded the drums. Even though this hasn't involved creativity in a songwriting fashion in the past week I find myself being quite creative in the mixing/mastering process, mostly because I don't really know what I'm doing, i.e. I've learnt all I know about mixing from observing engineers while in the studio, but no-one's ever actually "taught" me what to do. I go with my instincts and use my creativity and problem solving to work my way to a result I'm satisfied with. This mix was the fourth I did, each one getting progressively better than the last. I'm actually very happy with the result considering the conditions under which the recording was done.
As I didn't write the lyrics I'm not going to post them here. I don't feel they're mine to be posting on my creativity blog. But the words are great so do listen to them carefully.
Lucky Man
| My younger brother, Luke, and I following my gig at The Viper Room on 10/10/10 with my former band, The Stuns. Yes, I'm wearing makeup. (Well....the remnants of...) |
My brother and I wrote it with his band in fairly impromptu fashion, at a rehearsal in September when I was last in LA. It was quite an organic creation. Luke had lyrics he'd been planning to write some positive sounding music for. I then just started playing the intro guitar idea from this song, basically as the first fun and happy idea that came to my head, and he started making a melody around his lyrics. Before the night was out we had the song basically finished. I really like the song and in some ways it was the start of my move back towards this style of writing. I feel it has a certain musical stamp that puts it stylistically in with my recent songwriting. We wrote some other songs, one in particular I hope to have finished recording, mixing and mastering and have posted on this blog soon. Stay tuned...
I recorded the acoustic guitar, ukulele (my Dad's new ukulele - thanks again Dad), bass guitar and backing vocals on this track. Luke recorded the lead vocals, some backing vocals, lead guitar and a couple of rhythm guitar parts. His drummer Bruce recorded the drums. Even though this hasn't involved creativity in a songwriting fashion in the past week I find myself being quite creative in the mixing/mastering process, mostly because I don't really know what I'm doing, i.e. I've learnt all I know about mixing from observing engineers while in the studio, but no-one's ever actually "taught" me what to do. I go with my instincts and use my creativity and problem solving to work my way to a result I'm satisfied with. This mix was the fourth I did, each one getting progressively better than the last. I'm actually very happy with the result considering the conditions under which the recording was done.
As I didn't write the lyrics I'm not going to post them here. I don't feel they're mine to be posting on my creativity blog. But the words are great so do listen to them carefully.
Lucky Man
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Repeat
I have officially entered the 21st century and am writing this entry from my new iPhone. It's actually a Christmas present from Sam but we had to sort out a few things with my phone situation before I could get it.
So this is going to be a short entry as I suck at typing with this thing still.
Hopefully you will see more photos and video on my blog though as this thing should make all of that stuff easier.
So today I've written a poem as my blog has been a little poem-light of late. Particularly serious, moody stuff like this. Strap on your serious cap and enjoy.
Repeat
Repeat
Repeat
Myself
Deceit
Will I ever be a one way street
I need
To feed
Concede
To bleed
Without a thought I sow the seed
So now
I vow
Renounce
The gown
Without a doubt I do know how
I'll not lose another now
So this is going to be a short entry as I suck at typing with this thing still.
Hopefully you will see more photos and video on my blog though as this thing should make all of that stuff easier.
So today I've written a poem as my blog has been a little poem-light of late. Particularly serious, moody stuff like this. Strap on your serious cap and enjoy.
Repeat
Repeat
Repeat
Myself
Deceit
Will I ever be a one way street
I need
To feed
Concede
To bleed
Without a thought I sow the seed
So now
I vow
Renounce
The gown
Without a doubt I do know how
I'll not lose another now
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Perspective
I wrote a post on March 2nd called "Prioritize and Visualize". If you read straight on here and something doesn't make sense then go back and read that post.
The one thing that ties all this together for me is perspective. I've always kept my eye on my goal but my perspective wasn't always good so I didn't put my energy in the right direction. I still stayed on track in the end as I was very committed to my goal but I took a lot of "detours" on my path.
Once I got my perspective right my prioritizing was much better and I found myself much happier with what I was achieving (as I was actually achieving my goal) - and I continue to. I describe perspective as understanding what REALLY matters and worrying about that, rather than just what seems to matter or what others tell you matters, or whatever issue is slapping you in the face and trying to grab your attention. The bottom line for me - what really matters is what will truly give you happiness at the end of each day. I found that although watching a TV show made me happy on a certain level it didn't outdo the unhappiness I felt at not getting any writing done. So writing went up the priority list and TV down. I sold my TV 4 years ago and haven't watched one (including watching things on my computer) more than about an hour a week (if at all) since then. I'm no worse off for it. In fact, I'm much happier now that my perspective is good and I know that to truly be happy I have to write. Plain and simple.
I'm not anti-TV. I love watching a good TV show, documentary or movie. It just doesn't make it high enough on my priority list to get done usually. In fact, if I ever put TV high enough on my priorities to actually watch anything it's usually comedy as I feel laughter is good for you in so many ways.
To illustrate further, I thought always being prompt with e-mail replies made me happy, but again the happiness it gave me didn't outweigh the unhappiness of not getting writing done. Now my e-mail replies can be a bit tardy, but I'm writing, so I'm happier. I feel some guilt at my slow replies, but my own daily happiness is worth more to me (and to everyone else who's getting the e-mails - everyone prefers to get mail from a happy person.) So perspective helps you get your priorities right and this in turn gets you visualizing the right things.
To illustrate further, I thought always being prompt with e-mail replies made me happy, but again the happiness it gave me didn't outweigh the unhappiness of not getting writing done. Now my e-mail replies can be a bit tardy, but I'm writing, so I'm happier. I feel some guilt at my slow replies, but my own daily happiness is worth more to me (and to everyone else who's getting the e-mails - everyone prefers to get mail from a happy person.) So perspective helps you get your priorities right and this in turn gets you visualizing the right things.
This is what I've found. I hope it helps you feel more "every day" happiness.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Happy Birthday Dad!
Today is another Hallmark special. It's my Dad's birthday today (in the US - it's already yesterday in my hometown of Perth) so I wrote Dad a birthday poem.
It can certainly be said that you should never just leave showing someone you love them for when it's a special occasion (which is why I wrote this post here for Dad about 6 weeks ago) but I still think that birthdays and other anniversaries are an important opportunity to really show someone how much you care.
So this is my birthday poem for my Dad.
I think of you so far away
And wish to be with you on this special day
To show you appreciation and love in more ways
Than just the words here on this page
For you are so very special to me
You make my life a better place to be
So know that even though we're far apart
We're together always in our hearts
I love you Dad! You really are the best dad I could ever ask for!
I hope you had a wonderful birthday. xo xo
It can certainly be said that you should never just leave showing someone you love them for when it's a special occasion (which is why I wrote this post here for Dad about 6 weeks ago) but I still think that birthdays and other anniversaries are an important opportunity to really show someone how much you care.
So this is my birthday poem for my Dad.
I think of you so far away
And wish to be with you on this special day
To show you appreciation and love in more ways
Than just the words here on this page
For you are so very special to me
You make my life a better place to be
So know that even though we're far apart
We're together always in our hearts
I love you Dad! You really are the best dad I could ever ask for!
I hope you had a wonderful birthday. xo xo
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Prioritize and Visualize
If you'd asked me in 2001 what I'd be doing in 2011 I wouldn't have expected life to turn out quite like it has, but at the same time I'm actually on the path I've always wanted to be on. I look back at how I've managed to stay on track and ultimately make my dreams a reality and it seems that two main things have been key - prioritizing and visualizing.
I wrote out goals a number of times between 2001 and 2008 and each time one point remained quite clear - I wanted to be able to be creative for a living and have enough money to get by. I'm doing this. Visualizing has been crucial as it's helped me get focused on exactly what I want. Before I ever played bass and could barely play guitar I used to go and see a certain band play in Perth and would visualize myself playing with them, and in 2001, after 6 years of watching these guys play, I was in the band! I visualized myself playing bass instead of saxophone and studying the contemporary stream at the WA Academy of Performing Arts - next thing you know I was. I have many other examples. The main thing is that the visualization gives you something very clear to focus on. Something to help you really see what you want to achieve.
Prioritizing is the toughest I think as it involves making decisions about your time according to what is going to help you keep on track and reach your goal, and then finding happiness in that, rather than simply doing what you feel that you enjoy most as often as you can do it and saying you're happy as a result, which is quite unlikely in truth. You may love watching television but you can't say that if all you did was watch television that you'd be happy. Few things are more satisfying than setting goals and making them happen so be sure that the right things are at the top of your priority list as you may not even make it past priority 3 or 4.
I've found that with my priorities in the right place not only am I happier and more productive but also more relaxed and laid-back. I stopped wasting time on anything that wasn't directly helping me achieve my goals, or providing some sort of satisfaction that motivated me on my path to those goals.
I fell asleep writing this entry the other day and didn't get as far as my final point: perspective. It's makes the prioritizing and visualizing most effective in getting you where you want to go. I'll post that part of this shpeel sometime soon.
I wrote out goals a number of times between 2001 and 2008 and each time one point remained quite clear - I wanted to be able to be creative for a living and have enough money to get by. I'm doing this. Visualizing has been crucial as it's helped me get focused on exactly what I want. Before I ever played bass and could barely play guitar I used to go and see a certain band play in Perth and would visualize myself playing with them, and in 2001, after 6 years of watching these guys play, I was in the band! I visualized myself playing bass instead of saxophone and studying the contemporary stream at the WA Academy of Performing Arts - next thing you know I was. I have many other examples. The main thing is that the visualization gives you something very clear to focus on. Something to help you really see what you want to achieve.
Prioritizing is the toughest I think as it involves making decisions about your time according to what is going to help you keep on track and reach your goal, and then finding happiness in that, rather than simply doing what you feel that you enjoy most as often as you can do it and saying you're happy as a result, which is quite unlikely in truth. You may love watching television but you can't say that if all you did was watch television that you'd be happy. Few things are more satisfying than setting goals and making them happen so be sure that the right things are at the top of your priority list as you may not even make it past priority 3 or 4.
I've found that with my priorities in the right place not only am I happier and more productive but also more relaxed and laid-back. I stopped wasting time on anything that wasn't directly helping me achieve my goals, or providing some sort of satisfaction that motivated me on my path to those goals.
I fell asleep writing this entry the other day and didn't get as far as my final point: perspective. It's makes the prioritizing and visualizing most effective in getting you where you want to go. I'll post that part of this shpeel sometime soon.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Macro Madness
When I was in Kauai I took some macro shots of moss while hiking and since then I've gone a little macro mad. Here are those macro moss shots that got me onto this craze.
This Sunday I went to Huntington Library with Sam and our good friends Megan and Zach.
For those who don't know the Huntington Library is not your run-of-the-mill library. It contains some of the most rare historic books such as the Guttenburg Bible, first edition Shakespeare plays, a copy of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution (which abolished slavery) and all the parliamentarian signatures that approved it, plus endless early scientific works by the likes of Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Darwin and Edison, and much more. It also houses around 400 early light globe designs by Edison and others. If this isn't interesting enough for you it has an art gallery containing such classic works as "The Blue Boy" by Thomas Gainsborough. We didn't look at much of that stuff though as by the time we'd explored the expansive botanical gardens it was closing. They have an incredible Bonsai collection. Here are a few I particularly like.
But this was supposed to be all about my macro madness. So here are my favourite macro shots from some of the Huntington Library's many botanical gardens. There's an amazing desert garden, an Australian garden, rose garden, Japanese pond area and much more. It's well worth a visit.
This Sunday I went to Huntington Library with Sam and our good friends Megan and Zach.
 |
| From left - Zach, Megan and Sam on a Japanese Bridge. Gotta love Zach's orange bag! |
For those who don't know the Huntington Library is not your run-of-the-mill library. It contains some of the most rare historic books such as the Guttenburg Bible, first edition Shakespeare plays, a copy of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution (which abolished slavery) and all the parliamentarian signatures that approved it, plus endless early scientific works by the likes of Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Darwin and Edison, and much more. It also houses around 400 early light globe designs by Edison and others. If this isn't interesting enough for you it has an art gallery containing such classic works as "The Blue Boy" by Thomas Gainsborough. We didn't look at much of that stuff though as by the time we'd explored the expansive botanical gardens it was closing. They have an incredible Bonsai collection. Here are a few I particularly like.
But this was supposed to be all about my macro madness. So here are my favourite macro shots from some of the Huntington Library's many botanical gardens. There's an amazing desert garden, an Australian garden, rose garden, Japanese pond area and much more. It's well worth a visit.
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