This week was about drum practice. I tried a little bit midweek, but was having an issue where there was a small delay between pressing the key on my keyboard & hearing the sound. It made the already difficult task (for me) of staying in time almost impossible. I found that the problem was that I had the headphones plugged into my audio interface & the keyboard was going directly into the computer (my audio interface does not have a USB input) – I think the signal was journeying too long of a path. This morning  I simplified the set-up. Just the keyboard (for midi input) & the laptop. Yeah! No delay.

I used two midi tracks for drums. I did the bass drum first, then added the symbols (both times recording a small bit & allowing it to loop). They are very basic and would benefit from quantization. I then used the midi Grand Piano sound, included in my DAW, to lay down a simple piano track. I want to make this “swing” a bit and that will require some work.

The other thing I wanted to bring up, regarding the subject matter, is the fine line one treads when they write “in character.” I’ve discussed this among friends with respect to songs like Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee” & Jill Sobule’s “Soldier of Christ.” Is there overlap between your feelings & the character’s? Where does the character begin & end?  While I do certainly watch more TV than I should, I do try to keep up on current events & am a firm believer that climate change is real and that humans have played a part in it.

End result? Another sketch with more of the lyrics worked in: