A lesson in patience

So. I mentioned having time off work. Usually, when I get these little pockets of blissful free time, I try and have some sort of goal, even if it's something fun and useless like "reread all six Harry Potter books" or learn to play "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues" on the gee-tar (still haven't finished that one...). This week's goal? Record a three song demo CD, for promotional use only.

Sounds simple. Right?

As I realized this afternoon, after spending the better part of the day in front of the computer (gotta love the home recording set up) and emerging around 3 pm with not a single decent guitar track to show for it: no, not simple at all.

It might be, if you have amazing ONE-two-three-four-ONE-two-three-four timing, but I notably do not. in fact, my strumming tends toward the bizarre and unpredictable, and, well, offbeat. Most of the recordings I've done to date are pretty basic: press record, play the song through, listen for any major mistakes and then export it to iTunes. I thought it'd be fun and different to actually sit down and record multiple tracks and use a metronome and add harmony and percussion and so on--I also thought that this method might make me braver about actually sharing some of my recordings.

But whew. What work.

Finally, around four o'clock (after a long walk, a milkshake and a pep talk to myself about lowering my expectations and shooting for one passable guitar track today, rather than three finished songs) I managed to scrape together a pretty decent recording that is, no, not finished, but quite nice. I'm happy. I'll finish it tomorrow morning, I think.

What work, yes, but this is the sort of work I can easily get into. Tomorrow morning I've got a date with the computer, my guitar and a pot of coffee. I'm hoping to finish the second vocal track--that's all I'm shooting for. Anything else is extra.