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On that, last month I was chatting with a guitarist just before the service. He asked how I managed to play without any charts, so I said "I just learn what variation of 1, 4, 5, 6 the song parts are. His response.... "I've never learned to read tab". Oh dear.

It’s a funny thing. I do enjoy playing in church, it’s just the nonsense that accompanies it can be a bit off putting.

I really don’t get why though. & it seems to be a common theme across just about all churches.

I find if you know the key of the song, the progression is gonna be a variant of 1, 4, 5, 6. So something like G, C, Am, F. the problem I have with worship songs is how poorly written the music is, but I suppose it’s the product of the unorganised mess that most church worship teams seem to have. I know a couple of Christians who are great musicians, but refuse to play in the worship team because the worship leadership is disorganised. You get given the songs to learn about 2-3 days before the service, songs get changed right before service & the song at the end of service gets picked during the service.

A week ago on Sunday we held church in the town hall. Set list of 3 songs plus an item for communion. All was going well, but then the media team couldn’t get the words up for the congregation, so we replaced the 3 songs with 3 that the congregation might know the words to. No thought went into asking the band if they knew the songs, but we jammed them reasonably well. Thankfully, the communion item (Mercy) was unaffected.

The Mrs is really up for redoing the vocals. But she's full of the cold, so I've updated the version above & removed the other ones to avoid confusion on what my entry is. 🙂

Well this pic for some reason really struck me. I decided to write about how much my wife means to me. There's personal stuff in here that I'm not willing to go into, but I think I've said it how I want to. Downside... I can't sing. So it's me through a vocoder. Recorded using Logic. I've added some sparse drums & a better bass line. Anyhow, it's a love song... For those wanting to sing along...

Been enjoying Yebba's album "Dawn". Great vocalist. I'm looking forward to Silk Sonic's album coming out on Friday...

I tend to take screenshots on my iPad or iPhone (in playlist order) & just swipe. Though as we only play about 4-5 songs in a set, I just learn them.

Got my lyrics finished, got the chord arrangement & melody. Now I just need to lay down the parts.

I think Dad’s the only one who remembers how bad my singing is! 😂

Oooh. I’ve written some lyrics, now just need to write the music around them. oh, hold on….. I canny sing. 🤨

I’ve got a reasonable set of headphones & a decent set of monitors. I suppose it doesn’t help that I’m partially deaf & wear hearing aids, but even so, I can hear a massive difference between my stuff & other home producers’ stuff. I’ve watched a few different folk on YouTube & there are a few really good ones, but I feel that an actual course from start to finish would be a benefit.

Had a wee blast through 25’s sounds last night. Some very good & useable sounds.

Isotope are 20 & they’re giving away Ozone Elements for free. https://www.izotope.com/en/shop/ozone-elements.html?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=SU_GN_SE_BR_UU_WW_Ozone&utm_content=Ozone-Elements_EM&utm_term=ozone elements|e|g|m||490429158139&gclid=CjwKCAjw5c6LBhBdEiwAP9ejG-XZcJyB8CFWMKLWhGE-KXoeMQJS4J9LZQqal5s-G-Zib6X0NnirsRoCbrkQAvD_BwE

This is also good for the price (free). Has some good drums & other instruments too... https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-start/ If you're willing to spend £59, then Polyplex is a fantastic drum machine that'll do both Acoustic & electronic stuff.... https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/drums/polyplex/

There's a small group of us in the creative team that have started songwriting. We've written (or at least made a good start on) about 8 songs and focusing on finishing 2 of them to bring to church. Our Worship pastor arranged a zoom meeting with Ray Badham from Hillsongs for 8pm tonight (I think that was about 6am in Oz for him). It was really good, as he spent time going over the 2 songs, listening to them, breaking them down & coming up with ideas to improve them even further. He spoke about what makes a good chorus, how to use lyrical rhythm to maintain interest and how to make a strong contrast between Verse & Chorus. For the chorus, he suggested using lots of repetition for the melody & even bringing back any memorable/meaningful phrases into the chorus more. Things that the congregation are going to latch onto. Also to think of how the rhythm of those lyrics are. Putting the melody of the 1st & 3rd lines the same, but having an interesting/catchy rhythm on the 3rd & 4th that differs from the others. It's also a similar thing for the verses. Really good of him to take a couple of hours out of his morning to meet with us & help us with our songwriting.

And the plus is that you can stack them vertically for those gigs without PA.

Is this into recordings or live? If live, then you'd be better off maybe getting a 2nd hand hardware synth. If it's for recording at home, then there's lots of software options.

This makes the most sense. 10s are not snappier than 15s, it’s the piezo that makes the difference.

Been listening to this young lady quite a bit this last several months. Great performance & a fantastic voice. I was disappointed to find her surname is not Debadoo.

Hi peeps. I've been frustrated by the overall sound of my tracks for way too long now. I've come to the conclusion that it's me. I bought the Bx SSL 4000G last week hoping that would make the difference, and it does sound different, but my songs still sound like I made them with free software. Either my mixing & mastering skills are poop, my sound selection is poop, or I just don't know what I'm doing. So I've decided I want to do a course or two on getting a good sound and a good mix. It doesn't help that I'm partially deaf, but I can hear a huge difference in other people's work compared to my stuff. I've seen a few courses on Udemy for around £20 which is really good value, but if they're only going to teach me what I already know, then they're a waste of money. I've also saw a few on Skillshare, but that's a monthly subscription that I could do without. I've spent a bit of time looking through Youtube, but not found anything on there. So, any recommendations for a course that can help me get my songs release ready?

I’m interested in this too. There’s a couple out there, but no idea if they’re any good. You’d think wit he today’s tech, it would be easily achieved.

Yes, I did.

Just used it & got the Lindell compressor & Pultec (probably the same ones you got). Thanks again. 😎