I got caught up with my first 2 songs and tonight I finished song #3 entitled Dancing Plague. I went a different route this time around, I had a couple of pre-written songs that I was thinking of recording next, but then I came up with a new melody. I wanted to record it while it was fresh in my mind so this is the first truly new song that I’ve recorded for this album.

I start working on song #4 tomorrow, as of yet I don’t know which one I’m going to start recording. I have 3 pre-written songs to choose from, ones that are similar in tone to the first 3, it’s just a matter of picking one.

I have to say I’m really enjoying working like this. I really hate deadlines and trying to stick to schedules, especially with creative projects, but it really seems to be working for me. I find myself rushing a little on Saturdays to finish up the song I’m working on that week, but it forces me to get it done.

One persistent problem is finding time but I’ve got a bit of a rhythm going right now. Usually on Sundays I start by transcribing the main melody of the song. That usually takes me a while, then at some point during the week I find some time to record the melody. I play around with it, write down any ideas that come to mind for next time I edit, then on Saturday I experiment some more, set my final arrangement, then record it.

As I mentioned before, I probably have 30-40 melodies already written. I’m not sure if I’ll be adding many new ones but if I suddenly get inspired I’ll be sure to get an entirely new song down right away.

I sort of had a song order in mind as I was recording, but as I’ve finished each song they show up in alphabetical order and it sounds good when all three are played in succession. We’ll see how the next few songs go before I start thinking about the order that they’ll appear in on the album. After the next few songs, I’ll be recording songs that have a different feel.

I’ve been tinkering with the first song that I recorded for my upcoming album. I thought I had it almost done but I kept wanting to make more changes, add more instruments but was running into problems.

One of the problems I had was that I got really sick and really couldn’t do any music editing. I’m still under the weather but I started feeling better yesterday so I picked up where I left off with the first song.

One thing that I did while I was sick was make up a schedule. As I mentioned before, my goal is to finish one song per week. My first song was scheduled to be finalized yesterday and I lost a lot of time due to illness but I thought I could get it done. Due to the problems I mentioned earlier, I had to cut out a lot of the changes that I wanted to make as it wasn’t sounding right and I couldn’t figure out why. I cut the final song and thought that would be it but today I figured out what the problem was and did some more tinkering.

I got the results that I wanted and I’ve set the final arrangement but haven’t recorded it yet. I’ll do that very soon; tomorrow or maybe even tonight.

So while that was a setback to my schedule, I did actually get started on song #2 today. I multi-tasked to make up for lost time and I don’t see any problems getting both songs finished by the end of this week.

While making up my schedule, I chose Saturday as the final day to get a song done. That way, I can spend most of that day finishing up, then start the next song on Sunday. Since there’s plenty of free time on weekends, I figured I’d take advantage of it.

The first song, Incunabula, ended up a little different than the demo I posted, I imagine that’s how most of the songs will be. When I first record the main melody, I get a feel for which direction to take the song. Through experimentation, I often find a sound by surprise. I never really know where the song is going to go and that’s what makes the process interesting for me.

I don’t know if I’m going to be posting demos of each song, I’d like to keep most of it under wraps until I finish and release the final album. You might get a sneak preview here and there, I don’t really know right now.

One thing I’m noticing is that I’m grouping songs together, the first few songs will all have a similar tone, then there’ll be a shift through the next few songs. Later on, I might start recording songs regardless of whether it sounds similar to the previous one, then mixing and matching when I’m putting the final album together.

This process really feels right for me, I’m so glad I decided to go in this direction. It feels natural, I don’t feel bound by any conventions. I’m not thinking about what the songs should sound like for mass consumption, I’m letting the songs dictate which direction they want to go in. I do what I feels right for the tone of each song and I’m discovering sounds I didn’t think I’d be putting in my music.

According to the schedule that I’ve made up, I should be finished recording the last song on Saturday, June 28, 2014. I don’t know if there’ll be as many as 52 songs, there might be less but I’m giving myself a year to finish the album regardless of how many songs there are. Hopefully the album will be ready by July 1, 2014. I might not be posting many demos but I definitely plan on writing updates through this blog.