Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Last month, I posted some sheet music, for a tune called "Eff the Big C" (or "F#$% Cancer", but there are already a lot of works with the latter title, so ...). Today I finally got around to putting an MP3 of it on the web (along with a couple other versions of the sheet music -- different clefs, with/without tab -- at http://www.dglenn.org/music/Eff_the_Big_C.html.

It's sloppy, and I know it -- I started out yesterday or the day before, working to a metronome and then playing along with a MIDI file to keep me in time, but the result kept turning out thuddy and plodding and I wasn't happy with any of those takes, so I punted and started over without external timing aids, and the result was a little uneven. And beyond that, a couple of tracks ought to have been redone, but I hit the "not enough disk space to do much more" point about the same time as my ears started going wonky and the dog started wanting to make noise, so the "tired enough to make things worse with stupid/climsy errors" stage was probably right around the corner anyhow. Bottom line: I'm feeling too impatient to set it aside nearly done and wait for the next day I'd get a chance to finish it, so I've stuck it on the web even as rough as it is. Somdeday I'll tackle it again.

My bandmates can attest that I do sometimes need a bit of nudging with regard to timing when we're playing together, and some do-overs in the studio. It's even harder when it's just myself. (Yes, I know the answer to this problem: More Practice. I mostly take the "playing counts as practicing" approach and just play, but every so often there's some specific thing I need to focus on, and it's time to do the kind of practicing that feels like practice/drill work. Also: I haven't been playing/practicing mandolin enough lately.)

I wound up trying different guitars looking for one that had a sound that fit the tune even after being run through my half-baked recording setup. (The solid-body electric would've been the most convenient -- no microphones to mess with -- but I couldn't get the sound I wanted going direct.) When I got to the point where I had too many instruments to fit on or next to my bed, I relocated the computer to Mom's living room. Which I'm going to need to tidy a bit before I crash. (Yes, that's an old Radio Shack PZM (pressure zone microphone) gaff-taped to the wall; and yes, there's a dynamic mic tied to a guitar stand with a bungee cord (all my mic stands are in Baltimore).) Things mostly worked except for my own sloppy playing (OT1H, a day when I wasn't feeling well wasn't the best day to work on this; OTOH, if I'd been feeling better, I would have gotten other things done, which involved driving, instead of this) ... and my not figuring out how to capture the sound of the doumbek adequately (but I know whom to ask about that later).

Anyhow, it might not be "put on a CD to sell" quality, but at least it's recorded and there, so folks who don't read music can hear it. From my comments here you can tell that I don't think it's great work, but I'm happy enough with it to let y'all hear it, and I think I've learned a little more about my reccording tools in the last two days, so I should get better at some parts of this process. And I'm definitely pleased with the composition, this thing I wrote in 2011; I just need to work on the execution.

So there it is: Eff_the_Big_C.mp3 for whoever's interested in hearing it. And a long list of other tunes I should also be trying to record ...

"If the use of leisure time is confined to looking at TV for a few extra hours every day, we will deteriorate as a people." -- Eleanor Roosevelt (b. 1884-10-11, d. 1962-11-07), My Day (newspaper column) 1958-11-05