100303 Practice

In the back warehouse studio. New song idea

100303 Practice Notes

involved

Tom Ray

Mark Whitcomb

Cliff Hammer

For this song we hooked up a digital multi-track machine to the old studio board in the warehouse.

Set up a beat on the drum machine and Cliff and Mark came up with a funky guitar and bass line.

Tom didn't like the sound of the drum machine so we decided to piece it together percusivly as individual parts.

Tom played the drum beat.

Mark did the shaker cupping it in his hands. Tom asked him to open and close his hands as he shook it for different tones. Watching him do it was both funny and hypnotic.

We recorded some hand claps for the beat on the count "1-e and a 2-e and a 3-e and a 4-e", clapping on the "e". For this we put the mic in the main warehouse room to get the echo.

We left the mic out there for vocals. Mark and Tom had different ideas for the first melody and just riffed it on the mic standing in the doorway about 5 feet from it to get the room sound.

They sang their ideas at the same time and liked the way they sounded together as one part.

Marks part after listening back sounded too busy so we did it every second time.

To wrap it up together vocaly Tom harmonized with marks part on the 2 and 4 times in the progression.

Moved on to the verse part and again Mark and Tom had different ideas for the rythym and decided to try the same method of singing it together.

Mark's part again was more rhythmic and Tom spiked hits on the notes he was singing and we liked these parts as one like before.

Mark's vocal line became the main and Tom did his line with cupped hands singing his part like a trumpet with a plunger opening up on the bell.

From the first take Mark had riffed a lyric/rhythmic melody that he couldn't recreate off the top of his head so we jotted down what he sang on the white board in the room. (pictured below)

The mic in the main room had a natural flange sound when played back which was a happy accident.

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