"Yesterday"

Below (in my last post) is a rough cut of one of my songs "Yesterday". The recording is still missing bass, guitar and a lot of extra fun musical stuff, but I thought it'd be good to allow everyone to hear a bit of what I'm doing. This tune is about lost chances and looking forward to new ones, which in the case of this song, are expressed through love. I don't have much else to say, but that this song makes me feel and move inside. Through writing it, I think I've learned not to take things for granted. Enjoy and comment any thoughts/ advice if you'd like.

Piano/ Voice: Max Shuhan
Keyboard Drums: Jon Petronzio

"Yesterday" (Song)

Studio Weekend #1

Just finished my first two days (total 11 hours) in JP's studio. Successfully finished the piano and some keyboard drum tracks. Next weekend, I'll be recording my brother Sam track the bass parts and I'll continue to finalize electronic drums, add Wurlitzer, Rhodes, Synth and voice. Now I'm gonna get some sleep! 

Red Flag #3

This week I've spent about 6 hours on my project. I had my weekly mentor meeting and have been working on how to fund my project, setting myself a $1000 budget. I created a Go Fund Me page, have been researching and comparing costs between various CD printing websites. In my meeting with Mellander, he wanted to know about the separate costs of my project, studio time, musician fees, etc. This weeks meeting was mostly a check in. I have my first recording session tomorrow and after that, I'm sure I'll have lots to talk about with Mellander and will hopefully have a snippet from the session to show him and maybe post on my blog.

As usual, I haven't blogged yet this week. I'll complete this weeks entries within the next few days when I have more time and a recording session to talk about! As far as the fulfillments of the requirements for this week go, I think my work is good. I've been making steps to get more organized with a serious and expensive project. I overlooked some of the budget conflicts earlier in the game and now I realize the importance of knowing how much money I should be planning on spending through this project.

Next week is break and I plan to work on organizing, completing and formatting this blog to meet the requirements for class.

Go Fund Me

http://www.gofundme.com/supportmyalbum


This is a url to a donation website to help fund my project. I have set a $1000 budget for my project. This would help cover the cost of studio time, fees for guest musicians and CD replicating/packaging.

Writing my own "Gravity"

I've been working to finish all the songs for my album. I'm down to the last two, but especially stuck on one of them. I'd like my album to not be completely songs in 4/4 meter and so I decided to write a slow 6/8 song. How hard could that be? I started listening to the one song that I knew would be a good inspiration for me, Gravity by John Mayer. It was hard to go from listening to writing and not constantly hearing Mayer's melody in my head. I was told once that good songwriters create something original, but great songwriters take someone else's idea and make it sound like their own. I haven't found truth in this message yet, but it makes sense to me away from my writing and instruments.
I believe that you cannot force a song out of you. A song writes itself and it comes like waves, in and out of your mind. I've also learned through creating this song that I can force a message into a song. A song is, in a sense, out of my control and I am just the deliverer of the song. I've tried to write lyrics that revolve around my idea of hope, but they don't sound right. I don't know where this will take me, but I'm certainly feeling the gravity of this song. Maybe that's what the song is about.

Barnsong

In Class #2

In class on Monday, Ms. Lord showed us a WISE project from a number of years ago called "Barnsong". It was a documentary film created by one student of another student's project, which was to build a barn from scratch. Scratch meaning cut down the trees, plank the wood, and build the structure. After watching the film, we were asked to write on two questions:

1. What do you better understand from watching this film?

2. What questions do you have?

3. What do you think about your project?

Through watching the film, I was inspired by the barn builder's desire to support his passion for building and his determination to get through any obstacles in his way. I can relate this to my own project in that, both me and the builder faced problems with a budget. I am still trying to figure out costs and funding for my album. Learning about the student's struggles has given me a push to get the funding process over with and move on to the fun stuff.

Thinking about Recording

On Friday, I met with local song-writer and musician Jon Petronzio. He is a former memeber of the band "Revision" and currently plays with "John Brown's Body" and his own project project called "Roadman". JP will be helping me record and edit my album. In our meeting, we talked about how we'd go about recording and a general timeline of the process. I'd be recording in his home studio and lay down my solo tracks first (piano, guitar and voice) then we would invite other musicians in to record the bass, horn and drum tracks separately.

I played JP a few of the songs I'll be putting on the record and he was very supportive with my work and I felt right at home in his studio. I'm excited to continue working with him. He is very easy going and passionate about music.

I'll be doing my first recoring sessions on March 27, 28 and 29. Hopefully, within those three days I'll record all of my tracks and maybe get my brother, who will be playing bass on the album, to begin recording.

My Hope

My original intention for my album was to write lyrics and music that inspire a feeling of hope for me and the listener. I reached a point in my lyric writing where I felt my words were too uplifting and I started to question how much (possibly too much) hope I was actually conveying. I got stuck with writer's block I guess and saw my lyrics to be something as if I was preaching. I think hope is an important feeling to have because it's what gives us desire and encouragement to move forward. So, I started thinking, what is it in music that inspires the feeling of hope? I realized after listening to a couple of my favorite artists, John Mayer, Sara Bereilles and Allen Stone, that hope didn't have to be generated from happiness. Hope can come from anywhere. I felt hope from sad songs, anger songs and songs about confusion too. For me, if I can relate to the music, whether that be through lyrics or music, and can listen and gain some sense of mutual understanding between me and the musician, that gives me a feeling of support, which in return makes me feel hopeful for myself and others. It may seem like what I'm feeling is happiness, but it is actually something much different. It is a wish or goal that I seek out of the music; albiet, something I can use to fix situations in my life and feel that tomorrow is in fact another day to look forward to.

Please comment below on how music inspires hope for you. I'd love to see how others feel and try to use your feedback as a means to make my album more relatable to you as a listener.

Learning About Copywriting

On Tuesday I called my Aunt Celia, a jazz musician based in Wisconsin, to ask her about copywriting through the Library of Congress. She has done several recording projects before and has copyrighted her work. She encouraged me to read the Library of Congress' copywriting page and through that I discovered that there are multiple different ways to submit one's material whether is be as a whole 'collection' of songs, individual songs, an album or album under a band. Each option comes with different copyrights and fees. I havent decided what I'll choose yet, but it was still good for me to learn that I should take the copywriting process carefully and seriously. The copyright office website is helpful and easy to follow. I'll need to make an account through the Library of Congress in order to begin the process.

I also asked my aunt where she got her CD's duplicated, printed, etc. She emailed me the website of the business that she uses. http://www.sooperdooper.net/

I scoped around at the different design and prices. This business is definitely one I'll consider when entering the CD making process. 

RF Entry

RF Entry

I just got back home after driving 13 hours from Bloomington, Indiana where I completed my last college audition! However, I was still able to get work done during my stay there. This is a 'red flag' entry where I specify what I did and how much time I spent towards my project this past week.

Overall, I spent around 13 hours on my project this week. Most of that time went into songwriting and documenting my lyrics and chord progressions. I also had my first mentor meeting on Wednesday, in which I discussed with my mentor how I'll go about organizing my project over time and what each of our expectations were of each other throughout our meetings and project.

I've also been doing a lot of listening to artists such as Sara Bareilles, John Mayer and Allen stone to be inspired by lyrics and song form. Although each artist is so different, I am incredibly moved by each one's music and take aspects from it all to weave into my own writing.

I missed the RF class on Thursday because I was traveling to Indiana, but besides from missing out on that I think my work so far is good. I just need to start setting recording dates. This next week will be a test of my communication, organization and planning skills as I contact various musicians to settle rehearsing and recording times.

Silhouette,an album name?

So far so good. I am working on finding times and a space to begin recording. I've finished writing 5 songs that follow the theme of my project. I have also decided to name the project and album "Silhouette" because I've been writing lyrics that encourage us to look deeper into ourselves and others. A silhouette only allows us to see the outline of an object and symbolically I think the music takes you past that and into something more clear and meaningful.