Last weekend I recorded a quick vocal performance and then spent the week making it work in two different tracks.
I like the rawness of the version above, then it was surprising how much the arrangement in the version below changed the tone of the delivery but I went further with edits and going pop.
The Junto assignment this week is to "Interpret wood grain as a graphic score."
Funnily enough, wood grain has been a motif in my household in recent weeks.
My son and I brainstormed a short story idea about someone reading the rings on a slab of timber used as a table.
The River Red Gums in our region are long-living trees and often prompt my pondering about watching centuries pass.
Over the years I've used the image of these trees and the rings as a record, so it wasn't difficult to interpret wood grain except to keep the idea to a graphic score.
Here is an earlier recording of a River Red Gum.
The Junto reminded me of the musical squeaks of my drum stool, so I set about loading up a bunch of samples and then put a bassline to it.
Then I got cold feet and re-read the instructions and wondered if it really considered other studio furniture.
Anyway, I woke up in the morning and wanted to honour the squeaky stool.
Apparently these tress have been introduced in the last 30 years, but require more rainfall a better quality soil than is generally available in our landscape.
However, I know the peachy quality of morning light and often appreciate it in the bathroom, so I made a track to give a sense of that ambience.
The Junto assignment this week is to "Interpret a routine public sign as a musical instruction.
Step 1: Think about signs you see near where you live or work, the sort of routine public signage one generally takes for granted. Consider in particular signs that, unintentionally, are open to broader interpretation than might have been intended.
Step 2: Choose a sign from Step 1.
Step 3: Willfully interpret the sign you selected in Step 2 as a musical instruction of some sort.
Step 4: Record a track in which you follow the musical instruction you inferred in Step 3.
I thought about my drive to work and remembered the sign for ducks near the McCaughey Park in Yanco.
This ducks crossing sign is one that I remember first seeing when I went to university in Canberra and later incorporated into this video I made after becoming a parent.
The ducks suggested a delay, as they lined up with smaller ducklings as the decay.
So I took the track that I'd been playing with and edited the ukulele part to a series of snippets, making it the mother duck.
Then I found a delay after looking around in my effects.
Most of those I have at hand emulate analogue tape-based delays and this called for an effect more like a digital delay.
