RoughMix

The cast about how music is made.... I am working through my Palm Tungsten taking the rough tunes I have recorded there and finally getting them up to the podcast. I hope it inspires you to record your own roughs to keep track of what you are doing in your songwriting.

Shoutouts to listeners in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Herbelhausen, Germany, Rotterdam and thanks to many other places as well. Thanks so much for for listening!

As your New Years Resolution, tell 3 friends about RoughMix! Save 10% on your new http://GoDaddy.com domains with the code "blu6". Website: http://RuffMix.com / RSS Feed: http://feedburner.com/RoughMix Contact: http://cli.gs/BKContact Graphic: http://flickr.com/photos/soloflight/3109680631/ (Creative Commons License) Raw Data files for this podcast: * Mirage Wav file - http://cli.gs/RM-Mirage

The cast about how music is made....

* One take on the Palm Tungsten. All was made up on the fly. I can never state it enough, also to myself, how much can be captured by simply having what you do recording on the roughest of roughs, as was the case here.

Shoutouts to listeners in Guangzhou and Beijing, China; Dubai; Izmir, Turkey; Wehr, Germany; Hackensack, NY USA; and somebody near to Old Canton Road thanks for the listens, and thanks to many other places as well. Thanks so much for for listening! As your New Years Resolution, tell 3 friends about RoughMix!

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Website: http://RuffMix.com / RSS Feed: http://feedburner.com/RoughMix Contact: http://cli.gs/BKContact
Graphic: http://flickr.com/photos/soloflight/3109680631/ (Creative Commons License)

Raw Data files for this podcast:

* Mirage Wav file - http://cli.gs/RM-Mirage

The cast about how music is made....

* Two takes on the Palm Tungsten make up this episode as I write another Christmas tune. For another Christmas tune from me visit here: http://cli.gs/cligs/show/XmasTune1

Shoutouts to listeners near Sibu, Malaysia, in Singapore; in Kuala Lampur; scores of listeners in China; Voorhut, Netherlands and many other places as well. Thanks so much for for listening!

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Website: http://RuffMix.com / RSS Feed: http://feedburner.com/RoughMix

Graphic: http://flickr.com/photos/thiemadotcom/2166862913/ (Creative Commons License)

The cast about how music is made....

Recorded as I made stuff up without an agenda of anything. It was music in free-form - another tool in the craft of writing music.

Shoutouts to listeners in, Rome, Italy; Ankara, Turkey; Dubai; New Delhi, India; Chai Nat, Thailand; Canberra, Australia; Calgary AB, Canada; Lake Tarpon FL; USA and many other places as well. Thanks so much for for listening!

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Website: http://RuffMix.com / RSS Feed: http://feedburner.com/RoughMix

Graphic: http://flickr.com/photos/29348839@N05/2756086748/sizes/s/ (Creative Commons License)

I am not a morning person, but sometimes the muse strikes at strange unpredictable times. This episode of RoughMix, 132, was a tune that came to me early on a Sunday morning, hence the name "Sunday Morning Tune" for the episode.

It is a very short episode, intending only to highlight the idea of capturing the muse when it strikes even if it is at a time not normal to you.

I am of course eager to hear from you. For such a large audience it is amazing that so little feedback comes. This will work to your advantage if you send in some info. Keep it clean and focused and I am willing to add audio comments up to 30 seconds in length if audio quality is good. Go ahead and pimp your songs!

Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends!

Shoutouts to listeners in, Skipton, UK; Syracuse, NY; New Haven CT and many other places as well. Thanks so much for for listening!

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My wife had been out for awhile and my daughter was starting to complain about it.

"When will mommy come home?" was the question. So to distract and ease the delay I came up with a little tune which is featured in today's episode of RoughMix 131 "We're Waiting (for Mommy to Come Home.)".

It did not occur to me at the time, but this is actually a tool I use in writing songs - taking something current, happening at a moment and trying to create a little melody line around it. That is what happened here. The melody, simple as it is, was sung, then sung a bit more, each time becoming a bit more polished just because that is the way this works. The first bit was recorded together with my daughter. The second bit was the first attempt to capture this on the acoustic guitar instrumentally.

I hope that this silly little song inspires you to play with simple melody, and then see where it might lead.


Shoutouts to listeners in, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Putan and many other places in China, Baden-Baden, Germany, Lynchburg, VA and many other places as well. Thanks so much for for listening!

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Website: http://RuffMix.com / RSS Feed: http://feedburner.com/RoughMix

My daughter woke up today and the very first thing she said was, "Daddy, today we are going to see the Uganda choir!"

Sensing her excitement I broke into a silly song and a chorus quickly appeared. I decided to capture it on the guitar and played it a few times. I stopped playing it as I realized that I should actually be recording this for RoughMix or else it would no longer be rough, so here is the initial thinking on the tune.

In this episode I also deliver the promised live version of "Work for Him" with the caveat that the engineer did not get it, but I recorded it as a backup on my Palm Tungsten, and that is what you hear here.

A special shoutout to friends in Vimont, Quebec and in Brasilia, Brazil. Why not send a note on the site or a voicemail?

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A close friend was asked to give a sermon, and it was to be about having personal time with God, and about the difference between working for God and simply being with God. He asked if I might write a song for the event. This was less than a week by when the song would need to be done, so I said no.

Then later the day after I had an idea for some lyrics and I started to jot them down on my computer without having a single idea as to what music might be connected to it whatsoever. I wrote down the words using Google's online documents because I knew I would need to share the data with my friend and with the band if we indeed decided to do this. It also has a cool tool that allows for you to see the way in which changes are made to a document, so I can actually track not only what I did, but the changes made - a tool to track development that is of particular interest to RoughMix in allowing for a look into the process. [If you would like to view these changes send me an email and I can add you to the group that can see this.]

The next day (I wrote the text at a time too late to play music without waking my family) I played around with some potential music and recorded the roughs on my Palm Tungsten, and that is what I share with you in this episode of RoughMix 129 - Work for Him. There are two takes, and then a third will follow in another episode as performed with the band (if I can get the technician to get a recording that is usable from its premiere on 26 November, 2008.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adam10414/2639905843/ - Creative Commons License

Shoutouts to, Singapore; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Prague, Czech Republic; near Girona, Spain; central Morocco; New Brunswick, Canada; Southhampton, MA USA; Martinsburg, PA USA and many more. Thanks for listening!

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I was limited in my ability to record. I took this time to take a few minutes of solitude to record these thoughts (I was interrupted 3 minutes after I ended this recording.)

In this episode I have placed 2 roughs:

* Castle Ruins (which runs about 1:20)
* 1234 321

I am reporting more of the reality of songwriting. It is seldom clean and broadcast friendly. There is almost always more behind the scene than anyone knows.

Sponsored by: http://elephant-town.com

There is a constant danger of taking ourselves too seriously in all that we do. This is also true in songwriting. So it is sometimes a good idea to just go ahead and be silly, and that is what this episode, number 127, of RoughMix is all about.

I was giving my daughter a hug, and she had an unusual smell in her hair, so I told her that she smelled funny. I immediately realized that although I had not meant it so, it could have hurt her feelings, so I followed it up quickly with the words,"but I love you so."

I then went on to sing... "You may smell funny, but I love you so..." And so a song was born. A silly song, but a song nonetheless.

What you hear here is a short clip I tried to capture after we were singing it together. I added a bit of guitar just so it would get fleshed out a bit, so this is the first rough of the tune. It has the possibility of being one of those songs that allow for itself to be filled with all kinds of silly things allowing for a virtual lyric improv that will work well with kids.

In all honesty this tune is stuck in my ear (and my daughter's as well even when we want to hear something else.) So if you are not afraid of having the same thing happen to you, listen on...

Special greetings to my friends in Vimont (in Quebec); Tatsuno, Japan; Tianjin, China and Guarantá do Norte, Brasil.

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