acoustic » Darryl Gregory Music

CD Update ~ Writing Music

Sep 112011

Writing Music (on paper)

I thought that I’d write a short post about writing music. Not composing or songwriting, but the act of writing it all down on paper using traditional notation. It’s not something that is talked about in the songwriter symposiums or in a songwriter’s circle, but being able to notate music and hand a lead sheet to a fellow musician can be an integral part of creating a good performance.

I’m thinking about this now because I am in the process of recording my CD and I am about to invite other musicians in to play on some songs. Having legible lead sheets that make sense just makes the whole process go so much more smoothly than having nothing or some cryptic doodling.

I’m a trained musician – meaning, I went to a music conservatory and learned music as a trade so I have no issue with transcribing my songs; I’m fluent. But there are so many singer-songwriters that do not read music and have not gone to conservatory which is quite fine. But, I often wonder how they communicate their intentions to other musicians. Do they stand there in the studio writing letters on a piece of paper? Do they orally walk the performers through it? Do they make the musician sit at home and do the transcribing themselves?

Writing a lead sheet is really no big thing. But, the writer needs to understand a few basics of music notation: time signature, chord symbols, repeat signs, slash or rhythmic notation and perhaps a few other things like drawing a treble clef and the occasional drawing of a whole, half, quarter or eighth note. These are things that I teach to my 6-7-8 grade students in my music classes. So an adult songwriter should know about it presuming they had a proper public school music class… right? (That’s another article all together…)

So here I am. I just finished lead sheet #4 of 7 and will dive into #5 later today. It takes me about 20 minutes to do a lead sheet and I lay it out on my computer using a software program called Finale. I am only going to do 6 lead sheets though. Why not 7? Well, on one of the songs, I am playing all of the instruments and I do not need a lead sheet since I know the song.

It sounds like I’m contradicting myself. Darryl, are you saying that you do not always have to transcribe your songs? Nope! If you’re playing solo and you have the lyrics written and just write the chords over the lyrics to help you remember, that’s cool. Or, what most people do these days: record it on their smart phone.

But, if you’re going to hire me or some other professional musician to come in and play for you, I expect a decent lead sheet. I don’t want to have to sit there trying to figure out your song from a description, your chicken scratchings of chords (assuming they are even the correct chords – did you transpose the key because you use a capo?) or the recording on your smart phone.

I guess a lead sheet is just common professional courtesy. Are you a professional?

The CD Project ~ an update

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Aug 062011

It’s been a while since I’ve posted something about the new CD and I blame Congress. Well, everything is Congress’s fault these days, so why not blame them for this as well?

I look back on the posts that have been about this new CD project and the funny thing is that NONE of the songs I’ve mentioned in the the previous “Diary…” posts are on the CD line-up. This album has take a turn for the dark country ballad and will probably go down in history as marking my black and blue period of songwriting. I found myself wanting to tell stories about about the things that form our chains ~ the chains that bind ~ and the heaviness of this life. Since the last post, which was on June 6, I’ve written three new songs specifically for this CD and one of those songs was inspired by the working title of the CD: Big Texas Sky.

So, where do I stand as of now? I have the first draft of the songs recorded and on a demo CD that I am listening to and will use for musicians that will come in to record specialty parts. I need to fill out the instrumentation with a pedal steel, fiddle and some piano; all of which I do not play very well. Also, I think I would hate to produce an album that had only me playing ~ a kind of musical masturbation… ewww. The biggest hurdle that I’ve crossed thus far is deciding on the track list. I did a lot of internal wrangling about how many songs I wanted to place on the album an decided that I should limit the line up and release a shorter set. The track list stands now at 7 songs: a little more than an EP, but fewer than what constitutes a modern full length album. When one looks back at the album from the vinyl era, 7-9 songs was an album!

So as a sneak preview of the CD, I will let you look at my mock-ups of the cover and the back. I will hand these over to a professional graphic artist as a starting point and hopefully they will improve upon the ideas. In the mean time, let me know what you think so far.

Front Panel

Back Panel

FAWM ~ Song #3

Acoustic/Groove/Folk, FAWM No Responses »

Feb 212011

February song number three!

Here’s a song about a person who, when things are going good, blows it all to hell because that’s what they are used to. We all know these people. We root for them to succeed, to get into a great relationship, to find a good gig, but when they do, they screw it up somehow. But the real kicker is that they seem to like to wallow in their confusion and pain – AND they want you to participate.

This video was shot at the Reid-Higham House Concert on February 19, 2011. What a great evening that was: good food, Gwenann’s art and me getting to perform for a great crowd!

This was also the premier performance, so give me some feed-back!

She Didn’t Feel Right

She didn’t feel right
Unless she had a broken heart
Love was a word
She could only guess at
Everything was good
Until it started being good
Then she’d bite and claw
Just like a cornered wildcat

She was a tornado in the desert
She was confusion in a pretty dress
She was afraid of being still
And listening to her awful mess
As soon as she was riding the smooth road
She’d reach for the dynamite
Unless her heart was in pieces
She didn’t feel right

She wanted the perfect life
They sold her in the magazines
A car, a house, some kids
And a man to love her
But as the pieces fell into place
She’d throw the puzzle to the ground
The walls closed in she felt trapped and smothered

A sunny day was so blasé
She needed clouds, she needed rain
Peaceful prayer, so damned rare
More satisfying to complain

Set Lists ~ Planning Ahead to Shape Your Gig

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Feb 132011

Set Lists

I’m about to play a house concert and I’m starting to think about which songs I would like to play. This concert will be for some people that I already have played for and also for some people that I’ve never played for. It will probably be a group of people that are my age (mid 40s and up) so I need to choose my songs carefully so as not to alienate anybody. I want the evening to start off fast, have a smooth part and end up with some fun songs so I can need them happy and wanting more.

What I’m talking about here is creating a set list. This is the guiding list that musicians use so they know which songs they are going to play and in what order. A set list comes in handy when preparing for a show because then you know what to practice. It’s also good to know the audience that you’re going to be playing for so that you can construct a set list that will make the audience more engaged in your show.

I find that the more songs I have to choose from, the easier it is to create an effective set list. But also when you have a large grab bag of songs to choose from, it’s hard to choose which ones you want to play. You say to yourself I want to play them all – I want to play this one, I want to play that one, but in the end you have to choose and that makes it hard.

When I’m playing a venue that affords me the time to play, like two hours or more, then I might go in without a set list. I may have an idea of what songs I’d like to play, but because I have such a large amount of time and the audience may turnover, I tend to pick and choose in the moment.

Whatever the case it’s always good to have a set list – at least to know which songs you might be playing. So here’s my set list for my upcoming house concert. Now all you have to do is just show up to the concert and see how it works.

What do you do – just show up and play? or do you plan ahead?

Set List for House Concert – 2/19/2011

Drivin’ In – uptempo
Halfmoon Road – backbeat
Aunt Jean’s Piano – med tempo
A Southern Man – ballad
Hold On To Her Heart – peppy love song
Too Many Kids In This House! – humorous blues
Steel Mill Town – ballad
Count On You – cute & short
If You Could Read My Mind – ballad – cover song
These Days – uptempo semi-humorous
I Want To Fall In Love Again – novelty, uke
Where You’re Supposed to Be -
One – cover song
My Blue Sky – up tempo – serious
Hillbilly Backyard – humorous blues
Red Haired Woman – rocker

Adding Another Song To The List

Acoustic/Groove/Folk, Blues Songs, Diary of a New CD, New Songs, Songs with Video No Responses »

Jan 182011

I’m still not satisfied with the list of songs I have for the next album. I really feel as if I need a bunch of songs to choose from so I get it “right” (whatever that means) and therefore I just keep on writing.

I finished the first draft of this song recently after going back over some journal writing. I had written an entry about having a house full of kids after a visit from my son’s cousins and some neighborhood friends. There were kids everywhere in the house and so my journal entry was centered around having too many kids in our usually peaceful house and what they might do to destroy the place and my sanity.

This is a great ‘live’ song and works well to break up a set of more ‘serious’ songs. I always get tired of the singer-songwriter who has nothing but breakup songs or political songs or angst driven songs… You gotta laugh a little during a set.

So this is a video of the first performance of “Too Many Kids In This House”. I feel the lyrics still need a bit of tweaking and it might be a tad long winded, but the message gets delivered and the audience really connects so the elements are in place I just need to refine. This was performed at a friend’s birthday bash (slash) house concert and the crowd really got into it as did the kids that were there (as you’ll see).

“Too Many Kids In This House!”
performed 1/15/2011