Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Why "99% Ineffective" is so darn lovable.

Title: 99% Ineffective

Recorded on: Garageband

Instruments: Accoustic Vamp 04
                    Accoustic Noodling 01
                    Steel String Slide 03
                    Accoustic Picking 21
                    Accoustic Slide 01
                    Elecric Slap 03
                    Funky Pop Drums 03
                    Headspin Long
                    Hip Hop Beat 03
                    Dance Floor Pattern 17

All of the 'instruments' are preset loops in the Garageband loop library.

For something that started out with no plan and ended as a bit of a mess I think this one worked rather well. I had done very little work with loops and I had not yet codified my "Three Rules of Songwriting" so I really had no idea what I was doing. Although this is one of my earlier songs I don't remember exactly where it came in. I know I'm out of order here, I'm trying to get to my songs in order. This one was written and recorded around the same time as, but after, both "Harlem Digital Nocturnal" and "Little Loudmouth," both of which are better songs by almost any measure. But despite the wandering of this one it still winds up fairly pleasing. 

Another reason this one will probably always be considered a "minor treasure" is that, unlike almost all my other compositions so far, it doesn't tell a coherent story. Now, the story could be linear, like "Little Loudmouth," or it can be more of a mood piece like "Harlem Digital Nocturnal," but you can clearly see in your head what is going on. Of course, there's always room for interpretation, but that's half the fun! This one starts off with a sort of lazy guitar noodling then goes straight into the plaintive steel string part, then the spare acoustic line, then it gets kind of busy. When the slap bass arrives I'm not even sure where I was trying to go with it, and the ending would seem forced if it for some reason didn't work so well.

I would love to know what story someone can get out of this one. 

In fact, since I can't picture in my head what story would go with this, when I move into making videos this one is not slated for one. If it winds up on my Youtube channel it will just have to be my logo on the screen.

Still, the reason I didn't abandon this project is because, and don't ask me why, it really does work. I can hear areas where I would have let some of the ideas play out longer and tried to build some tension, I think the payoff at the end doesn't quite deliver enough bang for the buck. But still, for all that it flows nicely and every time I listen to it, it carries me along the way any half-way decent song ought to.

I posted it to SoundCloud about a month ago. You can listen to it here. So far it has had 11 plays and no downloads, so it isn't one of my "biggest hits" although one person did "favorite" it. Thank you! It makes it all worthwhile! I hope you enjoy it!

Check you later...

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