songwriting « Guitar Gear

It’s That Time Again…

Posted in Guitars, Music, amplifiers, amps, aracom amps, gear, guitar, guitar gear, guitar lifestyle, guitarists, instruction, learn guitar, musicians, reason amps, resolution, songwriting, style, tagged amps, aracom amps, guitar, guitar instruction, guitar life, guitar lifestyle, guitar teacher, Music, musicians, new year's resolution, reason amps, resolution, RoxBox, saint guitars, teaching guitar on January 1, 2009 | 1 Comment »

I normally don’t make New Year’s resolutions. Haven’t done it in years. I’ve always felt there was something innately dishonest about making resolutions like “I’m going to be a better person,” or “I’m going to do something nice for someone everyday.” Not that those aren’t noble pursuits, but in a lot of cases, they demand [...]

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Gear for the Home Studio

Posted in GAS, GarageBand, Guitars, Home Studio, Music, Studio/Recording, amplifiers, amps, buying gear, gear, guitar, guitar gear, inspiration, instruction, mac, musicians, recording, songwriting, tagged GarageBand, guitar, Music, amps, recording, guitar gear, gear, guitarists, musicians, amplifiers, Home Studio, recording gear, mac on December 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »

There are different schools of thought around this subject, but I thought I’d throw in some of my own thoughts, since I’ve been at it awhile. Note that I won’t be talking about techniques necessarily, though I will include some tips and tricks… So without further ado…
First, let’s establish something here: You don’t need [...]

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Heading Into New Territory

Posted in Music, musicians, songs, songwriting, tagged Music, songwriting on September 19, 2008 | No Comments »

As part of my five-year-plan to be on the road touring, I entered three of my songs into the Song Door International Songwriters Competition. This is a big step for me as I’m crossing into completely new territory. It’s one thing to get acclaim from your friends, it’s an entirely different matter to have your [...]

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New Song: I Come To You

Posted in Guitars, guitar, guitar gear, guitarists, recording, songs, songwriting on July 20, 2008 | No Comments »

Just wrote this one today. While a love song, I wanted to be careful about the lyrics because it’s easy to get cheesy. But at the same time, I didn’t want to get really cerebral like Sting because I can’t do it as well - sounds way too formal and contrived, whereas Sting can [...]

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Layering Your Guitar Parts

Posted in Guitars, Music, Studio/Recording, Tone, guitar, guitarists, musicians, recording, songwriting on July 9, 2008 | No Comments »

I just read a great article on Guitar Jam Daily by Carl Verheyen (this dude has a really smooth style!) about the art of layering guitar parts in a song. Essentially, the article covers using a variety of guitars, and approaches when recording a song. For instance, using clean to slightly distorted guitars for rhythm [...]

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New Song: You’re Stuck With Me

Posted in Guitars, Music, guitar, guitarists, recording, songs, songwriting on July 6, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Song Link
It’s funny how the inspiration for a song comes. I started out writing out the idea of a song that evolved into a jam track that evolved into a completed song structure that finally evolved into a finished piece, replete with vocals and a guitar solo. For this piece, “You’re Stuck With Me” I [...]

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Song Update ~ Anyone want to collaborate?

Posted in Guitars, Music, guitar, guitarists, jam track, musicians, recording, songs, songwriting on July 5, 2008 | No Comments »

Just finished the complete song structure for what’s tentatively known as “Mr. Chunky” for the chunky twang rhythm part in the song. I’m looking for drums and bass for the song as I kind of “faked” it with audio loops for the drums and input the bass with MIDI. I posted a Jam Track earlier [...]

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New Song: We Are Called

Posted in GarageBand, Guitars, Music, Worship Music, guitar, recording, songs, songwriting on April 4, 2008 | No Comments »

I wrote this song based upon a passage in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus talks about being called into justice and mercy. The passage inspired me to write “We Are Called.” Note that the only amp I used was a Fender Champ 600. Using two different mics, spaced at different distances to provide a little [...]

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Creating a Demo: Lessons Learned

Posted in GarageBand, Studio/Recording, recording, songs, songwriting on March 11, 2008 | No Comments »

A couple of years ago, I called Tom Booth, a prolific Catholic songwriter and recording artist. I was seeking advice on the best way to approach putting a demo together of the songs I’d written for Mass. I wanted to know things such as how much I should budget, what players I should bring in [...]

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New Song: Love Will Set You Free

Posted in Studio/Recording, Worship Music, christian music, christian worship, recording, songs, songwriting on March 2, 2008 | No Comments »

Listen to the song!
I actually wrote this song a couple of years ago, and have played it live a ton of times since then. Don’t know why I didn’t record it earlier, but I think I was a little scared of the arrangement of the guitars - I needed three to pull it off, with [...]

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