It is time to report on the progress of the song that Mack and I have been working on titled: “My Heart Is Silent”. We had the basic instrumental tracks in place and a rough mix finished and I posted it a few weeks ago. I added a scratch vocal track so we could get an idea how and where they lyrics fit. Soon after we let a few vocalists we know listen to the music and the idea we had for the melody line. The arrangement had a number of parts and we had to adopt the lyrics a bit and worked the melody to fit around the arrangement.
I will include a rough copy of the song with the vocals. A friend my wife knows came over to the studio to lay down some vocal tracks. She is not a professional vocalist and this was her first time in any studio. I know from many years of recording other artists that it is not as easy as it sounds. I try to be charming and supportive but it can be difficult to feel comfortable when the recording starts and you want to make it perfect. Ann did very well and she started to get the melody down and add a few flourishes. So knowing this is a first session and not intended to be a final take, here is the song as it was.
I say was, because each vocalist we talked to, and during our internal creative discussions, it became apparent that the lyrics and mood did not really match the music. After a number of talks we decided to scrap the music all together. Mack wanted another crack at it and took the lyrics – and our observations home to try to come up with an arrangement that better matched our thoughts and discussions about the lyrics and what we wanted to hear them with. As I mentioned, this can be a long process with plenty of changes and modifications along the way.
While we now have a pleasant instrumental piece almost complete, my wife and I will write lyrics to it (so all is not lost). Mack wrote a new piano piece and kept some of the ideas of the first version. We have been working on the new musical piece and I will share that with you in a week or so. We have a vocalist working on the basic instrument tracks and hope to have the new version with lyrics fairly soon.
MidiMike 
Hey man it’s coming along but you need some thrash guitars in there somewhere for my taste – still it be good to listen how it is evolving (my favourite word) and so I dig it. Take it easy Mike! B
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Funny, we kept saying the same thing about adding ‘power chords’ on a guitar! It is evolving and branching out from where it started. Not a completely new species, but a close relative! Thank you!
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It’s fun reading and listening along to how a song gets written. 🙂 I’m interested in seeing if I’ll hear the difference between the instrumentation on this version and the next.
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I am glad you find this interesting. Like many other fields, it looks easy or quick at a glance. We will keep some of the ideas in the new version and I am sure you will be able to pick out the changes. I have most of the instrumental tracks worked out so I will post version 2 soon!
Thanks for the comment.
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Sounds good. Nice behind the scenes presentation.
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Thank you. It is an odd process. Sometimes the song just falls into place while others need to be changed and adjusted over and over.
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Yes, I’ve had both experiences.
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I knew you would understand! We thought at first this one would just fall into place. Partly because everyone liked the lyrics and the piano piece was beautiful. We thought we couldn’t go wrong…….until we tried to put them together lol!
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beautiful song, Mike!
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Good top hear. Thank you for the comment. Now, where is my chalk LOL!
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That’s a great arrangement, with the strings again being the quiet counterpart to the piano. However, I think that the ride (I hope that’s correct) of the drums make the song unnecessarily hectic. Having them play on fewer beats might change that. Hopefully that comment makes some sense. Anyways, keep up the good work!
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Thank you! That was part of the concern that the music was a bit too busy for the feeling of the lyrics. This includes the hi-hat, rid and cymbal crashes. Easily solved but the whole arrangement needed to reflect the lyrics better. We may change these for the next version with new lyrics but you described it quite clearly.
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I’m glad I could describe it clearly. And now I’m really looking forward to your new version 🙂
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Absolutely. I think you may like the changes as they do reflect your observation. Coming soon!
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Hey Mike…I like the song but to be honest I didn’t like the female vocalist. The sound was high and I had a hard time connecting to her voice. I look forward to the next version:)
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Part of our discussions focused on the vocals. We could not decide if it would be better with a female vocalist or a make vocalist…. Then we thought a duo….. I wrote the lyrics so a guy singing about watching kids grow did not seem odd to me, but others thought it was awkward or strange. We are working with another make vocalist for the new version and will let you know how that goes!
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Sounds good! Looking forward to hearing it.
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We had a vocalist come over last night and got most of it done. I will post as soon as we have completed vocal tracks.
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Yay!!
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A real Yay because I am not the singer on this one! I have my range, but this is not my style LOL!
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Reblogged this on wwwpalfitness.
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[…] A Song in the Making Part III […]
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