Clay Anderson Johnson

I certainly will tighten the Bass line. My biggest issue is the second part of the transition not sounding "breathy" enough. The panting sound needs work. I am attempting to emulate a woman having an orgasm musically. I may research Pond5 for a sound effect.

A lot of Metal guitarists tune down to D. I've tried it but it did not give me the results I was looking for. Loosing the strings for bending is only an added feature. I was looking to darker the tonality more than lower it. Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile is an excellent example of using E Flat rather than E for that purpose. U2 also tunes that way for a more distinct, recognizable sound. Superstition which Stevie Wonder originally wrote for Jeff Beck is either in E Flat or A Flat, I don't remember which off the top of my head. Beck plays on Stevie Wonder's version as well as his own.

Thank you.

I am going to break a hard rule of mine and add this in an attempt to get in the spirit of things. This is mainly Bass and Drums but if you listen please go through the Synthesizer transition at 1:40. This will at least give you some insight into my creative process of how I craft a piece from the bottom up. I was planning to finish this today but got carried away working out this week as the weather was warm and slightly injured my right shoulder. I am fine but it dampens the mood for playing. These are the foundation tracks for Fever. I will probably also add some cymbals to the B section when I add the lead and support instruments. Fever.mp3

Very nice song John! Leave the dog in the Intro we are dog lovers 😁

Update: We watched Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World last night on Amazon Prime. https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B075F9QBW1/ref=atv_wl_hom_c_unkc_1_1 It leads off with Link Wray as one of the most important innovators in Rock & Roll. It features both interviews and performances. It also covers other Indian artists including Jimi Hendrix, Buffy St. Marie, and Robbie Robertson. ***** Highly recommended viewing!

Great advice, Greg! The PDF was done very well. A related matter is I tune down a half step to E Flat. I do this for three reasons. Many keyboard players like Flat or Sharp key arrangements so this works well with them. The slight loosening of the string tension makes bending easier and faster. The tonality is much better for differentiating your sound, especially if you play the Cowboy Chords also known as CAGE as opposed to Barre Chords. Regarding the last item, F Sharp, E Flat, and B are much better tonality for Rock music than G, E, or C. This change put them in the G, E, and C fingerboard range which is familiar to most players

I definitely have a very clear vision of what I want. This is the reason I don't post snippets or songs for critique only completed works. I was taught not to let other people's commentary destroy unity in my direction. Most of my wife's family are writers, artists, and producers in Arts and Entertainment. It was part of my education both from them and from college that self doubt and other people's opinions are most often your worst enemies. Only seek commentary from someone on the inside. For someone just starting out, who has no formal training, or are uncertain what they are trying to achieve this is probably not a good approach. Overdoing something happens often when given a multi-track recorder. My wife, who has a very knowledgeable ear, acts as my editor. She quite frequently tells me to take something out because simplicity usually works best. Overstating something with too much reinforcement is very easy. One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Frank Zappa, "Shut up and play!"

I know my desire to be a better person has its roots in my knowledge that I am probably not a good person in many people's eyes 😁

I would find it very hard to produce another artist using a DAW system. Not only is it more work intense but it would also place you in the position of possibly having to listen to the artist's opinions of what it should sound like. The artist would be the client not a record company. Traditionally the artist is just another member of the cast. Producing in the traditional method is very easy as it involves no actual physical work and everyone in the studio is under your control. No one would ever question your instructions. The best analogy would be being the Lord of Downton Abbey.

This is difficult because the two have involved much different skill sets. Acting as a producer for others my role was more as an artistic director and arranger who worked with an engineer in a studio. My job was telling the engineer what type of sound I wanted from him and then he knew how to create that sound from my instructions. This is the traditional role of a record producer in the classic sense. Producing myself is all inclusive and involves much more hands on work. This is the role of the producer in today's digital DAW environment. Another big difference is I always had backing players for the artist so I ran the band. I never recorded just one person as I am doing now (me). The band were given limited time to get it right (not hard) and the the most takes involved the vocals. So it is an apples and oranges comparison as the demands differ so much. The first was obviously much easier.

All the computers we have owned since 1999 are Macs so my heart goes out to you. My wife has to use a Del laptop with Windows 11 for her work. As a result I keep a pair of earplugs nearby for when she begins screaming and cursing at it.

Quite often there are musicians who are unremembered by the general public who had huge influences upon other musicians. One example is guitarist Link Wray who played instrumental Rock & Roll in the late 1950s. He is from the Mid-Atlantic (DC) area but is probably better known in Europe than the US. He retired in The Netherlands because of his popularity there. Wray was known for being an innovator of both the Power Chord and the Fuzz sound which was later reproduced electronically. He did it by punching holes in his amplifier speakers with a pencil years before Keith Richards bought a pedal to reproduce the same sound. His song Rumble was actually banned in several radio markets because its raw sound was thought to promote teen gang violence, Some people who have acknowledged him as being a major influence are: Jimmy Page Peter Townsend Neil Young (Crazy Horse) Iggy Pop You can find many of his songs on Youtube. My personal favorite will always be Jack The Ripper, a ripping song from a ripping guitarist. Who do you know of who was a major influence although relatively unremembered?

The video was a very good explanation of the Byrds but very much off base with the assumptions for both The Beatles and Bob Dylan. The Beatles themselves have said in interviews that their two biggest roots sources were The Everly Brothers and Chuck Berry. The Everly Brothers were a Rock & Roll band which sprang from The Everly Family of professional Country artists in Nashville. They were known for Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Susie, and All I Have to Do Is Dream which were all covered by Ricky Nelson. Everyone knows who Chuck Berry was. George Harrison was also very influenced by the Western style of what was formerly known as Country & Western which were guitarists associated with Bakersfield, California. Bob Dylan in his own words originally wanted to be the next Elvis Presley. He ran away from home in Hibbing, Minnesota and ended up in Greenwich Village in NYC. There he worked for Woody Guthrie as the babysitter for his son Arlo. This is when he was introduced to Folk music. Dylan’s change in direction came from being friends with Allen Ginsberg, one of the most famous of the Beat poets, and heavily indulging in amphetamine and marijuana usage. His move to creating electrified music came from his original inspiration of Elvis melded to the Folk music of Guthrie.

Absolutely! Too many people I have known believed some exterior force or causation controlled their ability to succeed. It was the market or the timing or getting a lucky break. It always comes down to using what you have in the best way possible through a planned method. Your presenter showed this perfectly that even a random idea can be methodically channeled to produce unexpected results.

Some people get upset with me when I say most bands which are democracies fail. I learned this the hard way through personal experience. I played in a band in LA in the 90s which was set to sign a recording contract with Geffen Records. Then the rhythm guitarist went to Rehab TWICE because he could not keep a hundred dollar bill out of his nose. Five years work went down the tubes just like that. If I had had control of the band before that fiasco I would have fired him and headed it off at the pass.

Welcome Michael. We have many things in common. It will be good to hear your commentary.

From reading the above it appears you do have a system which is based upon your personality traits you simply don't conceptualize it as such. Like myself you developed the system first. I then analyzed it afterward after reading more about personalities. What I was suggesting is for those who don't have a system in place, only some vague goal, that self analysis is good for learning your strengths and weaknesses. Always playing to your strengths in designing a framework makes sense. We both are planners, very organized, and methodical. We don't just let things happen haphazardly, we make things happen by direct action. Like myself you consider this a business not a hobby which might someday develop into more by busking, playing in a part time band, or doing writer's nights.

People do change from day to day and can even consciously change long term although the latter is often hard. The broader point is you can use your traits best generally only if you know what they typically are. To use a system you have to know the best tools available to aid you. Look at my set. What musical path would this seem to indicate working best? What was my system? Join the union, play sessions for unknown artists on debut releases, go home at night. It took advantage of being home oriented, focused, confident, agreeable, and being open to change and direction while also traditional. What am I doing now? It's simply a variation of the same thing I did before. The music I write is eclectic, but not experimental. It's based around traditional instruments using common music concepts of melody, harmony, and counterpoint, with call and response using heavy rhythm. I never used a DAW until last Summer so although I am open to change I probably am among the least experienced here at using one because they have been around for years while I only worked in a traditional studio setting. I played in bands when I was younger. I haven't since the '90s. My wife and I have discussed if I did by some weird twist of fate have some type of a hit whether I would be willing to go on the road to promote it. The consensus is probably not.

Socrates said centuries ago that the unexamined life is not worth living. Still self examination and introspection remain among the rarest of qualities. Most people define themselves by their locations, occupations, sexuality, or personal preferences. Other than that they move toward nebulous goals. You could think of this as, “I’m a Texas RE Broker who is married with a family. I love the Dallas Cowboys. My goal is to sell more homes than I ever did before.” This is completely different from, “I am an intelligent, extroverted person who is friendly and charming so I plan to use these qualities to build a client base which will provide me with a continuing stream of referrals.” This is systematic. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that using a system is more effective than simply setting a goal. If you know who you really are, it is much easier to establish a system to get what you want. Psychologists say that personality is made up of five traits: Extroversion, or how sociable you are Conscientiousness, or how self-disciplined and organized you are Agreeableness, or how warm and empathetic you are Openness, or how receptive you are to new ideas and activities Neuroticism, or how depressed or anxious you are. People tend to be happier and healthier when they score higher on the first four traits and lower on neuroticism. Most people fall somewhere in between. • For the first I love audiences but am happiest at home with my family. 8 • For the second I focus like a missile and refer to myself as the family comptroller. I do one thing at a time extremely well, I do not multi-task. 10 • For the third although I am opinionated and somewhat elitist I have deep empathy for people and love to help others. 8 • For the fourth I love change and to watch it happen but am not an early adapter as I tend to lean traditional in many ways. 7 • For the fifth self doubt is an unknown concept. My biggest fear is that too many people may not have yet heard of my work.* 1 * Stephen Foster was a mediocre songwriter but is remembered today as he shoved a copy of his sheet music into the hands of everyone he met. Where would you fall and how can you take advantage of these traits?

Welcome! There are some great people you can learn from. Most regulars are better in specific areas but are knowledgeable overall. I suggest reading everyone's profiles when they comment on your work or see them comment on others to get a feel of everyone's backgrounds. Critiquing others will draw more attention to your own work as well as be instructive. Like most things you get out of something in proportion to what you put into it.

You know how much I like your work Steve and this is my favorite of everything I have heard you do. It is in a class by itself.

Really nice! It's a good combination of vocal melody and chord progression. It fits thematically with the lyrics. I like the fact that you kept it simple in word count. One of my biggest irritations in lyric writing is people overstating an idea. Quality is the goal not epic length. Will look forward to the developed version.

Le Crazy Horse de Paris as I would like to have their cabaret show dancers perform to my music.

A cautionary tale which is related to the above post. The most talented songwriter I have ever met died broke because of his insistence on purity and not being willing to adapt. I will not mention his name out of respect for his family. He had a gold record. Early in his career he was compared to John Lennon in published reviews. He did a gig backed by the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He would not listen. I kept telling him “This is not the 1970s any more. No one will pay to hear this.” His last gigs were at restaurants and a writer’s night for donations. This was a man capable of producing material that could have him playing stadiums. His last years were spent living on the benefits from his wife’s life insurance policy and his daughter working two jobs. If you google his name you will get many hits from the life insurance ad about their policy saving his home.