Just1L

Or Engelbert Humperdinck.

I agree Topaz is a name that really doesn't need changing. My name's Randy Drilingas. Not gonna see that up in lights ever! (Even if I was good enough to have my name in lights) I go by Just1L because people ALWAYS mis-spell my name with two L's instead of one. My wife and I were talking about this just the other night actually. I came up with a new one "Little Chihuahua" or 'Lil Hua Hua' pronounced Lil Wa Wa. Ah, we're still laughing at that one.

I personally try to add as much as possible to the first production. Main reason being I rarely get to play at all and when I do I like to play as much as possible. I'll say I agree with Dave above about production being an art in itself. The current song I'm working on I spent about an hour tops doing the music (i.e. guitar, rhythm guitar, bass and vocals.) I've spent about 12 hours trying to get it to sound good. What really sucks is I STILL haven't made it sound good. On the other hand, if your actually talking about just playing one guitar by yourself and singing, I keep it about as simple as I can only adding a riff here and there. I will say whenever I hear a band play a popular song and it doesn't have all those little riffs and parts in it that I'm expecting, I always feel like they didn't do enough and I miss those parts. Which is reason #2 I try to add as much in as possible. The little things.

Took one of my songs and by trying to figure out how to use EQ while mixing, successfully turned it into electronic mush over and over again. 8 tries, each crappy in their own special little way. But I guess on the bright side...

Make enough money to pay off our mortgage. Then work part time and record songs for fun... kind of like I'm doing now but not quite as broke.

Mercury Blues - Meat Loaf

I think it's a great thing to learn. You can never learn too much. I'll say though that I don't think it will make you a better musician in the same sense that reading books on how to write lyrics won't really make you a great lyricist. Good things to learn and know on both fronts. But it really all boils down to the individual.

There used to be a saying "Don't praise the machine". Now that the machines have taken control over most of the population, it's more like "Don't forget to upgrade the machine and for goodness sakes don't lose the machine."

And that is the trick. Getting everything to work as a cohesive unit. I actually start with the music and the lyrics come out of that based on the melody and overall feel of the music. I will say that sometimes it takes a while to find the right words to say but they do always come eventually. I've had a song almost finished just waiting for a line or two to make it complete. I have trouble doing just the opposite as you described. Not always but I find it to be harder to match the emotions of my lyrics to music instead of vice-versa. I guess the main thing in this case is to really zero in on what you want the meaning of the song to be. Like you said though if it's changing from day to day it is going to be hard to come up with lyrics you're happy with.

This is great Mahesh. I love the video too. After watching all your other videos of you in your room it's great that you kept with the same theme for the video but polished it up. Really cool. I remember the first song I heard from you on another forum "On A Wire" I think it was called. Always knew you'd have songs on iTune one day. Congratulations!

This may be too big of a stretch but.... the clue can be found in the video. Oliver, Oliver. - sung by Harry Secombe in the musical "Oliver!"

I messed around with EQ and Compression on a song of mine so I can try to get better mixes and get the bass to really "thump"... and failed! Back to the drawing board.

LOL

Until I'm Dead & Cold - B.B. King 2 POINT BONUS!!

90% of the time I normally don't write anything down unless I do have a melody in my head. I basically have 3 methods I use. The first one starts when one line pops in my head complete with melody. If I like it, I actually build the song around that. Sometimes it ends up being in a verse and write others to match, other times it becomes the chorus. The next method is to find a cool melody starting with the guitar and see what kind of lyric pops out when I'm playing based on the overall feel of the music. I've also blindly written lyrics and then put the music to it afterwards. Due to my inabilities, that method is always harder for me. I've had so-so results as there are always parts that feel a little forced. When I do this I can always count on my lyrics changing to fit the music better. The only way I can tell if the melodies are any good or not is by posting the songs on forums and see what people think. As far as what I would change if something is missing... that is kind of an open ended question. I could change 90% of the song based on what I come up with for what is missing. I have a few songs that seem to have something missing and they're put on the shelf until something comes along.

Happy belated birthday John!

I Me Mine - Beatles

I wouldn't say it's "offensive" but it does look like you tried to use a really lo-res image for it all. I don't mind the image looking blurry as much as I do seeing the blurry typeface. I also think it needs some white space above the name. For me, seeing it so pressed up against the top kind gives me an "uneasy" feeling.

20th Century Boy - T. Rex

3 is a Magic Number - Schoolhouse Rock or Blind Melon

867-5309/Jenny - Tommy Tutone

Fly Like An Eagle - Steve Miller Band

Sadly, I don't have any time for practice nowadays. I usually learn and make up parts of a song while I'm recording. That being said, when I was younger and learning I would try to practice at least an hour a day usually more. I started playing in 5th grade and played as much as possible until I went away to college. It was really only once I was in college and still playing that something clicked and I really no longer had to think about what I was playing but just doing it. So it took a long time to get to that point. Could be I'm a slow learning though and have "carny" hands. I think a minimum of an hour a day is def a good start.

Gold Dust Woman - Fleetwood Mac

I have some theories and of course that is all they are. It will be back. It may be different than what we are used to at first. It will need to be eased back into the mainstream to get popular on the charts. I think rock evolved so fast in the mid to late 90's the ordinary listener couldn't take it. Heavy metal was hard for the mainstream to handle. Then when speed metal came out, I think the departure from Rock really started to happen. It's just not for everyone and in Rocks case, it wasn't for the mainstream listener. Kind of like guitar solos. They evolved so much from say Van Halen's solos to Yngwie Malmsteen that there really was no where else to go but down. All types of music evolve into something new as did Rock. Unfortunately it grew past the main stream and back into the shadows as far as mass appeal goes. While I'm in no way endorsing FUN., I think a band similar to them will be what is needed to ease it back into the mainstream. I don't think they are the ones to do it BUT they do have the Pop flavor that mainstream likes. They also add some Rock in there with the guitars but not too much and it is accepted. Expecting the masses to change from what they are listening to on the radio now, to straight up rock is going to be nearly impossible without something in there to bridge the gap. And when it does come back, hopefully you'll be able to buy my .mp3's on itunes for 30 cents a shot.