Exit World Christmas EP Available on CdBaby

Yesterday I released my Christmas EP and it was titled just that. It contains the four songs that I have recorded the last few years. My intention was to include a new recording or two but due to an overlook on my part when I was completing the submission I did not leave the option to include any extra tracks. Thus, I had the option of contacting cdbaby so that they could make the necessary changes and waiting on them to get back to me probably after Christmas, or going ahead and submitting the album with only the aforementioned four songs. Which would you choose? I didn't want to wait another twelve months to do this so I went ahead and submitted what I had. I had a fifth song all ready to go but it just didn't work out for this year. By the way, I had to make this excruciating decision late last night even after sending cdbaby an email. I'm glad I did not wait for a response from them since they neither have responded nor will they till after it's too late. I guess my fifth track will have to wait for next year. So once again it's been a learning experience and I now what to do for next time.

Speaking of next year, I have already decided that I will spend all of next year making Christmas & seasonal music. Yes, I'm going to take a break from making my non-holiday music. I really like Christmas music and I hate the feeling of getting into recording it so late in the game. I don't know about now but in the past most holiday albums were released in October. I'm not aiming for that early but definitely November or early December. And the plan is to release two albums--one of original songs and one of instrumental classics. I know it will be hard to stay focused on Christmas music in the summer. Heck, it may be hard in a month or two when the world is fully back to it's pre-Christmas sentiment and it seems as though there never had even been a Christmas. But I tend to keep the holiday music playing for quite some time even beyond New Year's Day. And I have winter around me so that should help, too. I may start working on some new stuff as soon as Christmas passes this year.

Here is the just released Christmas EP on cdbaby in case any of you good folks want to make a purchase:

Exit World Christmas EP

2016: Year End Goals

Around this time of year, I usually write about my end-of-year goals for Exit World music. This year is no different except that I don't really have any goals. Well, nothing crazy like the last few years. I would really love to get a Christmas album out there (read: a 10-song collection), but it's not going to happen in 2016. Technically there is enough time if I put together some simple covers. But I like to indulge in my music and doing things quickly is not how I like to work on it. Next year though is a very real possibility. Let's just say that things have fallen into place and I am more optimistic for the coming year than I was for the current one. And definitely more optimistic than the tone of some of my other posts this year.

Last year around this time I recorded a unique version of "We Three Kings." It didn't take me very long and I was pretty pleased with it. It was an instrumental and that has a lot to do with my having completed it rather quickly. Vocals are a weak spot for me and not having to record take after take of lines and phrases saves a ton of time. What I am considering for this year is recording another instrumental cover. I have not written any new holiday tunes nor do I anticipate being able to write and produce one in time. In all truth though the two original songs I did make the last few years were started around this time so I could still do it. I'm not going to place a lot of emphasis on that though and just focus on getting a cover done. I am leaning towards "O Little Town of Bethlehem," as it's a song I've been wanting to do for quite some time.

In my previous post I wrote that I was considering not renewing to have my music available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. At this point it looks like I will keep it up for at least another year. Recently I was with some people and I wanted to hear my music through a new piece of gear. Not having my iPod on me it was really really convenient to be able to have them find me on Spotify and play my music from there. That was pretty nice. It was also pretty cool to have my music playing there and most people around not knowing it was me. And then seeing how surprised they were to learn it was me. I took that as some small sign that I should continue on. So I'm going to keep my music up and available for streaming and purchase.

I did not do very much musically this year. I guess that's nothing really out of the ordinary for me. Just about two songs, possibly a third coming, and a half-minute rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" which has been played a lot. It's really hard to accomplish a lot when you're working this alone and you don't always have necessary time & space to do it. I could easily become an electronic musician and put out lots more music but I do not want to go that route.

One thing I did do recently was publish a new song on Soundcloud & YouTube called "If I Told You." I had been working on this song for several years. You can look back on some of my posts from some years ago when I first talked about it. Well, it's finally done and it's one of my favorite songs. The recording quality is so good IMHO and it shows how my production skills have really improved tenfold over the years. It is so good to see yourself grow, not old, but in ability, skill, knowledge and expertise.

I still want to remix the song and just tweak it a bit here and there, but I did make a video and uploaded it to YouTube:




This was my pièce de résistance for 2016. Surely this song (in slightly remixed format) will be on my next album of originals. 

In the meantime between now and the new year I will try to churn out a new recording of an old Christmas song. I know many of these tunes are tired and overdone but many people still love Christmas music as do I. I'll just come up with a unique take on it like I did with "We Three Kings."

The State of Exit World Music

I realize it's a bit early but I am strongly considering not keeping my "Milestone" album up for sale on iTunes, Amazon, etc. The annual fee I have to pay to Record Union in order to keep it available on these platforms is not much, but as I never really sold much to begin with it's turning more into an unnecessary expense. To keep it available without having anyone buying it or any songs from it is completely purposeless. Of course, this means it will be taken off Spotify as well but no one's listening to it there either. I don't know how this will work with CD Baby. Probably will come down from there as well.

I released an EP about 2 years before "Milestone" and at that time I paid a one-time fee and it remains up for sale and/or play on all these platforms (minus CD Baby). By late 2014 when I put out the full album Record Union changed their policies and required an annual fee to keep the music up for sale. I do not know when they made these changes but I wish I could have had an advance warning. Not that that would have led me to release the album any sooner but it would have been a good heads-up and something to keep in mind. And even though the EP is not costing me anything to maintain for sale I may end up taking it down as well.

Why am I doing this? Well, one reason is cost as I mentioned already. But another is just coming to terms with the fact that this is really going nowhere. Not that I am going to stop making music altogether, although there are those low points when I do entertain the idea of just selling everything with the exception of perhaps an acoustic guitar. I haven't been doing much with music lately. And it's really a circular, compounding ailment. Why make music that no one is going to listen to? This takes much too much time and effort to just do it for my own ears. If I were a painter would it make sense to paint portraits and then keep them under my bed or in the basement or attic? What good is it if no one else can experience your work, your art?

It's all just too frustrating. People don't want to hear new music unless it comes from an industry-established name. If you're willing to do a cover by an industry-established name then you may get some attention. Otherwise there's no appreciation for the dozens of hours put into writing, recording & producing an original song. Granted, I allow for the general possibility that my music is not good to some people. But there is plenty of stuff that is not good being played on the radio and on commercials and on TV shows and in movies. There is plenty of music on the charts that is not good.

Seriously, I haven't even been writing songs or playing guitar much at all lately. I've probably lost all my callouses. And the truth is I don't even really care. It's not fun anymore and it doesn't matter like it used to. I am still going to finish up what I've been working on and do some more trusty old Christmas songs. I'll put them up on YouTube and soundcloud at some low-quality level just to discourage downloading. I'll save the high quality recordings for the few people who do appreciate what I do.

I have a Twitter account which I set up for my music under the name of Exit World, of course. You couldn't imagine how many followers I've had who are trying to sell me something, whether it's remastering my songs, airtime for my music (sounds like payola), promotion, etc. Basically the majority of followers I've gotten only want something from me in one way or another. I'm sure they haven't even bothered to listen to anything I've made. They find out I make music and then naturally follow me. The worst thing is that many of them follow for a day or two and then unfollow. That really is a plague over on Twitter, isn't it? Following to get you to follow and once you do they unfollow. I don't even bother anymore. I am also considering taking down my twitter account. There is no point to it. It's nothing more than a huge waste of time.

But I still have to pursue creative avenues of self-expression. I'm going to eventually start some other things--things that don't take so much time to do. Things that don't require anyone to zone in for 3 or 4 minutes. This is a visually-stimulated era and there is no denying that attention spans have gone south and permanently at that. I don't know how these things will turn out but one thing is for sure--there are some very busy times ahead!

Instrumental Song "The Way Home"

Some years ago I was just recording some ideas I had in my studio. I did some overdubs and left them as is for some future projects. This is actually nothing new. I still do this nowadays whenever I have ideas for new music. Well, I revisited that piece of music that originally was only acoustic guitar and electric guitar with lots of reverb. It just was just less than a minute long. But I added hi-hat, bass, piano and some percussion to it recently and I extended the song so it clocks in at just over 2 minutes. It's an instrumental and I titled it, "The Way Home." I don't know but this song has always had an on-the-road feel to it for me. And kind of a late 1970's soft rock sound to it. Perhaps even a TV theme song potential going on there. What do you think? Here is an abbreviated version I uploaded to YouTube. I had to edit it to fit the video:





Here is the unedited version that I uploaded to soundcloud:



I like how it turned out. I am considering putting it on the final draft of the album. Or I may just save it for my instrumentals album. Whatever the case I want to make it an official release.

I decided to work on this song even though I was not fully finished with "If I Told You." I just needed to take a break from that song as I was having difficulty with a small vocal part that I have now thankfully completed. The only thing remaining is the drum track. I may wait till I have another song ready for drums before I add them to this song. It's just way too much effort to set the drums and mics up for less than 2 minutes of playing time. At this point I will either continue working on that 10 minute song I started recording last year that is still without complete lyrics or I will move on to something else brand new. Stay tuned!

Work Song by Bobby Darin Bass Cover Tab

Someone recently asked for this tab and I was surprised to see that I had not already posted it here long ago. This is Bobby Darin doing a live-for-television haunting version of "Work Song" that features only his vocal over electric bass & drums. This is so much better than his studio version from years earlier.





OK, that's the song and now here is my video of playing bass along to it:



I have to make my usual disclaimer that in this video I did not play the exact same notes as in the song. As is usually the case, I take many of the ideas used in songs and then I add some things here and there. If I were to play the entire song I would have played it note for note. But since I only did a small portion I wanted to show what could be done with it.

This song modulates up a couple of times but I only tabbed out the part I played in its initial key of D minor. So you can play the same part when the song modulates by just moving up the right number of frets as necessary. Here it is:

G  :------------------|--------------------|-------------------|
D  :------------------|---5---5-6-7--------|------------5---5-6|
A  :-------5----5-8---|-8-----------7----5-|---5-8----8--------|
E  :--5-8-------------|---------------5----|-------------------|

G  :-----------------------|---------------5-7---|--------------------|
D  :7-----7----------------|---5---5-6-7-7-------|----------5-6-7----7|
A  :--7-----7---5----5-8---|-8-----------------5-|---5-8--8-----------|
E  :----5-----5------------|---------------------|--------------------|

G  :6-9-6---7----7-----|-----------7--------|--------------------|
D  :------7--------7--5|-------5-7---7-6--5-|---5-----3---5------|
A  :-------------------|--5-----------------|-----5-5---5---0-2-0|
E  :-------------------|--------------------|--------------------|

G  :------------------|--------------------|-----------------|
D  :-------------7---7|7-6-5----5----5-6-7-|7-5--------------|
A  :3-0-4-0-5---------|------------5-------|-----8--4--5-----|
E  :------------------|--------------------|--------------5--|

G  :----------------|
D  :----------------|
A  :3--4--5---------|
E  :----------------|


So there you have it. To you who asked for it, I hope you find it useful.

Rocky Mount Instruments (RMI) Electra-Piano

I love finding out what certain instruments I hear on recordings actually are. For instance, long ago, I remember hearing a lot of songs that featured organ, but on some of these very same songs the organ would take on two different personalities in terms of sound. On quiet passages it would be that smooth, pure electric organ sound. But during louder passages it was a shaky, warbling sound and I had no idea how that was attained. After all, I had only had some cheap synthesizers with solely that clear organ sound. It wasn't until I talked with a more experienced fellow musician about it that I learned the warbling tone came from using a Leslie Speaker with the organ. From that point I did a ton of research on Leslie speakers and found out that basically there were rotating speakers inside a wooden cabinet that when turned on applied the scientific principle of the Doppler effect in order to create that unique sound. OK, so I guess it's not just instruments but also effects that are meant to be used with instruments. Anyway it's exciting to learn new things such as this and today I learned one more thing.

There was a musical instrument that was used in several songs that I really like from the early 1970s. It was clearly a keyboard-type instrument and I kept thinking it was some kind of electric harpsichord. It was certainly not a Fender Rhodes nor a Wurlitzer nor an electric clavinet. As I researched videos for vintage electric harpsichords online and listened to their sounds I was not fully convinced I was on the right track.

Here is one of the songs I first heard this instrument on. It is right at the start of the song and plays throughout. The song is not in English, as it is a Brazilian song from 1972. Check it out:




Interesting sound, right? Well, today I decided to play one of the many LP's I have which I will be selling. It happened to be Bread's debut album from 1969 which I bought during my sole visit to the now-defunct, annual Mammoth Music Mart. I picked up 4 LP's and several cd's that day. But as I played the Bread album I pulled out the sheet with lyrics and credits and looked over the instruments each member of the band played. There was one called RMI electric piano. I had never heard of that before. I'm sure I looked at that sheet dozens of times before but I never sought out to discover exactly what an RMI electric piano was. Today I did, though, and I found a video of a dude playing one on YouTube. And it was exactly that sound in those songs!! I can't really pick out where it was used on any of the Bread songs on that album but I will have to listen again more carefully.

The interesting thing about this instrument is that it was fully electronic, using transistors instead of any electro-mechanical parts to generate the sound. The 300 series (which were probably used in these songs) came out in 1970 so the timing is definitely right.

Check out this video of someone playing this instrument:





And now one more of the songs that had the RMI in it:



It's not as prominent throughout this song as it was in the first song. It starts to come in during the latter part of the solo in the middle of the song. It is not to be confused with the Fender Rhodes which plays throughout the song.

So I'm pretty pleased to have learned something accidentally today, especially considering it was something I've been trying to figure out for quite some time!

The Jeffersons Movin' On Up Bass Line Tab

I tabbed out the bass part for "Movin' On Up," the opening theme to "The Jeffersons". The tab is of the way I played it in the video which may or may not be 100% accurate. If it isn't 100% accurate it is extremely close!
Here is the video:





And here is the tab:

G  :-----------------|----------------------|
D  :-----------------|---2-2-5-5------------|
A  :5------------2--5|-5---------4-3-------3|
E  :--------3--3-----|----------------3-3---|

G  :----------------------|-----------------10-/11--|
D  :---2-2-0-0-2----------|---2-2-5-5--------9-/10--|
A  :-3----------------2--5|-5---------3-5----------5|
E  :-------------3--3-----|-------------------------|

G  :----------------------|----------------------|
D  :---2-2-5-5-2----------|---2-2-5-5------------|
A  :-5----------------2--5|-5---------4-3-------3|
E  :-------------3--3-----|----------------3-3---|

G  :----------------------|-----------------|
D  :---2-2-0-0-2----------|-----------------|
A  :-3----------------2-3-|5--5-7-5-----3-3-|
E  :-------------3--3-----|---------3-------|

G  :----------------|----------------|----------------|
D  :----------------|----------------|----------------|
A  :----------------|----------------|----------------|
E  :3--1--2-3-------|---1--2-3-------|---1--2-3-------|

G  :----------------|----------------|---------------------|
D  :----------------|----------------|---------------------|
A  :----------------|--------5---5--5|5--------------2-2--5|
E  :---1--2-3-------|3---------------|--0-0-1-1-2-3--------|

G  :----------------------|----------------------|
D  :---2-2-5-5------------|---2-2-0-0-2----------|
A  :-5---------4-3-------3|-3----------------2--5|
E  :----------------3-3---|-------------3--3-----|

G  :------------------|-----------------------|
D  :---4-5------------|---2-2-3-3-4-4-5-----2-|
A  :-5-----4-5-------5|-5-----------------2---|
E  :------------5-5---|-----------------------|

G  :------------------|-------------------|
D  :0-0-2-------------|-------------------|
A  :--------2-3-----0-|----2-3-5------2-3-|
E  :------3-------0---|3-3-------3--3-----|

G  :-----------------|
D  :---------5-------|
A  :5--5-7-5---------|
E  :-----------------|



As with all my tabs, I sometimes choose to use fretted notes as opposed to open string notes. You don't have to do this. My purpose with these tabs is to help you know what notes to play, not necessarily where to play them. Sometimes the two are the same. Other times you have a choice.

Recording Notes

Monday May 23: Recorded a few 12-string guitar lines. This will take the place of the original 12 string track that was recorded to accompany the song in its entirety.

Recording Notes

Sunday May 22: Transferred celesta track onto the organ track. Did some additional vocal takes.

Recording Notes

Saturday May 21: Rerecorded the organ part I came up with yesterday. Drawbar settings 888000008. Tried rerecording a vocal part. Optimized song to save space. Song is virtually complete . Just need to add drums and perhaps fix a few minor vocal spots.

Recording Notes

Friday, May 20: Recorded an organ part for the ending buildup of the song. Did not come out just right so will do it over.

Recording Notes

Today I rerecorded the 12 string acoustic guitar part from yesterday. Did not turn out as I hoped. There were some buzzing strings on some of the chords. I may or may not leave it in. Also added some celesta sounds in the intro and middle of song. Experimented with adding organ around the end of the song.

Recording Notes

I have a log book where I'm supposed to keep tracking of any and all recording that I do just for my own reference. But I haven't done the best job at keeping up with it. So I decided I'm going to start writing some details here. If anyone reads such posts they will most likely find them quite boring, so feel free to skip over these and go to the more interesting stuff. I will not link these posts to the Exit World Facebook page.

Tuesday, May 17: Re-recorded some vocal lines

Wednesday, May 18: Not much time to work with today; tried recording 12 string acoustic guitar on the track that has the 6 string capo'ed acoustic. I am leaning towards going with the 12 string sound but the take I did today was unsatisfactory. Will try again tomorrow.

'If I Told You' Recording Progress

Well, I am glad to say that recording of "If I Told You" has been well underway for the last several weeks. Yes, weeks. I wish I had what I needed to just spend hours at a time each day to record. I know for a fact that I would have a lot more recorded work and I would get my songs done a lot sooner. Like the Beatles, who would get songs done in day or 2. This business of recording 90 minutes today, 90 minutes tomorrow and then not the next day is just not cutting it. But that's what I have to work with now until things get better. And they will.

Regardless, I have some acoustic guitar tracks down, some electric guitar tracks finished and that's about it. Next on the agenda is bass and some piano. May add some synth later. Drums eventually. Vocals still need some tweaking. They were the first thing I started recording and still not satisfactory.

Today I will try to get the bass down. I'm hoping that goes smoothly. I don't have any special bass part planned out for this song. If I can get it done today I will revisit the vocals and try to redo some parts there. I need to get the vocals down as perfect as possible. When you're performing live it's OK if you sound out of pitch here and there but on studio recordings there is no real excuse for it. Of course, I have a real excuse and it's good, too. My excuse is that I'm just not a good singer and I struggle to stay on pitch. So I have to do take over take over take over days and weeks even to get not only the right pitch but the right delivery.

One thing I have noticed recently is that there are a lot of examples of some out-of-pitch vocal notes on professional recordings by big artists. I don't know if that's just a case of me looking out for bad notes or if I just have perfect pitch, which I know I do not have. It does make me wonder though whether I should leave some bad notes in my recordings or just keep doing hundreds of takes till I get them right. For the most part these out-of-tune notes I have heard by artists are minor and probably not noticeable to most listeners.

To give you an idea of what this new song I'm working on sounds like, here is a video I made of me playing a demo of it:




Inspiration for this song? As I wrote before, it is influenced by early Bee Gees material. I was just playing chords and singing some lines over them and it stuck. For a long time the song went largely unfinished. Just before I started recording it is when I wrote a second verse and settled on the chorus. It's not a very long song, but I managed to make the recording into about 3-and-a-half minutes. The recording itself will feature influences from the Bee Gees (again), U2, Phil Wickham, Charlie Rich & Gordon Lightfoot. Some people may be surprised at the idea that a song could be influenced by a pretty diverse selection of artists. Others may listen to the finished product and not hear any Charlie Rich or Phil Wickham (provided they are familiar with such artits). A long time ago someone asked me who I was influenced by and I answered The Beatles. He then told me my music sounded nothing like The Beatles. I guess there is a difference between being influenced by other artists and trying to copy other artists. I realize that in most of my music I never really tried copying anyone else. As much a fan as I am of The Beatles I do not like everything they put out there. I took the inspiration they gave me from their material that I did like and combined it with inspiration from other artists and put my own touch on it to create my own unique music. So I didn't mind that this person said my music sounded nothing like The Beatles. I never really tried to copy them. Then again some people have said some of my songs do sound like The Beatles. Again, it wasn't intentional. However, in the case of 'Paperback Writer' I may make a song which is heavily influenced by it and we'll see what people think!

Anyway it is time to go do some recording. Off I go!

Some Bruce Wisdom & Back To Recording

I've taken a bit of an interest in Bruce Springsteen and his music as of late. It all began with hearing one of his newer songs, "Wrecking Ball," on a local public radio station. Though it's from 2012 I never heard it before. I was immediately impressed with the song as I caught the song just before the part where he sings, "Hard times come, hard times go," over and over again. That part was followed by an anthemic chanting set to a very fast tempo and the song ended in this fashion. I checked out  the song in its entirety on YouTube and I also watched some of the live versions. Absolutely great song!

After that I starting checking out some of his older music and was doing some reading up on his career, songs and album. Today I watch an unauthorized biography on him and in spite of all the interesting history and detail of his pre-career and fame, there was one moment that I took away the most from. He was asked if there were any regrets and his answer was that he regretted not releasing more albums. He was so much of a perfectionist that it took so much time to record and release everything to his liking. As a result there were a lot of years where nothing was released. The reason I took so much from that is because I can fully relate to those sentiments. Needless to say, I am no Bruce Springsteen nor do I have a catalog of music anywhere near his, but I realize that my own sense of the need for musical perfection has led to a regret of not making and releasing more than I have up to this point. I know that it's a lot harder for me since I work alone and I face some unique challenges that he did not. But I should have done more. And that is why I have decided I'm releasing another album this year.

At the moment I'm nowhere near being close to having an album ready. But there's time, hopefully, and I am glad to say that I have started working on my first new song of the year. I have begun the recording process and I'm trying to get the hardest part done first--the main vocal. This is another one of my Bee Gees-inspired songs as was "Call On Me" from the Milestone album. I'm going to try to get this one completely recorded within a few weeks. The working title for this song is "If I Told You."