Hey internet friend, welcome back to another weekly update post. If you want to just see the dog picture, click here. As I like to mention every week, Black Lives Matter! This should be a pretty short post, so let's just dive right in.
Over the weekend I spent some time working on the next "Dude" record. This is going to be another four-track EP, but this one I am going to release on everything but Bandcamp and Spotify. I recorded the drums for all four tracks, and the first song I finished the synths as well. Then I went through and wrote out the chord progressions with the idea of going from one song to the next. What I mean is that the last chord of the first song is the first chord of the second song. That goes for every track on the record. While the first two are based on minor scales, the second two shift to major scales.
If you haven't already guessed, this is another concept album within a concept album. It's going to be called, "Electro-Dudes 120", partially because it is another electronic album, and partially because every song is set to 120 beats per minute. I also reused one drum track for the start and finish of every song, with the idea of that one drum pattern tying everything together. Then I make the last chord of each song the first chord of the next song, and it continutes all the way through.
Part of the fun of putting restrictions on creativity is that it forces you to do more with less. I might not have come up with these ideas if I wasn't so restricted in what I could do. I am tempted to do one more no-guitar album before making one with guitars, but I still have not decided yet. While I like the idea of doing a trio of records with guitar, I am also considering a split album that is half-electronic and half guitar-driven, but I have to think about it more and decide.
On another note, I finished the lecture series by Dr. Hamming, and I am going to do a write up about it this week. There is much to say right now, but I will just note that I think it was well worth watching. More to come on that in the near future.
Otherwise there is not much to report. Been spending a bunch of time playing chess and video games. I'm considering starting to get back into playing Magic: The Gathering, although I am still on the fence. When I played last, ten years ago, it wasn't a very nice and welcoming game sometimes. In fact, some of the people that played made it not worth playing. On the other hand, I am really keen to help my kid improve in reading, and Magic could be a good way to do that. Plus, when you buy cards you can always sell them back later and get your money back (usually). I am on the fence but leaning towards picking up some cards in the future. I will let you know in future updates.
Well, that's about all I have to report for this week, internet friend. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a nice day and a great week. Cheers!