Month: August 2014

Threnody Teaser

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25 second “Threnody” clip!

I will post the full song on here (and on my youtube channel), but not until the Pittsburgh Songwriters Circle officially releases the album on November 14th.  Check the calendar above for more info on the release date.  (Did I mention I added a calendar? I added a calendar!)

In fact, this may not be the final recorded version of this song, as I just learned of a local recording studio that has a baby grand piano.  The current version was recorded with Doug Wilkin of Wilkin Audio, who is a fantastic person to work with and who, I think, did an awesome job of making my 20-year-old keyboard not sound like a 20-year-old keyboard!

But he also suggested my album would sound better if I recorded at a studio with a real piano. I didn’t realize studios provided their own pianos. (That makes me sound kind of dumb, but I guess I never thought about it.)  So now I’m really excited to look into this, and you will hear more on it in the future!

In the meantime, look for “Threnody” on the Pittsburgh Songwriters Circle CD on November 14th! I hope you’ll stop by the release party if you are in the area!

 

Post-Graduation Plans and the Album!

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Even though most of my posts lately have been about the uber-traumatic experience of losing my voice, I’ve actually had a lot going on that I haven’t mentioned much. In July I finished my master’s degree, and this month I wrapped up an amazing summer internship at Shaler North Hills Library.  It’s a matter of waiting for my diploma to arrive in the mail, but basically I’m qualified to be a librarian now!  Woot!

Now that school’s out, I’m really excited to get working on my album!  However, that means the clock is ticking on my student loans. And that means I need to really focus on this album if I want to finish it before my savings runs out.

Thus I’m setting some goals for myself:

  • Spend at least 10 hours per week on a combination of songwriting/performing/publicizing
  • Perform live sets 3 times per month
  • Finish at least 7 more songs by August 2015 so I can put together a good 10-song album

In January I’ll evaluate how the project is going and make sure I can afford to keep it up.  I’m also thinking of creating a donation button for this website (GoFundMe wasn’t quite what I needed), so if you like my first songs you can help me record more of them!   And, whether you decide to donate or not, you can help me stick to my goals just by being here, since I can’t slack off if I know other people are watching! 😉

I’m hoping to finish the album before I (probably) have to move out of Pittsburgh next year. It will be something I can take with me and share where ever I go.

Threnody Coming Soon!

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The recording session has been postponed until August 28th.  My voice is mostly back, so for the next 10 days I’m focusing on getting “Threnody” back up to a performance-worthy level.  And then hopefully I’ll have a good song to share with you!

I have tentative plans to get a GoFundMe donation project going so that by this time next year I can have a full album to share!  I’ll keep you all posted as that develops.

Voice Progress

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I went back to my internship today. It was harder than I expected, but I managed to sing two songs and read a Pete the Cat book. Next week I was supposed to record, but I’m seeing if I can push that back. I still can’t sing “Threnody” the whole way through. That kills me a little bit, but at least I’m getting close.

There are so many things I want to record for you guys, but I have to learn patience. ❤

Getting Warmer

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I started warming up my voice again today. I can’t believe how out of shape it is. But at least it doesn’t hurt, and it’s refreshing just to be able to form tunes out of little nonsense syllables.

Maybe no Broadway covers for a while though. :p