Soft Way

[LeonardScaper]

Couldn't sleep last night.....just one of those nights, I guess. So I got up and spent some time with Stella.

 

Got into a groove with C somethin' and F somethin' and tracked it.

 

Then I got to thinking about eilute1's thread about lyrics....and all that talk about the musical groove sometimes producing a lyrical groove....and this is what I came up with.

 

Old Stella Harmony...EB3 bass...Keys.

 

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7103734

 

Oh yeah....lyrics......

 

Got this feeling from my head to my toes

Don't want to talk about it

I'm afraid it might go

 

What I'm tryin' to say

Is I'm in love in a soft way.

 

Saw you in the market, just the other day

You looked so fine

I had to turn away

 

What I'm tryin' to say

Is I'm in love in a soft way.

 

Don't want to scream or shout

You know what this feeling's about

 

Stella

 

I see you in my dreams, I think of you all day

I know there'll come a time

When you'll be here to stay

 

What I'm tryin' to say

Is I'm in love in a soft way.

[ido1957]

Nice mix of sophisticated music and mellow lyrics. Good job!

[zildjian@consol]

pretty cool

[rsadasiv]

Great stuff. You have a sort of loose-limbed rhythm that sticks together really well without ever feeling like a lock-step.

[Sentry68]

This is a little jumbled instrumentally. The instruments are struggling for dominance, largely in the intro and outro. On the other hand, your voice is quickly becoming one of my favorites and I'm very envious. It works fantastically with your musical style- it's great mortar between bricks and stone, and congeals anything you put down into a valid song.

 

Lyrically, your main strong point is 'love in a soft way'. It's understandable and creates vivid pictures. The majority of the support lyrics are expected, still create the rest of the picture passably, but I think it could be tighter. I'd be very intrigued if the song were about a distant unexpressed love... someone you see around but has no idea how you feel about them. Just a thought.

 

Another beautiful song man.

[LeonardScaper]

Thanks so much to all for this listen......and the kind words.

 

Funny how these tunes come for me. I feel my style moving inexorably toward this kind of song and I'm getting the feeling that resistance is futile.

 

And special thanks to you, Sentry, for giving me some ideas for improvement.

[tbry]

Good work...you have a soft way with your song...it fits...

[blue2blue]

Very nice! I wasn't entirely sure about the key phrase ("I'm in love in a soft way") but after a few times through, one sort of gets used to it and buys in.

 

As others have remarked, your vocal seems to really work (and it's one of my faves around here, as well) and, like others, I'm kind of fascinated by what Ram called your "loose-limbed rhythm." It mostly works, as a rule, though sometimes it can kind of pull this way and that, just a little.

 

Do you start with a more conventional rhythm guitar part as a guide and then pull that out? Because when I listen to your tracks I find myself thinking, how would you go about building this by overdub? Where's the starting point? Where's the foundation? Your arrangements seem to hang together by what would have to be ESP if you were an ensemble playing live. Anyhow, by and large, I dig the approach.

[rsadasiv]

Do you start with a more conventional rhythm guitar part as a guide and then pull that out? Because when I listen to your tracks I find myself thinking, how would you go about building this by overdub? Where's the starting point? Where's the foundation? Your arrangements seem to hang together by what would have to be ESP if you were an ensemble playing live. Anyhow, by and large, I dig the approach.

 

+1. I have no idea how someone would sit in for one of your songs. However, I do enjoy hearing the results.

[LeonardScaper]

 

I have no idea how someone would sit in for one of your songs.

 

 

Any of you guys would be more than welcome to give it a try. Your place or mine?

 

It's an interesting point, though, because it has been a long time since I have actually had the immense pleasure of composing and playing with live musos. That may explain why these tunes have such a wandering tempo.

 

I always start with a soft click and I usually track an acoustic guitar first (most often Stella). Not sure about a 'conventional' rhythm track.......I'm a self-taught finger picker who only knows one way to play.

 

I generally follow up right away with a bass track and then shut down the click while tracking the other instruments to keep from getting things too structured.

[Nick*]

Wow...this is pretty wild. The rhythm is so weird....yet so good. The rhythm alone catches your attention for the whole song. And the vocals worked beautifully with this song. Awesome job!

[Floophead3]

I wonder what this would sound like with some percussion. It really has a very jazzy feel to it, so perhaps some brushes on the kit. I do think it needs a little more glue, it's a little too free right now. Perhaps some underlying synth layer or something to just solidify the tonal changes. As is this is really cool but it feels still incomplete to me. Great vocal though, did you come up with the melody first then the music, sounds it like to me.

[Boydog]

I can't add to what everyone has said so I'll just give ya a + 100

very unique

[LeonardScaper]

Yeah, this one has grown on me........wasn't sure about how to finish it up once the lyrics came around. Thought about drums and a pad of some sort......

 

Think I'll just let it be for a while and come back to it later to see what it wants.

 

Thanks so much for the feedback. You all have become an integral part of my songwriting these days.......it's really quite the collaberation. What a resource!!