Hmmm. This one needs more work…

While My Guitar Gently Weeps – Take 1

STOP PRESS

Don’t listen to this one. It’s horrible. Listen to Take 2 here:

UPDATE

Some recording notes.

As always, I did not set out to record a track. I was trying to work on the guitar lead but it’s hard to play the lead without backing. It’s handy to lay down the rhythm Garage Band and then play the lead over it. It took me a few takes to get the lead right.

I played as far as I know – just the first verse – and then decided to try singing the vocals using the mic from Guitar Hero. The first time I started out too high and it sounded crap so I tried again singing low. That sounded even worse, so I tried high again.

I always end up doing the drums last – which is stupid because by then I have already messed up the timing. If I ever set out actually record something, remind me to do the drums first. I tried doing Ringo’s dun-ker-chhhhhhhh-tuk rhythm but the drum kit did not have a chhhhhh sound so I did the best I could with the tools available.

Four tracks so far.

At this point,I was gonna call it done and upload it to my blog but it sounded really stupid with no intro so I started a new track to play McCartney’s piano intro. I haven’t hooked my midi keyboard up to the Mac yet (no cable) so I tried to play it on the screen keyboard. I couldn’t figure out how to make it play an octave so I decided to play it on guitar instead. My poor little fingers can’t quite stretch to an octave which is why the intro sounds so tinny.

You can’t have just guitar-playing-a-piano-solo so I added drums and rhythm guitar and played Clapton’s little intro lick. So that’s an extra four tracks for the intro.

I couldn’t make up my mind whether to junk the whole thing or finish it. But, since all I really set out to do was learn to play Clapton’s lead for the first verse (which I did), I decided I was content with that even though I came in a little late on that first lick.

I figure a couple more weeks and I’ll be able to play the whole thing.

Garage Band is great when you have no one to practice with but it’s easy to get distracted and start adding all the extra tracks.

One problem I have is that when I export the track to MP3 all the levels get messed up and it sounds kinda hollow. Anyone know what’s up with that?