Thursday 18th
I have decent piano and bass feel for NYC Sunshine. Need to figure out the guitars.
One of the worst scenarios is when you’ve played a song live, just with acoustic guitar, for a couple of years and then you have to figure out how to arrange it for an ensemble.. the one guitar was probably doing bass, rhythm and lead lines. That is too busy for one instrument in an ensemble.
So the guide guitar is not completely useless, but mostly it is.
Spend several hours working with steel string guitar getting nowhere. Eventually try the basic part on nylob strung. Works much better. Hone down the part, leave more space and then when it is working, I think.. record 3 or 4 passes. Make a comp of these.
The nylon is great for many sections but the zing of the steel strung is missing at times – so I will need to double track parts of the song with the Black Taylor.
Which bits remain to be established.
Try steel string in regular tuning (the main part is open tuning) as a counter part. Certain capo positions offer options – the high 8th fret position gives a mandolin type vibe which is promising. Record sketches. Nothing set in stone, yet.
That seems like very little achieved in a day. But the song has an identity now. Record guide vocal tomorrow to be sure vibe is OK. More weeding tonight, and lawn needs to be mown.