Burning the Midnight Oil HNT

I've written a lot over the past couple of weeks about how busy August has been. I'm just not sure how I underestimated exactly how busy it would be. I am SO burned out on writing music... I never thought I'd ever say that. Maybe it's the combination of that and the rehearsals we're having to have. I don't mean to say that they're bad--I love working with these guys. I've worked with almost all of them in the past. But it's not the old band. The band over there in the sidebar (towards the bottom). We put in over 11 years together, and after that amount of time, we instinctively knew what each other would do, how we would play, and how we'd communicate with each other while we were playing. Knowing what a simple eyebrow lift or specific jumble of words meant. Things that only come from spending so much time together.

But this band is different. I find that we have to work harder to make things work smoothly. It shouldn't have to be this hard. It's not that we don't have the players/singers. It's that we don't have that same unspoken communication with each other. It's coming slowly, but it's frustrating at times.

When I signed on to play in this band, I assumed I'd have to write some horn arrangements. I didn't anticipate necessarily needing to make them so concise that silent communication wouldn't be necessary. Whereas the trumpet player and I played together for so long, the sax player (who normally is the only horn player in any group he's been in) just isn't used to having to sound like a section player. He's getting there, and I think he's working harder than he thought he'd have to, but it's a learning process. But by God...give him a solo, and he's great!

So my past few weeks have been spent in front of my computer putting music together. Then over the weekend, my software went wonky on me. Short story, as you might have read earlier this week, is that I had to resort to writing by hand. Eek! Need to get someone in here to rub my hands after a session of that! Fortunately, I have a six-year old version of the software on my laptop (which means re-learning all sorts of things about the program). But I can't really do all this while sitting in my recliner, so I've moved to the space in front of the desktop computer, pushing it back and out of the way. I've even moved my mouse over to the laptop, just to make things easier. Perhaps the desktop will see how it's supposed to be done. This is the view it has, watching me work with the older, more mature version. Hopefully it learns something!

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"...For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils."

"Daffodils" ~ William Wordsworth

This pensive flower will be revealed late Thursday afternoon. Be sure to come back to see who it is!
This week's MG is Dafs, from over at Night Moves! She's fairly new to HNT, but eager! She generally posts hers on Thursday nights, so don't be alarmed if you don't see a new HNT. Feel free to go back a few posts!

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Lots of people over at "...the Other HNT" this week! Definitely NSFW, if you care about that sort of thing...

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Perhaps the desktop is plotting its revenge on me. I emptied the trash on the laptop's desk the other day. I'm not sure how I did it, but I suddenly gained over 6GB of room on my hard drive! And then I found out why. I emptied my entire iTunes library! The good news--I still had my iPod synched with it, so I didn't panic. Though I didn't have the absurdly large amount of Christmas music on it. I'm not so concerned about that. I did an iPod-to-iTunes sync last night. (side note--it's not a cut and dried process! always read up on how to do it, or you'll lose everything!). So now I've got my music, but I don't think they're in the right place on my drive. It all plays, but something's still not right. And I don't have the time to fool with it now. I totally blame the desktop...

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And for something totally different...you may have seen this on the news. For those who remember, it's sort of like an old Spike Jones bit!