Modern Game 4 Lyric Videos, Argus v1.61

Yesterday, bought more wood for shelves part 2, plus some for a future wardrobe.

Mixed the new Modern Game a little, making important changes. Most of the changes are movements from the bass, adding or enhancing higher frequencies. I also prepared for more vocals, for the last track 'The Trees', although today I realised that I'll have to re-record the vocals for the B-Side to 'Masculinity Two' too, a strange and fear-laden song called 'The Games Played As Children'.

Today, a long and often frustrating day creating the overlay text for animated lyric videos for these songs. I wanted to get the basics of the subtitles for every track. It's past 7pm and all are just about finished, apart from those two tracks that need new vocals. The subtitles were complicated by the fact that the three extant music videos are 30 FPS, when I now typically animate (and create the subtitles) at 25 FPS, so three of the videos had different timing and different frame numbers. A change I made to the last version of Argus also stopped my ability to split up the Set Modulator events, so I re-added the feature and therefore updated Argus to v1.61.

I've generally felt cold, weak, ill and anxious to the point of despair; yet used this as an incentive to work as steadily as ever. I like these songs more and more, even though I've heard them thousands of times, and it's important that the words and meanings, their art, is shared as best I can. So, the job of making the videos is, I think, necessary, so the faster I can complete this necessary job the better.

Other jobs on this album are those new vocals, and the lyric overlays for those; new cover artwork; updating the lyric booklet (one word has changed in the lyrics, and some capitalisation, I even spotted a glaring error); a new iTunes Digital Booklet; mastering and final balancing; dividing the tracks; admin and registration of the new works; final videos created, compiled, uploaded.

The last of the Electric Sprout songs should be coming very soon, so I must also master that. My hopes of remastering or re-recording The Myth of Sisyphus this year are perhaps overly ambitious, especially as I need to transcribe the sheet music for that. I must also complete the new shelves this month, and perhaps a painting for the Nantwich Open Art Exhibition... and I'd hoped to record some audiobooks and perhaps work on a new book.

Onwards we battle.

Binary Quantum Gravity

I've been thinking about some issues regarding gravity, and the need for gravity to be quantised, not for reasons of unifying any current laws of physics, but due to philosophical problems with classical gravity.

For gravity to operate, the curvature of space at every point needs to be stored. Mass shines out its existence at the speed of light with a ray of communication. Some points of space are more curved than others, depending on the strength of the gravity, but in essence this 'strength' is a simple result of the density of the rays emitted from the massive object. Let's assume these rays are streams of particles, the so-called graviton.

In classical gravity, this curvature of space can vary smoothly; sometimes shallow, sometimes steep. I presume that in a place without mass, space would be flat.

Space must be divided into tiny cells, grids, which store information like this. If not, there would be no sense of scale, no root, things would slide to infinity. Classical gravity has this problem, quantum mechanics does not; and the quantum must be correct. There are no infinities in the universe. One infinity would create another, and quickly and infinite number of infinite everything. If we find or need infinities, we, I submit, are wrong.

So, space is divided into cells which store information on the curvature of space into time. What sort of value is this? We may imagine it's a variable quantity, a 'steep' curve, a 'shallow' curve, no curve, an 'infinitely steep' curve. If this were the case then what value is the curvature of space on the boundaries between cells?

Thinking of this reminded me of the problem of dithering a sound wave into a low-bit resolution. I've written another piece here about audio dithering and quantum mechanics but I'll recapitulate. When digitising a smooth wave, we can assign a value to the nearest number that the wave amplitude corresponds with, sort of like fitting the wave into a series of boxes and choosing the nearest box to the current amplitude. See here:

Were are converting our nice smooth wave into 8 bits of digital, the 8 boxes on the right. Value 1 is exactly in the centre of the box, so that's perfect for the top box. Value 2 is not in the middle of a box, but it has a nearest box, so we put it there. Value 3 is on a boundary though... which box do we put it into?

We can choose top or bottom consistently, but there's something not quite right about it, because the reality we are trying to represent is that the sound is half way between, not in one box or the other.

The solution to the problem is dithering. We choose a random value, roll a dice so to speak, and 50% of the time we choose the top box and 50% of the time we choose the lower. For Value 2 we choose the upper box most of the time, but sometimes choose the lower box. This random value doesn't add 'noise', it makes the results more accurate; and quantum mechanics does the same thing. Dithering in this way is how and why quantum mechanics can be both accurate and random, and how it can avoid infinities by using random values in a digital arena.

Gravity must do the same, because without it any storage of analogue information on a cell-by-cell level would create inaccuracies across the cell boundaries. So, the curvature of space must not be a variable quantity, but a binary one. At each cell of space, space is flat or infinitely curved; that is all. What do we mean by the curvature of space, and flat and infinitely curved when we have already railed against infinities? General relatively shows that spatial dimensions are curved into the time dimension. Objects move fully in space, and the faster they move, the slower they move in time. At the speed of light, an object is moving fully in space and not at all in time. Stationary objects are not moving in space but moving fully in time. As an object accelerates, its movement through time decelerates.

This seems like a smooth, analogue process, but I postulate that it is not, that it is merely two extremes. At every point we either move fully though space at the speed of light, or move fully though time and are stationary. These are the only two values for the curvature of space: zero and one. Thus the map of the spatial curvature of our solar system is not smooth, analogue, and 'greyscale', but black and speckled with white. Compare these two photographs:

The latter is a binary image of the former, it uses only black and white dots, yet from a distance, the level of grey can be inferred due to random scattering. It is in this way, I postulate, that the curvature of space is stored. Objects which move though this space move, on a per-particle basis, fully through space or fully through time, but on average, it appears that the whole object is gliding through space-time in the correct proportions.

Problems regarding infinite spatial curvature in the centre of black holes vanish; objects are either stationary or moving at the speed of light. Everything on a quantum level is only doing either of these, and in our macroscopic experience changing rapidly between the two to produce the illusion of something in between.

Looking for a Lover Version 4

Two days of work mostly on The Modern Game. Recorded new vocals for 'Looking for a Lover' and 'Coming Back to Earth' yesterday, as well as Deb's vocals for our Christmas song, and have added all of these today. 'Looking' was always a bit of a production struggle. I always thought of the song as a Thriller-era Michael Jackson song, so I wanted some staccato-style vocals, but these carry a limited tone. The first two versions of this song used relatively normal vocals throughout. Version 3 used band-limited vocals with a scratchy telephone sound, which sounded rather nice. The new version uses a bit of both, and the fourth verse doubles up the vocals in octaves for a time, then breaks into the higher pitch before the chorus.

'Coming Back to Earth' by comparison is very similar to other versions, but does benefit from new, richer vocals for the plain verses, and better bass balancing.

I've also tweaked the mixes on all tracks. 'Beyond Mars' has higher pianos. I have a book on mixing. The most useful tip, the only useful tip in the book, is that all mixing desks have a high pass (bass-cut) switch and that most tracks are high passed. They cite a piano as an example of what not to high pass, which is terrible advice. Pianos and vocals are almost the only things that are always high passed. Every piano on a rock or pop song is twinkly and pushed into the high frequencies. A natural classical piano is quite muffly most of the time, and fits very closely within the frequency range of a voice, which is why it's best moved up, even the bass notes are high passed; if not especially so because they can so easily boom.

All songs are now finished apart from 'The Trees', which needs new vocals, and the final mixing and mastering. This is only the first half of the remaster; the new art and new lyric videos will probably take longer than the music.

I'm unhappy with my CD shelves, which are drooping in the middle by about 9mm. A shelf should be considerably heavier than the weight of the objects on it; this rule is one I've only just made and discovered after making these. Well, version 1 of everything is always, and should always be, about learning. I can re-use the screws, fittings, and everything apart from the wood, so a second version of the shelves is now in planning.

Modern Game 4 Recording

Things feel bleak at the moment. The economy seems to be depressed, even considering this is a traditional annual low. I feel hounded by requests and favours. I expect things come in waves, so can hope for some glimmers of success. Christmas Tails is getting some nice publicity courtesy of local journalist friends, so this is one positive. Andrew send me his tune for the album today. On the face of it it's a simple rendition of 'O Little Town of Bethlehem', yet, as in all of his music, he's managed make it full of fun and joy.

Another glimmer is my singing. The most recent, third, Modern Game re-recording was at the start of 2022. I recorded new vocals for 'Love in a Hopeless World' and 'House of Glass' today and am astonished at how much easier I found the process than before, and how much instantly better the results are than those of a mere 3 years ago. So, 3 years can be a long time.

I will keep some of the old vocals. The distorted rock vocals in 'Coming Back to Earth' are fine. The hard part now is the general mixing, which is down to the complex and non-standard arrangements with many of the songs. 'Two Kinds of Animals' has huge quiet bits, then an explosion of sound effects, vocoder megaphone speech, and other things which can't be 'mixed' in a true sense, so these sections can throw off checks of global balance. The pop songs like the two I recorded today are much easier; most were broadly fine but benefitted from less bass and a few more high pass filters.

In bleak times or times of plenty we must work just as hard, steadily heaving our rock.

Last night was the television joy of Celebrity Traitors, a rare example of a contemporary programme I've watched. In this case, Deb and I watched it all together over the weeks. It was a gripping series, and genuinely moving to see Alan Carr win.

Tonight is the preview of the Castle Park Open Art Exhibition and Colin from Galleria Balmain should be there, which will be nice. I must sell a painting here, and if so it will be 'Song of Experience'...

Now, I must attend to my outfit.

The Modern Game 4, Phone Irks, Aldora Britain

A day of work on The Modern Game remaster. It's amazing how much my voice has changed and improved since even that 3rd recording of it. Some tracks didn't really benefit much from new vocals, so some are more or less complete. 'Masculinity Two' was remixed a little. New vocals for 'Beyond Mars' and 'Two Kinds Of Animals'. Mars is a complex mix, it's largely piano, strings, vocals; a lot of mid-range sounds, not much bass, and even fewer high frequency sounds.

I had a message that my phone is not 4G compatible; hugely annoying as my mum bought this phone a couple of months ago from a phone shop with the specific aim of buying 4G phones for myself and herself. It seems that neither hers nor mine is 4G and that she was mis-sold. I did suspect my phone wasn't; the little '4G' symbol wasn't on screen, and my phone is full of bugs and doesn't appear to be a UK phone (the only city available in the time zone settings is Beijing). Similar (but again hopefully 4G) phones are now in short supply and expensive, so two for £70 have been ordered, with a long wait and a hope that these will work.

Aldora Britain published my interview, then asked for payment, which was explicitly stated as not necessary beforehand. Despite that, I of course expected this. Aldora Britain have something of a nagging and scamming reputation, but it's a good enough article, and I am, at very least, in a small group with the other artists in the issue. If I had an interview in a magazine I'd buy the magazine, so I made a voluntary payment. I will wait to see how far they promote their magazine.

Music Dream, Christmas Tails Cover Reveal, Prometheus v3.77

I watched an episode of Tracking Sounds  on YouTube, featuring 'Madam Who?' last night. What great pop songs she writes and produces. After the hour of listening, I listened to many of her singles. Pure pop, great melodies, intelligent lyrics. I can hear the Go-Go's influence.

I slept badly. I dreamt that I was set to meet Pete Saxer, for a long stay of some sort. While all packed and ready I'd set my watch oddly, and confused the alarm time and the actual time so I missed the bus in great disappointment. A second dream featured myself and Deb, playing in a music performance. A band of 4 or 5 young men, boys to us, were playing as a band too. I discussed synthesizers with them. Their instruments were simple, amateurish in their way, but they had youth and the joy of naïve mistakes.

Today, I completed a text interview today from a music zine and record label called Aldora Britain. I noticed that I am (rather than 'we are') in the local press with a Christmas Tails story written by Jonathan White. This was sent out before the cover creation day, a second story was submitted very recently with photos from the day, including photos of the artists.

It's also the public 'cover reveal' for the album. Here it is:

Most of today was spent fixing a bug in Prometheus, a rare thing now. The program can set an parameter in a playing instrument, track, or the whole song. Since v2.20 in 2010 these can slide from one value to another, so I can, for example, gradually fade down the volume of a track, or turn up the reverb wet. In all this time I've never faded two different parameters over the same space of time. This is quite legal and was designed to be possible, but the logic of what to fade to was a bit scrambled and didn't work. In fact I can start a fade of, say, pitch, and end the fade as, say, amplitude and, until today, the second value would be considered pitch! In all of the years I'd not noticed this obvious bug.

So I spent today fixing this. I also added the feature to automatically name a track by the first instrument played on it. So, now Prometheus is at v3.77.

I'm feeling very musically inspired. I've started the basic admin of the remaster/re-recording of The Modern Game. Listening back, there are some vocal elements that I can do much better today. Some of the first version vocals, the weak but emotional 'All The Broken Flowers' will be kept. I want to get this all out of the way, and the next one, so I can work on new things.

Fall in Green Production, CD Sorting

Today, finalised the music for the Christmas Tails Fall in Green track. Deb wrote the words a couple of weeks ago. I started by experimenting with keyboard sounds and modified the 'Tron Flute' to be something like Tron Strings, a sort of crackly and band limited string quartet. I played a few chords while mentally running though the words. The melody was largely in the bass, the music was essentially some chords which shifted majestically.

Today I experimented with a few layers, but this fundamentally live piece worked largely as played. I've added a deeper bass for some parts, and added an alien clarinet sound here and there. One final thing was adding some ambience, some live scenery, so I took a live recording. I think all is ready for Deb's vocals.

Everything was complete by 1pm.

Most of the day was spent updating my old CD collection, those 'second rate' discs without cases. I've created, printed, and cut new artwork for the CDs which lacked it and assembled many with new cases, including the 9-discs of Daniel Barenboim playing the complete Beethoven piano sonatas. A lot of these 'second rate' discs are best-of discs. I'm unsure what is worth keeping, though some are decades old and hold a special memory, rather than being good quality music. I can re-buy some, like 'Heart and Soul', the T'Pau album. Some, like Bucks Fizz' Legends (I can hear you applaud my taste) are out of print. I always preferred actual albums rather than anything best-of.

I may bin a few. Lots of discs have already been binned today. Aphex Twin (boring, a gift), even a Missa Solemnis; I don't need lots of versions of this. I'm wondering whether it's worth keeping my 9 CDs of the complete Bruckner Symphonies, when I found them forgettable. I'll keep Sibelius and Mendelssohn, and probably the Wagner Operas. My aim should be to create a palette, a wide gamut of quality. I'll keep Punishment of Luxury, and The Mothers of Invention album for now. I'll ditch Abba Gold, and all of Yes with joy. 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' is an interesting production, but even that, their only hit, is hardly a good song; and everything else Yes ever did is massively worse. I don't have that Trevor Horn album anyway.

Frodsham, CD Shelves, Winter Party Poster, Au Revoir Distrokid

Frenetic days. A trip to Frodsham yesterday to deliver my three paintings to Castle Park Arts Centre, then back home and a quick type up of Wednesday's event to form some sort of press release.

Then, putting up my CD shelves, which was exhausting. Drilling the wall and fitting the rawl plugs wasn't not too difficult, but the screws did not want to go in, they entered half way and spun like crazy, until forced. I half think that the speed of the screw was causing the plug to melt or twist somehow. After this, a trip to Deb's for some more tweaks, mostly aesthetic to the alcove shelves.

Today I moved by CD collection from one set of drawers to the new shelves. I now have the sort of CD shelves I could only have dreamed of in the 90s, and perhaps even then secretly wanted.

I love jewel cases, and often throw away CDs which ship in those horrid cardboard cases. My old theory was to amass 100 CDs, and cast away any that were worse than those 100, thus evolving the best 100 CDs evet; but I found myself wanting more than 100, so I kept some. These were mostly filed, disc only with minimum artwork, in one of those books where the plain discs can be slotted in. That book now presents a problem, I want to remove those discs and put the discs back into CD jewel cases.

This will take days. I want to make and print my own artwork for each disc, I at least need to see the spine. I already feel overwhelmed at the work.

I had news that my talk at Macclesfield College due this week, in planning since July, has been magically cancelled yet again. This date has already been set three times. I can't afford to waste more time on this.

The album cover is finalised, the big public reveal set for Wednesday. Another job done today was the design of the poster for the Crewe Library Winter Party, and the final cancellation of my remaining Distrokid releases. I must, therefore, get working on the fourth recording of The Modern Game this month. My priority though, is finishing the music for the Fall in Green Christmas Tails track. This is becoming urgent.

Onwards I dart.

Shelves, Another Violet Night Released

Slept for nearly 12 hours and awoke at 10:30. First attended to a few changes and some feedback from the album cover design. I've added Andrew's cat 'Scrabble' to it, nice to have Andrew included on the cover, even if by proxy!

Most of the day was spent putting up my shelves, the lower set. First, these were put against the wall in the right place, then the brackets marked and attached. The screws were a tiny bit too long, 1mm or so, so very slightly caused some barbs inside. Then, the shelves were held to the wall. They were slightly trapezoid; perhaps inevitable because of the way they were assembled. I corrected this then marked the wall holes. These were drilled twice, with a 3mm then 7mm bit. This was the easiest wall drilling I've ever done, all due to these new bits!

The rawlplugs were fitted but some of the 50mm screws got stuck and kept spinning. I removed them with difficulty, then used the thinner 3.5mm diameter screws rather than 4.5mm. Those worked, though I'd prefer the strength of the 4.5mm. It may be that the rawlplugs simple expanded too much at the bottom end. I keep feeling the desire to remove the thinner screws and replace, but 12 50mm screws should hold the shelves. The length is perhaps more important than the width, screws much more commonly fall out than snap.

I marked the top shelf, and had the idea of using M4 washers to stop the bracket screws from being too long, this worked brilliantly.

Then, at 5pm, Deborah reminded me that it was the release day of Another Violet Night! I did some basic release duties on Bandcamp, made a few social media posts. The first video goes live tonight.

Christmas Tails Cover, Snowflake Sheet Music

Today, working on the Christmas Tails cover. Photographing the plain artwork, then working on the digital version. It's a similar look and idea to last time, but the colours here have a a green rather than blue base, so the letters have more blue. Here is a comparison between the first album and the draft-in-progress of the new album:

Then, work transcribing the sheet music for my song, 'Will You Be My Snowflake'. The song is fine and fun, but I wrote it two years ago, and it's not pushing any limits, not showcasing any brilliance, and it can't really be said to be like my music except that it's wild, unpredictable, and utterly different. I may even write another, but my musical priority is working on the Fall in Green track. I've played a few improvised chords and will use that MIDI sequence as my basis for that. This, at least, will be an unusual and expressive Christmas song.

Much of this month has been spent on woodwork. I'd hoped to remaster two or perhaps three albums. In the end, I managed just Tree Of Keys, but that at least was certainly improved.

After the Fall in Green track I must remaster The Modern Game, as it will soon be taken down. A few days ago I sold the first ever copies of The Modern Game book and Deep Dark Light.

Onwards we roll our heavy boulder.

Shelves and Cover Creation Day

The main job of yesterday was painting and staining my shelves. I was lucky that they fitted down the stairs, to carried outside, and stained black. The floor is now full of black marks. I have a solvent based black stain, but Golden Fluid Acrylic, Carbon Black, with water makes a much better and more even stain than the solvent black. That paint makes a superlative stain, but works best for the finest particle colours like this one, the phthalo's, dioxazine.

I also upgraded Prometheus with a new audio effect, a random filter/amplitude/pitch effect, which unifies all three values. This is useful for a degree of realism, as louder, brighter sounds often move a bit higher in pitch in natural instruments.

In the evening, I did a bit more of Deb's alcove shelves. Two problems appeared which were solved. Firstly, the side columns fell away. These rest on the floor, so I didn't think the joint to the top (lintel-like) part needed to be strong, but I hadn't anticipated torque force of the swinging doors. This was considerable, and the joint broke due to that, not the door weight. This was fixed with glue, then two 50mm vertical screws. They were in the plans from the start, but I'd hoped to avoid them for aesthetic reasons. A double dowel inside may have mitigated the torque force, but would have complicated the hot-melt glue system. The left door in now fitted well. The second problem was slight shelf sag, which was fixed with a hook-eye in the back 'wall' below the shelf, to take the weight; the shelves are now fitted too. The next step is fixing the whole thing in place with long (over 100mm) screws, then fitting the right door in place, which will mean removing and moving its hinges.

Today, a busy cover creation day in Crewe Market Hall for The Electric Sprout Foundation album. Creative Crewe kindly tagged me on to their event and supplied a few pens and felt tips. Carol Wilkinson has always been hugely encouraging and supportive to me and my art, since the beginning, offering me my first exhibitions in her beloved shop The Cubby Hole. But, she is encouraging and supportive to all local arts, she's a special community asset, like Mike Drew is, like John Lindley is.

All of the artists bar two came to today's event. Paul Parish arrived first, the man who came up with the album title.

I created a square of cardboard as the background and quickly painted it green. The plan was a sort of forest with the artists and animals hiding behind trees. There weren't many animals, but Charlotte from the RSPCA came along with some animal photos, perfect! Most of the creation was a matter of visitors (mostly children, though most of us music artists had a go too) colouring tree or leaf shapes, then me sticking them on. Deborah came before noon, then the people from Congleton; Mike Drew, Pete and Andy, John Lindley, John Miller, Glyn Roberts; and later Steve and NatalieGrace from Nastee Chapel, and Mike and Rona from We Are Nomad.

Photographer Peter Robinson came and took lots of great photos of the day (the photos here are Deb's, the first I have to hand). Peter's a mainstay of the local press, a press which today relies on volunteers to write and produce local news.

There wasn't a time where all of the electric sprouts were present at once, but there were lots of group images. One album was sold there, and the total raised so far is approaching £100. Next, I must finish the design, photograph it, then add details like the title text. I can't wait to share the album with everyone.

Back row: Glyn Roberts, Charlotte from Stapeley Grange, Peter Lilley. Front row: John Miller, Mike Drew, Mark Sheeky.

More Will You Be My Snowflake Production

Lots of production work on 'Will You Be My Snowflake' Today.

Changing the synth clarinet for a sampled one sounded much better, so I decided to sample some of the new waveforms. Most of the day then was taken up with sampling lots of clarinets.

After that, more time consuming changes. The middle instrumental section needed a solo of some sort, so I played the keyboard with lots of instruments and feelings. A ragged old upright piano was the first thing in my mind. In the evening, I tried a strange sound of synth 'jazz' voices, something like robot scat singing. This sounded suitable futuristic and old fashioned at the same time, so I played a live solo. The sounds in this preset are triggered at random, adding further to the chaos.

Then I experimented with some choirs, which remarkably hymnal. I played the theme as an intro, and faded up a powerful sound which included strings and an immense pipe organ. This became a perfect intro. This leads into the jaunty intro, the echo and nod to Sixty-Four. It seemed to cry out for a bell, like a full stop there, so I added one, and suddenly the bell called for a typewriter, so I swapped the cowbell of the song for a type writer there, as though the protagonist was typing a letter.

So, the song is approaching 3 minutes and has had about 3 weeks of little changes.

Christmas Tails Preparations, More Shelf Work

Another power day of work.

First, lots of Christmas Tails admin, contacting the artists and managing the first sales. The album is available to buy now, for those who certainly want a copy of this musical exclusive. 6 sales so far, with something around £40 raised for the RSPCA.

Then my first Christmas present duties of the year. This always takes lots of time.

Then lots of preparation for the album cover creation day on Wednesday. Packing everything, preparing promotional slips (with a link to the album), permission slips, and printing the risk assessment. Finding a card backing board for the whole thing, cutting 50 tree and sycamore leaf shapes. These will be coloured in. The general design (in my head) is a forest, with animals and the artists hiding here and there. Then printing the artist images.

John Lindley wins the coolest photo award.

I managed a little work on Deb's shelves. I shaved off 2mm from each edge, actually using a jigsaw, the tool I command best. 2mm is the width of the blade, but it managed to cut amazingly accurately. I also did a test regarding the reattachment of hinges. The ultimate reason the hinges were misplaced was that the right side was not fixed firmly enough to the top. Some hot-melt glue bled from the dowel hole and glued the top. This glue sticks well but only a tiny amount of glue was present, and it's very viscosity stops it sinking into the wood. Glue must really penetrate the wood to stick well. It was glued firmly enough so that the side didn't pull out when tugged, but not so well that it didn't wobble; a worst of all worlds to some extent. I'll have to pull it apart and glue that joint correctly as a first step.

Then it's a complex process to fit the doors perfectly. First, the doors need to be held firmly but temporarily in the exact place. The hinges are then glued in their exact place with superglue, then the wood drilled through the hinge hole. If this partly impinges on another hole then drilling can be tricky, but the firmly glued hinges should stop the drill from slipping sideways. If the hinge hole is shared with another (old and inaccurate) hole (which I expect) then, a tiny amount of the holt-melt glue (acting here as a filler) can be squeezed into the hole, then screws attached while it's soft. I tested this today and it seemed to work. If the hole is all-new in virgin wood then I don't need that glue. The glue is there to stop the screw slipping into the old hole. The hinges should then, in theory, be firmly fixed where they lie.

Before Wednesday I really need to finish my Christmas song, and compose one for Fall in Green. Less urgently, I need to cut the supports for my other shelves, paint them and fit them to the wall to get that job out of the way.

Framing For Castle Park 2025

Framing three paintings today for the Castle Park Open.

Framing is, assuming you don't need to make the frame:

1. Marking and cutting a spacer from mount board. Done by marking each inner edge while comparing with the frame, and using a craft knife to cut to exact size. Cutting and checking the fit, then marking the inner edge, depending on the rebate; 6mm is common, then cutting. Marking and cutting the backboard in a similar way to the spacer, then marking and cutting the glass. Marked in a similar way, using fine white-board or OHP marker. The glass should be wiped clean before scoring, I tend to wipe with meths. Then scoring, flip the glass over and press on the scored area to extend the crack along the length. At that point the glass will fall apart rather than anything as risky as a snap. Cutting acrylic glazing is best done with a craft knife, but I always hate that process.

2. Assembly of the artwork (frame, glass, spacer, painting, backboard). Bits of dust commonly get into the painting so the finished picture needs constant checking. White dust shows up worst so working on a black background works best. A piece of masking tape or some blu-tak is good for removing dust. A blower can work, combined with a vacuum cleaner. A ball of cling film is a good choice for acrylic glazing, it's sticky but far less so than tape.

3. Fitting it all together. If the painting fits in the recess you can use panel pins to hold it, or 'points' and a special point-insertion tool. I prefer 20mm panel pins as they are easier to remove in future and cause less damage to the frame. For paintings without a recess, those level with the frame, spring clips will hold it tight. At a pinch you could use mirror plates, bent to act in a similar way.

Then taping a dust seal around the edge (done first for when using spring clips). I apply tape sometimes, sometimes not. The tape can be messy and difficult to remove, so it depends on how permanent I consider the framing.

4. Labelling, all artwork should be clearly labelled. Drilling and fixing mirror plates. Drilling and fixing hangers or D-rings for the string.

5. Measuring and weighing; important if the painting is ever to be shipped and it hugely saves time to do this now.

6. Photographing the painting in frame and tidying that photo.

7. Wrapping and packing away.

Compose Yourself, Argus, First Cabinet Finalised, and More

Most of yesterday was spent preparing for the 'Compose Yourself' event. A great night, my first return to The Electric Picture House since my freezing Spiral Staircase performance in 2016. It's moved venue since.

9 musicians performed 3 original songs each: Mick Lomas with Chris Wood, David Fray; Dave Boothroyd; Electric guitarist Chris Wood with John Miller, David Fray, Phill Swindells (jazzy and bluesy these); Lennie Munday (who sang unaccompanied folk tales); Glyn Roberts with Chris Wood, John Miller and Phill Swindells; Mick Dick (Mike Drew) - with myself on keyboard and John Miller on vacuum cleaner (yes!) for one track; John Lindley and The Poachers (Chris Wood, David Fray, John Miller, Phill Swindells); myself; then John Miller with Chris Wood, David Fray, Phill Swindells to finish the night.

I performed 'More', 'The Parents in the Walls', and a piano version of 'Incomplete Version of the Writer', which had something of 'Candle in the Wind' about it in this form; but of course better I think - despite my love of that brilliant song! Now I think of it, I coincidentally mirrored Elton's dress sense with my glitter suit, its first outing. Each attendee paid £15 to be there, and a quick head count indicates that we raised over £500 for Médecins Sans Frontières.

There were many great songs and performances on the night. I always find it more inspirational, encouraging, to hear new music. Mike Drew sounded better than ever, and paid a nice tribute to John with a setting of one of his poems to music. The sound mixing and quality was exemplary from John Miller, as were his exacting performances.

Today, filed yesterday's event, and updated Argus to v1.60 with new features to enhance the track separation.

Then, work on the alcove cabinet. The four doors were papered as a solid mass, so that they would be seamless when closed. These were laid on the frame, and the outer hinges marked and fitted. Then the doors flipped and the inner Z-bend hinges marked and fitted, only then the wallpaper sliced with a sharp knife to reveal the finished doors.

They may need adjustment as the actual placement of the hinges will vary when the frame is locked in place. I have a plan for this if required.

Another event from yesterday was that Nastee Chapel sent me their track for Christmas Tails, which is now on pre-sale. The next event for me is the public album cover design day next Wednesday in Crewe Market Hall, 11am to 3pm. Several of the acts from last night will be there, plus I hope Nastee Chapel, Andy Stubbs, Mike Aitchison, and a few others.

Another thing was that my missing parcel turned up. Not only did the driver not try to deliver it here, he delivered it to a different address than the one he stated, and by coincidence, they had an identical front door and porch as the wrong address, so the delivery photo was no help. A community group on Facebook came to the rescue and connected me with the actual recipient.

Today, I heard that my three paintings have been accepted into the Castle Park Open Exhibition, which opens next month. None are framed, so I have a week to frame them. The exhibition opens on Nov 7th.

Christmas Tails Launches, Yet More Woodwork

Filed Argus after a small update yesterday, then charged into two jobs. First an update for Christmas Tails. The album is now live for pre-sale. I set up the sales spreadsheet and reminded artists about next week's cover creation day. It will be half a day's work preparation for that, and the full day of work on it.

Then, much work on the shelves, which have taken far longer than I anticipated. The CD shelves are complete, apart from painting and fitting to the wall. Glued the top and bottom sections to the box shelves, then marked new spine/columns to reinforce the shelves and sawed them into two 50mm (ish!) sections, which look a bit like 1M long rulers of wood as a result. The width is approximate because the wood is an off-cut. Then, drilled for the hinges for Deb's door, though I can't drill and fit the other half of the hinges until the doors are closed and in place, thus I needed to wallpaper the doors next.

These four doors are to be wallpapered in a seamless way, so needed to be stuck as though one huge door. I laid them flat and stuck the wallpaper with PVA, which was somewhat tricky as the glue doesn't allow easy movement. I should have glued (with roller) only the top third or so, placed the paper accurately, then glued the rest. I trust and hope that the doors themselves are not now glued together, but if they are a little, it may help as they need to remain as one block for a while, while I fit the hinges.

I'm exhausted from so much running about. Other jobs to do: routing the slots for those new spines, and cutting little notches in the back of the shelves to fit them. Screwing the newly-glued top in place, and fitting the central vertical spine. Then these shelves will be done, apart from painting and fitting to the wall.

In Deb's shelves, trimming the wallpaper, marking the other half of the hinges with the doors in place, then fitting those, then fitting the inner hinges (these are Z-bend doors), then slicing the wallpaper with a scalpel (which I could boldly do at the end after fitting the doors if I wanted. Then, fitting everything into the alcove, and possibly gluing the shelves (they will work without glue, but glue will attenuate sag). That would be it!

I'm still annoyed at my delivery. There must be some process when a neighbour simply takes an item when a delivery is left with them. I'm blessed that this item was £5 not £50.

Tree Of Keys Videos, Delivery Exasperation, Hinge Screws

First, listed Tree Of Keys on my websites and linked to the sheet music, then created animated subtitles for the 3 Tree Of Keys videos, then recompiled them with the new audio and set them up appear in December.

Was annoyed in the morning as a Yodel delivery, due today, did not arrive, with no sign of a courier or attempt made to call at the house. All I received was an email that it has been successfully delivered to a 'neighbour' in a different street. After 10 minute walk to that address, they had reported that no delivery had taken place. I complained to Yodel, and was sent a photo of the item being pushed through the letter box; it was clearly the neighbour's front door. I went back and showed them the photo and, this time the mother of the man I'd spoken to earlier, said that item photographed half way through the box was not proof it had been pushed through, and claimed that the driver had taken it back after taking the photo. This, in my opinion, seems unlikely.

I've started the complaints process.

I set up a future Steam sale, then glued the shelves for the second cabinet, doing the gluing in stages this time to make things easier. When testing the lift hinges for Deb's cabinet, it became clear that the holes were too small for 3.5mm screws, 3mm were the largest which would fit, yet the only 3mm screws I had were 20mm long. These are too short for the heavy work of holding a door, so in the dark evening I went to buy some 3mm L40 screws. I've planned on using 4 hinges, but these double doors are heavy, so I'll upgrade to 6; 6 here, and 6 for my future wardrobe project.

Tree Of Keys Filing, Shelf Woodwork

A broadly sleepless night interspersed with strange nightmares.

Today, another full day, starting with essential Tree Of Keys admin. The CD and download track sizes were slightly different as I'd included the between-track gaps in the downloads. This isn't correct; there are not separate CD and download versions of this album, and ISRC codes are shared. The same code should point to an identical recording, not have different lengths. So, I first unified the track lengths by adjusting the CD project. Then filing the album across various music authority databases. I can't do more until I have the EAN-13 code.

Then, a full day of work on the shelves. I unclamped the CD shelves, then drilled 3mm pilot holes and screwed the top and bottom. Screws are needed as these are key load-bearing parts. I used the 4.5x50mm screws intended for the wall, thus needed those somewhat large holes (I normally use 3.5mm diameter screws, I chose the bigger ones partly because they were golden and pretty).

Then, marked the new central supports, cut these, and routed out 6mm slots. For the 12mm slots, needed in the assembled shelves, I did some experiments. In the end, I clamped 12mm MDF each side of the 6mm shelf, then used a 16mm forstner bit to drill sideways into the shelf. This created a slot wide enough to fit the 12mm spine, my 12mm bit didn't (in tests) make a slot wide enough. It wasn't perfect, but sufficient.

I made one mistake in cutting slot in the top shelf when I didn't need to. So I fixed this with a plug. It's at the back, not serious, and will practically be invisible when painted. Mistakes, in life, are inevitable.

For the other shelf unit the spine is 6mm wide, necessary because the width is designed explicitly for 'Really Useful Boxes' and the size is tight. To strengthen that all, I'll also be adding flat pieces to the back, to act a bit like columns, or a fake back-board. That will (should) be the last of the sawing. I'll do that another day.

Tree Of Keys is now done, a necessary reworking because this album was not listed or present anywhere. Next I need to remaster The Modern Game for the same reason, then The Myth Of Sisyphus, but that as part of my regular upgrade process. I aim to remaster one old album for each new one, but this year I've remastered or re-recorded a lot of albums, partly because of the switch of distributor gave me this opportunity, and partly because of upgrades in my mixing and singing skills. I can't wait to rework Nightfood, my favourite album, but each must wait their turn.

I also have books to write, and paintings to work on... yet everything feels like fixing what is old. I'm working to death, yet feel I'm not making progress. At some point, some point, I'll have time to create new things, which all artists should be doing. I've said it before, creativity is about digging tunnels, then shoring them up, both activities are valuable and necessary. Those who charge ahead without shoring up the tunnels may get lucky and find a cave of gold, or they may end up suffocating due to a tunnel collapse. Good luck (or bad luck) never lasts forever.

Onwards we roll our heavy rock.

Tree Of Keys Admin, Shelf Plans, Rehearsals

A lighter day. Completed some essential Tree Of Keys admin, filing the album, updating the lyric and iTunes booklets, creating artwork and the listing for my websites, and adding the album details to the Cornutopia Music Catalogue. Then burning an archive CD, and registering the album for release on December 12th. There is more to do on the admin side, perhaps half a day, but I also need to update and upload the music videos. I've not created any Spotify Canvases for this. This is possible too, but it can be a slippery slope that leads to making full videos for the whole album, with little return but the satisfaction of my neatness obsession.

I've (mentally) solved the shelf problem. I'll add a central support to both units. The larger (box) shelves are so tightly designed that there is barely room for a 6mm vertical, but I think there is. I'll cut a spine from 12mm and 6mm wood for each unit, and cut slots into it to slot between the shelves. After trying today's final cabined, this should work fine. Even a heavy box barely sags the 6mm shelves. The box shelves need to take more weight though, so I'll add extra supports to the back too. I could do the same with the CD cabinet but I don't think it's needed.

I also stained Deb's shelves brown, and the back of the doors, but the results there were somewhat patchy. I used dilute Golden Fluid Acrylic Raw Umber. I'm very used to using dilute black, which is a superb stain, but the brown is a little more difficult. I should have used yet more water (more than 1:1) and yet more coats. It is adequate considering this is for the dark inside of the doors, but the imperfection still bothers me.

I also managed three full rehearsals of Thursdays performance. I must do this every day until then to master it. I need to decide on an outfit... this might be the first outing of my gold glitter jacket, suitably Elton John for this special occasion! I perhaps need a gold hat-band for my bowler.

Onwards to glory we fly!

Tree Of Keys Finalised, Shelf Work

A tiring if not exhausting day. Started by finalising the Tree Of Keys remaster, breaking apart the tracks, deleting most of the former album and preparing for the release. There is much more to do.

From 10:30 the rest of the day was filled with woodwork, I needed to take advantage of today's dry weather. Things went according to plan, but I'm worried that the plans were flawed. First, here are Deb's shelves.

You can see the little 'tabs' on the edges of the shelves. These enter the slots, but leave the rest of the shelves out, as seen. These will be in the recess of the alcove, this 'frame' fits over the front. This went to plan and seems to be on track.

When making the bigger shelves however, I became aware just how long and shallow they are. 1 metre is a big stretch for 6mm MDF, and I'm worried that the shelves will sag alarmingly. I simply didn't consider this. It's possible that tension will hold the shelves in place like a suspension bridge. Here's the assembled CD shelves:

The shelves are slotted into 6x6mm grooves. The whole thing was incredibly difficult to clamp and took a lot of time and frustration. Ideally, I'd need about 3 sash-clamps capable of over a metre stretch, but perhaps these band clamps are the most efficient way. It was not easy to get everything to hold in place when only glue is stopping it all collapsing. The other shelf unit is larger, and so will be more difficult. After today's experience, I plan on fitting the shelves first, band-clamping horizontally, as the slots make those easier.

There are many ways to address potential shelf sag, apart from making a whole new set of shelves with 12mm MDF. I could support each one above or below, at the back perhaps to emulate a back-board. I could add a central support (or other verticals), or brackets fitted to wall; though all of these will impinge upon the area usable for objects. The first option could at least be made to look pretty. I could cheat further and fix the middle of the shelves to the wall with a hidden dowel or bolt. This has appeal for its elegance and invisibility. When these first set of shelves are set I can test them to see what is required.

Tree Of Keys, Compose Yourself Rehearsals

Worked solidly today on the Tree Of Keys remaster. Listened to the album last night and made a few notes about changes, mostly about the sheet music, yet today found myself adjusting almost every track, sometimes much more radically than expected. I think the results are much better, but I'll have to wait to listen in a future day, with clear ears. These days are a lot of work, and sometimes feel like achieving very little. Tiny steps, crafting an album destined to be unpopular, yet as valuable and important as any too. Art isn't about popularity. The best art will never be popular, and most popular art is frequently poor; mediocre the very word for average has come to mean something of poor quality.

I conducted a video interview in the morning for Galleria Balmain, but a technical problem meant that it wasn't recorded. Still, this was a useful rehearsal.

This evening, practice for the three songs I'll perform at the 'Compose Yourself' event. I've at least decided on the three, but finding each one more difficult. I'll be playing 'More' with new instrumentation, I'll play the guitar lead parts, but on synthesizer. I've found yet more errors in the sheet music for two of the songs.

The days feel like a struggle. I feel I'm not making enough new things, not making progress towards any new and brilliant goal, but I must at least finish and master what I am involved with. Most artists are trapped by their passions of the time, irrespective of common sense or rational belief; yet, it is this quality which can lead to new things. The very first rule of creative success is to do what others do not.

Onwards and upwards we crawl. Hand over knotted hand. Fist over bloodied fist.

Scores Complete, Three Events Coming Up

A full day yesterday, starting with the regular sing-along of Good Vibrations in Congleton Library, then some charity shop donations and browsing, at which I found a Forrest Dick Band CD (yes!) and another old oak picture frame, which I couldn't resist.

Today, completed the scores for Tree Of Keys. I now need to proof the album and make any audio adjustments, then break apart the tracks, finalise the artwork, and lots of music admin and background filing. This will take at least another day, once the audio is finalised.

News on three events!

1. We've now confirmed two events for the Electric Sprout charity album. We (that is myself, Deborah, and several if not all of the Electric Sprout artists!) will be at the RSPCA Stapeley Grange Christmas Fair on Sunday December 7th from 12pm to 5pm. We'll be promoting and trying to sell the album. We will remind everyone that all proceeds will go to the RSPCA centre, like, I presume, all of the money spent on that day anyway; but here we will hypothecate Electric Sprout album sales so we can present a big cheque at the end of the project. By that date the album will be out an on sale worldwide on Bandcamp; this is the main way of raising funds for this important animal hospital, one of only four in the country.

2. Also, we'll have a performance of the album too in Crewe Library on Tuesday December 9th from 2pm to 4pm. There will be a poetry open mic too, as the event will coincide with the weekly writer's group meeting. Again, this is principally a fundraiser for the project (and thus RSPCA). The last event in 2023 was very busy and we raised about £100, so let's see if we can do the same again.

3. Thirdly, preparations are well underway for another charity concert. The 'Compose Yourself' event will be in the Electric Picture House next Thursday, 23rd October. Doors 7pm, music starts at 7:30 with all comers (including all band members) paying £15 cash on the door. 9 local musician song-writers will perform, including myself, each of us playing 3 original songs. All proceeds here will be donated to Médecins Sans Frontières UK.

Tree Of Keys Scores Day 2

Transcribed 'The Darker Matilda' today, plus 'Underground' and 'Paradise Lost', which are little more than spoken word with various sounds effects, so a template for those is useful. It was interesting to discover the obvious that this sheet music makes these strange pieces performable.

After that, Deb and I went to Stapeley Grange for a meeting about the Christmas Tails project, then bought the wood for the three shelf units I'm working on. The cutting option at B & Q is brilliant. It would be great if they had laser cutters, CNC machines, 3D printers, and other similar tools to allow fabrication to order. This could be a new type of shop, a retail manufactory.

Tree Of Keys Scores

A sleepless night of auto-immune twitches and itches leads into an arduous, arduous day of notating Tree Of Keys. Scores now complete for: Let's Take A Walk In The Desert, Murmuration, Anxious Sparrow (some shortcuts taken here), The Death Of Tuesday, Dream Of The Tao, Haiku.

The complex piano tunes are nightmarish to notate. Although based on the MIDI sequence of my playing, I'm often tidying things to remove bunches of notes and make the score at least readable. Considering I improvised it with ease in one take, it would take a virtuoso to play it from the score. It's a bit like creating an ink blot, then describing exactly how to reproduce it.

In a rare move, I've included the strings, brass, and bass parts for the fundamentally piano tunes of 'Murmuration' and 'The Dark Cliffs'. These are, I hope, the most difficult to score, so to make headway on both in one day is a victory in itself.

Tomorrow I must pause to visit the Stapeley Wildlife Centre for a meeting about the Christmas project, then to get the wood for my shelves. Wednesday is our regular trip to Congleton Library for Good Vibrations; so these tiresome scores will be on hold until Thursday.

Tree Of Keys 2025 Draft v100

Charged into the day. Recorded new vocals for 'I, Spider' and 'The Darker Matilda', then did the final balancing and volume balancing for the album. The new Tree Of Keys will be about 25% louder than the old.

The next step is the sheet music, which isn't really necessary, and may be completely useless as well as tons of work; yet, I really want and aim for all of my published music to be notated too. Perhaps nobody will care about this music (except myself!) and perhaps it will never be performed, but one can say this about so much music from the past 500 years, and yet, lots of lost or forgotten music is performed all of the time, perhaps to the surprise of the decomposing composer (if he/she were alive enough to be surprised). The minimum requirement is some sheet music.

Unfortunately, this album is very difficult to transcribe because of its nature of relaxed timing. The pitches are chromatic at least, so that's something. I tried to put together the 'Anxious Sparrow' tune today, but it was frustratingly complex despite taking a few minutes to actually play/improvise live. I have, at least, transcribed the piano parts for 'Dream of the Tao', fairly accurately, but again, and even for this simpler track, it was very difficult and took hours.

After that, I'll probably create Spotify Canvases and full videos for each track too. Those will take less time than this sheet music.

Onwards.

Tree Of Keys Remaster Continues

Slow slow day of work on Tree Of Keys. Went through 'I, Spider' to transcribe the melody of the vocals. So many vocal lines on this album were improvised, but it's useful to have the complete notation for the sheet music if not to re-sing. Worked on the melody to 'The Darker Matilda'. Bought some more supplies for my shelf projects.

Onwards.

Shelf Veneering, Tree Of Keys Remastering

Started the day with another coat of stain, yellow this time, to the wood for the alcove shelves. The result should match the target fireplace better. Then, adding the veneer to the bottom parts. I applied thin layers of PVA to both woods. The glue is certain to sink in, so doing this helps it stick. My normal wood glue is Titebond, an aliphatic resin, but that's yellow; the (nearly) transparent PVA is better for veneer.

When stuck, later in the day, I sanded then stained this darker too, but was reminded that even tiny amounts of PVA repel the stain, leaving slightly lighter marks. I used this to deliberate effect on a picture frame, for 'Romeo and Juliet'. I stamped PVA love-hearts over it before staining.

After the woodwork, I attacked the Tree Of Keys remaster. There are two reasons for it. Primarily to replace the small number of off-the-shelf sound effects with my own. This is because there's a flaw in the whole way streamed music is shared, such that anyone using a shared sample will effectively share the royalties, not due to ownership of the sample, but as though the sample was part of our original composition. It is laziness to use third party samples anyway. I very rarely ever use them, and aim to record everything myself (thought I like using ancient film and advertisement clips at times, for artistic effect). As I run my own hand-made sound effect library, and am an expert at making any sound, I may as well make all of my own anyway.

A second reason for the remaster is due to a general improvement in mixing and mastering since I first made the album, and to record new vocals as my singing is a lot better now too.

Sounds needed were a crying baby, barking dogs, a passing train, whale song. All were accommodated. Deb suggested I act as the crying baby, and I recalled a video where people imitated birdsong which had been dramatically slowed down. When sped up, it sounded like real bird song, so I applied this to a crying baby, and the result was good enough. For the train, I used two layered accordions and a specific chord sequence to imitate an American train horn, then a sound recording of a train leaving in Crewe station, which I made during our last trip to Chester. It was fine. Modern trains are not as chuggy or rattly than old ones as the rails are now welded for a smooth ride, but this sounds rather good.

New vocals for 'Dream of the Tao' were recorded. Other tracks completed in draft: Underground, Paradise Lost, Where is the Sun, War Song, Dream of the Tao, Napalm, and Haiku.

The album is avant-garde, with a generally calm feeling. I often find myself reminded of these visual tracks at particular moments.

Another Violet Night CDs, Christmas Tune Tweaks, Tree Of Keys Remaster Begins

The Another Violet Night CDs have arrived. I prefer cello-wrap to cello-bags, but bags are better than cling-wrap. The printing is brilliant, I love the look of these.

Started by re-recording the (new) backing vocals for 'Will You Be My Snowflake', and made many tiny changes to this throughout the day. I also transcribed the music for 'Heaven's Day' as I, unusually, improvised the melody.

Later, I began the remastering project for Tree Of Keys, replacing any off-the-shelf samples with my own. It's a strange irony that I now need a whale-song sample, when I had, in the past, recorded some whale-song via Locus Sonus, then discarded it. No matter here, the strange sound I've used instead sounds better anyway. I thought, a few nights ago, that if Kate Bush's last album had been Aerial, her canon would have begun with whale-song and ended with birdsong.

I printed the sheet music for the 'Compose Yourself' event in two weeks time, to note the chords. For live performance, I often use a scaled-back backing track with room of one lead instrument. For 'More' I'll play it all on piano. I've removed the drums from the backing to 'Incomplete Version of the Writer' because pre-recorded drums tend to sound wrong. I must remember to make an album without drums.

What aim for this? Music has, very rapidly crashed to the level of poetry regarding commercial appeal, but like poetry its art has perhaps been elevated by this. Poetry and music are both in renaissance, not decline, and with rebirth comes transformation.

Still, artists need money. I must, at least, remaster the albums that need to be re-released, and improve the next in line. In painting, I have the Castle Park Arts Centre paintings to frame (pending their acceptance), and work on something for the Nantwich Museum Open Competition.

Perfect Dowel Joints, Snowflake Production

A steady but slower day. My voice is too tired to sing.

I started by staining the alcove shelf parts, and cutting some veneer to cover the new cuts near the floor. It will look fine, better than I’d originally planned. Then I drilled right into the base and screwed in some huge (80mm, I think) screws. These can be unscrewed to act as legs to adjust the exact floor. I'm still unsure if the size of anything is too large or too small, I haven't yet tested this in place. There might be 1 or 2mm, at most, in it.

The next job here was the dowel joints. These are not at all load bearing, even gravity would work, but I want a hidden joint. My new dowel jig might work perfectly on paper, but it can never be exact in real life, so I've cheated with an easier solution which will (should!) give a perfect joint too. I've fitted a 6mm dowel but drilled an 8mm hole. This gives enough wobble room to allow for exact adjustment, and even room to shave the wood down a millimetre from each edge if needed.

To glue the joint, I'll inject hot-melt glue in the 8mm hole, giving me extreme strength, and enough adjustment time to hold the joint in the perfect place as it sets over about 30 seconds. After that, I can pull the dowel apart, pulling it out from the other socket, then use wood glue. This should give a perfect fit.

Then, work on my other Christmas song, 'Will You Be My Snowflake'. It went to plan, though it is somewhat short at around 90 seconds long, though that's still longer than Queen's 'Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon'. I've added a synth clarinet in homage to 'When I'm Sixty-Four'. I need to record new backing vocals as I've changed their arrangement to be more of a complement. I'm pleased with all of the intricate parts here. I'm unsure what I'll actually do with it, it may become a B-Side, or an album track.

Other work consisted of more preparations for the album, preparations for the 'Compose Yourself' event for the 23rd October, and work for a fancy new listing on the Galleria Balmain website.

Aches, Shelf Bits, Go Sprout Launch

Full of muscle aches today after so much activity yesterday. I processed the vocals for the other two Christmas songs, and added those for the somewhat moving 'Heaven's Day'. I will keep musing on the first draft of Candy Cane.

Then, I made a mistake on the alcove cabinet. I marked the exact height of the side pieces late last night, and today cut to the mark, but only then realised that I needed to cut off the bottom, not the top. When marking, I should have (counter-intuitively) flipped the pieces upside down to mark them. So, a crisis moment. The wood was the correct length but the shelf slots all wrong! My instant thought was that I'd ruined everything and would need to buy new wood and start afresh, but not all was lost.

The top shelf space was larger than the 133mm I needed, so to fix the length I could cut the right amount from the top and glue it onto the bottom. This would lead to a visible cut line near the bottom, but like many pine lengths today, the wood itself is a composite, so the grain and hue is uneven anyway, and it is all destined to be stained. The cut line would be near the floor, not obvious, and mostly covered by the door, but even that aside, I could cover the line with veneer or some other decoration with ease (I will probably do this, I have lots of veneer in stock).

There are no dowels here, so after gluing, I aim to add screws along the length for strength (it hardly needs it, the weight compresses the joint). The screws, I realised, could be loosened or tightened to adjust the exact length far more accurately than trying to shave slices from the wood. The bottom 5mm or so is hidden by the moat of carpet, so everything is ripe for a height adjustment system. All in all, the mistake is not so serious, and the length adjustment is a design benefit I'd not have thought of otherwise. Next step, to check the sizes, sand and tidy the look, perhaps add that veneer, then fix the arch, and stain.

In the afternoon, Deb and I went to Congleton Library for the launch of Go Sprout The Grain!. A lovely reading with many friends present, and two new attendees from Newcastle. We were amazed and delighted to see Alan; enthusiastic poet and comedy performer, blacksmith and volunteer from Morecambe Poetry Festival. He travelled from Preston for this event. Everything we do in Congleton is a delight.

My throat was and is too tired from yesterday's singing, perhaps too rushed, or not technically correct enough, or just too much. My body aches. Time to rest.

Candy Cane Vocals, Alcove Shelves Part 1

Vocal recording today, for 'You're My Candy Cane', and the two other Christmas songs, 'Will You Be My Snowflake', and 'Heaven's Day'. A key part is to have good backing tracks, and to know what layers or different vocal parts are needed. For Candy Cane, the chorus is layered, and there is a 3-part harmony on the 'Honey in the summer' part, so this meant preparations for that.

Snowflake also had a few layering options, these were somewhat rushed though, I had to snatch an available quiet 90 minutes to record everything, so dashed around to assemble dub tracks on the fly. Later, some vocoder parts for Candy Cane were recorded from the beautiful Microkorg, and then the full assembly and production. The main vocals are all in one track, with a separate track for the Honey harmonies (these are layered as an instrument, so the three parts don't need three tracks). There are three more vocal tracks because the word 'call' at the end splits into growing 5ths... I think Bohemian Rhapsody does this ('Let me go-oh-oh-oh'), so that must be where I got the idea.

The song is just about complete.

At 4pm I had time to attack Step 1 of Stage 1 of the fireplace shelves, and my first use of a router. Essentially, for this project, I must make a square arch with slots inside for the shelves.

You can see the slots, and that they don't go all the way to the back, thus they will be invisible when the shelves are in place. Stage 1 is making this arch, but it must exactly match in size the existing inner frame of the fireplace. I think the way to do this is make it all a few millimetres too big, then power-sand it level. The top (I could say lintel, though this doesn't take any weight) should be just about the right size. I made a paper template, which is more accurate than a ruler because the space is recessed. The two verticals are about 20mm too long, ready to be cut down during final measurement.

Once the pieces are the right size I can fit them together, with dowels to avoid visible screws, though I plan on two being visible at the moment. Stage 2 will be cutting and fitting the shelves, that's easy, then making and fitting the doors, also not difficult once the rest is done. The shelf depth and door width will be cut by the circular saw of B & Q, so I trust will all be accurate!

More music work tomorrow.

Spray Paints, CDs, Mailing Migrations

After a power day of music creation, today is a bit of a fragmentory day.

Started by spraying some plastic compartment trays gold, with the aim of transforming them into wall-mounted trinket racks. This went to plan, though I was reminded that spraying plastic is extremely difficult because each single particle of dust, each hair, even each fingerprint, can become magically revealed by the ultra-thin gold.

After that, ordering the new CDs for Another Violet Night. I kept thinking or saying that I planned to, I hoped to release it on CD. If this ever happens, it's time to forget about plans and hopes and actually do it there and then, so the new albums will be ready for launch day on Halloween.

To prepare for the release, I set up a half-price sale of four of my existing CD albums on Bandcamp, which all are now £5 until the end of October. Each is from a different era of my music, each a different style. These are: my first electronic concept album, The Spiral Staircase; my first vocal rock concept album (very much progressive in the Pink Floyd style, not at all like the heavy metal one may assume from the artwork), Burn Of God; my proto-piano-concerto Cycles & Shadows; and the contemporary electronic ride of songs dark and light that is We Robot.

Updates about the Christmas Tails project were made; and new, slightly adjusted lyrics for my Christmas songs printed. I may record 'Will You Be My Snowflake?' anyway, even though Candy Cane is fine, and will almost certainly be my choice for this project. I may have enough music for a Christmas EP or similar, but it would have to be something artistically special, extraordinary. Until now, learning new skills, the excitement of learning was a key motivator. New music must be something beyond this, though, of course, we're always learning. An artist should be getting better over time, no excuses, no restful laurels.

One last act was to migrate my artworks email list to Substack. I by no means email out each post, but may this post serve as an update and glimpse to it to dear friends and followers.

Priority this week, to finalise these Christmas songs. Main event of the week is Deborah's poetry book launch and open mic in Congleton Library on Tuesday at 3pm. Brigid the Corn Dolly will be there, and by amazing coincidence there is a harvest moon on the night.

Onwards!

You're My Candy Cane Production

A full day of production work on my Christmas song for the Christmas Tails album, 'You're My Candy Cane'. A song I dreamt on Oct 20th 2023 (dream music composing happens to most song writers, it's fairly rare for me), there's an old post here about it and the original song lyrics. I've made a few small lyric changes. The chorus was simply 'You're my candy cane, my candy' repeated 4 times. Now it's:

You're my candy cane, my candy
You're my candy cane, my candy
You're my candy cane, my candy cane

You're my candy cane, my candy
You're my candy cane, my candy
You're my candy cane, my candy cane

So, two iterations. The song starts with this catchy melody without vocals. In some ways, the song is similar to my first ever song (well, of the 'new', post-school-days era), 'I Love You For Your Money', which also featured repeats of the line, and was also dreamt.

I could make you smile If only You would stay a while

Has been changed to:

You could make me smile If only You would stay a while

To match the song's perspective, and the 'When you call' line is repeated only once.

In production terms, I began with the drums and aimed for an electro pop song. Despite my dance orientated plan, the song doesn't feature regular bass drums, few of my songs do. I seem to favour shuffle beats. I added saw-chord stab fairly early on, to match the rhythm of the melody, then added a pulse-wave lead, as imagined. In my head, it was close to the track 'Zoot' from the Flatspace soundtrack.

I added a few more experimental layers, and a second lead. Arpeggios there seemed to work well in the chorus. I expanded this lead, and made it converse with the pulse lead, one finishing the other. The basic tracks are pulse 1, pulse 2, pulse 2 quieter for the chorus, bass, bass drums, snare, hi-hats, toms. I added a Casio VL1 click as a sort of metronome pre-emptive click, evoking the beeps on the starting grid of a racing game, and added a white noise filter sweep, a classic 80s sound.

This is mostly it. The structure is as penned, but opens with a melodic chorus, and has an additional chorus for a guitar solo after the refrain; the refrain is the climax, the essential sweet-spot, and the solo is the coast down from that peak.

The next step is working on the vocals and arrangement. Songs like this benefit from layers and backing vocals. I already know I want a vocoder for 'my candy', but layered vocals may work there too. I'll certainly need layers for that climax.

I'm constantly amazed how many tracks pop songs seem to require, mine are positively frugal by comparison. Here's a shot of Prometheus with the intro, so far.

Make Her Sky Makeover, October Priorities

The migration to Substack is now complete. Blogger and Substack have different pros and cons, so for now Make Her Sky will be on both platforms for dear readers to choose their preference.

Many other jobs are pending, perhaps the most urgent is completing my Christmas song for the second Electric Sprout album. 12 artists are now confirmed and two songs, 'One Star' by Paul Parish, and 'Solstice Carol' by John Miller, complete and ready for mastering! Mike Drew of The Forrest Dick Band have also sent a few possible tracks, though more may come. My big hope is that Andy Stubbs will manage to complete his song, which sounds brilliant even in the fragment I've heard.

As it has a deadline, this must be my first priority. Perhaps, concurrently, I can work on the two shelving projects. I'm tempted to start that woodwork today, but it is too damp due to rainy Amy, today's named storm.

Two painting competitions report this month, and I've been informed of a new Nantwich Museum Open Art Competition, which is now open for entries on their website. There is a theme of 'heritage', one of those hugely boring words like 'community'. Such a theme is perfect as it will inspire something exciting and daring, and we're blessed to have a few months to develop and pain something new, even if the judging is by a 1500-pixel jpg (sigh, what would Vermeer, what would Leonardo da Vinci do when faced with the degradation of something visceral and ultra-delicate like an oil painting being judged by a coarse digital photograph?). I can but hope for the sympathy of the judges.