Wednesday, June 7, 2017

"A Dream within a Dream"

Last night I learned some more parts for "A Dream within a Dream."  I listened to Tales of Mystery and Imagination yester-day and discovered that "A Dream within a Dream" has slide guitar.  I mean, I'd certainly heard that part before, but it wasn't until yester-day that I realized that it's slide guitar.  I learned that first and discovered that it has the same four pitches (A, D, E, and G) as the recorder part.  They have a different order and rhythm, but they're the same four pitches.

I can't remember if I already knew the bass part or not, but it's only one note (A), so that was simple to either learn or re-learn.  I knew I was going to write a post here at least to mention that the slide guitar and recorder have the same notes, but I didn't know if I should record a version because - while I'd have the bass part - there's a lot of space between those two elements.  In order to fill out my recording, I learned the electric piano part and the acoustic guitar chords.  My recording still feels a bit empty, but I guess five parts are better than only three.

I'm pretty sure the recorders are double-tracked in the original.  One might be lower than the other, but all I have is a soprano recorder, so doubling that is the best I could do.  I'm looking into getting a tenor recorder, although I'm not sure that's what's used in the original recording.

I double-tracked the acoustic guitar and the slide guitar.  I'm not sure that's accurate; I just thought it would sound better.  I don't have the delay effect on the slide guitar because I simply don't know how to do that yet.  I briefly played around with some effects in my recording program, but even the shortest delay I could get was too long compared to what's in the recording.