DaVinci and Dover Clip Art Montage

I have a lot of different images by DaVinci and some Dover Clip Art and I played around with them today to create this montage image for today's post. It doesn't have a music theme as many of my images do. But it is striking in it's own way.

I used PhotoPaint and browsed for images to use in Picasa 3. I was striving for a balanced piece with the DaVinci drawn face and binary code, alphabetic characters, along with some floral images.

I may have some time today for practicing guitar and playing with lyrics and chord progression. I may try to put "Just a Chill Out Song" to music. Depends on how long I have quiet here. The neighbor just finished mowing and weed-whacking his lawn. Man was it noisy! But it really needed it it was way too long.

I think I am pretty much out of my slump, now. Which is way cool. I really hate a long dry spell creatively. I have had much encouragement from others to ride it out and look ahead to better times. Always appreciated!

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: George Strait - Ocean Front Property
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Just a Chill Out Song - Riverscape with Guitar

Lyric Ideas for Songwriters is a website I ran across doing a Google Search. They have published song ideas that you can use free of charge. Their challenge this week was JUST A CHILL OUT SONG, so I tried my hand at using it for a beginning point.

Here is the resulting poem/lyric:

JUST A CHILL OUT SONG

Laid back
Frayed slack
Nothing's coming back
Just a chill out song

No worries
No hurries
Nothing's a fury
Just a chill out song

Some times you need to relax
Those times when you have to bend
Those times when something lacks
Wind blowing storm coming to an end

World trying to take you out
People raising great havoc
They're not sure what it's about
You're resting in your backyard hammock

Laid back
Frayed slack
Nothing's coming back
Just a chill out song

No worries
No hurries
Nothing's a fury
Just a chill out song

It's just a chill out song
Taking it easy is not wrong
Stress is a buster a killer too
Chilling out is the thing to do

Later on you be back at work
Taking on a load of woe
Right now you are doing bodywork
Mind resting building slow

It's just a chill out song
Taking it easy is not wrong
Stress is a buster a killer too
Chilling out is the thing to do.

It was really enjoyable to do some writing trying to break out of a slump. I may take this as a lyric and add chords and a melody for practice and a mental workout. I think I am coming out of the slump.

The image for today's post is from a photograph taken in Alaska and an close up image of my 12-string guitar superimposed upon it. I used Paint.NET for the line work on the photograph and after saving that file opened it in PhotoPaint. I used OptikVerves filter on it to give it more grain as film#1 at 1600 ISO/ASA. Using another photograph close up of my 12-string I resampled it to fit the riverscape image. I made it a pencil sketch in Paint.NET and copied it to the clipboard and placed it as an object on the riverscape image. Using the object property Multiply I superimposed it on the image and merged them together.

So slump time is decreasing as creativity refocuses itself. Boy am I glad!

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: G-N-R - Patience
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Poem About Writer's Block - Guitars Collage

I am struggling with a slump for writing new songs so I did an exercise in writing about being blocked. Here is the result:

Mystified
Stupefied
Simply stunted

Generation of ideas
Escapes my mind
Pouring over unsteady thoughts
Without anything brought

Blockade
Roadblock
Writer’s cramped

Purification of ideas
Escapes my mind
Pouring over unsteady thoughts
Without anything brought

The question begs when
Where have my thoughts been
It always starts with begun
And all I have to do is sung:
“All I have to do”

Mystified
Stupefied
Simply stunted

Generation of ideas
Escapes my mind
Pouring over unsteady thoughts
Without anything brought

The question begs when
Where have my thoughts been
It always starts with begun
And all I have to do is sung:
“All I have to do”

Mystified
Stupefied
Simply stunted

Generation of ideas
Escapes my mind
Pouring over unsteady thoughts
Without anything bought
Or sold – Or sold – Or sold

I did re-record "When the Stars Go Blue" cover after Tim Mcgraw's version. And my wonderful wife likes it so I am guessing I did pretty good on it. I did play and sing on two tracks to add a fullness to the recording using an R&B Vocal model. It gave it some reverb and sounds nice. A differing version of the song, of course.

I have something else to work on today so no guitar work or songwriting efforts for now.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald
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Abstract Guitar Collage

Sometimes it is enjoyable to look at things through different viewpoints. This Collage was done in PhotoPaint quite a while ago. I did a lot of cutting and pasting, very intuitively. I don't recall all the steps I took but I do like the end result. A rather mysterious look into the guitar as motif.

I did practice and sing yesterday. But while I was recording a particular song with some high notes my voice cracked, just before the end of the track. As I record my songs live I will have to correct that by re-recording the whole song. But the tempo was better and closer to the original song I am doing the cover of. So I need to be careful of those high notes.

I still feel like I am in a slump as far as songwriting goes. I haven't had any new ideas or poetry or lyrics, nary a chord progression to be found. I am waiting to snap out of it. And I know that it will happen soon, it is just a matter of time and patience.

Any one who knows of some exercises to get out of a slump can shoot me some pointers, I would appreciated it. Maybe a trip to the library or a book store would help. I have been contemplating that as one way. Libraries are filled with ideas, and book stores also carry music books for the encumbered.

I will be out of this soon I can feel it!

12-String Guitar at Rest

My 12-string guitar has been at rest for a few days. I am in a slump, which happens at various times for all of us I would surmise.

I have been listening to music though. Some Guess Who from the late 60's and some George Strait, Country. Differing music can help you to come up with good ideas for songwriting.

Lastnight we also listened to some comedy: "There's Your Sign" and Cosby's "Chicken Heart" and some others of Cosby's. Very good humor and great timing.

Needed a pick me up so the laughter was welcome. Nothing like a good larf.

I used a few filters on this photograph as well as cropping. Opened Picasa 3 to browse using the search function for "guitar" and found this photograph. used the Open With PhotoPaint. Cropped it and saved to the clipboard, closed the photograph and opened from the clipboard. I used the Thredgeholder filter to get some lines and shading. Then I used the undo to bring the image back to the original crop. I used the Effect> Art Strokes> Crayon> filter on the image. Pasted the line image as an object into the piece and used the Object Property> Multiply to make it transparent. Dropped the object to background.

Hope to play some guitar this afternoon. Actually need to to break the slump I'm in.

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Now playing on Windows Media Player: Guess Who - No Time (Rare Long Version)
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