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So...senior year got in the way. Lots of work, mostly because I wanted to bump my GPA up for colleges (speaking of which, I'm 99.9999% headed towards the Ohio State University, and, by the way, I don't want to talk about it) and to get myself a blue cord for graduation in June :)

 

The semester ended a week or two ago, but it's still fairly busy, and I've still got AP/IB tests, and Senior Thesis.

 

Which leads me to this:

 

For my senior thesis, I'm basically writing about songwriters. I'm covering Tweedy (obviously), Bob Dylan, Colin Meloy, and either Paul McCartney or Neil Young. So naturally, after writing about their writing styles, mannerisms, and etc., it naturally follows that I write about my own.

 

The only natural follow-up to that is making my own EP of (mostly) my stuff.

 

I'm asking for this lovely forum's help in creating my album.

 

I just got my Boss Micro BR (it's the greatest thing ever), and so I've got tunes ready to be shown, and I'm asking for your help, you music-peoples, to help me craft a decent EP.

 

I'm looking for pretty folky, acoustic instruments (guitars, basses, pianos), maybe some light drums, and if desperate, some clean electric sounds to supplement. This is an EP, so it doesn't have to be post-production quality.

 

And these first ones are rough sketches. And when I mean rough, I mean 1-take get-the-idea-down rough.

 

Rough 1:

When the Redbirds Sing

 

Not-quite Rough 2:

The Devil

 

Not-quite Rough 3:

Little Susie, Keep Your Bonnet On

 

This post is subject to updating, so check it (kind of) often!

 

Many, many thanks in advance, for helping me with feedback!

 

Note: If it doesn't quite belong...by all means move it to where it needs to be.

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Have you listened to Jim O'Rourke's "Halfway to a Threeway" EP? I'd say that would be a good starting point for this. Iron and Wine's "Woman King" EP would also be excellent material to listen to.

 

I took a listen to "When the Redbirds Sing" and I like it, definitely think it has an interesting chord progression (sounded similar to some Loose Fur stuff), and the finger picking gives it a nice motion (vs some sort of strummed pattern). It's obviously a rough version (as you mentioned), but I'd just make sure to get the rhythm/timing even throughout the whole piece, that would definitely help.

 

As for added instrumentation, I think with any sort of folk songs it definitely gives them a lot more character, even if its just little accents. I think there's a lot of merit in the (to steal a IATTBYH movie quote) idea of "sonic weight," though of course straight presentations of folkish songs can be great too.

 

Adding some elements like little piano accents, light percussion throughout...or even for part of a piece, or a second harmonizing guitar element could really give the song a little extra weight and character. A little slide or lapsteel accent might be brilliant. A lot of it just has to do with production values, depending on how much of a lush/sparse feel you want the song to have. Adding just a touch of something like reverb/delay can give a sparse thing a little more of a full quality too, but don't go over the top with that.

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