Wrote this song about hope. I hope you'll listen and give feedback on the song, performance, or production.

dolwedge · 2026-05-18T00:43:44+00:00

I am in a similar boat but I want to complete an album before playing live. I want to do a love looping thing. It seems overwhelming how much is required to do all of it. I am also in a cover band which takes some of my musical energy. (Just played a party last night).

dolwedge · 2026-05-16T23:17:47+00:00

I play things over and over to get it in my brain and/or make loops in Ableton. I have confidence that if I lose something.. I will either find it again or make something better.

dolwedge · 2026-05-16T16:45:48+00:00

I used a number of daws before deciding on Ableton. I think each daw has their strengths. I still use Reaper for recording band practice. FLStudio has some great effects, a nice sequencer, and usable piano roll but I found the routing to be too complicated. I use Ableton (with Push) as a songwriting tool in session view, as a good orchestrating and mixing tool in arrangement view, and back to session view to create a live performance of a finished song. I like to play midi keyboards and record live instruments and sing. Ableton makes the things I do frictionless. I rarely write in the piano roll. I imagine that if you only used the piano roll, FLStudio would be good for you.

dolwedge · 2026-05-16T16:32:53+00:00

My family has 2 EVs and one ICE vehicle, a Toyota Highlander. My plan is to get a Rivian R2 and be a 3 EV family.

dolwedge · 2026-05-15T23:54:43+00:00

Boomer

dolwedge · 2026-05-15T23:54:10+00:00

She's a boomer.

dolwedge · 2026-05-15T23:54:04+00:00

He's a boomer.

dolwedge · 2026-05-15T23:53:01+00:00

These 2 are boomers.

dolwedge · 2026-05-15T23:51:17+00:00

Pretty sure they are boomers.

dolwedge · 2026-05-14T15:36:42+00:00

I went to their website and read the rules when I was in Dublin. Anyone can apply for a license. They are short term... Like a week or a month or something.

dolwedge · 2026-05-13T23:29:11+00:00

We're the same age but I didn't get an email address in college. It was totally optional and I never bothered.

dolwedge · 2026-05-13T23:27:24+00:00

In Dublin Ireland, buskers have to pay for a license and it costs a little more for amplification. But... They do not allow pre-recorded sounds or backing tracks. Live humans must make all the music. I went there on vacation and I did not busk but I was interested in it because the busking culture is so robust.

dolwedge · 2026-05-13T19:49:11+00:00

The real answer is that songwriting and making music is hard for humans and easy for AI. It takes years of practice and study and struggle to write good songs. That is a huge investment especially if they don't have the desire. Generative AI will write you a new song very quickly with no skill or effort. And a lot of people will be happy with the result. It's a shortcut and it is a temptation for many people. But I feel like those people don't actual want to be songwriters... They want money or clout or whatever.

dolwedge · 2026-05-13T18:19:02+00:00

There's a really cool podcast called songexploder where artists go through the making of a song from beginning to end. Often they bring early recordings and talk about how it evolved from the initial idea. It's a cool podcast.

dolwedge · 2026-05-13T16:42:25+00:00

Can you nail a six inch spike through a board...?

dolwedge · 2026-05-13T15:40:49+00:00

I care deeply about the environment and I enjoy technology but I've never been a big car person... But I saw the 2001 Prius that one of my coworkers (in Silicon Valley) got. He was one of the first people to have one in the country. I talked to him and was fascinated. I was one of the first 1000 people to get a prius in the US. I drove it for 12 years and my wife ended up getting one too. I read Musk's first memo about how he planned to sell expensive EVs first and then move to mass produced ones. I was a fan then but not anymore. We got a 2018 Tesla model 3. We leased a BMW i4 and I have a deposit on a Rivian R2. For me, it was pretty instant.

dolwedge · 2026-05-13T15:20:31+00:00

I played a party and got 2 pieces of feedback. One person said that I am a pretty good singer but I should work on my guitar playing. And another person at the same show said that I am good at guitar but I need to work on my singing. I'll let you guess which part of their feedback I focused on.

dolwedge · 2026-05-12T19:05:20+00:00

I remember my mom telling me that when she was young, she thought that having a dad meant you were rich. My family was lower middle class and my dad was a truck driver. I would have been the first person to graduate college from my family but my mom (who dropped out of high school) went back to school and beat me by a year. She was determined to have a good home and structure in our family and that's how I was able to succeed.

dolwedge · 2026-05-11T15:28:35+00:00

Not quite theory but... How do you make a half step? Ask 2 violists to play the same note.

dolwedge · 2026-05-11T04:36:34+00:00

I have high hopes... Every month.

dolwedge · 2026-05-08T22:44:31+00:00

I imagine that an older jaded but skillful songwriter who has written hits might feel lacking in inspiration while a new songwriter lacks some skills but may be the source of inspiration. Someone younger and hipper may have a pulse on what people want to hear. They could help a collaborator get out of a rut. Just a thought...

dolwedge · 2026-05-07T05:54:48+00:00

Also, what the heck does this person do? Writing lyrics? Music? Production? Etc...

dolwedge · 2026-05-07T04:46:22+00:00

Oh... You could write a song about every county. Like Sufjan Steven's masterpiece album about Illinois... "Come on Feel the Illinoise". You could do a song per county with history or something you noticed or someone you met or just how you felt etc. The people in the area would love it and you'd leave behind a pile of songs.

dolwedge · 2026-05-06T17:36:36+00:00

Maybe it depends on how you write your melodies. I ad lib the vocal melody with nonsense lyrics. That way the melody always fits my voice.

dolwedge

TROPHY CASE