This is Shattered by O.A.R. This is also the very first time we tried this, and even more so that yesterday’s version of Down Under, this is very rough around the edges. Including a stop/start with my messing up on the chords in one part. But learning how to put a song together is just fun, and one of the best things about any musical creativity.  We’ll also continue working on this one and see how it progresses.

This is a first crack at doing a version of Down Under. My friend Dennis and I did this the other night. This is the first time we tried this particular song. I really like being in a the creative process when you can just dive in and try things, and you can sort of hear things working out as we go through it. Playing with harmonies and timings and guitar parts. We’ll keep working on this one, and see how it goes.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to be creative in the arts in any sustained way. I participated in a photo-a-day project for almost 2 years, and when one of the prompting services was discontinued, I discontinued too. I miss it, but haven’t been able to re-motivate my self to jump back in. Now that I’ve completed my MEd degree, I find myself thinking of ways to get some of that neglected creative stuff back into my routine. So I think that this summer will see a few projects undertaken.

Photography – Both my wife and daughter like taking photos, and we’ve decided that, as a family, we’ll try and do a photo-a-day for the summer. We’ll post them all on my Flickr account. We may use a daily prompt site like Today’s Posting or we may just make up our own topic. Depends on the day. I think it should be fun a family.

Music – I’ve been wanting to dig into using GarageBand, both on my Mac and on the iPad and iPhone. I’ve messed with them a little bit, but not extensively.  I’m thinking that this summer, I’ll use these tools to post a song-a-day as well. I will record tunes as we sit around campfires, or where ever we happen to be.  I’ve set up a SoundCloud account and will be using that for posting tunes.  I’ve already recorded a few, and will be posting them daily. For a starter, I’ve embedded the first one below. It’s kind of a theme for the summer I’m hoping. 🙂  It’s a great tune by one of my favourite Canadian folk singers Ian Tamblyn.

“I’m not trying to be no star, there’s enough of them in a summers night.”