Career Advice

Robert James

When I finished high school I went straight to college as a music major. I knew it was a mistake even before I started, but music was my all consuming passion and I had zero interest in anything else. I figured I had to give it a shot even though the odds were grotesquely stacked against me.

Now my step daughter is about to start high school and the inevitable “what do you want to be when you grow up” discussions are starting to happen. She doesn’t know yet, but music is just as much of a passion for her as it was for me. Broadway is starting to call to her. She has more talent in her pinky finger then 10 of me have, but I know what’s waiting for her and I don’t want her to fail the way I did. One of her parents is probably going to forbid her from studying music as a career. The other, my wife, is like me. If it’s what she truly loves, we have to let her go for it. Personally, if I were to tell her no then I would be the world’s biggest hypocrite. We have a few years still. I’ll let you all know how it turns out.

Musically, I thought about a swingie 12-bar, but cut the phrases down a little instead. I always include a 12-bar in my RPM projects, but I’m trying to avoid it this year. I also used this song as an excuse to add in a lot of key changes and damn it if that didn’t bite me on the ass.

I recorded everything but the vocals and included a key change in the final chorus. Then I recorded the vocals in sections and copy and pasted them throughout the song… forgetting about the key change. Damn it! So everything but the last chorus was recorded using GarageBand for iPad last Thursday in my living room. The last chorus was recorded in the car today while waiting for my step son’s guitar lesson to end using GarageBand for OSX. I had to monkey to get them sort of sounding similar, but the difference sticks out to me like a sore thumb.

The guitars are all ES-335.

Give it a go
and see where it leads
you know it’s worth a shot
You never know
It might be okay
give it some thought

I’ve been there
I’ve done that
It did not
work out for me
I tried it
I failed
just like so
many before

This is not
about me
It’s your turn
you must decide

I can not
forbid you
I would not
tell you no