Fixing steel arrangements

Curt Trisko · From: St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

I have been putting steel to a series of songs written and performed on guitar by a buddy. We started about a year ago and are building a small catalog of songs with the ultimate goal of making an amateur recording and playing casual sets. I am at a stage where I am going back to some of the songs and making tweaks and changes to my arrangements that I was never satisfied with.

I am learning quite a bit about the process of redoing your own parts:

1) You are still the same person when you first came up with the part, so you will probably walk into the same pitfalls.

2) Once you make up your mind to change a part, stop comparing new options to it. Your mind has already figured out how to make your old part weave into the fabric of the song. Unless you strike on gold, you will not be able to make an objective comparison.

3) The part you came up before was the way that it is for a reason. Unless you specifically feel inspired to do something completely different, your time is best spent making the one or two small tweaks that eliminate your dissatisfaction.

4) When the changes are small, don't expect to know whether it is something that will stick. Sleep on it.

I have yet to clean the slate on a song entirely and start from scratch. Has anyone here? And if so, how do you do it without it being an incredibly frustrating and confusing process?

Jory Simmons · From: Elkhorn, Wisconsin, USA

Hit erase, or rewind and have a beer...start over. I am in three Bands and write Tabs for hundreds of Guys. I practice every day and every time I play I find something new about any particular Lick..or as You said "Tweaking".
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Jory Simmons

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