Recording

J and I met to continue our recording sessions last night. It had been two weeks since we last got together. Last time out, I put down a button accordion melody track on a cumbia and then we some percussion (guiro). Since then, John has added a bass track, and a piano accordion track behind the melody. He also added hand-claps, a really beautiful touch.

I had been practicing Farewell to Nova Scotia, but decided to record a corridinho instead, a piece I've been playing for some time. Corridinho is a fast Portuguese dance form in 4/4. The tunes are usually simple but played very fast with emphasis on the first beat of the bar. I don't know the title of this tune. J found it or heard it somewhere and wrote it out.

We ended up not getting a track recorded last night. I was having all kinds of trouble playing one section of the tune at full speed. I was finding it difficult to relax my fingers enough to play this passage fluidly, so it sounded too choppy, and sometimes dragged behind the beat. We discussed an alternate fingering that would reduce the amount of hand movement needed to play the passage, and I tried that out. I think the new fingering is the ticket, but I'm going to have to practice it for a while. We should get this one recorded next week.