After a workshop on lead and improve techniques taught by Robert Force at the 2006 Nutmeg Dulcimer Festival I was inspired to create a short tune built from several easy parts. I want to share this here as an example of something that just about anyone, at any playing level, could accomplish.
The first part I recorded was the base strumming part to give myself a good foundation to work from. In the Nutmeg Workshop, Robert Force made the point that just as in building anything else it is important to build musically from a solid and very familiar base!
Once that base part was recorded, I replayed it several times while I tried different melodies. Once I was happy with the melody I recorded it in a new "track" of the same recording project. Using headphones with a long cord allowed me to hear the base while recording just the melody.
After playing back the combined recording of these two parts, I decided I wanted to add a low part. Then, while learning about software instruments, I decided to add a flute part. (I'm not playing the flute here, but instead using the software to add the sampled recording of the flute playing different notes.)
Now with these four very different parts played together, the whole piece seems to be a bit greater then just "The Sum Of The Parts".
