Sidelines

Cover of “Sidelines.”

Thanks to Kevin Wacknov for the GarageBand bassline and percussion.
This song has been in the works for a while. I originally intended it for the Reno Ukulele Festival, though I still needed to perform it publicly by that time. My open mic experiences were so rough by the time the song came up in my playlist, I deferred playing it. I did not want to fudge it up. As I continued to practice the song, I changed the key from the original Bb to F, making it easier to sing and play. The video above required only one take, so the extra practice paid off. Where there are two consecutive measures of F, I play the F with a C on top for the 2nd measure. Where there are two measures of Bb, I play Bb with a C on top, making it Bb add 9. I play Bb sus 2 for the last Bb strum. The song’s two BbM7 in the 2nd verse is a nice touch by Bridgers.
The song verses also feature my Bossa Nova strum debut. It’s slow enough so I can sing and strum at the same time. Next time will be faster.
I am using a newly obtained Focusrite Scarlett 2i2. This audio computer interface replaces the USB mic converter that I suspect introduced some slight distortion, especially on the vocals. The distortion is likely an audio-level headroom issue when the ukulele, bass, and percussion are happening simultaneously. I am running the two output channels of the mixer into the interface inputs. The mixer channels take the vocals mic, iPhone bass playback, and ukulele pickup. Is this an unusual usage technique? I like what I am hearing.