HI Cathie,

here are my thoughts, maybe useful or complete garbage. :-)

Perhaps you could use my method, when I'm writing songs in BIAB. I usually pick a style with 1 or 2 instruments, when composing. Once the song has it's basic form, I start to replace and add Real Tracks or Midi Tracks (mostly for being treated in the DAW by better sounding patches than General MIDI instruments).

Once I have all the Tracks with instruments to my taste I start to work with listening to, where I want my instruments to play and where I want them to be silent. When that is done I start to work with "breaks", helds ect. During that process I often run into the frustration of not being in full control of Real Tracks and how they play, but it still gives me the idea of where and how I want the instruments to sound. At the same time I decide if I'm able to replace any of the tracks with my own playing style to suit the purpose of the song.

When it comes to singing, my voice is not a typical rock or pop vocal, and very often my vocal results never sound like I imagined them in me head from the start or during the process. This is why I spend days, weeks or months to practice my songs, and try to work with the "rhythm" of the lyrics, my flow - these two exercises sometimes show me, that I have to change the lyrics into something more singable. Also I pay special attention to the parts of the song, where I change in register and how to approach that and learn my body and brain to remember it. When I feel confident and have a clear idea on how to perform the vocals - I go to my DAW and start to record my voice (15-20 takes for each part of the song) and afterwards I spend ages with the built in pitch correction and my effect chain to get as near to my idea as possible.

During my last 10 years as DIY home studio musician I learned quite a bit about my vocals, and I accepted that it's at best an average vocal for a sparetime amateur choir, but I've decided that once the pandemic has lost the grip of society, I certainly will invest in a vocal coach. I also learned to accept that only 20% of what I compose passes the eye of the needle, and make it to the DAW, and even less % is made public available. It's a constant, and sometimes very frustrating, ongoing process towards mastering perfection and accept and acknowledge the imperfect self.

You made your reading so far - I hope it made just a little sense.

MacMini M1 - BIAB2021 - Logic Pro X - iZotope Music Production Suite - Scaler 2 - far too many Waves plugins and Line 6 Guitars and boards + a fantastic Yamaha THR10ll mini Amp - Avid MBOX Studio

Peters' Garage is available on all major streaming services