Day 72 (yesterday) was ridiculously busy out here in sunny, gorgeous, Southern California. I have made a command decision: I am never leaving this place.

There wasn’t a lot of time for anything musically related (though we did go to a concert at the massively huge pipe organ in Balboa Park) but I did manage to sneak in a mix for one song. Unlike all of my usual stuff, I actually like this one. I’ve been trying to make 5/8 time a thing and with this song I feel like it worked. I really like this one. I never like my own songs, but I really like this one.

The 50 songs in 90 days challenge has 48 songs finished. That’s 96% complete. Hopefully I’ll be able to eek out some time for another mix today (day 73) but its going to be another busy one. We’ll see.

We are in California. 3000+ miles from home. Still I managed to get some 50 songs in 90 days challenge work done. I am so fucking dedicated it’s disgusting!

I mixed two songs. I was supposed to be doing some work while sitting in the hotel room. There was a task I needed done before I left work Friday so that it could be ready for someone else Monday morning and I didn’t finish it. I was going to finish it last night but I mixed two songs instead because my priorities are fucked. Spoiler alert, I finished the task this morning. All is right with the world.

I now have 47 songs complete. I am so close to the 50 song goal I can taste it. I also have nine songs ready to mix and one more that needs lyrics and vocals and lead guitars and stuff like that. The challenge is 50 songs. I’m shooting for 60. I have 57 in the pipeline and I have 19 days to go.

Also, Steven Wilson has a new single and it’s fucking bonkers and I’m really digging it.

I often start these recap posts with a warning that golly gee-willickers I can’t seem to remember everything I did yesterday… and then I write everything I did exactly. Today… I honestly can’t remember exactly what I did last night. I know I took song number 57 and finished the structure as well as the bass and drums. When I started it was just two little eight bar bass licks. Now it has a full song form and is ready for me to figure out rhythm guitar parts.

Other than that? I know I replaced a drummer track on at least one song, but I thought I did 2-3 songs. If I did more than just the one then I failed to update my trello board because while I am sure I fixed at least two songs the trello board says I only fixed one. Damn it. I’m usually way better at this sort of thing.

Spoiler alert for tomorrow, something happened to me today that hasn’t happened in forever… maybe since the Carter administration*!

I broke a string!

*Know that I am exaggerating a little when I say I haven’t broken a string since the Carter administration. Especially since Jimmy left office in January of 1981 and I didn’t start playing guitar until May of 1986. Suffice to say though, it’s been a really long time since I broke a string. What’s more, I broke an A string, not the little skinny high E… I broke the A… as in a big heavy steal wound sucker. Crazy.

I did a bit of work on the 50 songs in 90 days challenge yesterday. It included some things that are not common for me and sort of break some of my unwritten rules which all combined makes it harder for me to keep track of what happened which makes it a little tiny bit harder to write this silly recap… but here goes.

All together I worked on three songs last night. My wife and I were sitting in the living room watching TV. She was working on her laptop and I was playing on mine. I had started two song ideas on day 67. One had bass and drums and some other keyboard guide tracks. The other had bass and a melody and other keyboard guide tracks but did not have the final drums. I started with that one. I replaced the drum track I had with a GarageBand drummer. More on that later, but suffice to say I gave it a drummer track and then added lyrics. When that was done I went to the other day 67 song and gave it lyrics. Then I replaced the GarageBand drummer.

Back story is that GarageBand has this functionality that will provide a drum track for you based on the other tracks in the song that are available to it when it is created and a bunch of other adjustable parameters. It also lets you pick from a pile of different “drummers” based on the genre of music you’re shooting for. They all have names and little back stories as well as a genre they focus on. I don’t know how many drummers GarageBand offers but I almost always use one. Gavin. He’s supposed to be an Alternative Rock type of drummer but he seems pretty straight ahead to me. For this year’s 50/90 I wanted to mix things up and started using a different drummer. Something punkier. I used that drummer for everything I did in July, then went back to the regular drummer for everything I did in August. I planned on changing to something else during September and picked on to use for the month, something a little more hyper active and heavier rock.

At first I was happy with the choice for September, but now that I am 5-6 songs in… I don’t know. I’m not liking it anymore. Last night when I added a drummer to song number 56 I picked something different with the intent of changing the drummer on all of my September songs. When I worked on number 55 I did change the drummer. I then brought up song number 54 and was going to change the drummer on that file too but… I decided I didn’t really like the new drummer either. I think I am going to go back and re-redo the two songs I redid last night with something else and then change the other four September songs to that drummer too. I might go back to my usual go-to thing, the same one I used for everything in August. I don’t know. I’ll take one (or two) more cracks at something different first, but I might end up scrapping my different-drummer-every-month idea.

Instead of researching drummer styles further, I just started another song. Song number 57 to be precise. I had one eight bar bass riff and was noodling out a second one when I gave up for the night and went to bed. I will use the tiny bit I have for number 57 but I will probably make changes and many additions.

I have a rule for these song writing challenges that pertains to the demo recording process. Once I record something, I use it. I don’t redo anything unless a file on my laptop is corrupted somehow. If I record something it stays, even if I know I can do it better. Don’t waste time redoing things. That’s the rule. This month, when it comes to drum tracks I am taking a big steaming shit all over that personal rule and redoing pretty much everything. So much for personal convictions, eh? Way to stick to your guns, fat boy.

Anyway, that’s what I did on day number 68.

Another day closer to having this whole thing finished. And so it goes, onward and upward or something.

I worked on four songs on day 67. I started the day with seven songs ready to mix, one ready for vocal tracking, and one that needed lyrics before it could get vocals. I had a few minutes with the house to myself last night after work so I pulled out my trusty microphone and put the vocals down on the first song. Then I wrote a melody and lyrics to the second song while recording (write a verse, record the vocal for it, write another verse, record the vocal for it, etc etc).

Once those two songs were down I thought… now what? Do I record the lead guitars for those two songs? Do I mix something? No, I added a new song. I was thinking the idea I had was in 3/4 time but I kept needing to up the tempo. In the end it was ridiculously fast which made me think I should have been in 6/8… but it didn’t seem like it wanted to have a triplet feel. I don’t know. I finished the MIDI bass and drums and left a guide for the eventual rhythm guitar tracks. I was hoping I would have time to add a melody and some lyrics but I did not.

When that was done I hung out with the love of my life watching the tube in the living room. Eventually it was bed time and instead of sleeping (which I should do more often) I worked out another song on GarageBand on my iPad. Weirdly, this one is also in 3/4 time. The structure is done, the MIDI bass is done. There’s a drummer track but it will be ruined when I port the file into GarageBand on my Mac. There’s some sort of bug there that screws up Drummer tracks. I’ll have to replace it eventually. There is also a guide for the rhythm guitar and a melody noodled out on an electric piano track. No lyrics yet though.

That brings the total song count up to 56. 45 are done and now 11 are still in progress. 50 songs in 90 days is the goal. I’m still shooting for 60 songs in 90 days though because I am a dork.