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!

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*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.

Labor Day is behind us. The gridlocked traffic this morning proves beyond all doubt that summer is over. Here in New England, welcome to winter. Fudge.

While the calendar and the weather and the commute traffic all tell us that we’re up to our eye balls in winter now, the summer song writing challenge is still moving along. Not only was yesterday Labor Day, it was also day 66 of the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. What progress did I make?

After I arrived home from an early morning ocean flavored photowalk, I went down cellar and started playing guitar. On day 65 I put vocals on seven songs. On day 66 I put lead guitars onto the same seven songs. That was all she wrote. I wanted to do more, but that was a really good day’s work and I’m happy with where things stand.

24 days left. 45 songs done, seven ready to mix, one ready for vocal tracking, and one ready for lyrics. I still hope to add six more to the pipeline and finish the project on October 1st with 60 songs (at least). Still a lot of stuff to do.

Day 65 was pretty big for the 50 Songs in 90 Days Challenge. I worked on seven songs. All of them started the day needing vocal tracks and all of them ended the day with all of their vocal tracks finished. I had one other song that was ready for vocals but I failed to get to it. Besides that, the only other song remaining is still waiting on lyrics.

It might not sound like much given that I can sum up the entire day’s work in one sentence, but trust me… seven songs worth of vocal tracking is a massively big day.

I had a good day on day 64. Not as productive as I had hoped, but I got through the things I needed to get through.

I worked on four songs. The songs with the working titles of numbers 51, 52, and 53 all got rhythm guitar tracks. Four tracks in total. Two takes through two amps each. One pair of amps panned hard left and the other panned hard right. That’s how I always do it.

When I finished the third song I still had some time on my hands and wanted to keep playing guitar but I didn’t have anything else that was ready for a guitar part. So I did the only thing I could. I started a new song. I wrote song number 54 in its entirety. I usually start with MIDI tracks. Bass and drums and maybe something to use as a place holder for real guitars. This time I just set up a drum loop and started playing the guitar. I worked out the song form at the same time I was working out the riffs and chord changes. When I had the guitar worked out for the entire song I added a MIDI bass and replaced the drum loop with MIDI drums. Then I added a melody, played on a MIDI electric piano, then I wrote lyrics that fit the melody. Boom. Song 54 now exists.

45 songs complete. Nine more in progress. All of them have rhythm guitars and all but one have lyrics and are ready for vocals. 26 days left before it all ends.

Day 63’s update was exactly the same as day 62. I added one new song. It is all MIDI at this point but all of the parts have been written including the melody and the lyrics. I just have to replace the MIDI guitar with real guitars and replace the MIDI electric piano with vocals and then improv some lead guitar and we’re set.

Spoiler alert, day 64 has been fun. It would have been more fun if I didn’t suck at guitar so badly. I’ll probably bitch and moan about that tomorrow. Or not. We’ll find out tomorrow.

Day 62 (yesterday) was another day that felt pretty light on progress. Similar to day 61, I started a new song (number 52) and wrote the whole thing, lyrics and all. I didn’t record any real instruments yet. The whole thing is just MIDI “software instruments” (as GarageBand likes to call them), but everything is there just waiting for me to replace the fake guitars with real guitars and all of that fun stuff.

That’s all. I was hoping for more, but I am really just trying to set myself up for a big weekend. That’s the plan at least.

In yesterdays recap post I started thinking about redefining the 50 songs in 90 days challenge into a slightly different project. I’m thinking maybe 60 songs in 90 days? The most I’ve ever done in one of these things was 57 songs in 2024. I should at least try to top that.

My musical noodlings on day 61 started me down that path. I started the day with 50 songs in the project. 45 were complete, three were ready for vocal tracking, and two were waiting for lyrics and a melody. I wrote the lyrics and melody for one of those two songs and I should have worked on the second song as well. I did not though. Instead I added song number 51. It’s completely written with MIDI bass and drums finished, a MIDI guitar track that will act as a guide for when I record the actual guitars, the melody was recorded with a MIDI piano to act as a guide for when I record the vocals, and the lyrics are all written. Everything is done besides recording the real human stuff. One step beyond the 50 songs goal and one step closer to the new 60 song goal.

That’s all I managed yesterday. I hope to get more than that done tonight (day 62), but there is a new episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds out today and it might get in the way. We’ll see.

Welcome to September. Day 60. We are 2/3 of the way through the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. In the home stretch, sort of. In the endgame, kind of.

45 songs finished, five still in progress. I looked back through my playlists on alonetone.com and I have finished this challenge four times. In 2014 I had exactly 50 songs. In 2020 I had 52. In 2021 I had 53. In 2024 I had a whopping 57.

I guess its time to redefine this year’s goal. First and foremost I want to finish the five remaining songs and hit 50. That’s the primary goal, of course. Beyond that… the RPM Challenge rules define an album as 10 songs… can I do a September album in a month? 10 songs started and finished within the month of September on top of the 45 + 5 I already have for 50/90… is 60 songs in 90 days possible?

Yes.

Will I actually do it?

I don’t know.

As for day number 60 itself, I wrote a melody and lyrics for two songs. That’s it. Of the five remaining songs, three have lyrics and are ready for vocal tracking. The other two are still waiting on lyrics and the recordings only consist of the rhythm section.

I’m hoping to record the vocals for all five of these puppies over the weekend. I guess I should also start coming up with some more riffs if I want to make 60 songs a thing.