Dad’s appointment is over. I tried to do a chore for my sister but it wasn’t happening. I’ve been trying to keep up with the 30 minutes of exercise each day but my legs are so sore that walking is like dragging great big hunks of size 15 lead. I tried to setup a dehumidifier in the cellar but step one of the setup instructions says to leave the unit out of the box for 24 hours. Okay then.
Oh yeah, and I put new strings on my Les Paul. Three months of only playing the ES-335 are done… for now.
I took today off from work so I could drive my father to a doctors appointment. I wanted to get up early and crank out some car music. I kinda failed. I actually got up a little late but I still did some singing. I put voices onto three songs. I usually shoot for five, but I didn’t want to be late to get dad.
Current 50/90 status:
Six have vocals and are ready for guitar leads.
Three have lyrics and are ready for vocals.
Six have all of the rhythm tracks done and are ready for lyrics.
I’m hoping I’ll do some leads tonight. Maybe a mix. Maybe another lyric or two, and then more car vocals tomorrow morning. That’s how we’re going to get this puppy done on time.
I uploaded song #35 today. There are only 15 more to go.
Four have vocals and are ready for guitar leads.
Five have lyrics and are ready for vocals. (Tomorrow morning in the car?)
Six have all of the rhythm tracks done and are ready for lyrics.
That’s all that’s left. Only 16 days left in September. I can do it, he said with confidence he didn’t really feel.
I was going to put a song file onto this post, but all of the songs I’ve been finishing lately are pretty lame so maybe next time. Instead, watch this video of The Great Tony Levin demonstrating the Chapman Stick.
I put rhythm guitars on four songs tonight and lead guitars on two.
I have to check my math here but… I think that’s 50 songs with rhythm guitars. 50/90 just hit a gigantic milestone. I still have a lot of lyrics and melodies to write and a lot of recording to do.
I just added a new song for 50/90. It’s the last song that was started in July. Is that important? Not even a tiny bit.
I feel a little less mentally defective now. I spent an hour and a half or so playing the guitar. I recorded five songs worth of rhythm guitars and two songs worth of leads. My fingers are sore, my ears are sore, I’m covered with sweat.
I feel better.
I haven’t played my guitar this week and the stir crazy is getting to me. I’ve done a lot of work on 50/90 but none of it on guitar. I’ve got eight songs with vocals recorded that are just waiting for leads. I have three that are ready for rhythm guitar. Tonight. I hope. All totaled, I’m up to 47 songs now. Three more to go and then all I have to do is the gigantic mountain of work left to finish them up.
The Agents of Shield re-watch is up to season five episode one. It opens with a montage set to a Talking Heads song. At least I think it’s a Talking Heads song. It’s definitely David Byrne singing. It lead me to the question: The year is 2020, is it time for me to give Talking Heads a try? I more or less ignored them back in the 80’s. Should I change my mind? Change my tune, so to speak?
Jen and I have been trying to exercise. I’ve been getting 30 minutes or so in each day for the last few days. I’ve been slacking a little today though. One of the things the Apple Watch activity app tracks is calories burned. I had the goal set at 640. I can’t remember if I set that or if it defaulted that way, but it’s been like that forever.
My SleepWatch app has been giving me notifications stating that I get better sleep if I burn 800 calories. That’s interesting. The last few exercise filled days have seen me going way above 800 and I have been sleeping a little better than normal. I guess that settles it. My activity app has been upped from 640 to 800 calories. Yup. I need to go for a 5-6 minute walk now.
I started using my ES-335 for my home demo projects back in late May. The other day I was missing my Les Paul. I didn’t play it because the strings were an ancient mess.
These puppies came from amazon today. Guess which gitter is getting a new set. Go on, guess.
I added some rhythm guitar to four songs today. It mostly went okay. There were a couple of moments when the tendinitis in my thumb decided to remind me it was there. I had to adjust a couple of things to resolve it, but it was really the first time that my hurt thumb was a factor, even though it was a very small factor.
Gear wise, I started out with what more or less is my Lizardfish setup. If there was a sound that I was forced to call “my sound” meaning my usual go-to it would be this. Gibson guitar into a Klon KTR into a Malaise Forever Black Lives Matter into a lowish wattage amp. In this case, two lowish wattage amps. Sometimes we’ll throw in either an MXR Uni-vibe or an MXR Phase 90 at the front of the pedal chain. Today I started out that way, complete with the Uni-vibe, but it just felt off. It could be that I haven’t played at all in a week or so, but I just wasn’t connecting. I ended up turning everything off except the Klon. Ahhh… there it is. The magic place.
Next thing I knew, I had blown through three more songs. Nice. Next time I might try zeroing the gain on the KTR and maxing the output and letting it push the two 15 watt amps into overdrive. That should be fine. It might be a touch louder than I usually get, but it should be fun.
I mixed four songs for 50/90 today. My ears are so tired I’m actually a little dizzy. Yikes!
I’m up to 31 complete now. Yikes, I said!
