Category: Guitar

RPM Challenge – Day 26

I have finished recording all of the parts I need. I have four more songs to mix. I’m going to finish on time and have something in the mail by noon on Saturday. It just won’t be all that good.

The music is repetitive and clunky, the lyrics are crap as usual, the singing is worse than ever, and the lead guitar playing (which is normally weak at best) has been at times dreadful. I just don’t have it in me this month. I could probably take four or five of these and combine them with three or for from November and end up with a decent collection of songs, but this one on its own is pretty pathetic.

I mixed two more last night, for a total of 10 finished songs. I’m not going to post one of them because the vocal performance is the worst of my life, and despite recording the whole thing multiple times (dumbing down the melody each time) I still can’t pull it off.

The second mix from last night is better though.

http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/yes.mp3%20

My hands are too tired to perform, my voice is too tired to perform, and I think my ears are too tired to perform too. Everything just sounds sort of… mushy.

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RPM Challenge – Day 22

We are going for a drive today in the hopes of getting desks and desk chairs for the kids.  When we woke up we had a very small window of time for anything other than getting ready to go.  I used that time wisely and recorded the leads for song #5.  It was far from perfect, but far from my usual terrible.  What was weird was that I nailed each part on the first take.  Woah!  I must be in the groove.  (that is sarcasm, the groove and I never see eye to eye, let alone meet up)

Even weirder is that I recorded a 16 bar guitar riff that will become song #15.  Now that is weird!  Here I am convinced I won’t have time to finish 14 songs and I go and start a 15th.  Somebody stop me!

Which Guitar

I don’t know why, but for some reason whenever I do one of these music challenges I pick one electric guitar and use it exclusively. In November I used my Les Paul, so this month was going to be all ES 335.

Until this morning. Songs 1 and 2 are all acoustic so far. Song 3 is the 335. I worked on 4 and 5 today, but I used the Les Paul. Weird, huh?*

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*I warned you there would be a lot of lame posts this month.

One Last Pre-RPM Oldish Song

One more before the RPM craziness begins. This one was written in 1998 during Spring Break. It was then recorded in 2007 when I first heard about RPM but was too late to try it officially so I recorded 10 songs in March before taking a real shot at the challenge in April and failing miserably.

How’s that for a run on sentence?

I’ve always liked this one but I’ve never really been able to pull it off. The lyrics are about a photo of my grandparents that I first saw at my grandmother’s wake. I never new my grandfather, but my grandmother had always been there. Then she was gone. At the wake there was a picture of the two of them together when they were young. I think it might have been taken while they were dating. They were standing on the street looking like too kids who were acting goofy. It was hard to reconcile the saint I knew with the goofball in the picture. A few months later I came up with this song. My brother, John wrote the drum part. I was playing the guitar part in our little practice room at home and he came running in and jumped on the drums and started playing along. Just one more reason to really dig this song.

Here’s the new version:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/photograph-redux.mp3%20

Here’s the old version, for suffering’s sake:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/photograph.mp3%20

Another New (Oldish) Song

I finished re-recording another song from my 2011 RPM. This time I didn’t monkey with the arrangement at all. I just added some fruity effects and a couple of vocal harmonies.

Here’s the new version:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/ice-redux.mp3%20

Here’s the old version:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/ice.mp3%20

What is That?

I did a little recording this morning before work. I did a little more on my lunch hour. I played guitar, mostly.

Then… What the hell is that thing? Is that a blister? What tha… A blister? Five days before RPM starts? Wha… How… Who…

Urgh