I think I already wrote a bit about this. The first song I worked on this month was based on a guitar riff I came up with back in May. On the day I recorded the vocals I started work on another song and, accidentally and totally without realizing it, used almost exactly the same guitar riff. It was slower by quite a bit, but for the most part it was the same thing.
Oops.
Now the question is, which song is better? Here’s Part One:
Now here is Part Two:
I am leaning toward part two, but that might just be because I’ve been listening to it all day.
I did vocals for two songs first thing this morning, and now I put leads on those songs too. Tracking is done for both. I’m trying to make myself love the Blues Breaker clone pedal. I used it as a boost yesterday and as a light drive pushing a huge Klon Klone boost today. I like it. It’s just not… I don’t know. It’s not love. It makes me sad, though why? It’s just a friggin’ guitar pedal, right? Stupid red head.
I did some car music today. It went much better, gear wise, than last time. I had three songs ready to go and I got to two of them, but I was in a bit of a time crunch. Also, it was super hot in that car and the MacBook Pro was actually almost too hot to touch so… yeah. Call it.
The digital drop out problem was sort of addressed. At least I attempted to address it. I changed the USB cable and the USB to USB-C adapter. I had some problems early on that lead me to believe the mic cable might be the source of the fails. Next time I’ll use a different cable. I am really hoping it’s not the mic or the interface itself because those kids are expensive.
I did both of the songs that I started working on in the last week. I hope to put leads on them today and then mix them while I’m Nana Sitting tonight. That would mean one song was started on Saturday night and finished on Sunday night. 24 hours from the first idea to the finished mix. Cool.
In closing, here’s the obligatory “I drove through the center of town” pic. This time it has a groovy old timey filter because… why the hell not, yeah?
The 50/90 challenge starts in about a week. It’s probably not the best idea to try and force out a song this close to the starting point. A song that had it waited a week would have been one of the (hopefully) 50 but now cannot be. You know.
Maybe a little patience is warranted on the musical front right now?
Screw that, I need this.
I took out my new guitar again and told myself that the first thing I play is going to be worked into a song. Welp, here we are a little while later and there aren’t any lyrics and there isn’t a melody, but the song structure is there and the rhythm guitars, bass, and drum parts are all down.
Good boy.
I need to come up with lyrics for this one and the one from the other day so that I can do some car music in the morning. Tomorrow is my last chance this month… I think. Schedules are screwy, you know?
Want some unrelated good news?
Harry’s paying us a visit tonight. WOOHOO! Harry time!
I wrote last night that my hearthis.at account had run out of upload space and that I would get around to creating a second account. I don’t remember doing this, but it turns out I already made a second account. Did I time travel back from the future and do it so that it would be there when I needed it? Am I Marty McFly? Am I one of The Avengers?
I think I had a little too much caffeine this afternoon. It’s late but I’m not really tired at all. The Vegas Knights and Montreal Canadiens are going to overtime in game six. Vegas has to win. Vegas. Must. Win.
So in my non-sleepiness I mixed a song. The Record Every Month Challenge thingie will have an entry from me for June.
Note how the link to the song is a link and not a little embedded audio player. Why is that? Well, kids, I found out the hard way that hearthis.at has an upload limit for free accounts and I’ve reached it. I’ll make a second free account and somehow link them together, but not tonight. Tonight I am not up for that challenge. Tonight we’ll just settle for a link to alonetone.
I went down a YouTube rabbit hole a little and ended up here. A live recording of Procol Harum playing Whaling Stories not long before Robin Trower left the band and stopped playing Gibson guitars.
I’ve never heard this recording before, but the song is from a record called Home and I knew that album like the back of my hand. So did everyone in my house and most of my neighbors. Not only did I play it a lot, but I played my guitar along with it a lot too. Loudly.
I could fake my way through most of the songs, and even learned a couple of them (poorly) on piano. This one was a favorite to play along with. Those double bends Trower did… damn.
The weather is spectacular today. Clear, sunny, mild temps in the mid-70’s. Perfect. Everything you want from June in New England.
I have the windows open and the AC off so it should be super quiet. It’s not though. The birds, man. The birds are being crazy loud. It’s like Bird Coachella or something. It feels like any minute now Roger McGuinn and David Crosby are going to tear into Eight Miles High*.
Interesting guitar question. How many do you actually need?
The video doesn’t really answer the question realistically. You need one, yes. But there are other answers too.
I only need one, but I need to keep looking and trying different guitars until I find THE ONE. Specifically, the one that makes me not want any others.
x = n + 1 where x is the number you need and n is the number you have.
For me, I need two. Two of everything. I play bars in a cover band. I don’t have a tech sitting off stage who can fix things if my equipment should fail. I need to get to the set break. If a guitar (or amp, or cable, or mic, or pedal) should fail I need to swap it for something that’s working immediately. I can tinker with stuff all I want in between sets, but while the band is on stage I need to be up and playing right now.
In the video he talks about needing different types of instruments for different situations. This song needs a strat sound, that song needs a Les Paul. I am guilty of that all the time. In fact, when I think about trading in my strat I think about picking up another guitar with single coil pick ups. The strat is the only single coil guitar I own, so I should get another instrument that fills that role even though that logic is bullshit. No one is ever going to call me up for a gig that requires single coils. That’s absurd. If they want me, then they’ll be perfectly fine with double coils, all day long.
So maybe the answer is just that your needs aren’t as important as your wants. Who knows.
I took a guitar pic yesterday that I didn’t post. I’m posting it now to symbolize the fact that I should have played tonight but didn’t. Or something like that.
