Category: Music

What Was That?

I think that’s the first time it’s ever happened. At least since 2012. WordPress.com was just down! I couldn’t post and I couldn’t access my page. It was terrible! I started sweating and shaking and seeing little blue men with no feet who were pointing and laughing at me and Tracey Morgan yelled out, “Blue Man, where your feet at!” It was awful!

Anyway, I wanted to make a 50/90 update. I only have three songs left. I did so much work today I actually lost track of it all. Tomorrow I will add lead guitars to the final three songs and then I’ll mix ’em down and then I’ll be done and need to figure out what I want to do in October.

This song is the clear winner for the whole project, even if the guitar is a smidge out of tune:

43 Down

43 songs finished. Seven to go. Only three days left. Can he do it? Well, the seven songs I still need to finish are all close to done already so… yeah, there’s a good chance.

LaLaLaSinging

I told my wife as I was walking out the door for car music that I’d be back after five songs or a full bladder, whichever came first. Funny enough, they both hit at exactly the same time. As I was finishing the fifth song I reached the point where the bladder was at emergency status and raced home. Pretty crazy, huh?

The current status of the 50 songs in 90 days challenge is, I’m done with vocals! I have nine songs that need lead guitar and a mix and that’s it!

Still a good chunk of work to go, but the singing hurdle has been jumped! And there was much rejoicing!

A Streak is in Jeopardy

An epic streak might come to an end today. For 16 days now I have been able to exercise for at least 30 minutes. I don’t know if I’ve ever pulled anything off in that scope. All I’m doing is walking in place at a quick pace. I work up a sweat, my heart rate rises, my legs burn. It’s not much at all, but for someone as painfully out of shape as I am, it’s something and something is better than nothing.

It was tough yesterday. My legs were killing me. I had to do it in five minute chunks because I couldn’t keep going any longer than that. Wuss. I haven’t done anything today, but already my legs feel like lead. I’m a little nervous I won’t be able to keep the streak alive.

Come on, fat boy. Git’er done.

Also, I looked at all of my past blog posts from September 24ths (yesterday) in history. Last year on 9/24 I finally saw Steve Hackett in concert. Awesome. On 9/24/14 I finished 50/90. Wait… what? The last time I finished 50/90 I did it with six days to spare? Why didn’t I pull that off this year? I’m behind schedule! Yikes!

Anyway. Hopefully I can get my 30 minutes of walking in. Ouch.

Quick 50/90 Update

Yesterday I put lead guitars onto two songs, but I didn’t have a chance to mix them. I also wrote lyrics for the last song that needed lyrics. That brought me up to 50 repetitive, pointless, songs worth of meaningless lyrics. Yay!

I also did something wasteful. I added another song. I have the rhythm section and the lyrics done so it’s ready for some car vocals. Where do we stand now? 40 songs complete, 11 more to go. Two of them are done and just need to be mixed down. Four more need lead guitars, and five more need vocals and lead guitars. I was planning to do some car music today but I failed to get out of bed. I’ve been falling asleep later and later and it’s harder to get up early enough to get anything done before work. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Today is September 24. There are six days left this month. I can do this. It’s not going to sound good, but I can do this.

Even More Car Music

Car music was a success today. Well, 80% success at least. I had five songs ready to go and I did four of them. The last time I did this I was really struggling to find pitches and get the melodies right. Today was the opposite. Lots of first takes. So many that I added harmony parts everywhere. Way more that I was planning. I probably could have gotten through the fifth song too. It wasn’t the clock that was the problem today, it was my bladder. When you gotta go…

Sundays at the movie theater parking lot are nice. Very few people out for jogs. Lots of cars driving up and down the road though. No one stopped. Sort of. There was one car that was driving around and wouldn’t leave. I’m 99.9% sure it was a parent teaching a kid to drive. They didn’t come very close.

Looking through the Trello board for the 50/90 project, there are now only four songs left without vocals. Three of them still need lyrics. I don’t want to say that I’m almost done, but finishing the 50th vocal would feel pretty good.

Still Going

50/90, still going.. I mixed a song last night and another this morning. I’m up to 38 songs complete.

38 down, 12 more to go. I should note that saying 12 to go doesn’t mean those 12 songs aren’t already in progress. In fact, this next song… is the 50th song started.

Number One is Back

I’ve only played one guitar, my Gibson ES-335 Pro, since May. That changed tonight. Tonight, the #1 came back. The Gibson Les Paul Custom. It actually felt strange and took a little while getting into the groove. I put leads on three songs. Kinda weak. Pretty repetitive. Oh well.

The good thing is, the Les Paul and the new Black Lives Matter pedal got to play together a little. Also, it was the first time the Les Paul and the AC15 played together too. They all sounded happy. They all got along. More to come.

Car Vocals

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.

50/90 – 35 Down, 15 to Go

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.