Category: Music

Today’s Agenda

So Robert, what’s the plan for this fine December Saturday?

Oh nothing…

First I pick up the antibiotic cream stuff that was prescribed for the mess that is my left eye (ouch). Then I put some clothes in a backpack and maybe some gas in the car and maybe pack up some protein bars and snacks and water bottles. You know, like you do.

Then Jen and I hop into the car and mosey on up to New Hampshire to pick up my mother in law. Then we mosey on over to Vermont to meet up with the kids.

Then, later tonight, it’s nothing special. We just go to see my step daughter, Bellana, perform with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra again. They are doing a string of holiday shows this weekend and tonight’s the night for us. She’s in the chorus. You know, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Nothing special.

(Your humble narrator takes a moment to squeal with pride and glee)

I mean… is your step daughter in the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus? No? Oh. Groovy.

Road trip!

2024 NaSoAlMo Day 28/30

This will be the final NaSoAlMo post this year. The project is complete. Success!

I mixed the last two songs yesterday. I also came up with a final running order and took a cover photo with Hipstamatic. I tried putting text onto the photo but the app I normally use was acting buggy and I just gave up. Not a big deal.

Here’s a link to the final playlist on alonetone.

Here’s my not very imaginative cover pic:

Here are links to the songs, in the order they were finished which also happens to be the order they were started.

An “album” called Sevens and it is made up of seven songs in 7/8 time. The lyrics to all seven songs also deal with the same topic. I’m not going to say what but you can probably guess given current events. I guess this means that this is my first concept album.

I guess that concludes our internet music challenge projects for 2024. Up next will be the 2025 RPM Challenge in February. That’s the big one for me.

Finished

I just finished mixing the seventh and final song for this year’s National Solo Album Month project. I’m done! Not only that, I am done on the 28th day of the month, just like the February RPM Challenge. I might be hardwired to do album-in-a-month projects in 28 days.

Sevens

2024 NaSoAlMo Day 27/30

Day 27 (yesterday) was a day off from work so I had plenty of time to mess with music. I ended up mixing three songs. That means five out of the seven songs are done and done. Boom. Only two more mix downs left. I still need to find a cover photo for the “album” but I know what I want to do. I also need to finalize the running order but I have most of that worked out already.

Here’s the list of completed songs:

Three Songs

I’ve mixed three songs for the National Solo Album Month today. Aren’t ya proud of me?

I still have two more songs to finish and I still need to come up with something to use as a cover. I have been sort of coming up with the running order as I go along so I just need to slot in those last two songs.

Almost done.

Almost There

It’s 2:15pm. Lunch is about to end (I started my break a little later than normal today). I have a vacation day booked for tomorrow, then the following two days are off for Thanksgiving, then the weekend. That’s right, folks. I have a five day weekend coming and it is just a bit more than three hours away. I have one more meeting on my schedule this afternoon and I have a few email threads that need updating. Other than that, we’re just riding out this fine Tuesday in the office.

87/365

So before Covid shut everything down I was a regular user of Audible, the audiobook subscription service. I forget how but at some point I came into a whole bunch of credits and blew them all on a number of books that I never got around to listening to. Back in March when my company upped our in-the-office requirement from once a week to twice a week I reopened my account and all of those unread books were still there. One was a biography of Syd Barrett. I’m listening to it now and while many of the events and facts the author describes are clearly incorrect, and many others are trying to show Barrett as some poetic legend on a level that is infinitely greater than his catalog demonstrates, it is a good read. I have been listening to a lot of his music over the last week.

The National Solo Album Month (nasoalmo) rules allow for one cover song. While adding another song does not fit my personal theme for this month’s project, I am wondering if I should record a cover of Dominoes. I’m thinking about it.

Burning

After playing very little guitar over the course of about two months, I played quite a bit yesterday, and I played hard. My finger tips were hurting in a big way.

This morning I played some more. Again, I played hard. Lots of bending and sliding around. Oh my goodness, my fingers are burning right now. They feel like they are on fire. There is going to be a big blister on my ring finger before the day is out. It’s been over an hour since I finished (I put lead guitars onto the three remaining songs) and it still hurts like it’s a fresh wound. Yikes!

All of the tracking for this year’s National Solo Album Month (NASoAlMo) is done. Now I just have six songs to mix and to figure out what to use for a cover photo and then I am done. Six days left (counting today). I should finish with oodles of time to spare.

86/365
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