I just put lead guitars onto six 50/90 challenge songs, including all four that got vocal tracks this morning.
My ears are dead from wearing the headphones and one of my finger tips is about to fall off, I think.
Not a bad afternoon’s worth of musical work.
I screwed up my morning routine today and I don’t know how I am going to recover. No details needed, as they are neither important nor really noteworthy, but I did manage to straighten it out enough to get a couple of things done.
First things first, car music. I put vocals on four 50/90 challenge songs. I was hoping to get to five, but I didn’t have time to add another song. I didn’t do particularly well today, and a couple of the melodies were a bit more complicated than my no-talent self usually gets. We’ll see how it comes out when the songs are done.
After the car music was complete I went on a quest. My father asked me to bring him a newspaper. I had a paper route back in the 80’s. Long time ago. I tried to remember the last time I bought one… given that the newspaper industry is effectively dead and the fact that they still exist is laughable. The last time I bought one was… I think… 2007? When the Red Sox won the World Series I bought a Boston Globe. I think I did it in 2007. I know I did in 2004. Let’s just say it’s going on 20 years.
Where the hell do people buy newspapers? The one my father wanted isn’t one that you could ever regularly find near my home (we’re in Lawrence Eagle Tribune country and he wants a Lowell Sun). I went to my old home town, Tewksbury, thinking there were a couple of stores where I might be able to find one. The first store I went to does not carry newspapers anymore. Big surprise. The second… is now a dentist office. Again, not a surprise. I finally decided to just hit any grocery store or convenience store I saw and I found one.
Quest complete. Newspaper acquired.
Now some random pictures… just because…
Finally… cats.
On day 38 (yesterday) I worked on five songs. All five of them got rhythm guitar tracks. Two of them also got a melody and really shitty lyrics to match.
I have four songs ready for vocals. I hope to do some singin’ in the car on day 39 (today).
I put rhythm guitars onto five more songs this morning. My schedule is all topsy turvy and I’m not sure if I will be able to do anything more today, but five songs worth of guitar tracks is a nice haul for the morning.
I am actually out of songs that need rhythm guitars now. I still have two that need leads, but we’ll be getting to those soon enough. I want to write some lyrics tonight so that I can have at least five songs ready for a car vocals in the morning.
Day 37 (yesterday) wasn’t bad for a weekday. I’ve had better, but it was okay. I put rhythm guitars onto two songs and leads onto one. I also wrote lyrics and melodies for two songs.
I’m hoping for good progress today, but there are a lot of non-musical things on the books so we’ll see how it goes.
It is Friday, at last. Every single day this week has tried to trick me into thinking it was Friday (there must be something wrong with my brain’s calendar function) but this time it’s real. This time it actually is Friday.
Insert the sound of an emphatic sigh of relief here.
The weekend is one 8.5 hour work day away. The best part? My step daughter is coming over tonight! She’s going to a work conference tomorrow and is stopping here on the way to it. We haven’t seen her in ages. I’m really looking forward to her visit.
Musically speaking? I played some guitar before work this morning. 50/90 progress. I put rhythm guitars on two songs and leads on one. I took a bunch of pictures with my Nikon. I had the 28mm lens on it for all but one. I swapped to the 40mm and took one more pic just to make sure it was working. It was. That lens is so much better than the 28mm. I’ll keep the 40 on there for a while. I really love that little sucker.
Here’s the one 40mm pic. It’s the choice for the photo a day thing for today.
Note the guitar case in the blurry background. That’s my other Les Paul. The one Jen got me for my 50th birthday. I’ll be swapping them out the next time I record guitars. The birthday Les Paul is the only one of my electric guitars that hasn’t made it onto a 50/90 track yet. That will change, probably tomorrow morning.
Now for a bunch of faux artsy pics with the 28mm lens.
I’ve already written about everything I did on day 36 (yesterday) but I’ll write it again.
I recorded rhythm guitars for one song and lead guitar on another. Not a lot of progress, but enough for a Thursday.
Band practice was once again postponed. It happened at just about the last minute. One of the guys had a family thing come up and had to take care of it. Unlike Genesis in 1974 our band understands that family comes first and no one said anything that was anything other than 100% supportive. Word on the street was that 1974 era Peter Gabriel was a little jealous.
Next time. We will play all the better next time. Seriously, I’ll have a capo so I can play that friggin’ Bryan Adams song without having to tune my guitar up a full step. Come on, Bryan Adams… a capo? Really? Just play the damn song in E like a real guitarist.
I have two things going on today besides work. First, I had to visit my father to help out with that thing that he needs help with that I am not going into details on. I usually do it after work, but tonight there is the second thing going on. Tonight is the first band practice in about a month or so.
I just got home from my father’s place. All went well. He’s good for the day. Nice. When I got home I logged back in to work and sent off a facebook messenger message to the band. Are we still on? As of right now we are, but one band member may have traffic issues. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
I also just ordered a capo from amazon. I know I have one somewhere, but I just can’t find it. I’ll have to go with the alternate tuning solution tonight if we play that one new song. I’ll have a capo for the next practice, I promise.
I’m not sure how dinner is going to work tonight. We still need to figure that out. I expect it’s going to be protein supplements for ol’ Robbie, but I want my beloved bride to have something nice.
Okay, back to work with you, Mr. Robert.
I feel better about my place in the universe now.
I got up, did my exercise for the day, ate breakfast, and played the guitar. I learned two songs for tonight’s band practice. One of them requires a capo! What the hell, bro? I own a capo but I haven’t a clue where it is. I tuned the guitar up a full step to F# and learned the song that way. I’ll have to get a capo this weekend and re-learn the song for next time. There was a third song on our to do list but I seem to recall our singer saying to drop it. I hope so because there is a keyboard part that will tie my hands in an a knot if I have to play it.
After working on the new songs for the band, I recorded rhythm guitar parts for one song and lead parts for another! We had band progress and 50/90 challenge progress. Epic!
And even with all that music, I was not late for work! WOOHOO!
Inside the Red Head's Head 