Category: Music

Productive Evening

I punched out of work tonight at a little after 5:30pm and started my long weekend! I took Monday off because I am going to max out my accrued vacation time next month if I don’t take two days off this month. Monday is the first of the two which means I have a long weekend.

I plan to get shit done. Get. Shit. Done.

I started tonight by writing lyrics to three RPM Challenge songs. Also, Jen and I did some work to plan for the upcoming kitchen remodeling project. When I say Jen and I, I mean Jen did planning stuff and I watched and threw out occasional comments. However it happened, I think we got some stuff done and that is good.

Car vocals tomorrow? I hope so. Run some errands? Sure thing. Play some guitar? I hope so. Repeat the whole thing on both Sunday and Monday? You betcha!

The best part about the now current three day weekend? Next weekend is a three day weekend too! My second February day off is next Friday. One week from today. I am going to Kick. RPM’s. Ass*, babie.

*Dictionary.com defines “bravado” thusly:

bravado

[ bruh–vah-doh ]

noun,plural bra·va·does, bra·va·dos.

  1. a pretentious, swaggering display of courage.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bravado

Co-Worker

I have a co-worker with me at my desk right now.

In other news, my stomach is in revolt at the moment. Fun. It’s a gastric bypass side effect kind of thing and it will pass, but I just gagged up some icky stuff and had a full blown case of “the foamies” (look it up). Having said that, there is no complaint here. I ate my lunch too fast and my new redesigned digestive system slapped me on the wrist for it. Post operation side effects like this are 100% worth it, I promise you. Trust me, it’s not an issue at all.

In other other news, I checked the bookfayce page of the Luthier I brought my guitar to last Saturday and earlier today he posted a bunch of pictures showing the progress he’s made. There are pictures of my beloved Gibson ES-335 Pro without any frets, pictures of it with some new frets, and a picture of the neck with a full boat’s worth of lovely, shiny new frets. It still needs a new nut and a new bridge, and he didn’t mention anything about cleaning out the electronics (which is a major bitch of a job to do on an ES-335 as you have to squeeze everything in and out through the F-hole), but the new frets are in! I don’t know if I will share any of the photos he posted. I think I did when he worked on my Les Paul Custom, but not until a few days had past. We’ll see.

Try to picture this guitar with shiny new frets:

In other other other news, I am listening to Steve Hackett’s new album, which was released today. It is called The Circus and the Nightwhale. I am listening while I work and therefore not able to give it my full attention. My initial gut reaction though is this: Steve Hackett’s guitar playing gets exponentially better with each passing day. His songwriting improves in a similar manner. His singing… yeah, he’s better than he used to be but sometimes I still wish he’d hire a full time singer for his recording line up. I’m enjoying the new album. Check it out.

Okay, that’s it for this post. Lunch break is over. My stomach is settling down. Get back to work, Red Head!

Friday Morning Guitars

I promised myself I was going to do it on Thursday and then failed to do it. I did not fail on Friday though. I played guitar this morning. I put rhythm guitars onto three songs. Breath that sigh of relief!

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Musical Broken Promise

Yesterday I promised that I would play some guitar today. It’s only 10:00am so there is still time, but I have not played at all today. I was shooting for some before work playing, but I did not. I did something else instead.

Jen is in the office today and I am not. I took advantage of some time at home alone and put vocals on three songs. Think of it like car music without the car.

I now have vocals on eight songs, and another 10 songs that are still lyrics/melody/vocals free. 18 songs in the pipeline. I want at least two more. 

Also, I literally recorded vocals by candle light because I am a total nerd. Yes, there were two candles lit, but there were also like eight other lights on in the room so it wasn’t only by candle light… but you get the idea.

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Car Music

Car music happened this morning. I recorded vocals for four songs while sitting in the car in an empty parking lot next to a giant snow bank.

Fascinating, eh?

Obligatory clock pic:

Bonus Fenway Park scoreboard mural thing on the liquor store wall pic:

Hopefully I’ll be able to get out and record more vocals in the car before work tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

2024 RPM Challenge Day 8/29

Here’s a quick RPM Challenge update.

From my tumblr post for day eight:

Decent progress, but not as much as I had hoped for. That feels like a theme this year.

I put rhythm guitars on three songs. I now have a fully recorded rhythm section on all nine songs that I have right now. I also added melody and lyrics to one more song.

Current status is nine songs, two are ready for vocals and the other seven are ready for lyrics and melodies.

https://www.tumblr.com/musical-blathering-idiot

That’s it. I really need to get cracking on the lyrical front. I also need to start adding more songs. The minimum is 10 but I am hoping for 20. Looong way to go still.

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2024 RPM Challenge Day 6 & 7/29

Two days without an RPM Challenge update. Let’s get caught up. It’s getting to the point where keeping track of everything is difficult.

From the lame tumblr page for day six:

Day six was a little better than days four and five. I added song forms to song numbers seven and eight, started a new song (number nine) that now has a full song form and the bass and drums (both MIDI) complete. I also (finally) wrote some lyrics to one song. Song number one is now officially ready for vocals. I wanted to write lyrics for a second song too but I was toast by the time I finished one song, never mind two.

Here’s hoping I get a ton of rhythm guitars down tomorrow. Also maybe some more lyrics so that I can sing in the car before work on Thursday.

https://www.tumblr.com/musical-blathering-idiot

Hooray for lyrics, I guess. I am terrible at that sort of thing, but I still do it. One down.

Now for my tumblr update for day seven, yesterday, which I posted there about 10 minutes ago:

Day seven was productive, even if it wasn’t as productive as I would have liked.

I put rhythm guitars onto three songs. That’s it, I think. It’s getting hard to keep it all straight.

I have nine songs in the pipeline. At the close of day yesterday three of them needed rhythm guitars, and all but one are in need of a main melody and some lyrics.

One week down.

https://www.tumblr.com/musical-blathering-idiot

Yesterday was a busy day outside of pointless music projects so I was happy to get that much work in, even if I didn’t get nearly as much as I was hoping for. It’s something. All progress is good progress.

The additional good news, which will be included in the next tumblr update, is that I was able to put rhythm guitars onto three songs this morning. That means all nine songs in the pipeline have a full rhythm section in place now. Nice. I am still one song shy of the RPM Challenge goal, but it’s only day eight. Plenty of time for more songs. I just need to get my act together as far as melodies and lyrics go.