I hit a bit of a milestone yesterday. Day 54 had the potential for being shut out with no progress on the ol’ 50 songs in 90 days challenge thing. Fortunately I was able to get a couple of things done. (Spoiler alert for day 55, today, I have about a 99.999% chance of getting shut out)

Before work I sat in my car in the parking lot outside of my office and squeaked out a few bass/drum riffs. No song form yet, just a few 8-bar phrases. I grouped them together as song idea number 49. I thought that would be it for the day and it almost was.

At bed time last night (similar to day 53) I sat up in bed with my iPad and felt inspired with a new little idea. by 10:20pm I had a whole song form worked out with bass and drums down and two tracks of MIDI guitars to act as guides for when I record the real guitars. If the thing I came up with before work was song idea number 49 then logically this second thing must be song idea number 50, right? Correct. My 50 songs in 90 days pipeline officially has 50 songs in it. Granted, 13 of those songs are in various stages of incomplete ranging from pretty much done to barely started, but there are 50 ideas in total.

I’m trying to remember but I think I have finished this challenged three times. The first time I got exactly 50 songs. The second had 51 and the third had 52. I have to check the old playlists to verify that, but I think that’s how it worked out. Should I stop at 50 this time? Should I stop at 53 to continue the trend? Should I shoot for 60? 70? I still have over a month to go… should we turn this into a how-many-songs-can-I-write-and-record-in-90 days challenge?

I was expecting that day 53 would be another day with no musical progress made at all. I ended up being wrong, but only just barely. Last night at about 10:00pm I was sitting up in bed with my iPad and I had an idea for a sort of drone-esque bass riff. I brought up GarageBand and failed miserably in my attempt to translate the idea into reality, but I did end up with a new song for the 50 songs in 90 days project. It’s just fake MIDI bass and fake MIDI drums with a fake MIDI guitar to act as a guide for when I record the real thing, but the full song structure was worked out. It exists even if it doesn’t really sound like what I was shooting for. That’s fine.

That’s it for day number 53. I filed the song idea as number 48… and there are still 37 days to go. I can’t believe how far along I am at this point. I won’t say I’m almost done (I have finished 37 songs and there is still a long way to go before I finish 50) but I’ve done a ton more than I usually do by day 53. I’m feeling pretty good about the state of things.

Betcha a dollar I just jinxed the whole project.

Yesterday was a light day progress wise. I put rhythm guitars onto two songs. Songs number 46 and 47 to be exact. They both already had lyrics so they are now in the ready for vocals bucket.

37 songs complete, one ready to mix, six ready for vocals, and three ready for lyrics and melodies. That’s 47 songs in total… and still over a month to go. It is lucky that I am so far ahead of things right now because I am probably going to get shut out today (day 53). Its looking likely at least.

Day 50 has come and gone. You know, as I typed that I had a thought… I sure hope I didn’t forget to update the title of the posts one time, thus throwing off the count of the days. I think yesterday was day 50 but I could be wrong via typo or something.

Yesterday was pretty good. I put rhythm guitars on three songs. They were the only guitar parts I had ready to go. After that it was all about lyrics and melodies. I banged out four songs worth. I tried starting a fifth but my brain sort of shut off at that point and I couldn’t come up with any more.

I’m hoping day 51 (today) will have some vocal tracking and maybe some lead guitars as well. We’ll see. There’s a lot going on today.

What did I do on day 49? It was just yesterday but I totally forget. I think I added a new song idea. Just a couple of bass riffs in 3/4 time with a super fast tempo. That is idea/song number 45. Oh yeah, I mixed a song. This one. It might have been a decent song if not for the atrocious singing. Oh well.

I think that’s all for day 49. Here’s hoping for something more substantial on day 50… but don’t hold your breath.

Day 47 had no progress. Day 48 was better. Not a lot better, but better.

Before work, while sitting in the parking lot outside of the office, I noodled out a few bass riffs and filed it as idea number 44. After work I put together the song structure for ideas 43 and 44 and then added a bass track to song 42 (which had guitars and drums but no bass).

That’s all. Nothing Earth shattering but a whole bunch better than nothing. The current state is 35 songs done, three ready to mix, four have a full rhythm section including guitars and are ready for lyrics and a melody, and two are just MIDI bass and MIDI drums and are ready for rhythm guitars.

Nothing. Nada.

I didn’t have time for music before work and after I got home from work I just wanted to hang out in the living room with my wife. I didn’t have time or energy for anything else.

Day 48 (today) will likely be better, but probably not much better.

I suspect that progress is going to be much slower over the next couple of weeks. I’m going to be working in the office a lot and these days my most musical times of day have been directly before and after work. Those times will be spent driving for the next little while.

On day 46 I managed to get to the office early enough so that I could spend a few minutes noodling bass riffs in GarageBand on my iPhone while sitting in the car in the parking lot. I came up with one song’s worth of stuff. Let’s call it song number 43.

After work I managed to mix one song, bringing my total number of complete songs up to 35. The most interesting, and unusual, thing about this newly completed song is that I don’t hate it. I think I almost actually like it. That feels so weird.

So I am working in the office the rest of this week and most of next week, and this coming weekend has a bunch of things on the agenda already as well. I don’t see a lot of time being available for the 50 songs in 90 days challenge, but I’ll do my best to sneak in progress where I can.

Yesterday was day 45. We have reached the mid-way point of the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. In the handful of times I have completed this particular nut job of a project, I have never been this far along at the half way point. This year has been a little crazy.

What did I do to honor the mid point? Not much. Some good stuff, but just not too much of it. I mixed one song. That puts me at 34 songs complete. If you split the project into three one-month deals you need to divide 50 songs by three in order to set the pace for each month. 50/3=16.67. Round up to the nearest integer puts us at 17 songs each month. That means I have to have 34 songs complete by the end of August… and I am at 34 songs complete on August 17th. That is nuts.

After work I added another song. That’s idea number 41. I had some time so I wandered downstairs to the music nook in the cellar and added guitars to this new song. When that was done I still had some time on my hands so I added another idea. 42. Insert Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy jokes here. 41 has the full structure and the full rhythm section of guitars, fake bass, and fake drums. 42 has the structure worked out, guitars, and fake drums. I still need to add a fake bass part.

So, halfway through the project I have 34 songs complete, four songs ready to mix, three songs ready for lyrics, and one song that is a bass line away from being ready for lyrics. That adds up to 42. That’s the state of the world right now.