February ninth was spent up to my elbows in blizzard clean up. I did manage to squeeze one more idea project thingie on my iPad before passing out with snow removal exhaustion. That’s about it. Today will mostly be spent on a certain 10 year old’s family birthday party so I doubt i’ll get much done today. I will just have to crank that much harder to catch up next week.
Still thinking extremely positive.
Last night we were all sitting in the living room. My step son was watching Disney Channel. My step daughter was reading on her iPad. My beautiful wife whom I love with all my heart was playing World of Warcraft. I hadn’t done any musical anything all day so I took out my MacBook Pro and my little USB piano keyboard and threw something together. iOS be damned, right?
The new song contains two of my mini goals for this month. One, the song is in 7/8 time. The prog fan in me feels good about that. Two, there is a drum fill that includes 32nd notes. The iOS version of GarageBand can quantized tracks to 32nd notes but you can’t edit individual notes. That means I have to play it close enough to in time to have the not-quite perfect notes pull to the correct time slot. I often get close to getting fills right, but there are always one or two notes that pull the wrong way. In the Mac version of GarageBand I can shift those notes to the correct time slot without using the quantize function.
I added the new song to the soundcloud playlist I posted yesterday. That makes nine songs in the works and today is still only February 9th.
Thinking and feeling very positive indeed.
The Calendar says it is February 8, 2013 but only by two minutes. It’s just after midnight and I just finished arranging four more song projects (what I am calling my groups of loosely connected ideas) into actual songs (verse chorus verse and what not). I’m up to eight songs and 26 minutes and 41 seconds. Still a ways to go. I started another song project thingie today and added rhythm guitar parts to two of the existing projects. I now have two projects that are not yet ready to be arranged into songs, and that’s it.
The writing goal for RPM is 10 songs or 35 minutes. The writing goal for FAWM is 14 songs. I hope to get somewhere in the vicinity of 14 songs and 40 minutes if I can. Last year I had 15 songs (there was an extra day so FAWM called for 14.5 songs) and I think I used 13 of them in the RPM album. I would like to have enough written to allow for the crappier stuff to be left off the final RPM album again.
Here is a soundcloud playlist with the eight arranged songs, not counting the two verses worth of vocals I added to one of them this morning.
I continue to think positive!
Nothing much new to report. Last night I mentioned finishing one of the unfinished song project thingies and coming up with a possible guitar/vocal only song. That was about it for yesterday.
Beyond that, I did something very unusual for me. This morning before work I wrote and recorded lyrics and melodies for two verses of one of the songs I posted yesterday. Normally I take a day off from work and crank out all of the horrible lyrics and horribler vocals in one day. Telecommuting gives me an hour and a half or so worth of home-alone-before-work time on Thursdays. I only worked for about 20 minutes, but it’s a start.
Still thinking positive.
Oh, and the Bruins beat the Canadiens last night 2-1. Seguin tied it a few seconds into the third period just as I was posting last night, and then shortly after the B’s took the lead for good. I do so love beating the Canadiens.
I spent a few minutes recording tonight. I finished one of the two unfinished song idea projects including the rhythm guitar parts. I also snuck in a new song project that I think will end up being a guitar and voice only kinda song.
I should be sitting here right now trying to come up with another idea or two, but the Bruins are playing the Canadiens. We are down 1-0 after two periods. They are about to drop the puck on the third. How can I not listen to the rest of the game?
Game on!
Go Bruins!
Tyler Seguin scores to tie the game 14 seconds into the third period! No way I’m working on music now!
Not much for new material yesterday. I added a little bit to one of the two not quite done ideas. I did manage to take four of the little song projects and try ordering the pieces into actual song structures. Of course I don’t actually like any of them, as usual. I think some of these takes that I thought were acceptable are no longer acceptable. We’ll have to see.
Twice yesterday I found myself sitting alone waiting for something and made use of the time by working on new song ideas on my iPhone. One is probably as complete as can be for right now. The other is going to need some more work. On top of that, I snuck in another just-before-bed idea on my iPad, although its not terribly good.
I think that puts me at eight works in progress in only four days. The slow down is going to come, but for now I’m feeling pretty good.
Thinking positive.
Today is day four of the RPM Challenge (and FAWM too, but somehow that always takes a back seat) so let’s recap yesterday.
I added rhythm guitars to three of the five current projects. I can’t call them songs yet, because they are still just phrases without any arrangement. One of the projects is the one that lives on my iPhone. For some reason, using my telephone to record my guitar just tickles me. We have come a long, long way since my days of working the 24 track studio at Northeast Broadcasting School.
Last night before bed I also started on project number six, which is another bass/drums/electric piano noodle. I finally caved in and used the key of E minor, but I put this one in 6/8 time to avoid at least some of the rawk cliches.
I may not have a chance to get anything done tonight, so it’s a good thing that I am way far ahead of the usual RPM pace.
Keep thinking positive!
I think I might have stumbled upon one of the reasons that my home recordings sound like utter shit. One of the many, many reasons. Turns out my headphones suck like no headphones have ever sucked before.
I think it was 2003 or 2004 when I bought myself an 8-track recorder and a 16 channel board. I bought a pair of headphones from radio shack at the same time. I didn’t buy their cheapest cans, but I didn’t buy their best either. All I wanted was something better than the cheap crap that came with my portable CD player. Over the years I went through a few pairs of headphones, but I never invested in anything terribly good.
Today I was recording guitars on my iPhone and iPad so I used my radio shack cans. I didn’t think anything of it. At least not until a few minutes ago when I brought up the music app and tried to play the indie rock genius mix playlist.
Uh oh, thinks I. This sounds freakin’ terrible! 100 times worse than the Apple ear buds. What the hell?
For Christmas I got my beautiful wife a pair of Bose QC 15s. I plugged those into my iPad and low and behold! It was like listening to 90’s indie rock in heaven. I swear, Urge Overkill and The Breeders wouldn’t have sounded that good if they were in the room with me.
Yeah, definitely time for an upgrade in the headphones department. I’m not talking about getting QC 15s or anything like that, but the time for decent headphones has arrived at last.
I’m actually losing track of how many things I have in the musical pot right now. I think I have four on the iPad and one on the iPhone. Yesterday I added some pieces to the piano melody I had on the phone. I like it significantly less now than yesterday, but it’s still alive. I added two new things on the iPad. One is a quiet little electric piano thing that I’m not sure what to do for the guitar. I can’t do anything without a guitar part, ever. What would be the point, right? But this one… kinda doesn’t need a rhythm guitar. I’ll squeeze something in somewhere. The other thing I played with will probably be dumped. I was testing the lightning cable adapter by plugging in my guitar. I recorded the first thing that popped into my head. At the time I was pleased, but now I think it’s a riff that is awfully similar to one that became an RPM song a couple of years ago. I’ll try to salvage the idea somehow.
Is it possible that I might have five songs in the works and it’s only February third?
Wicked!
Inside the Red Head's Head 