Category: Song Writing

RPM Day Four

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!

Headphones

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.

RPM Day Three

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!

February Music

January 23, 2013. We are eight days and a wake up away from the start of album in a month month. Otherwise known as FAWM and the RPM Challenge. I don’t feel mentally prepared. I felt the same last year when February arrived and yet managed to finish both projects on time for the first time ever. Maybe not being ready is a good thing.

If that’s the case, then maybe it’s a good thing that the 2013 version of both websites still hasn’t launched. Looks like I’m not the only one who is unprepared.

I plan on giving both challenges a shot, as always, but after finishing both on time last year the drive is lessened by quite a large amount.

We shall see.

New Songs

New Song… or songs.  It’s actually two songs that I glued together because they were both short and they were both pretentious and they both kinda suck.  I will probably want to remix these little garageband for ipad demos someday, but for now…

Enjoy my crappy song!