I had another banger car music morning. I wrote lyrics and melodies for five songs last night and I cranked the vocals for all of them out this morning.
The studio view:
I want to play a ton of guitar today too. I think I can pull it off. Fingers crossed. I want to write more lyrics tonight as well so I can have a third straight car music morning tomorrow.
Obligatory drive home pics:
I already wrote about car music this morning. I put vocals on three songs. What have I done since then?
Well, first I added another song idea. That’s idea number 35. It’s just bass riffs for now. Later, after dinner tonight, I started writing melodies and lyrics. I got through five songs. Count ’em, five songs. They are all crap, but that gives me more than enough for another round of car music tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll follow the morning car music with a pile of guitar tracks. I am hoping to use my step son’s Epiphone beginner model Les Paul copy on at least a song or two, and hopefully that will happen tomorrow.
Plans are in place, I just have to follow through. Progress!
I recorded some vocals this morning. Three songs worth. I drove to the movie theater parking lot so no one could hear me, which is how I do things because I am such a wimp. Here’s the view:
I was only out for about half an hour and I did cut things off early. I had three songs ready to go that were written in August and two more that were written in July. I did the three August songs and was about to start one of the July songs when I opened up the GarageBand file and found there were a lot of lyrics to sing. I just didn’t have the energy and decided to save the two July songs for a weekend session.
I have changed up my workflow a little. Mostly in terms of standards. I am thinking of quick and dirty demoes now, due to flaking off for three weeks and falling so far behind the 50/90 pace. Last night when I wrote the melodies and lyrics for the three songs I recorded this morning I purposely decided to use the same parts in multiple places. Meaning I wrote one verse part and used it 2-3 times. I usually do that with chorus sections but I’m doing it more often now. I also purposely did not write a lot of harmony parts. One or two here and there but nowhere near as many as I usually write. I’m also lowering my standards for what is a useable take. That goes for vocals and guitars. I’m going to be much sloppier than usual and much less nitpicky. Is nitpicky a word?
I want finished demoes from here on out, rather than quality demoes. Know what I mean?
Anyway, here’s the obligatory downtown Methuen clock from the drive home pic:
I mentioned this morning that I put rhythm guitars on two songs and lead guitars on two other songs. Tonight after dinner, while binging season six of the original Doctor Who, I wrote lyrics and melodies for three songs.
You know what that means?
Car music in the morning.
That’s the plan at least. We’ll see if it pans out or not. Fingers crossed. I’ll let you know.
It’s 9:00am on Thursday. I am punched into work, starting the day for reals. What did I do before work? Besides my morning exercise, breakfast, a shower, and a kiss for my wife as she left for the office for the day?
I played some guitar. I put rhythm guitars onto two songs and lead guitars onto two other songs. I have a metric ton of stuff left to do by the end of next month, but we’re picking away at it and a little progress was made. Sigh of relief, babie!
Minimal progress today. I added one song (number 35) to the pipeline. It is just MIDI bass and MIDI drums for now. I’m working from home tomorrow so I am hoping to share more substantial result tomorrow.
Fingers crossed.
Yesterday I had one song that was just a few bass riffs and no structure. Today I worked out a structure for that song and added two more. All three are just bass and drums for now but they are ready for rhythm guitars. I am working in the office tomorrow so I probably won’t have time to get to too much guitar playing but I am hoping I can maybe come up with a couple of lyrics/melodies and maybe be able to do some car vocals the day after tomorrow. That’s the plan at least.
I’m up to 34 songs in progress now. If the challenge runs for three months, that means I have to average 17 songs per month. With a week or so left in the second month, I am sort of on that 17 songs per month pace… sort of. Maybe. I have so much more to do though.
What do you say we try to guilt me into working on the 50/90 challenge by trying to post daily updates again? Think that will work?
Neither do I.
Here goes anyway.
I put rhythm guitars onto two songs, lead guitars onto one song, and added one new song idea. That makes 32 songs in the pipeline.
And that, dear readers, is where we stand right now. 41 days left. That’s probably not enough to get me to 50 songs with mixed demoes. We’ll see how close I can get though.
Talk about a case of the Mondays gone wrong, right?
I got up early, did my exercise, watched a Doctor Who (priorities, yeah?), ate breakfast, wrote a blog post, showered, went to the grocery store and got a few things that we forgot to put on the shopping list yesterday, took a photo for today’s photo a day challenge entry…
…Came home and put away the groceries, went down cellar and put rhythm guitars onto two songs that I started fiddling out last night, put lead guitars onto one song from last month, took a couple of obligatory I-played-guitar-today photos, and punched into work with about 10 minutes to spare.
Here’s hoping the work day is that productive too. Let’s keep the motivation rolling! Happy Monday, gentle readers!
Hey, it’s Sunday. What’s going on today?
My plans for today included going out in the morning and taking some pictures, playing guitar and working on the 50/90 challenge, going grocery shopping, and finishing two seasons of Doctor Who.
How am I doing?
Welp, I didn’t take the camera out today. I could have. I was up early and the weather was great. I just couldn’t get myself moving to do it. I just stayed home. Sorry.
In my defense though, while staying home I played a TON of guitar. I worked on seven songs, as I posted earlier, and recorded a mountain of really shitty guitar tracks. I have been ignoring 50/90 over the last three weeks, and probably screwed myself out of completing the challenge again, but we’re still trucking along. I have also mixed two songs today. Maybe starting tomorrow I’ll get back to the daily update posts to try and guilt myself into making more progress. Who knows.
As for the TV stuff, I finished season five of the old Doctor Who this morning while faux jogging (pronounced yogging), and then after I came home from grocery shopping I finished season nine of the new Doctor Who series. Both TV goals for today, complete! Now I have one more season to go on the second doctor in the old show, and one more season to go on the twelfth doctor on the new show. I am ready for regenerations on both shows, even though I am enjoying both doctors. It’s weird. As soon as I get a new doctor, I want another new doctor. I guess I am just an asshole.
I’m writing this at around 3:30pm. What am I going to achieve with the rest of the day? Probably nothing. Harry is still here. He’s going to his father’s house tonight, for a while at least. Jen and I will have dinner together. Other than that, there’s a new That Pedal Show that I haven’t seen yet. Maybe I’ll watch that now.
Inside the Red Head's Head 