I do this every time I do a music project like 50/90. I create a playlist on some music sharing site that is made up of works in progress. Quick rough mixes of whatever I have in the pipeline at any given time.
I start these things and then never update them and never listen to them and never do anything with them… but I still set them up for some unknown reason.
Here’s this summer’s 50/90 works in progress playlist.
Raise your hand if you put vocals onto five songs this morning before work.
*Robert raises his hand*
I didn’t need to hide in the car. I did it at my desk in the cellar. Five songs with vocals. That’s 10% of the 50/90 goal. Not bad, red head.
I got a lot done today. Not nearly as much as I was hoping to get done, but still a pretty good haul.
I put rhythm guitars onto five songs. I wrote lyrics and melody for the only two of those five songs that didn’t have them already. Then I came up with lyrics and melody for two additional songs. Finally, I came up with a new idea from scratch that includes (you guessed it) lyrics and melody. This last one is in a time signature I’ve never used before. It’s in 9/4.
There are two song writing ideas that I am trying to include this year. One is to use time signatures I’ve never played in before. The other is to try and write pre choruses. I usually just go verse/chorus repeated forever. Sometimes I sneak a bridge in or something. This time I am trying to consistently bridge between the verses and choruses. In other words, a pre chorus. I think. Sounds like a challenge, right?
I haven’t made a works-in-progress playlist yet. Not sure if I am going to, but maybe I will. If I do, I’ll post it here. Probably.
I spent about two hours recording guitars today. I finished five of the 10 songs that are currently in the fifty-songs-in-90-days-challenge pipeline. Including the song that is in 13/8 time, and the song that is in 15/8 time. First time I have ever knowingly played guitar in either of those time signatures. Milestones, babie!
I used direct input into the USB audio interface for all of the tracks, including using two amps at a time. I took the obligatory pictures, but Flickr is being a dick today and won’t let me upload PNG files, or any files for that matter, on the web. I had to dumb these down to JPGs and share them onto my iPhone and upload them from the Flickr app. I am thusly annoyed.
It’s not even 8:00pm but I think I’m calling it a musical day. I didn’t play guitar at all today but I did do a lot of work on the project. I had four song ideas that were just a couple of riffs. I worked all four of those ideas into a full song form. I then added two more songs, both with the full song form. One of them is my first attempt at 15/8 time. I am out of control.
I now have 10 songs in the pipeline. They are all still just midi tracks, though three of them have melodies and lyrics. Here’s hoping I get a chance to add a ton of guitar tracks tomorrow, and maybe some vocal tracks on Monday morning.
Oh, and band practice is on for Thursday. We just have to avoid earthquakes or natural disasters, or follow up plagues between now and then.
Another less than spectacular day but still seeing some progress. Two new song ideas started. One is just a few noodles, the other is a full song form with a swing groove. Scary.
I’m up to eight ideas in progress now. Still no real instruments recorded, just MIDI tracks. Hoping for more substantial noise making tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
Not much today. Two new song ideas. Just a handful of eight bar noodles that I can stitch together to make a couple of song forms.
There might be some guitar tracking tomorrow. I hope so, at least.
As expected, working in the office meant I was in the car commuting when I normally would be trying to make a little music so there wasn’t a lot of progress made on the current musical challenge.
I did come up with three little eight bar noodles that may be worked into a song somehow. Better that than nothing, right?
One day of the 50 songs in 90 days challenge is down. Well, it will be in about 2.5 hours, but I am definitely done for the day so I’m calling it now.
How did I do on this rainy and dreary 4th of July?
Not bad, if I do say so myself. Three songs underway. No guitars or voices or actual real life musical instruments yet, but all three songs already have all of the changes, the song form, a guide guitar (MIDI only) track, a vocal melody, and complete lyrics.
Like I said, not too bad.
Day two probably won’t have much of anything as it’s a work-from-the-office day, but at least day one went well.
It’s the 4th of July. I think I mentioned that in a post already. That means it’s Independence Day but it also means it’s the first day of the 50/90 music challenge. Write 50 songs in 90 days between July 4th and October 1st. I’ve completed this back breaker a few times in the past (2016, 2020, and 2021, I think). Will I pull it off again this year?
Not likely.
I did, however, kick off song #1 for this year’s challenge. It’s just a rhythm exercise, really. I have never written anything in 13/8 time so I started out with a drum loop in 13/8 and just waited to see what happened. An hour later I am sitting here with the first song of the challenge completely written. It’s short and sweet and not very good and it’s only MIDI tracks in GarageBand at this point, no real live musical instruments are involved yet, but it exists.
Now let’s celebrate with a couple of pictures of Lily being lazy, and then I’ll go to the Apple Store to run an errand for the love of my life.
Happy 4th of July, everyone!
Inside the Red Head's Head 