Category: Song Writing

May/June Music

Music was made this morning. I started a song idea (#2 for June) on my iPad late last night and put guitars on it this morning. That’s probably going to be the plan going forward. I did not use my Deluxe Reverb as my amplifier, even though it’s in the pictures, I used my Vox MV50’s direct output and speaker simulation into my USB interface. No speakers involved at all. That makes me sad, but it also let Jen sleep so that’s a huge win in my book. I suspect the only chances I am going to have to put a dent in music projects this month, or even this summer, will be to do it before work and that means we’re going direct.

Now I just need to write 10 songs within the month of June, and finish all 10 that I started in May. Yeah. Right.

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Finally

It feels like it’s been 100 years, but I finally played some guitar today. I also finally played through my King of Tone overdrive pedal and it was sweet as candy.

I worked on two new songs. I was hoping to do more, but my hands are giving up the fight. Maybe some more tomorrow?

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Record Every Month for April: Complete

I have finished two songs for the Record Every Month Challenge for April. My mini-challenge of recording a single each month is still on track. My mini challenge of recording an EP in April crashed and burned. That’s okay.

The A Side is okay. The B Side is garbage. I used my SG and my Vox MV50 on all of the guitar tracks, and recorded everything direct into my iPad. I also mixed on the iPad, which might explain why the mixes are worse than the usual crap.

Here’s the A Side:

Here’s the uber crappy B Side:

Next month will use my Les Paul and my Deluxe Reverb, and my new King of Tone overdrive pedal which I waited over five years to get and still haven’t even plugged in. That changes starting tomorrow. Until then, enjoy this crap.

April Tracking is Done

I finished putting lead guitars on the two songs I still have going for April’s entry in the Record Every Month challenge. One song is terrible. The other is just weak.

Here is my “studio” for today. Note there are no Fender Stratocasters in sight.

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How about a selfie or two? How lame am I?

Car Music

The April entry for the Record Every Month Challenge lives! I hopped in the car this morning, drove to an empty parking lot, and recorded vocals for two songs. One song is abysmal. The other is okay, I guess.

I was able to stick to this month’s gimmick of doing all of the work on my iPad. I tested out my little mic interface before I left the house, just to make sure it would work. It did.

Instead of the usual pictures, I decided to test to see if iMovie still was a thing and I took a bunch of fake super 8 clips and then stitched them all together into a nearly five minute long snore fest. Don’t worry, the downtown clock is there, it’s just at the very end.

Recording Studio

What do you think of my recording studio?

Gibson SG standard into Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini into Vox MV50 Clean into IK Multimedia iRig split into iPad Air running GarageBand and an old pair of Bose headphones.

The only downside is the crew working on the bay window in the living room unplugged our router so my iPhone is now my only source of internet. Oh well.

Possible April Music Plan

I haven’t done much for the record every month thing this month. I have a couple of less than good ideas in GarageBand on my iPad but they aren’t really worth pursuing. What should I do? I might have a plan for something to force some music out of me.

I am off work on Monday and Tuesday. We are having new windows installed on those days and I took them off so that I could be available to the crew doing the work if they need anything. Other than letting them into the house, I can’t imagine I will have much to do so I have been planning on hanging out in the cellar (or if the weather is nice, maybe on the patio in the backyard) watching Star Wars Rebels (I’m a smidge over half way through my rewatch) and The X-Files. Maybe I should plan to use those two days for music.

I also recently bought a new iRig so that I can run my guitar into my iPad again. Maybe to shake things up I could restrict myself to GarageBand on my iPad instead of mostly using it on my MacBook Pro. That could be fun. Maybe I could further restrict things by using the cab sim on my Vox MV50 and using that for an amp. That way I could use an amp and not be super loud and annoying while the window folks are working upstairs. That could be fun too. I’d probably also restrict myself to a single overdrive pedal. I tried doing that in February with the Keeley Super Phat Mod (the one pedal that I want to really love but somehow cannot bond with) before switching to the Chicago Stompworks Blooze Maker.

I wouldn’t be able to pull off an album in a day thing, but maybe I could try to do an album in two days? I’d have to record vocals in the car on Tuesday morning before the window people arrive. Maybe I could just plan to do as much music as possible over the two days and then finish off whatever I don’t get to afterwards. I don’t know.

I think a plan has been formed. Let’s see if I can actually follow it and pull anything off. Maybe I could spend two days working on my iPad, and then take any music that I manage to finish and redo it on the MacBook and end up with two different versions of each song. I did that once back in 2014 where I did an album in June with each song mixed on the iPad and the MacBook. Huh… maybe.

Let’s see what happens.

B-Side

The second of two songs for March is complete. I guess. The vocals are atrocious and the whole thing feels kinda blah. The song is okay, I just didn’t play it very well. It could use a little editing and a little… enthusiasm? Maybe? It’s fine for a B-Side. The other song is much better.