Category: Song Writing

Lester Lives

I played my new Les Paul today. First time in over two months. I had two songs to work on and I only got to one, but it was awesome. I love that guitar. I celebrated a wedding anniversary with the woman who bought me that guitar for my 50th birthday last year and somehow that makes it all that much cooler.

Musical Progress

I put rhythm guitars onto two songs tonight! The playing was rotten but I feel so good about it I could burst! It’s been too long. Way too long.

I played my SG through my new pedal board. I also tuned down to Eb for some reason. It felt good.

The Les Paul might come out tomorrow. We will see.

Record Every Month

Remember the RPM Challenge’s Record Every Month challenge thingie that I did all last year but failed to finish anything in March or April this year?

I just threw together a simple, quick, and dirty little thing that could end up being a May submission.

No Music?

For the first time in a year I failed to come up with anything for Record Every Month. Im a little sad about that, but it’s okay.

What will April bring? Probably not much. We have so many home improvement things going on that I don’t know if I’ll have any time for recording.

Still no dates for Lizardfish rehearsals. Im hoping we can get something in during April because im going to be out of commission for most if not all of May.

I had to take down the cellar music nook for reasons. It’s all in cellar storage now. Im mad at myself too because the reason I stopped using it came down to a misunderstanding. Jen said it was too loud for her to concentrate and I thought she meant that in general. She didn’t. She just meant it was distracting that day.

Oh well. My mistake.

Hopefully I’ll have some time for writing and recording before I go under the knife. I’ll write lots of songs about being scared shitless.

Rock on, fat boy.

No March Music?

I am supposed to be working on the Record Every Month challenge. Why hasn’t there been any new music?

I have two songs in progress. They are both ready for vocals. It’s March 29th. What’s the delay?

Well, the main delay has been that there is always something going on in the morning right now. I haven’t been able to eek out any time for car music to put the vocals onto those two songs. I was hoping to get it in tomorrow morning, but my doctor’s appointment was just rescheduled from 10:30am to 8:00am. I might be able to do it after the appointment. Then I would have Wednesday and Thursday evenings to put down the lead guitars and throw together a mix.

I think I can pull that off. It’s been so long since I listened to these two songs that I am not even sure how they go anymore. We’ll have to see tomorrow, right?

I’m still planning on more re-recordings. I am much more interested in that project idea than Record Every Month, but I haven’t had time or energy to work on any of that either. I have one song in progress but I haven’t even recorded the rhythm guitars yet. There is just too much going on. It’s a little nuts.

So to sum up, musically speaking… let’s see what happens.

Finally Played Guitar Again

It’s been almost a month since I played the guitar at all. Finally I got some noodling in today. I kicked off a couple of song ideas for the Record Every Month challenge thing and I put rhythm guitars on them. They both suck pretty hard, but it’s okay. Something is better than nothing, I hope.

My new Les Paul through the Klon KTR into the Keeley D&M Drive into the Vox AC15. That’s a happy noise.

As always, forgive the dust.

Calm Down

Given the hectic nature of the last two weeks, it is almost unsettling to have a Saturday with nothing going on. I started work on two songs for Record Every Month. I watched a Star Trek Discovery episode, and I am about to start a second.

Jen and I have talked over some plans for redesigning the rest of the kitchen and the dining room. We were thinking of going to IKEA tonight but the idea of the crowds and the Covid risk and what not is steering us away. We might try to go shortly before close on a weeknight this week to cut down on the human interactions.

I am going to play guitar today. Bank on it.

Music Idea for My Vacation Week

Harry’s home and it’s awesome. He’s in the living room kicking Orc ass in some Playstation Game that I don’t know the name of. He’ll be here today and tomorrow. On Monday and Tuesday he’ll be at his dad’s.

I was thinking about a music project that I could mess with while he’s at the other house. I assume the RPM Challenge site’s Record Every Month thing is on going. At first I thought maybe to try and record two songs each month and call it a single or something. I might do that. That sounds interesting. Then I thought… what about an album in a day thing?

I did it once before, following the rules on this page. I’m thinking maybe start around 8-9pm, write the music using my iPad, write the lyrics and melodies as soon as I start coming up with riffs, then go to sleep for a while. The next morning do a car music and then come home and add the guitars. The trick would be getting all of that done and still having time to mix the whole thing before the 24 hours are up.

I’m still undecided, but I’m thinking about it. It might happen.

Now What

RPM is over. Now for the annual “now what?” Post.

I assume the folks at RPMHQ will kick off another Record Every Month challenge. I’ll do that. I’m thinking two songs each month, sort of like a single. Then at the end of the year re-record the best songs?

In the real world I have to buckle down on the weight loss surgery prep. I have a bunch of directives from the dietician and so far have only integrated two. I think there are three more and one of them is a little Earth shattering.

Outside of that? There’s the band. I think I may have reached the point in the pandemic where I’m willing to try a band practice. I think. We will have to see. Fingers crossed I don’t panic and chicken out.

I’ll see if I can dream up anything else. I’ll let you know.