20 years ago today I started a new job. I am still with that company. I have a different position now thanks to a promotion, but I’m still with the company.
How did I spend my 20th hire-aversary?
Well, so far I have played my guitar. I am also thinking about getting a haircut and maybe getting one of the cars inspected. A super fun day!
I got a lot done yesterday but maybe not quite as much as I had hoped. I don’t know. It felt like a good haul at the time.
First, I put rhythm guitars onto three songs. Next, I wrote the lyrics and a melody for three songs, two of which were from the day’s batch of guitar tracked songs. Finally, I added two new song ideas. Both of them have the full song form and MIDI guitar guide tracks. One of them already has lyrics and melody too.
Not bad for a Thursday vacation day. I probably could have done more, but I think I did okay.
I had another crummy night’s sleep last night, but today is looking okay so far.
One week down. How did I do on day seven?
I only worked on two things. I started a new song, the 11th so far, that is just bass and drums and a full song form. I also put lyrics and melody onto another song, song number three.
That’s it.
So after one week, let’s sum up the state of the challenge.
There are 11 songs in the pipeline. According to my Trello board the assembly line looks like this:
Three songs are in the bass and drums with song form bucket. Five songs are in the rhythm guitars are done bucket. Three songs are in the lyrics are written and we’re ready for vocals bucket. Here’s hoping for a long weekend worth of serious musical motivation.
Not a lot of progress on day six, but I did start working on the piece of the process that is the most difficult for me.
I added lyrics and melodies to two songs.
That is all. Lyrics, melodies, and vocals are where I usually get bogged down and the whole project bottle necks. As little as I accomplished, it feels good to get those particular balls rolling at least.
I didn’t have a lot of time to spend on music on day five (yesterday) but I did manage to sneak in some work before bed. I added two new songs. Both are just MIDI bass and drums but they have the full song form. Basically the same progress that I made on day one. Not bad for an in-the-office day.
I started the day with two goals. Let’s call them goals A and B.
Goal A was to put rhythm guitars on all eight songs that are currently in progress. That goal was completed, though the guitar playing got sloppier and sloppier as the day rolled on.
Goal B was to add another song or two to the pipeline. That goal was not completed. I just didn’t have it in me last night.
Today is day five and I am working in the office. There will be a significant reduction in available time to get music done. We’ll see what happens.
I spent some more time this afternoon playing guitar. Just adding parts to some 50/90 Challenge songs, that’s all.
My finger tips hurt. Maybe I’ll have calluses again by the time the 50/90 challenge ends in October. That would be nice.
I said I was hoping to get a little more than just MIDI tracking done for 50/90 today.
Four songs worth of rhythm guitars are done. Hopefully that’s more like four songs and counting for today, but we’ll see. My finger tips are hurting a little.
Day three’s update is identical to day two’s. Three new song ideas. All have MIDI bass and drums and a complete song form. That leaves me with eight songs in the pipeline, all in the same completeness bucket.
I am hoping there will be something more involved in tomorrow’s update. We’ll see. Maybe some guitar tracking?
Inside the Red Head's Head 