Tag: 50/90

Friday Morning Car Music

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:

359/365

2023 50/90 Challenge Day 52 of 90

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.

2023 50/90 Challenge Day 51 of 90

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.

2023 50/90 Challenge Day 50 of 90

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.

2023 50/90 Challenge Day 49 of 90

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.

  • 32 songs underway
  • 1 song is just a few bass riffs without any structure
  • 11 songs have rhythm guitars but no lyrics or melodies
  • 2 songs have lyrics and melodies but no vocals
  • 2 songs have vocals but no lead guitars
  • 4 songs have lead guitars but need to be mixed down
  • 12 songs have been mixed and are finished

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.

Productive Morning

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…

355/365
355/365

…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!

DSC_1821
DSC_1823
DSC_1824

Sunday Stuff

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.

CIMG7469

Guitars!

I put rhythm guitar tracks onto SEVEN songs this morning. I have actually run out of songs again. There are 29 in the pipeline and they all have rhythm tracks!

Now I have to get dressed and go food shopping and then figure out what to play on next! It’s a music day, folks. Play it till your fingers bleed as if it were the summer of ’69!

354/365
354/365

Morning Plans?

The weather is supposed to be okay in the morning. Should I take the cameras out for a walk? I want to, but I also want to sleep late. If I do go out early I don’t want to go far. Maybe the park along the river in Methuen. Maybe the train tracks near Dascomb Road in Andover. Maybe the riverwalk behind the Tsongas Arena in Lowell. Some place close, but not the usual two or three stops in town. I don’t know. I guess it depends on what time I fall asleep tonight.

Harry and Jen are going out to run some errands in the late morning. Jen’s mom might be coming for a visit. I want to make some music. The fifty songs in 90 days thing has kinda gone down the crapper. I haven’t touched it in 18 days. More or less. I could still pull it off, but do I still have the motivation to try? I don’t know.

The weather looks decent on Sunday too. Maybe some sunrise at the ocean? We’re into the second half of August now. We’re running out of good weather days. I should do something while I still can. We’ll see.

First though, before I fall asleep, how about some Doctor Who. 2nd Doctor, season five, episodes 23-28, The Web of Fear. Sounds like a plan. Bring on the Yeti.

Sleepy Wednesday Night

Today has been a long day. I am tired. I had a little problem eating dinner tonight but after a little more than an hour break after coughing up a small ocean of foamie saliva, I was able to eat the last of my protein goal. I have hit all of my health goals today so it’s good in that case. Now I just need to get some sleep.

I haven’t done any music challenge work in two days. Tomorrow I’ll get back into it, I promise. There’s so much left to do. I think I can say I am behind the pace of my three previous 50/90 successes. I’ll catch up soon enough.

The long range forecast is calling for good weather this weekend. Maybe some post-sunrise golden hour photography? I keep thinking about going into the city and walking around the Back Bay. It might be odd doing it that early in the morning, but the plus side is I should be able to get in and out of town easy enough, and I might even get some street parking, and I won’t need to worry about crowds looking at me funny. Yeah, maybe a 6:00am photo walk up and down Boylston and Newbury streets? That could be fun. I could do that on Saturday morning, then maybe Kenmore Square or the theater district on Sunday? Who knows.

For tonight though, I am trying to finish a Doctor Who season three serial from 1965. I am starting to get close to the end of the run for the first Doctor. The NuWho binge watch started season seven earlier tonight. I am starting to get near the end of the run for the 11th Doctor. I am ready for both of them to change. Tomorrow morning while I exercise before work though, it will be the musical episode of Star Trek: Brave New Worlds with songs written by Kay Hanley and Tom Polce of Letter to Cleo. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.