Usually it’s my singing that is so bad it makes me want to vomit. Today it was the guitar playing. My hands are torn to shreds, my strings are so dead they are all but unplayable. Urgh.
Tag: Fawm
RPM Challenge – Day 24
Last night I mixed two more songs. Today I wrote lyrics and sang the vocals for three more songs. That leaves me with eight songs finished, and six songs that only require lead guitar before mixing. I’ve got four days left. I can still pull off all 14 songs.
The first of the two finished songs is this year’s 12-bar blues. The lyrics are based on a little bit of family history. My grandfather was a fisherman. On one trip out to sea his boat sank. He floated around on a lifeboat for a while before being picked up by a passing ship. The whole time he was missing no one let my grandmother know. She was kept away from newspapers and radios. When my grandfather finally got to shore in New York he called her to say that he was safe and she had no idea what he was talking about.
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/bridget-and-john.mp3%20The second newly finished song is one that I was planning on dropping early on, but it is growing on me a little.
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/ufo.mp3%20I don’t have anything else ready to mix at this point. I am going to try and pick off a guitar solo tomorrow before work. Tonight though, is all about last night’s episode of The Walking Dead.
RPM Challenge – Day 23
I am about to leave to bring my step daughter to softball practice. 90 minutes later I will pick her up. The plan? Drop her off, find a parking spot as far away from civilization as humanly possible, crack out the MacBook and record at least two songs worth of vocals.
Think I can do it? I did it Thursday night when I dropped the kids off for karate, and I actually wrote the basics for songs #10 and 11 in the same parking lot two weeks ago.
Wish me luck!
RPM Challenge – Day 22 Again
I mixed two songs tonight. The first of the two is just a terrible song that I really hope I’ll be able to drop. I need lyrics for at least one more song in order to do that. I think I really must get at least one more done. This song just sucks.
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/forced.mp3%20The other song is okay, but it is really similar to another song that I’ve already finished. Big chunks of both songs were actually written in one sitting. That might explain it. Ya think?
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/not-if-i-see-you-first.mp3%20I hope to be able to record more vocals tomorrow. I’ve got two more ready to go. I’ve got another song ready to mix, and another song that only needs leads. It would be nice if I could get through all of them tomorrow. Then I would have telecommuting on Monday and Thursday to finish up any additional vocals I might get to before the deadline. The goal is still to record 14 songs. It’s getting near the end, and I have a lot left to do.
RPM Challenge – Day 22
We are going for a drive today in the hopes of getting desks and desk chairs for the kids. When we woke up we had a very small window of time for anything other than getting ready to go. I used that time wisely and recorded the leads for song #5. It was far from perfect, but far from my usual terrible. What was weird was that I nailed each part on the first take. Woah! I must be in the groove. (that is sarcasm, the groove and I never see eye to eye, let alone meet up)
Even weirder is that I recorded a 16 bar guitar riff that will become song #15. Now that is weird! Here I am convinced I won’t have time to finish 14 songs and I go and start a 15th. Somebody stop me!
RPM Challenge – Day 21
I sort of lost count. I did either two or three lead guitar parts this morning. I think it was two. This evening I mixed one of those songs. The first four bars have been in my head for ages, but I’ve never found them a home until now. The lyrics were sort of inspired by the @floridaman twitter account. I went there looking for ridiculous stories and instead found two reports of utterly senseless violence.
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/overreaction.mp3%20I hope to get some more guitar soloing in before we go to IKEA in the morning. We can discuss that later.
RPM Challenge – Day 18
I mixed two songs last night. I don’t like either of them, or anything else I’ve worked on this month. It’s good, because I don’t think I am going to have enough time in the house alone to finish all of the vocals.
This is the first song I worked on, and the first song I finished:
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/small-3.mp3%20
This is the 12th song I worked on, and the second song I finished. As you can guess, I am jumping around all over the place right now.
http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/not-in-this-lifetime.mp3%20
I have one more song that is ready to mix. I was just too tired to finish it off last night. Yesterday I wrote lyrics and a really rough melody for three more songs. This morning I recorded two of them. My vocal performance was terrible at best, but it’s done and I don’t think I am going to have time to fix anything that irks me when I start listening back to it. I didn’t take the time to put rough mixes up onto Soundcloud.
So that’s five vocals recorded, and a sixth that is written and ready to record. I need to get four more done to qualify for RPM, and eight more to qualify for FAWM. FAWM is starting to look like a lost cause. I took Thursday and Friday off from work, but I don’t think I am going to have time on those days to handle vocals. I’m starting to honestly consider driving to an empty parking lot somewhere and recording in the car. It’s looking more and more like that’s the only way I will be able to finish everything. Cold weather be damned, you know?
RPM Challenge Day Four
Last night I started song #4. It uses the ancient riff I’ve been talking about for the last four days. I had it sketched out before I went to bed, but tonight I added an organ part to it.
When I was satisfied with song #4 I started playing with new ideas. I wanted to keep noodling with the organ sound so I stayed with that. I also wanted an odd time signature so I set the GarageBand project to 5/4 time. I ended up with a 5th song project, but I’m not happy with it. I forced it tonight. It didn’t come to me the way the good ones do. I dragged it out of my head, kicking and screaming and the end results will show that. I didn’t outright dump it. Not yet at least.
I am working on RPM and FAWM at the same time, as always. RPM needs 10 songs, FAWM needs 14. I think I have two that are destined to be FAWM only (songs 2 and 5). I’ll finish them for the project’s sake, but I don’t see them being anything I’d listen to again. Last year I managed to like everything I had enough to put it on the RPM CD. There was one that I was on the fence with until the last minute, but something made me keep it. In 2012 I had 15 songs (FAWM, leap year style) and only used 13 on the CD. At this rate I’ll be lucky to end up with 10 songs that I don’t hate.
Another Random Wednesday
Don’t ask me about hockey. I’m not over it yet. I’m going to need some time to get over that epic of a choke.
I can’t think of a topic for this post, so here’s a picture…
I have finally come across a camera accessory I want to get that isn’t a new lens. I want to get my hands on a neutral density filter. I want to go over to the Spicket Falls Dam and take a nice long exposure, and I want to do it during the day. I want the motion of the water to blur together. Pictures like that are cool, and I want to take at least one cool picture before I die.
Picture this, only with the falling water all smoothed out.
Yeah. Cool.
I also want to get a Forest Lake parking permit. I think I can do that tomorrow during lunch. Maybe I’ll bring my camera along for the ride. Maybe I’ll make a lunch ahead of time and eat it by the water. Maybe.
I also want to get a few more songs recorded before July 4th comes along. July 4th is the start date for the FAWM 50/90 challenge. Write 50 songs in 90 days. Yeah, right. Maybe I should change it to the 10/90. That might be more manageable as a summertime project. There was also talk of a bunch of RPM Challenge participants doing some sort of mini-challenge this summer. I thought it was going to be in June, but the site has been down for maintenance every time I’ve gone to it. Today is no exception.
Oh well. I’ll figure something out.
Trophy
Last year my FAWM profile page said, “Finished” when I finished. This year they gave me a trophy instead
Inside the Red Head's Head 