I liked this one from the very start. It was the second song I started working on this February, and it has stuck with me more than any of the others. It’s kinda… swampy… nice little mid tempo groove. The bass isn’t cutting through the mix enough, and there are a few moments when the vocal intonation is a little… fruity, but otherwise it’s not too bad to me. The lyrics are a kiss off to a flat Earther, and the guitars are all Gibson ES 335 pro.
Tag: Garageband
Four
I wrote this one last night and recorded it this morning. I don’t like it.
Three!
A little Trump is a Dink song. I am not happy with this one at all. I couldn’t play the rhythm guitar part in the chorus the way I wanted to. I split it into two pieces, so everything I wanted is there. I just feel like a failure.
Win
Car vocals: Success. Well… for a few songs at least. I had an hour in the car waiting for karate, again, and I wrote two and recorded three.
They are done, but not done well. I am officially catching my wife’s cold. I think many of the as-yet-un-sung songs are toast now. Cough, cough, achoo.
Crud.
Two!
There are now two songs complete! Unbelievable! I recorded vocals today for a number of the songs that had vocal parts written but not recorded. This song is actually the second half of a little two song medley. I’m pretty sure I’ve written about this a couple of times recently, but there seems to be a trend over the last few months of people arguing that the Earth is flat. I keep hearing people trying to make that argument and it makes me want to throw up every single time I hear it.
So of course that is going to be a major theme for this year’s RPM Challenge.
The little medley idea is to have the first song be a flat Earth shit head’s argument, followed by a normal non-idiot’s response in the second song. This is the second song. The Flat Earth Rebuttal.
One!
RPM 2016 is officially more successful than RPM 2008. Or 2009. Or 2010 and 2011!.
One song finished. I wrote it last night. Long after I had 14 songs in progress, which means I should have quit while I was ahead. Onward to 20 songs!
It Lives!
The 12-string guitar… it lives!
Three of the 14 songs had space reserved for acoustic guitar. One of those three was designed to have all of it’s rhythm guitar parts be acoustic (and it’s in drop D too!). Those parts are all finished now.
After I recorded the last piece I sort of felt like I was in the groove, ya know? So I kicked off two new songs. One is just a 12-bar blues but it’s in 7/8 time. Take that, establishment! The other is the second song inspired by something I read on the FAWM forum. Someone threw out a challenge to write a song using the “ice cream changes”. That refers to a chord progression that was used and reused extensively in the 1950s and early 60s. Basically, rock and roll pre-Beatles. It is, for the theory nerds in the audience, I – vi – IV – V. I actually used that progression once already, on song #14, but I transposed it to a minor key, making it i – VI – iv – v. (For the non-theory folks, a capital roman numeral refers to a major chord, and a lower case refers to a minor chord.) As I referenced with The Who song I posted yesterday, I am embracing the fact that all of my songs sound the same, and just not worrying about it this year. Given that, I used the ice cream changes again, only this time I kept it in a major key.
So if you do the math, I’m up to 16 songs now. No lyrics yet, and some of them don’t even have a song form yet. Still… 16 songs! WOOHOO
Go RPM Challenge!
Some, not All
I didn’t even come close to getting as much done as I’d hoped today, but RPM progress has been made. I am now up to nine songs with rhythm guitars recorded. Yay, eh? It’s almost time to break out the acoustic guitar. Be afraid!
I thought I was going to have two full work days with the house to myself. I was wrong. I will have one full work day with the house to myself. I will have to get as much vocalizin’ and socializin’* done on that day as possible, and then cram in the rest when I can get a free minute here and there. The double album plan is kaput.
*That is a Bloom County reference. Death Tongue. Remember that? Before they sold out and went all corporate rock and changed their name to Billy and the Boingers? When Opus learned what Bono already knew? No words rhyme with Nicaragua? Remember? On the Death Tongue comic, Steve Dallas was listed as lead vocalising and socialising. One of the two spellings I’ve used on this post might be correct. Also, both of the spellings could be wrong.
Finally
At long last, I have actually recorded guitar parts that are usable. Last Thursday I recorded the guitars for two songs but there was a lag issue between GarageBand for iPad and the Amplitube amp sim I was using and things sounded just a tiny, hair off. Other than that, there had been no actual instruments on any of my RPM songs to this point. It’s February 11th and I didn’t have a single guitar part recorded!
Today is my telecommute day though, and I was home from dropping off the kids by about 7:10. I spent the next hour and 40 minutes on guitars. I rerecorded the bad parts for those two songs from last week, and then cranked out two more songs. That’s four guitar parts down, nine to go, and I still need to add at least one more song.
My time management is pretty awful this year, but I will… I WILL… get everything done on time.
RPM Challenge – Day 9
This has been the weirdest RPM to date. I have 13 songs in progress, but I don’t have a single recorded instrument track that is useable. I’ve got a few guitar tracks down, but I want to replace all of them. Everything I have so far is just built in GarageBand sounds. Guitar, bass, and drums. I have so much guitar to do that it’s starting to feel overwhelming. Every day I come home and say, tonight I record guitars! Then every night something comes up. It’s getting frustrated. I took a couple of days off from work next week to start vocals. I need all of the rhythm guitars done before then, never mind adding real bass guitar.
Like I said, weirdest RPM experience ever.
Inside the Red Head's Head 