Tag: Guitar

Two Days, Not Three

Today is Sunday. I went into this weekend expecting to have a three day weekend. My beloved bride had a medical thing scheduled for tomorrow (Monday) and it was my job to get her there and back so I took the day off from work.

Well… she’s not feeling well today and it was recommended that she reschedule the appointment. I could keep the day off but my staff at work is going to be super short handed tomorrow so I have decided to cancel the time off request and go to work.

That sucks.

Change of subject…

The Patrick Stewart Memorial Star Trek the Next Generation Rewatch is nearing the end of season one. I have watched this show all the way through multiple times, but it’s been a really long time since I’ve seen this stuff. I remember the first two seasons being rough. It often took Star Trek series’ a few seasons to figure themselves out and Next Generation was the template for that. There are only a couple of major plot points from season one that affect the overall course of the series. They meet Q in the pilot episode. That’s one. Another is in episode 22 and I watched that one today. Spoiler alert for a nearly 40 year old show but Security Chief Tasha Yar gets wacked in episode 22.

Back in 1987 when this episode aired it was unusual for a TV show to off a main character. These days, in the post-Game of Thrones and Walking Dead world, main character deaths are common. I found it pretty funny that Star Trek actually followed one of the character death tropes. In the first scene of the episode Tasha has a really nice character moment. She’s talking to Worf, the guy who by episodes end takes over her job, and he says something nice about her and she lights up like she’s the happiest she’s ever been in her life. If you see that in an episode today it is GUARANTEED that the character’s death is imminent.

As I approach the end of the first season how has the show lived up to my memories of it? I remember thinking Denise Crosby (Tasha) and Marina Sirtis (Councellor Troi) were… lets just say they weren’t the best actors. Now? Maybe I’m just more forgiving than I was 30 years ago or so but I thought they were both fine. I didn’t have a problem with either of them. I remember thinking that Brent Spiner (Commander Data) needed some time to figure out his character and I think now that was probably accurate. I remember everyone on Earth hating Wesley Crusher but I didn’t have a problem with him. Now? Same. I don’t really get what all the fuss was about. He was a kid. He acted like a kid. He was normal. I thought he was fine. The thing I did not remember was Lavar Burton (Geordi Laforge) is absolutely killing it in season one.

I think I have 3–4 episodes left in season one. After that, obviously, we move on to season two… also known as the dark ages… the black hole… the Doctor Pulaski year. Yikes!

Change of subject again…

I have been playing guitar since the mid-1980s. When I first started playing, Star Trek the Next Generation had not premired yet. That’s how long I’ve been playing. I like to think that I have developed a certain level of skill. I’m not saying I’m good or anything, I just feel that I can play well enough that I can get stuff done. Why then does all of my skill vanish down the crapper every time I put down an electric guitar and pick up an acoustic guitar. I just suck. I suck so bad.

I’m working on this National Solo Album Month thing. I have 10 songs in progress. I am putting acoustic guitars on all of them. Not necessarily playing all the way through each song, but at some point there is an acoustic guitar part in every song. I’ve finished those parts on eight of the 10 songs and my playing is just awful. Terrible. I have worked all of the parts out in MIDI before I even looked at a real guitar and on a few ocassions I’ve actually had to dumb down the part so that I could get through it. Damn, do I suck.

And that, friends and neighbors, is the state of my Sunday night. Here’s hoping that work is quiet tomorrow and I don’t regret not keeping my day off. Fingers crossed.

Oh, the Pain

You know, I do these internet music challenges all the time and I keep making these plans in my head for how to make each one unique and I somehow forget that if you don’t practice all the time these little plans can result in physical pain.

I’m doing an album-in-a-month thing this month. National Solo Album Month. Write and record an album all by yourself within the month of November. No problem. I have three mini personal challenges going on to make it a little more interesting. First, no songs will be in 4/4 time. That’s crazy. Second, saxophone parts on every song. Maybe a little melody here and an improvised solo there. I don’t have to play sax all the way through every song, but my alto does need to make an appearance on every song. That is going to be brutal because my muscles are so out of practice (from not playing sax in years) that I will get maybe five minutes of playing before my jaw stops working correctly and I have to rest up for an hour or so to recover. The third mini-challenge is acoustic guitar on every song.

That’s the surprisingly tough one. I know I am out of shape guitar playing wise. I played a lot through the end of September but then I didn’t play at all in October and lost whatever gains I had made in the stamina and finger tip calluses departments. So I am going to struggle. What I forgot was, acoustic guitar is WAY harder to play than electric guitar. The strings are a lot heavier and its generally less forgiving and just takes more strength in your hands, particularly your fret hand.

I spent about an hour playing this morning before work. I worked on three of the new songs. One has acoustic guitar all the way through. Another has acoustic guitar on the break in the middle, and the third has acoustic guitar on the outro. By the time I was done with the third song my hands were KILLING me. For cryin’ out loud, Robert… would it kill you to just practice now and then? Is staying in shape really that tough? What a jerk!

Anyway, the good news is music is being made. The bad news is, ouch. We’ll see how things look come the end of the month.

Here’s my cheap little Yamaha acoustic guitar. I loaned it to the singer in my last band years ago and I only recently got it back. It has nice new strings that take a massive amount of effort for lazy old me to play. I think its an FG-401, if you’re into info like that. Ebay and Reverb tell me that I could sell it for about $150. I think that’s about what I paid for it back in the mid-90’s.

Another Pedal Company Down

I haven’t been as out of control buying guitar gear over the last year or two as I was prior, but I have gone through stretches where I get hyper obsessed with making tiny tweaks to my guitar sound that require me to buy amps and pedals and accessories. I own a bunch of amps and a lot of pedals. I mean, a lot of pedals. Every now and then one of them bites me in my conscious’ ass. That seems to have happened today.

The first time it happened was when I found out the owner/operator of a boutique pedal company that made a really cool fuzz pedal that I really wanted had donated money to a church that sponsored pray away the gay conversion bullshit. When called on it he got defensive and just made a mess out of it. He also apparently ripped off a circuit from a woman and then got really ugly with his verbal attacks when he was called out. The woman was actually trans and he went after her and it was just bad. I never bought that fuzz pedal. I never will. I won’t do business with a putz like that.

Fast forward to 2020 and I put a second pedal company on the no-fly list when one schmuck in California went after people who were protesting the murder of George Floyd. He first implied that his neighbors store windows were more important than a human being’s life, and then when he was called on it he verbally attacked his own customers. He said if we supported the George Floyd protests we were unworthy of using his gear. Can you believe that? What kind of utter narcissist would say something like that? I owned three of his pedals. Two of them were on my main board at the time and one of them is still the best pedal of its kind I’ve ever heard. Those three pedals are now rotting in a box in my cellar where they will spend the rest of eternity. I don’t do business with assholes like that and I won’t let other people see me using his stuff on the off chance it might lead to a sale. Fortunately this asshole’s company went out of business not long after. Unfortunately, he has had some luck restarting it. 

Now there’s a new one to get pissed off about. Early this morning I saw a post on social media saying that the owner and operator of this very successful boutique pedal company that has been around since the birth of the boutique pedal market is a trump donor. The post included screen shots of receipts. I own two of this guy’s pedals. One of them is at my bass player’s house waiting for me to go over and pick it up. It’s possibly the best overdrive pedal I’ve ever played that isn’t made by Klon. The other is a mod of a well known overdrive that I put on my board about a month ago while looking to change up my sound for the demos I was making for the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. One great pedal, one very good pedal. I was also thinking about buying another overdrive that this guy sells. I had actually put it into my shopping cart on musiciansfriend.com but had not yet pulled the trigger. Thankfully. I will not do business with a fascist or even a fascist collaborator. Not in this lifetime at least. To hell with this clown. I’ll have to pull his pedal off of my board. I’ll probably replace it with a King of Tone because Analogman is on the record as being very anti-trump and… well… selfishly and musically… its one of the best overdrive pedals on Earth. So… win win, I guess.

I hate it when fascism and racism and sexism and religious bullshit make me feel bad about myself musically. Fuck all of those assholes.

I wasn’t going to name names, but screw that. The gay conversion donation came from JHS, the George Floyd asshole was Fulltone, and the trump donor is Keeley Electronics.

2026 50/90 Challenge Days 88 and 89/90

And just like that…

Stick a fork in it, it is done.

Finished. Fin. Complete. Wrapped Up.

Done and done. The 50 songs in 90 days challenge for 2026 worked out to 61 songs in 89 days.

I started yesterday (day 88) with four songs left to mix. I finished two of them before work and then later, while watching the Red Sox lose game one of the Wild Card series to the Fucking Yankees, I started work on the other two. I did not finish them though. At least not until this morning (day 89) before work. I finished mixing those last two songs and got them all uploaded to alonetone and stuck ’em all on the 2026 50/90 playlist and officially declared this year’s project complete. There is a smidge more than 227 minutes worth of music that did not exist prior to July 4, 2026. Of the 61 songs I think maybe one of them is good. That tracks. That’s about normal for me. I never said I was good at any of this songwriting stuff. I just don’t let not being good stop me, you know?

Now that the project is done I am left with the same question I am always left with: Now what?

I haven’t a clue. I’m just happy I survived.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 87/90

I am so close to being finished with this whole thing that I can almost taste it. If I don’t have it all wrapped up on day 88 then I will definitely have it done on day 89. Did I just jinx myself? I really hope not.

That’s not what this post is supposed to be about though. This post looks back to yesterday (day 87) not forward to tomorrow (day 89). What did I do yesterday?

When the day began I had six songs left to finish and all of the tracking and writing of parts was complete and all that was left to do was a quick and dirty mix so I could upload the finished songs to alonetone.com/robertjames1971. That’s it.

In the hour or so before I started my work day I mixed one of those six songs. 56 songs down and five left to go. After dinner last night while I was sitting in front of the tube with the love of my life watching Dancing with the Stars on Hulu, I mixed another. 57 songs down and four to go.

That was it. I always considered two mixes to be a good day’s haul. I was happy with the progress. I might be able to do better today though. We’ll see.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 86/90

I mentioned yesterday that I hit a milestone in the project when I recorded the last vocal track. On day 86 I hit another milestone when I recorded the last note, period. I had five songs needing lead guitar parts and I recorded them all. That leaves me with just six unfinished songs, all of which are ready to mix.

Four days left, six songs need to be mixed. The revised end goal is 61 songs. I think I am going to make it. I think.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 85/90

Day 85 included an important milestone. I started the day with only seven as yet unfinished songs. Two were ready to mix but the other five all needed vocals and lead guitars before they would be ready to mix. When I do these kinds of projects, recording the vocals is always the sticking point for me. I’m shy about most things but SUPER shy about singing so I can’t do it when other people are around. I have to drive somewhere where I know I will be all alone and then record the tracks there.

The milestone I reached yesterday was recording the vocals on all five songs. Why is that different than the previous 56 songs that already received vocal tracks? Because I have declared that these five songs will be the last five songs of the project. Realistically I could probably sneak one or two more in over the final five days, but I have decided not to. I will finish these suckers and end with a total of 61. Assuming I don’t hit any snags in the final days.

I also managed to mix one song last night. That brings the total up to 55 finished songs with one more ready to mix and five ready for lead guitars. Guess what’s on the agenda for day 86.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 84/90

So I was thinking…

The 50 Songs in 90 Days Challenge ends on October 1st, less than a week away. I’ve already hit the 50 song goal so there isn’t any last minute stress about “winning” this time around. I’m just down to cleaning up the final few song ideas in the hopes of having everything I started finished before the deadline. It’s all gravy now.

The question though is this: What do I do on October 2nd? What do I do next? I haven’t a clue.

Before I figure that out though I should probably recap day 84. I mixed two songs. That’s all. The completed song count is now at 54. There are still seven songs outstanding. Two are ready to mix and five are ready for vocals.

And that’s the state of the project through day 84. What will today (day 85) bring? Tune in tomorrow to find out.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 83/90

I had a lot going on yesterday between work and a slightly torturous dentist appointment and wrapping up this month’s roll of film for the Frugal Film Project and watching the new Neil Peart documentary (I’m not crying, you’re crying!) so I didn’t expect to have a lot of time for 50/90 stuff. I was hoping I’d at least be able to mix a song.

My progress for day 83? I mixed one song. The completed song count is now up to 52 which makes the project 104% complete which according to maga math means I’m something like 6000% complete? Something like that? I’m not a moron or a cult member so I’m not sure how to make that math work. Whatever.

Today (day 84) is looking like it will be much the same. I’m hoping for a big push this weekend and maybe… who knows… I might put an end to the whole shebang a few days early. We’ll see.

2026 50/90 Challenge Day 82/90

Yesterday was day 82 and it was a pretty successful day as far as the 50 songs in 90 days challenged is concerned. It was amazing as it was a day after I got a Covid booster shot and I was SICK AS SICK CAN BE. I’m about 95% better today but my immune system is ready should Covid come by for a visit.

Anyway, when the sun rose on day 82 I had 51 songs finished, five songs ready to mix (meaning everything has been written and recorded, I just need to much it all together into a stereo file), and five songs still needing work. Three of those five were waiting for lyrics and two were waiting for rhythm guitars.

Note I used passed tense for all of them.

Prior to the start of the work day I recorded the rhythm guitars for both of the songs. After work, while sitting in the living room watching Dancing with the Stars with my bride, the love of my life, Jen, I wrote lyrics and a melody for all five songs. Well… four of them got melodies because one already had one, but that’s not important. The main point here is that I now have five songs ready to mix and five songs ready to record vocals.

Today is day 83 and I ahven’t done anything yet. Maybe I’ll be able to pick off a mix before I fall asleep tonight. We’ll see.