Another day closer to having this whole thing finished. And so it goes, onward and upward or something.

I worked on four songs on day 67. I started the day with seven songs ready to mix, one ready for vocal tracking, and one that needed lyrics before it could get vocals. I had a few minutes with the house to myself last night after work so I pulled out my trusty microphone and put the vocals down on the first song. Then I wrote a melody and lyrics to the second song while recording (write a verse, record the vocal for it, write another verse, record the vocal for it, etc etc).

Once those two songs were down I thought… now what? Do I record the lead guitars for those two songs? Do I mix something? No, I added a new song. I was thinking the idea I had was in 3/4 time but I kept needing to up the tempo. In the end it was ridiculously fast which made me think I should have been in 6/8… but it didn’t seem like it wanted to have a triplet feel. I don’t know. I finished the MIDI bass and drums and left a guide for the eventual rhythm guitar tracks. I was hoping I would have time to add a melody and some lyrics but I did not.

When that was done I hung out with the love of my life watching the tube in the living room. Eventually it was bed time and instead of sleeping (which I should do more often) I worked out another song on GarageBand on my iPad. Weirdly, this one is also in 3/4 time. The structure is done, the MIDI bass is done. There’s a drummer track but it will be ruined when I port the file into GarageBand on my Mac. There’s some sort of bug there that screws up Drummer tracks. I’ll have to replace it eventually. There is also a guide for the rhythm guitar and a melody noodled out on an electric piano track. No lyrics yet though.

That brings the total song count up to 56. 45 are done and now 11 are still in progress. 50 songs in 90 days is the goal. I’m still shooting for 60 songs in 90 days though because I am a dork.

Labor Day is behind us. The gridlocked traffic this morning proves beyond all doubt that summer is over. Here in New England, welcome to winter. Fudge.

While the calendar and the weather and the commute traffic all tell us that we’re up to our eye balls in winter now, the summer song writing challenge is still moving along. Not only was yesterday Labor Day, it was also day 66 of the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. What progress did I make?

After I arrived home from an early morning ocean flavored photowalk, I went down cellar and started playing guitar. On day 65 I put vocals on seven songs. On day 66 I put lead guitars onto the same seven songs. That was all she wrote. I wanted to do more, but that was a really good day’s work and I’m happy with where things stand.

24 days left. 45 songs done, seven ready to mix, one ready for vocal tracking, and one ready for lyrics. I still hope to add six more to the pipeline and finish the project on October 1st with 60 songs (at least). Still a lot of stuff to do.

Day 65 was pretty big for the 50 Songs in 90 Days Challenge. I worked on seven songs. All of them started the day needing vocal tracks and all of them ended the day with all of their vocal tracks finished. I had one other song that was ready for vocals but I failed to get to it. Besides that, the only other song remaining is still waiting on lyrics.

It might not sound like much given that I can sum up the entire day’s work in one sentence, but trust me… seven songs worth of vocal tracking is a massively big day.

I had a good day on day 64. Not as productive as I had hoped, but I got through the things I needed to get through.

I worked on four songs. The songs with the working titles of numbers 51, 52, and 53 all got rhythm guitar tracks. Four tracks in total. Two takes through two amps each. One pair of amps panned hard left and the other panned hard right. That’s how I always do it.

When I finished the third song I still had some time on my hands and wanted to keep playing guitar but I didn’t have anything else that was ready for a guitar part. So I did the only thing I could. I started a new song. I wrote song number 54 in its entirety. I usually start with MIDI tracks. Bass and drums and maybe something to use as a place holder for real guitars. This time I just set up a drum loop and started playing the guitar. I worked out the song form at the same time I was working out the riffs and chord changes. When I had the guitar worked out for the entire song I added a MIDI bass and replaced the drum loop with MIDI drums. Then I added a melody, played on a MIDI electric piano, then I wrote lyrics that fit the melody. Boom. Song 54 now exists.

45 songs complete. Nine more in progress. All of them have rhythm guitars and all but one have lyrics and are ready for vocals. 26 days left before it all ends.

Day 63’s update was exactly the same as day 62. I added one new song. It is all MIDI at this point but all of the parts have been written including the melody and the lyrics. I just have to replace the MIDI guitar with real guitars and replace the MIDI electric piano with vocals and then improv some lead guitar and we’re set.

Spoiler alert, day 64 has been fun. It would have been more fun if I didn’t suck at guitar so badly. I’ll probably bitch and moan about that tomorrow. Or not. We’ll find out tomorrow.

Day 62 (yesterday) was another day that felt pretty light on progress. Similar to day 61, I started a new song (number 52) and wrote the whole thing, lyrics and all. I didn’t record any real instruments yet. The whole thing is just MIDI “software instruments” (as GarageBand likes to call them), but everything is there just waiting for me to replace the fake guitars with real guitars and all of that fun stuff.

That’s all. I was hoping for more, but I am really just trying to set myself up for a big weekend. That’s the plan at least.

In yesterdays recap post I started thinking about redefining the 50 songs in 90 days challenge into a slightly different project. I’m thinking maybe 60 songs in 90 days? The most I’ve ever done in one of these things was 57 songs in 2024. I should at least try to top that.

My musical noodlings on day 61 started me down that path. I started the day with 50 songs in the project. 45 were complete, three were ready for vocal tracking, and two were waiting for lyrics and a melody. I wrote the lyrics and melody for one of those two songs and I should have worked on the second song as well. I did not though. Instead I added song number 51. It’s completely written with MIDI bass and drums finished, a MIDI guitar track that will act as a guide for when I record the actual guitars, the melody was recorded with a MIDI piano to act as a guide for when I record the vocals, and the lyrics are all written. Everything is done besides recording the real human stuff. One step beyond the 50 songs goal and one step closer to the new 60 song goal.

That’s all I managed yesterday. I hope to get more than that done tonight (day 62), but there is a new episode of Star Trek Strange New Worlds out today and it might get in the way. We’ll see.

Welcome to September. Day 60. We are 2/3 of the way through the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. In the home stretch, sort of. In the endgame, kind of.

45 songs finished, five still in progress. I looked back through my playlists on alonetone.com and I have finished this challenge four times. In 2014 I had exactly 50 songs. In 2020 I had 52. In 2021 I had 53. In 2024 I had a whopping 57.

I guess its time to redefine this year’s goal. First and foremost I want to finish the five remaining songs and hit 50. That’s the primary goal, of course. Beyond that… the RPM Challenge rules define an album as 10 songs… can I do a September album in a month? 10 songs started and finished within the month of September on top of the 45 + 5 I already have for 50/90… is 60 songs in 90 days possible?

Yes.

Will I actually do it?

I don’t know.

As for day number 60 itself, I wrote a melody and lyrics for two songs. That’s it. Of the five remaining songs, three have lyrics and are ready for vocal tracking. The other two are still waiting on lyrics and the recordings only consist of the rhythm section.

I’m hoping to record the vocals for all five of these puppies over the weekend. I guess I should also start coming up with some more riffs if I want to make 60 songs a thing.

Day 59 was the last day of August. After this there is only one month to go.

After the humongous amount of progress over the weekend I had told myself that I was taking Monday off. Then I didn’t. I am definitely a little brain fried, musically speaking, so I wasn’t able to get much done but I did work on one song. I added lyrics and a melody to one of the five remaining songs. That was it. I tried to pick off another song but I just couldn’t get my tiny little brain to function properly and I called it a day.

One month to go and only five songs left before I hit the goal. 50 songs in 90 days and I have 45 songs done and five more partially done and I still have a whole month to go. Cool.

The word of the day is 90%.

I mixed four songs last night. That’s all. It brings my finished song count up to an absurd 45. The goal is 50 songs in 90 days and I’m at 45 in 58 days. If today were a weekend rather than a Monday with a scary dentist appointment scheduled I would finish off the last five songs and have the whole thing done in 60 days instead of 90. That’s just ridiculous, right?

45 songs complete. Five songs still in progress. All five of them have the rhythm section complete and are waiting on lyrics and melodies. We are traveling the second week of September and I would very much like to hit the 50 song goal before we leave. I can do that. There’s a three day weekend coming up. Then the only question is how many extra songs beyond the 50 song goal will I come up with before the end date on October 1st.