Heads up, folks. It’s time for another new song. This was the 12th idea I started for this year’s 50 songs in 90 Days challenge and it’s the second song demo finished.
Two down, 48 to go.
So far it’s the only song that started out on guitar. Everything else has started out with a MIDI bass guitar part and was built up from there.
This one is okay… I guess. Maybe it would be more accurate to describe it as almost okay… I guess.
I don’t know what I did to earn it, but oh my goodness the pain.
Yesterday, out of the blue, I got a massive pain in my left side. It included my left arm, particularly the elbow. What the hell? All the left here made me think heart attack at first, but it’s really nowhere near my heart. I think I must have pulled a muscle or something. Any time I reach out or up with my left arm it sets it off and BOOM, huge pain. What the hell, bro? I didn’t do anything to hurt myself. I must have zigged when I should have zagged, but it wasn’t enough for me to actually notice that something was going wrong.
Ouch town, population… me.
So I plan to try to force myself to not extend my left arm very much for a day or two and see if it gets better. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to not extend your left arm? I keep doing it and it keeps hurting. What a jerk. What a doofus.
Fortunately though, it did not stop me from doing my morning exercise and, more importantly, it did not stop me from playing the guitar, babie! I had enough time to work on three songs today. As I mentioned in a recent post, I swapped out my ES-335 for my SG. The SG has been neglected of late. I bought a new strap for each guitar months and months ago and I never even opened the SG’s case to put it on. Even after playing for about an hour this morning I still haven’t used the new strap. Soon though. You’ll see.
My playing was garbage, of course, but I don’t care. Happy Friday, folks!
Nothing. Nothing before work. Nothing on breaks at work. Nothing after work. Nothing snuck in before bed. Nothing.
Let’s hope for better results on day 15.
Two week summary of the songwriting assembly line:
I woke up in a mood today. I don’t know what is bothering me. I feel a sense of doom and gloom. Am I suddenly psychic (Robert pauses the narrative to let anyone reading along finish laughing hysterically) and something is on the horizon?
Nope. Just in another bitchy mood. I didn’t get enough sleep last night and it shows. I have a small project at work that is hanging over me like a dark cloud. It’s not a big deal, I just don’t have the energy to deal with it. Crud, right?
The traffic was crappy this morning, but it was the normal level of crappy, not some extra thick level of crappy or anything. I don’t know.
Hey, did you watch the season finale of The Acolyte last night? It was good. I liked it. I liked the whole season though I will quickly admit that the action heavy episodes were by far the best of the bunch. No spoilers, but that scene last night where you actually see the light saber do that thing that light sabers are supposed to be able to do? You know, the thing that we never saw Anakin or Dooku or Maul or Palpatine actually do even though we all saw the end result? Hint Hint Sithy Hint? Awesome.
That should be putting me in a good mood, right? Star Wars is like my own personal dopamine fix. Nope. I was all smiles watching it last night, but today? Grumpy gus. Or should I call myself Darth Grumpy Gus? Does that work better?
No guitar playing today. Maybe before work tomorrow. I did use a guitar for today’s photo a day picture. I think the next time I play I am going to use a different guitar. I haven’t played my Gibson SG in ages and it’s kind of calling to me. My wife thinks that guitar looks cool so that alone should be incentive to play it more often, don’t you think?
Okay. Cheer up, everyone. It’s hump day or some shit. For my personal work week, once I get through the day in the office today, I am working from home for the rest of the week. That should cheer me up, right? Ugh.
Not bad for a random Tuesday. I put rhythm guitars onto the only two songs that didn’t have rhythm guitars. Then later I added two new songs (numbers 18 and 19), both with MIDI bass and drums and a full song form.
I’m in the office today so it’s going to be another slim chance of good progress. Maybe I can sneak in a lyric before I fall asleep tonight. That’s the hope at least.
I overslept a little this morning. Instead of being down cellar doing my daily exercise at about 5:20am, I kicked things off at about 6:30. Not the end of the world by any stretch of the imagination, but still… not what I wanted. I have become a creature of routine in a kind of negative way since my weight loss surgery. When I get off of the normal workflow I get bitchy. Sorry about that.
I started my silly running in place thing (pronounced “yogging” with a soft “j”, thank you Ron Burgundy) which should last about 48 minutes. I had to pause the proceedings three times. Two of them were not a big deal and I could easily get over them, but one was just dumb. At the risk of too much information, I had to use the bathroom. Oh come on, Robert. You couldn’t have taken care of that before you started? You couldn’t have held it until after? Ugh. Dumb ass. Instant bitchy.
I was able to get everything I needed to do before work done. I also snuck in some guitar playing. I put rhythm guitars onto the two song ideas I started yesterday. I wanted to add a lead track to a song or two as well, but that was where the time cut needed to happen. Next time. I hope.
Why do I let little scheduling hiccups like having to use the bathroom at a random time get under my skin this way. Grrrrr. I don’t know.
Here’s a couple of guitar pictures, just because. I snapped them while listening to playbacks of the new tracks. Multitasking, as it were.
Today’s photo a day challenge pic is of the thing that likely won’t be a part of today’s 50 songs in 90 days challenge.
Funny how that works out, right? So many silly internet based personal creative challenges that have no actual meaning to anyone on the planet including me, even though I am the bozo working on them.
But what does it all mean?
Day 11 was a good day. I put vocals onto five songs, lead guitars (poorly) onto four songs, and mixed one song.
At this point I have six songs that are ready for lead guitars, four that are ready to mix, and five that are ready for lyrics. I don’t have anything waiting on rhythm guitars and I don’t have anything ready to sing.
Today (day 12) is an office day for me so finding time to work on music is going to be tough. I hope I’ll be able to sneak something in before the day is out. Wish me luck.
Here comes the pain, folks. I am going to share one of my super lame songs. This is the first song finished for the 2024 50 songs in 90 days challenge. One down and 49 to go. I’ll do something nice to make this worth your while though, I promise.
First, here’s my shitty new song. It’s okay, I guess. The guitar playing is bad, especially the leads. The vocals are pretty terrible too. Oh well. It’s just supposed to be a demo, right?
Now to sweeten the pot, as it were. Cats. Two of them. I won’t be able to do this every time I finish a new song, but I’ll see what I can do.
Now that I have a bunch of songs with vocal tracks, it’s time to start adding lead guitar tracks.
I worked on four songs and boy are my finger tips killing me! The more you play, the less it hurts… so what does that tell you about how often I play?
Inside the Red Head's Head 