I’ve already written about most of this, but in the interest of completeness and transparency (why?) here’s an official write up of today’s 50/90 challenge activities.
I put vocals on five songs.
I wrote a new song including MIDI bass and drums, the full song form, all of the rhythm guitar tracks, the melody and the lyrics.
I put rhythm guitars onto an additional three songs, one of which was played on my step son’s guitar.
I put lead guitars onto five songs including a couple of the songs that got vocal tracks this morning.
I wrote lyrics and melodies to three additional songs on top of the one I already mentioned.
Looks like another car music is in store for tomorrow morning. Excellent.
I spent two hours recording guitars today. I got through so much that I can’t even remember it all.
I started by adding song idea #37. I threw it together on-mic, as it goes. I recorded it as I was writing the guitar parts. It’s super simple but it exists now when it didn’t before. Cool.
I then put rhythm guitars onto three more songs. There is a twist on one of them, I’ll share it in a bit.
I put lead guitars on a bunch of songs… I actually forget how many. Let me check my trello notes… five songs. I put leads onto five songs.
Add the five songs that got vocals this morning and it’s been a pretty cool day, music-wise.
How about some gratuitous guitar pics?
So what about that twist that I mentioned? Years ago my step son was taking guitar lessons. For his birthday I bought him a very inexpensive beginner/student guitar. Given that it was me doing the shopping, I of course bought him a Les Paul. Not a Gibson, but an Epiphone package deal that came with a tiny little solid state amp.
When he moved out we cleaned out his room and I saw the guitar sitting in his closet. He doesn’t play anymore. He’s a piano guy and a percussion guy. Guitar fell off of his musical map. I told him I wanted to play his guitar on my recording project thingie and he didn’t say no so…
One of the songs that got rhythm guitars was played on Harry’s Epiphone Les Paul Special II. Gratuitous photos, of course.
What’s left to do tonight? Hopefully more lyrics and melodies. Maybe a mix or two? We’ll see.
I already wrote about car music this morning. I put vocals on three songs. What have I done since then?
Well, first I added another song idea. That’s idea number 35. It’s just bass riffs for now. Later, after dinner tonight, I started writing melodies and lyrics. I got through five songs. Count ’em, five songs. They are all crap, but that gives me more than enough for another round of car music tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll follow the morning car music with a pile of guitar tracks. I am hoping to use my step son’s Epiphone beginner model Les Paul copy on at least a song or two, and hopefully that will happen tomorrow.
Plans are in place, I just have to follow through. Progress!
I mentioned this morning that I put rhythm guitars on two songs and lead guitars on two other songs. Tonight after dinner, while binging season six of the original Doctor Who, I wrote lyrics and melodies for three songs.
You know what that means?
Car music in the morning.
That’s the plan at least. We’ll see if it pans out or not. Fingers crossed. I’ll let you know.
It’s 9:00am on Thursday. I am punched into work, starting the day for reals. What did I do before work? Besides my morning exercise, breakfast, a shower, and a kiss for my wife as she left for the office for the day?
I played some guitar. I put rhythm guitars onto two songs and lead guitars onto two other songs. I have a metric ton of stuff left to do by the end of next month, but we’re picking away at it and a little progress was made. Sigh of relief, babie!
Yeah, I think I am going to give up on the little 2008 Casio point and shoot.
It took about five tries to auto-focus on the sky. Like… how much more light do you need? I want to get something new, but there aren’t a lot of pocket sized options anymore and they are way more expensive then they should be in the days of the iPhone. I don’t want to go back to doing all of this on my iPhone but I think we’re heading in that direction. Shit.
Why do I not want to use my iPhone? Snobbery. That’s all. What can you do?
Fortunately my guitar is still out of the case from when I played it the other day. I was able to sneak a couple of super narrow depth of field pics in before I left the house this morning and one of those will be my 357th photo a day pic for this round of 365 days.
What do you say we try to guilt me into working on the 50/90 challenge by trying to post daily updates again? Think that will work?
Neither do I.
Here goes anyway.
I put rhythm guitars onto two songs, lead guitars onto one song, and added one new song idea. That makes 32 songs in the pipeline.
32 songs underway
1 song is just a few bass riffs without any structure
11 songs have rhythm guitars but no lyrics or melodies
2 songs have lyrics and melodies but no vocals
2 songs have vocals but no lead guitars
4 songs have lead guitars but need to be mixed down
12 songs have been mixed and are finished
And that, dear readers, is where we stand right now. 41 days left. That’s probably not enough to get me to 50 songs with mixed demoes. We’ll see how close I can get though.
Talk about a case of the Mondays gone wrong, right?
I got up early, did my exercise, watched a Doctor Who (priorities, yeah?), ate breakfast, wrote a blog post, showered, went to the grocery store and got a few things that we forgot to put on the shopping list yesterday, took a photo for today’s photo a day challenge entry…
355/365
…Came home and put away the groceries, went down cellar and put rhythm guitars onto two songs that I started fiddling out last night, put lead guitars onto one song from last month, took a couple of obligatory I-played-guitar-today photos, and punched into work with about 10 minutes to spare.
Here’s hoping the work day is that productive too. Let’s keep the motivation rolling! Happy Monday, gentle readers!
My plans for today included going out in the morning and taking some pictures, playing guitar and working on the 50/90 challenge, going grocery shopping, and finishing two seasons of Doctor Who.
How am I doing?
Welp, I didn’t take the camera out today. I could have. I was up early and the weather was great. I just couldn’t get myself moving to do it. I just stayed home. Sorry.
In my defense though, while staying home I played a TON of guitar. I worked on seven songs, as I posted earlier, and recorded a mountain of really shitty guitar tracks. I have been ignoring 50/90 over the last three weeks, and probably screwed myself out of completing the challenge again, but we’re still trucking along. I have also mixed two songs today. Maybe starting tomorrow I’ll get back to the daily update posts to try and guilt myself into making more progress. Who knows.
As for the TV stuff, I finished season five of the old Doctor Who this morning while faux jogging (pronounced yogging), and then after I came home from grocery shopping I finished season nine of the new Doctor Who series. Both TV goals for today, complete! Now I have one more season to go on the second doctor in the old show, and one more season to go on the twelfth doctor on the new show. I am ready for regenerations on both shows, even though I am enjoying both doctors. It’s weird. As soon as I get a new doctor, I want another new doctor. I guess I am just an asshole.
I’m writing this at around 3:30pm. What am I going to achieve with the rest of the day? Probably nothing. Harry is still here. He’s going to his father’s house tonight, for a while at least. Jen and I will have dinner together. Other than that, there’s a new That Pedal Show that I haven’t seen yet. Maybe I’ll watch that now.
I put rhythm guitar tracks onto SEVEN songs this morning. I have actually run out of songs again. There are 29 in the pipeline and they all have rhythm tracks!
Now I have to get dressed and go food shopping and then figure out what to play on next! It’s a music day, folks. Play it till your fingers bleed as if it were the summer of ’69!
Inside the Red Head's Head 