New Song for June

The Record Every Month Challenge: June Edition is a success! May was an epic fail, but June is a win.

Here’s the first of what will hopefully be a whole big bunch of new songs this month. Just in case you were wondering what my Les Paul Standard into an Analog Man King of Tone pedal into a Vox MV50 Nutube amp’s direct output with cabinet simulation sounds like. It sounds half decent to me, I guess. Not as good as it would sound through an actual speaker, or through my Fender Deluxe Reverb at about 100 decibels. This works though.

Sleepy

Despite the possible influence of a mild migraine headache overnight last night, I thought I got a decent night’s sleep. Apparently I was wrong. I have felt seriously exhausted all day today, and it’s especially bad (as it often is) after I finished lunch. I just feel really tired and I wish I didn’t.

I didn’t use my CPAP machine last night. For some reason I thought it would be a mistake to wire myself up while dealing with a migraine. I didn’t want any extra noise or distractions. I just wanted to pass out and stay that way until the alarm went off. I think it worked, but now I expect if I had put the machine on I would feel better tonight. Hindsight, and all that crap.

Change of subject, all of the guitar playing I’ve done over the last few days is really making me want to get the work I need done to my two 1970’s Gibsons. I have two shops I want to bring them to and get an estimate from. One is in Rockport, MA, which is an hour away from here. The upside of that shop is that it’s open on Saturdays. The other shop is in Malden… or Medford… same difference. They are not open on weekends though, but they are open until 7:00pm on weekdays. I should be able to get there before they close. I am thinking of making an appointment for 6:30 or so next Monday. I have no clue how much they will charge for frets and wiring. I just hope it’s low enough that I can pay for work on both guitars without needing to sell anything else. If I do need to raise a little more money I will probably sell my Fender Bassbreaker 18/30 amp, but I don’t think I will be able to get very much for it.

I might sell the 18/30 anyway, even if the money I raised is enough to pay for the three things I need. Maybe I could raise a little more fundage and pay for new pickups for the Les Paul Custom. I don’t know. That’s a pie in the sky kinda thing.

I am really tired and I still have 2.5 hours to go in my work day. Blah. I hope to get some better sleep tomorrow. I might mix a song before bed though. I have three songs ready to go. Huzzah, right? Rock and Roll.

The Streak is Alive

I should go back through the blog and figure out how many days in a row I have played guitar now. I think it’s five. Maybe four. Probably five. I don’t know.

I put lead guitar parts onto two songs this morning. Both are pretty bad, but not too bad… if you know what I mean.

The Musical Weekend Continues

I stuck to my guns and played some guitar today. Again. That is like four days in a row or something like that. My playing isn’t improving, but that’s okay, right? I put lead guitars onto one song and rhythm guitars onto another. That means I have one song completely tracked. There will be a song submitted for Record Every Month this month. Pat yourself on the back, Robert.

More Music

I only had a little bit of time to play guitar today, and my hands felt pretty dead. Not sure what’s up with that, but it’s probably just down to me playing more than I’ve been accustomed to and I am WAY out of playing shape. Just a couple of tired hands is all. I put rhythm guitars on one song. Now I just need to write some more lyrics and do another car vocals tomorrow morning. Sounds like a plan-ish.

I didn’t go direct today. I played through my Deluxe Reverb and it was happiness.

Car Music

Car music was sort of successful. I put vocals on three songs. All of them are June songs. I’m prioritizing June songs over May songs because reasons, or something. I probably could have done a forth song but my voice got tired quickly, my water bottle was almost empty, and my bladder was beginning to ask for attention.

My goal today is to clean the kitchen, catch that friggin’ mouse, record some more guitars, write some more lyrics, and get myself ready for more car music tomorrow.

Here’s my studio view:

That laptop on the lap thing there? I couldn’t do that before the gastric bypass surgery. Crazy new world, eh?

Still On Plan

Last night I said I wanted to put guitars on a couple of songs today. I did it. Last night I also added a new song idea. That’s one of the songs I played guitar on this morning and boy was it sloppy and bad. Today is going to go down in history as one of the sloppiest playing days I’ve ever suffered through. I don’t care. I also added a new riff idea this morning. We’ll see if it becomes a song. I hope so.

Next on the agenda is writing lyrics and melodies. I have five songs that are ready for them. Let’s see how many I can get to today.

I played my SG yesterday and I didn’t put it away. As I was working out the new song structure last night I did it with the Les Paul in mind. Today, with the SG sitting on the stand I decided to start with a different song and use the SG as a warm up. When that song was done I swapped them. You’d think that playing something else first would have warmed me up for the new song. Nope. I sucked equally on both of them.

Two Songs

I managed to get some playing in today. I put rhythm guitars on two songs. One from June and one from May.

Progress, babie!

Not Today

I was hoping to sneak some playing in before work today but it’s a commute day and I didn’t get out of bed early enough. Better luck tomorrow, I guess.

May/June Music

Music was made this morning. I started a song idea (#2 for June) on my iPad late last night and put guitars on it this morning. That’s probably going to be the plan going forward. I did not use my Deluxe Reverb as my amplifier, even though it’s in the pictures, I used my Vox MV50’s direct output and speaker simulation into my USB interface. No speakers involved at all. That makes me sad, but it also let Jen sleep so that’s a huge win in my book. I suspect the only chances I am going to have to put a dent in music projects this month, or even this summer, will be to do it before work and that means we’re going direct.

Now I just need to write 10 songs within the month of June, and finish all 10 that I started in May. Yeah. Right.