17 days in. It was a pretty good day. Let us recap.
I started the day by putting vocals onto five songs. That brings us to a total of 15 songs with complete vocal tracks. In just over two weeks? Epic.
Later in the day I also added lyrics and melodies to two songs. I was just about to start working on a third song when I ran out of time. That was it for the day. Any day that adds vocal tracks is a successful day in my book. I am pleased.
I woke up with a weird stomach today. I was able to eat breakfast, but drinking water has been… odd… which is… odd. Something I ate yesterday is unhappy today. I am willing to bet it was the gross/amazing Chili’s kids meal pizza. That’s a pretty safe bet, I think.
It didn’t stop me from doing a great big honkin’ car music today though. I took the five songs worth of lyrics and melodies I worked on yesterday and sang them all while sitting in the empty(ish) mall parking lot. Excellent. Now I have to figure out if there will be any time for any more music today. Not likely. I have to help my father with something and do the food shopping and possibly go on a home office shopping trip today. We’ll see what comes along.
First pointless photo is my car music view:
The second pointless photo is the clock downtown as I drove past it on the way home:
And now, completely unrelated to everything else… Cats!
I did so much yesterday that I might have lost track of everything. Let’s see if I can remember it all.
I started the day by putting rhythm guitars onto two songs. I also put lead guitar onto one song. I played poorly, as usual, but I felt pretty good about it and if that ended up being all there was I would have been happy.
At lunch I started two new bass/drum ideas on my iPhone. I felt pretty good about that too.
After work I had a little time to myself and I went a little nuts. I wrote lyrics and melodies for five, count ’em, five songs. Holy crap!
Later, just before I went to sleep for the night, I mixed one song. That’s two songs finished and a measly little 48 to go.
Now that is a productive day, friends.
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!
I had a better day on day 15 than day 14, but only a little bit. I started two new song ideas during my lunch break. Later, just before bed I turned out a song form for one of them and finished the MIDI bass and drums.
That’s all. Here’s hoping for a more productive day 16.
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.
Inside the Red Head's Head 