Tag: nasoalmo

2024 NaSoAlMo Day 2/30

I did not play any guitar yesterday. I did try to fix a problem with some buzzing on my ES-335 and I think it worked. Once I actually plug in we’ll see if my optimism is warranted. In 38 years of guitar playing I had never adjusted a truss rod myself. Now I have, and I don’t think I broke anything.

Back on the main topic though, I did not record any real human being instruments, but I did add two more songs to the queue. Both have (midi) bass and drums and one has a (midi) guitar guide track. That brings me to three songs and strangely, they are all about four minutes long. Is that a trend this year?

We will see.

2024 NaSoAlMo Day 1/30

National Solo Album Month is underway. Write and record an album and do it all without any help. Fly solo on the whole thing.

I’ve had some vague ideas of a prog-like super long song or two but I think I am just going to write the usual batch of the usual length rock songs in 7/8 time (mostly) strung together in a big medley. I’ve done that before on one of these projects. Who knows.

I started one song. Bass and drums (midi) are done and there is a (midi) guide track for the guitar.

We are underway.

New Music Project Coming Soon

Today is Tuesday October 29th. This coming Friday is November 1st.

A new annual, internet based music project begins on Friday. National Solo Album Month, NaSoAlMo. Write and record an album’s worth of music all within the month of November, and do it all yourself. No collaborations. Just you.

I had a thought about trying to write two songs of approximately 20 minutes in length, like a good Prog Rock nerd. I said two 20 minute songs, not four. What do you think I am, Yes? Sheesh.

Something tells me that once I start rolling on this (assuming I actually start rolling on this) I will just do my usual 10, 2-3 minute rockers and call it a day. We will see how (if) it goes. I’m sure I’ll post about it 20-30 times a day, or some crap like that.

November Music

After cleaning the kitchen, dining room, living room, and the hallway that links them all together today I did what anyone would do. I finally started putting some thought into this month’s music project.

It’s going to be two suites of about 15 minutes. Each suite will be a handful of songs. Each song will end on some sort of coda that is unrelated to the rest of the song. The next song in the suite will start with a variation of the previous song’s coda.

Dig it?

I have the bass and drums down for the first suite. It’s looking like it’s going to be about 16-17 minutes long. National Solo Album Month’s rules require a grand total of 29 minutes and change (the length of The Ramones first record). I’ve got a long way to go, but at least I made some progress. I want to use the guitar that is currently in the shop for most if not all of the guitar tracks, so hopefully I get it back soon. Otherwise I’ll just use a different guitar.

I’m probably going to fail this month’s challenge miserably, but at least I am putting in a little effort to make me feel good about myself, or some shit. Whatever, right?

Music!

November Music

If I am going to have my number one guitar back soon then I should probably get going on a November music project, right?

November is National Solo Album Month. NaSoAlMo. The goal is to write and record 29:09 of original music and play all the parts yourself. I do that for every monthly music project so that’s not a big deal. I started one song idea last week. This morning before work I started another and came up with the gimmick for the month.

The first time I finished a NaSoAlMo project I came up with a way to link a bunch of songs together into one giant song. I think I am going to do something along those lines again. The idea I had for the first song had a phrase that was meant to be a coda section that was not used anywhere else in the song. The gimmick is that I will take that coda section and create a variation of it and make that the opening section of the song that comes after it on the playlist. Song number one ends with something, then song number two starts with a variation on that something. Song number two then ends with a coda that isn’t used anywhere else in the song. Song number three opens with a variation on it. Ect Ect. Get it? Then all the songs get smushed together into one giant song file.

Writing it out like this makes me think it’s a dumb idea…. I’m still going to try to do it though. Let’s see how long I stick with this plan.

November Music

It’s November 1st. Welcome to National Solo Album Month. Am I going to take part this year? Probably. I started a Trello board and today’s photo-a-day picture is a guitar. The signs are pointing to yes, but I am not feeling terribly motivated yet. We’ll see how it goes.

62/365 - November 1st
62/365

Ah, the Weekend

Saturday… at last. Actually, I was convinced that Thursday was Saturday, and then further convinced that Friday was Monday. Man, Thanksgiving is the best but it messes up my internal calendar like crazy.

We need to buy a christmas tree today. The kids will be here tomorrow to do some decorating before they go back to school. I want to have a tree up in the living room before they get here, and I want to give it a little time to shake itself out too. Ideally I would have put it up a few days ago but say no to pre-Thanksgiving christmas stuff.

I also need to go out and buy myself a warm jacket that actually fits me, unlike the warm jacket I own now. Our Saturday in New York plan is still on for now. We haven’t chickened out yet. Jen actually booked a hotel room yesterday. It’s outside of the city but near a commuter train station. It’s going to be cold out there in the big city and I need to stay warm. You see, one unexpected side effect of losing a shit load of weight is that I am cold all the time. All of that built in insulation I used to have is gone and now I find that the world is a very cold place. Jen was teasing me about it yesterday. I was teasing myself too. Brrr, babie.

I’m down to five days left in November, including today. How’s the album in a month project going? Well, it’s going to fail, but other than that it’s going well. Eight songs, about 33 minutes. The goal for this project is 29:09. None of the songs have vocals yet and only two have melody and lyrics. See? I’m going to fail. I want to do car music tomorrow morning and get some singin’ in. I’m not sure what the forecast looks like so I don’t know if I’ll be singin’ in the rain or not (hardy har har). That means I have to crank out melodies and lyrics today. Once the lyrics are done (which will likely take two or three car music attempts) I will have to do leads. That should be terrible. First, I am grossly out of of practice and brutally drowning in rusty. Also, I have no calluses on my finger tips so the playing will also be painful. It’s sort of a lose lose, right? I might not get it done by December 1st, but I’ll finish these eight songs (and maybe add a couple of minutes of instrumental noodling to get myself over 35 minutes).

Okay, folks. It’s 7:08am. My exercise is done for the day. I’ve watched an episode of Pennyworth and a couple of youtube videos on photography. Now it’s time to get my shite together and start my day. Happy Saturday, everyone.

Direct Input

I said in a post from earlier today that I was thinking about just saying screw it and recording some guitar tracks via direct input into Garageband so that I could play while people were sleeping… and then I did it. I added guitars to two NaSoAlMo songs. They sound okay. I am so rusty that the playing was just bad. Who knows, if I get a burst of energy at a time when I can make noise I might redo the tracks from today through the glory that is my Deluxe Reverb. Until then, this will do.

DSC_0003

NaSoAlMo

Tomorrow is November 1st and November is National Solo Album Month.

Should I do it? I should, but will I? I’m undecided. I haven’t had the energy for music lately. I want to get myself back on the ball but I’m having a tough time with motivation.

I’m going to tell myself I’m going to do it this November, but I’m not sure if I will stick to my guns.

Stay tuned.

Gimmick Free

My 2021 National Solo Album Month submission is complete. It comes in at about 33 minutes. I sorted the songs into three piles. Good. Less than good. Awful. The good list didn’t quite run long enough to submit so I had to pull one song from the less than good pile. Oh well.

Here’s the last song I finished. I saved it for last because I kinda like it, even if the recording isn’t quite up to snuff.

Here’s a playlist of the whole shebang, which I post knowing that it won’t work. If you are just itching to torture yourself you can also go here.