Over the last 3-4 years I have become a weird sort of creature of routine. I have an agenda set for early each morning and any time I stray from or vary that agenda it makes my teeth ache and it sets me on edge for the whole day.

Yesterday (day 18) I nuked the whole damn thing in the name of the RPM Challenge (and I did the same thing today, day 19). Instead of drinking a water bottle->taking my morning vitamins->doing my daily exercise->eating breakfast I drank a water bottle->took my morning vitamins->recorded rhythm guitars until my fingers hurt too much to play anymore.

I had five songs ready for rhythm guitars… the last five songs for the month… unless I do something stupid like add more, which if I do I will punch myself square in the nose for being such an idiot… and I tracked ’em. As of about 8:00am yesterday, all of the rhythm guitar parts for this year’s album were complete. The ready-for-rhythm-guitars bucket on my trello board is empty.

Of course that doesn’t help me at all if I can’t get lyrics and melodies written and vocals recorded and lead guitars recorded before we leave for our epic road trip on Sunday. There were eight songs in the ready-for-lyrics bucket on said trello board at that time. After work I managed to get through two of those eight songs. They are now in the ready-for-vocals bucket. Hopefully they will be joined by a few more songs tonight and then I will do a car music tomorrow to track some vocals. Then, hopefully, I will write lyrics for the remaining songs after that and then do another, final, car music vocal tracking session on Saturday morning. Then I will hopefully crank out lead guitars for all of them before going to bed on Saturday and oh my shit have I dug a deep hole for myself this year.

After 15 days I was starting to feel optimistic again. Then yesterday, day 17, happened and now I am in full blown panic mode again.

I did exactly one thing on day 17 and all it did was make things more difficult. Instead of writing lyrics or recording guitars I just added a new song idea. Song number 16, to be exact. A completely unnecessary move that just gave me more work to do and one less day to get it all done.

Crud.

As a preview for tomorrow’s summary post, I destroyed my morning routine today in order to have more time to record and I have had some success. I still have a mountain of work to do today and tomorrow is another day in the office that won’t have any time to record before work. Friday and Saturday are going to be the last chance to get any recording done before we start traveling on Sunday.

Again I say, crud. What a dumb ass.

Day 16 started out with a bang but then fizzled toward the end. I got a lot done, just not what I was hoping for.

I started the day with some car music. I drove to an empty parking lot and recorded some terrible singing. Four songs worth. That brings me to eight songs with finished vocal tracks. I made a rough estimate of the running time for those eight songs and it comes up a few minutes short of the 35 minute goal for the month. I’ll have to knock out at least one more song to achieve the bare minimum of success. That’s okay.

After work I wanted to write some more melodies and lyrics. I had three songs that were ready for it. I didn’t get to any of them though. Instead I came up with song forms for the last three songs. They are all ready for rhythm guitars now. I am not sure when I will be able to record them though. I was hoping for more car music tomorrow but maybe I should focus on guitars instead and then do a big push on Friday and Saturday. Maybe that’s the way to go. It will give me more time to write terrible lyrics.

In the spirit of stupidity I was having trouble falling asleep last night so I took out my iPad and added another song. 15 just sounds better than 14, doesn’t it? Spoiler alert, this morning before work (today is day 17) I added a 16th song because I’m dumb.

I’m traveling next week so I have to have all of the tracking done before we leave. There isn’t much time left for this stuff. We’ll see what I can piece together.

Now that’s more like it.

Day 15 was productive. Very productive.

I have 14 songs in the pipeline right now. Funny as 14 songs is the goal for the other February songwriting challenge, FAWM. Weird how that worked out, eh? Anyway, I have 14 songs in the running and yesterday, day 15, saw me work on 10 of them. Breath a little sigh of relief, RPM Challenge fans. I did so much work that I am having trouble retracing my steps so that I can write it out today. I’ll take a look at my trello board and see if I can piece it together.

When Sunday the 15th started I had four songs with vocals done that were ready for lead guitars, zero songs with lyrics written (though one song already had a melody worked out), six songs with the song form set that were ready for rhythm guitars, and three songs that still don’t have a song form. Does that add up to 14? Yeah, it does.

I recorded all of the outstanding guitar parts. Every song that was ready for rhythm guitars got rhythm guitars. Six songs in total. Every song that was ready for lead guitars got lead guitars. Four songs in total. For one of those four songs I also redid one of the rhythm guitar parts. I think I played it better the second time but maybe it sounded better the first? I might have to redo it again even though my one outstanding rule for all RPM Challenges is to not waste time re-recording things that are already done. Oh well, right? So as of the close of day 15 I had no songs that were ready for any guitar tracking. I was all caught up.

After I finished the last guitar part I started work on melodies and lyrics. I took four of the now seven songs that were ready for lyrics and I cranked them out. Melodies and lyrics for enough songs to justify doing another morning car music on day 16 (spoiler alert).

Where do things stand now? As of this morning (before the spoiler alert) I had four songs ready to mix, four songs ready for vocals, two songs needing melodies and lyrics, one song just needing lyrics, and those three little bastards that don’t have a song form yet are still sitting there waiting.

I have to have everything written and tracked before Sunday. Sunday morning at the ass-crack of dawn will see me and my wife head out on an epic road trip that will last pretty much the rest of the month. I am going to have one day free to sit in a hotel room and work on the project during the road trip as well as pre-bed-time nights in various hotels. I feel much better about my chances for the RPM Challenge than I did 48 hours ago, though FAWM is still kind of up in the air. There is plenty of time for things to go wrong though.

Plenty of time………

Did you have a happy Valentine’s Day? Yesterday was day 14 of the RPM Challenge which means it was February 14th which means it was Valentine’s Day.

Good progress was made on my project. I put vocals on four songs. I wanted to do a lot more work than that, but I’ll take it. I am the worlds worst singer and I think I might have hurt myself while singing in the car early yesterday morning. I had a sore throat afterwards. Figures. Maybe I broke something and won’t be able to sing again. You, the listeners, would probably like that.

Day 15 is under way and I have already made some good progress, but I am again hoping for a lot more. Stay tuned.

Friday the 13th. What did I do? Not a lot. Not enough. I had to work in the office so I had a couple of commutes eating up a big chunk of time.

Before work, while sitting in the car, I added song number 14. MIDI bass and MIDI drums and a full song form. After work I wrote a melody and lyrics for one song and the melody for another. I tried writing lyrics but my brain didn’t work and I couldn’t put anything together.

That’s all. I was afraid that I was going to get shut out so at least I got something done. Progress, bro.

Day 12 was a working in the office day for me so there wasn’t any time to record guitars before work. I did get to the office early enough to sneak in a new song idea (number 13) while sitting in the car before going inside and starting my work day. That was a nice bonus. I was afraid I was going to get shut out entirely so I was happy to have even a small amount of progress.

When I got home though I had a little more success. I wrote the melody and the lyrics to two songs. I now have three ready for vocal tracking. That is going to have to wait until Saturday (day 14, which is tomorrow because even though I am writing about day 12, today is day 13… Friday the 13th, in fact. Confused?) or Sunday, but at least I have something ready to go.

I am still in a deep hole, way behind schedule. I still expect to have a complete project before the end of the month, but my optimism decreases exponentially with each passing minute.

What fun!

Once again I got some work done but it wasn’t enough to make me feel more optimistic. Quite the opposite.

I put rhythm guitars onto two songs. No equipment issues popped up, so that was good. I was hoping for enough time to get a little more work done but it snowed the night before and I had to shovel the driveway and clear off the cars. Stupid winter. Whose idea was it to put this thing in February anyway?

After work I managed to write a cheesy melody and some really shitty lyrics for one song. That’s all. Saturday is the halfway point and I am traveling for the entire last week of the month. I am screwed. Epically screwed.

Also, days 12 and 13 (today and tomorrow) are in the office days so I don’t have time to record anything before work. I’m hoping to have some more songs ready for vocals before Saturday, but who knows?

It is only February 12th and I am already in full on panic mode. Crap!