Musically speaking, I had a good day yesterday. The first three April songs have vocals. When I got up yesterday morning I still hadn’t worked out the form of any of the April songs. They were just 4 or 8 or 12 bar phrases that happened to kinda fit together. Before work I brought up song #1 and stitched everything together into a form. It actually ended up almost like a suite. I had two 8 bar phrases with clean guitar, and two with overdriven guitar. So the clean pair became verse/chorus of one song and the heavier pair became verse/chorus of a second song. Then I reprised the first song at the end. Next thing I knew I was close to 7.5 minutes worth of rawk. How prog of me!

I had most of the lyrics and melody written and the vocals recorded by the time I had to punch into work. As it turned out, yesterday was a parent/teacher conference for one of the kids. I thought it was going to start at 6:00, which would have let me get there on time (just barely) but it actually started at 5:30. I work until 5:30. So how did I deal? I took some vacation time in the afternoon so I could leave with plenty o’ time to get to the school.

That meant that instead of having a lunch hour, I had a lunch three hours. I finished the vocal on song #1, then blew through the form, lyrics, melody, and vocal for song #2. That’s when I realized I should probably shower and stuff before I go meet with a teacher. Blah, blah, do the right thing. After the shower I had 40 minutes before I had to go. I somehow managed to blow through the form, lyrics, melody, and vocal for song #3! Now three songs in 4-5 hours is not nearly as impressive as my usual RPM Vocal Days, but it’s not bad for an old fart like me.

I still have two songs that aren’t ready to be song-formified. One (the left over from RPM) is still just one 16 bar phrase. The other (the left over from RPMarch) is now up to two phrases, one of which has drums and bass. Then there is the old post-Tempest Fero/pre-Prime Meridian song I want to add. I haven’t started recording any of that yet, although I do have a really bad tape recording of it available for when I do start recording.

The goal is to finish April before I go back and finish March. I might bend that rule from time to time, but that’s the plan for now at least.

So that’s the musical update for today. Maybe I’ll be able to sneak in some more this weekend. There probably won’t be time on Saturday. Maybe a little on Sunday. We’ll see. I’m also still itching for more ocean sun rise pics. Again, we’ll see.

Last night I started recording ideas for the first April song. I’m up to song idea number four. That’s right, I’ve stitched together three more since I woke up today. All of the ideas originated on the guitar. I feel happy about that, even if my playing is getting worse and worse by the minute.

It’s all been on the iPad. I noodle together a phrase, record it, then add drums and bass via Garageband, then I rerecord the guitar so that it’s almost actually in time. I guess just having a click track isn’t enough for me anymore. Was it ever? Who knows.

Last night I recorded two rhythm guitar parts. There are only two left to do. Today I wrote and recorded a vocal. There are only six left to do. Urgh.

I wanted to do more but I’m too tired to think. Maybe before bed I’ll do more guitar, but this six vocals are making me feel pretty sad.