I played guitar again this morning! Two days in a row!
I put rhythm guitars on a Quarantine tune, and lead guitar on another song. It was my first recorded lead on the new frets and the first recorded lead in months, meaning I have no calluses, meaning ouch town, population: me.
In other guitar playing news, the new pick journey officially began today as well.
I started with a Dunlop grippy model and amazingly dropped it within seconds of starting to play. WhatWhatWhat??
I recorded some guitar tracks today! WOOHOO!
I put rhythm guitars on one Quarantine Tunes vol. Seven song. Lots of chunky wah-wah groove. Awesome. Here’s hoping I get to make some time to play a lot this weekend. I have a lot of stuff ready for car vocals too.
Get to work, Robert!
I have barely done anything musical in the past week. I told myself I was going to work on Quarantine Tunes Volume 7 this month, and I have done some work. I just haven’t done enough.
I have one song ready to mix, but it’s been ready to mix for about a year. I have one song ready for lead guitars but, again, it’s been ready for about a year. I have three songs ready for vocals and I have been trying to get myself into a place where I can record them (meaning in the car in an empty parking lot at the crack of dawn) but I’ve failed to get it done all week. Tomorrow, maybe? I also have two songs ready for rhythm guitars but I just haven’t been able to make the time to record the tracks. I will, I just need to get myself motivated.
Motivation! Why do you vex me so? Get your ass in gear, Robert! Do something! Play the effin’ guitar, you bozo! Make some music!
I played guitar today. I worked on two songs. I used the direct out and cabinet sims off of two amps, which broke my amps and speakers rule for the re-recording project, but I didn’t wake Harry so that was worth it.
I played like dog shit, but I played and that’s what matters. I needed it. I have more to do so I might sneak some more playing in later today.
Sigh of relief.
Right then. It’s 2024. Enough of that crap that was 2023. Let’s get our shit together and make some music. In February I will dive head first back into the RPM Challenge, but until then what am I going to force upon myself to jump start creativity and make me feel like I can be a musician for a few weeks.
In other words, what are my musical goals for January 2024? There are three.
First and foremost, we are hoping to start auditioning singers for the cover band. My playing is utter shite right now so I need to get into shape. I need to find out what songs we are going to use for the audition and practice the holy hell out of them. They all used to be second nature but that was almost four years ago. I have to make them second nature again.
Second and second most, my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro needs to go into the shop. The same shop my Les Paul Custom spent time in a few months ago. I think it needs new frets, and I think it might need a new wiring harness as well. I need to get things going this month so that the guitar will be available for me to use on February’s RPM Challenge album.
Third and third most, it is time to get back to The Great 2015 Re-Recording Project, where I take old songs from old writing projects and clean them up, edit them, rewrite where necessary, and then record a slightly higher quality version. This project is also known as Quarantine Tunes. There are six Quarantine Tunes albums on my alonetone page. I told myself that I was stopping at six but then about a year and a half ago I started work on volume seven and also sort of started thinking about volume eight. What can I say, I am a nerd about this stuff. Last night I added two more songs to the volume seven to-do list. I plan to spend January working on volume seven and hopefully finishing it. That should put my brain into a good recording and playing space in time for February.
I am also slightly overwhelmed by a scary compulsion to go out and buy a new guitar. I need to fight that urge. I want a Les Paul Junior or a Firebird, but I don’t need them. Hopefully playing the shit out of the guitars I already own will calm me down on the online shopping front… hopefully… I think.
So there you go. Practice, get the 335 fixed up, and record. My three musical goals for January.
Bring ’em on.
A super rough mix of a terrible performance of a really bad song. My first Record Every Month Challenge song since September. I’m back, babie! My finger tips are killing me after recording the lead guitar parts today. Yikes!
I played some guitar today. I finished tracking two songs that could be December’s submission for the Record Every Month Challenge. Both songs really suck though… so… yeah.
It’s New Years Eve again. Wasn’t it just New Years Eve a few weeks ago? 2023 is ending? How the hell did that happen?
We don’t have any solid plans for today apart from picking up some take-out Chinese food. Maybe some board games? Maybe another round of Yahtzee?
I watched Rebel Moon on Netflix. I was conflicted. I wanted to watch it but I also did not want to watch it. See the conflict? My spoiler free review is to recommend that you wait until part two comes out in April. This movie feels like two hours worth of a four hour heist movie, where generally the first half of a heist movie is assembling the team. That means the movie that is out now is really just the assembling of the team. That’s why it doesn’t have a coherent story. It’s more like a bunch of mini-movies introducing all of the characters. Hopefully part two will make sense on it’s own. So if you wait for part two to come out and then watch them both together, maybe it will be a decent movie as a whole. For now though… eh.
I have to play guitar today. I have two songs in progress for this month’s Record Every Month challenge. They both need lead guitar parts. I need to record them today and then mix the two songs and then I will have my first R.E.M. win since September. It’s a must.
Speaking of guitar, I went down a rabbit hole last week that I find myself visiting once every couple of years. If you read this page you might have noticed that I have been obsessed with the band Rush since 1981. Back then there were two bands that I was obsessed with. The other was Led Zeppelin. As I got older though, the whole unending adolescence vibe that Zeppelin had sort of got tiring for me and I moved away from them. Also, Jimmy Page is one of my guitar heroes, and he is definitely one of the reasons I NEEDED to learn to play guitar when I was a kid. When I look at my own playing objectively though (if that’s even possible) I don’t hear a lot of his style in my playing. I think as I moved away from the debauchery that Zeppelin represented, I sort of moved away from Page too.
Every once in a while though, I feel the need to really dig into the catalog and try to remind myself that there is a lot of value there. That comes up once every couple of years, and it came up for me on Thursday. I put together a playlist with all of their studio records and over the course of the work day I plowed through all of it. Did the old musical feelings I used to get when I listened to Led Zeppelin as a teenager come back? Yes. Not exactly the same, as I am no longer that kid that I used to be, but it was close enough that I felt good about the whole experience. Now I can move on to other things again until the next time I feel cosmically compelled to examine the Zeppelin again. Probably some time in 2025, I think.
Okay then, it’s almost 11:00am. I have not had anything to eat for about three hours. It’s time to have a snack to keep my stomach happy. Gastric Bypass for the win!
Happy New Years Eve, everyone. HoHoHo.
Here’s what I did this morning… in Hipstamatic pictures… Because… I don’t know why…
And there you have it. My morning excursion in pointless photographs.
Oh thank heavens, I played some guitar today. I worked on two songs for Record Every Month. My finger tips are sore as hell, but I played my Les Paul Custom with the new frets and it felt really good. Really good.
I seriously over did the obligatory pics.
Inside the Red Head's Head 