Tag: Rpm Challenge

RPM Day Six

Not much for new material yesterday.  I added a little bit to one of the two not quite done ideas.  I did manage to take four of the little song projects and try ordering the pieces into actual song structures.  Of course I don’t actually like any of them, as usual.  I think some of these takes that I thought were acceptable are no longer acceptable.  We’ll have to see.

RPM Day Five

Twice yesterday I found myself sitting alone waiting for something and made use of the time by working on new song ideas on my iPhone. One is probably as complete as can be for right now. The other is going to need some more work. On top of that, I snuck in another just-before-bed idea on my iPad, although its not terribly good.

I think that puts me at eight works in progress in only four days. The slow down is going to come, but for now I’m feeling pretty good.

Thinking positive.

RPM Day Four

Today is day four of the RPM Challenge (and FAWM too, but somehow that always takes a back seat) so let’s recap yesterday.

I added rhythm guitars to three of the five current projects. I can’t call them songs yet, because they are still just phrases without any arrangement. One of the projects is the one that lives on my iPhone. For some reason, using my telephone to record my guitar just tickles me. We have come a long, long way since my days of working the 24 track studio at Northeast Broadcasting School.

Last night before bed I also started on project number six, which is another bass/drums/electric piano noodle. I finally caved in and used the key of E minor, but I put this one in 6/8 time to avoid at least some of the rawk cliches.

I may not have a chance to get anything done tonight, so it’s a good thing that I am way far ahead of the usual RPM pace.

Keep thinking positive!

RPM Day Three

I’m actually losing track of how many things I have in the musical pot right now.  I think I have four on the iPad and one on the iPhone.  Yesterday I added some pieces to the piano melody I had on the phone.  I like it significantly less now than yesterday, but it’s still alive.  I added two new things on the iPad.  One is a quiet little electric piano thing that I’m not sure what to do for the guitar.  I can’t do anything without a guitar part, ever.  What would be the point, right?  But this one… kinda doesn’t need a rhythm guitar.  I’ll squeeze something in somewhere.  The other thing I played with will probably be dumped.  I was testing the lightning cable adapter by plugging in my guitar.  I recorded the first thing that popped into my head.  At the time I was pleased, but now I think it’s a riff that is awfully similar to one that became an RPM song a couple of years ago.  I’ll try to salvage the idea somehow.

Is it possible that I might have five songs in the works and it’s only February third?

Wicked!

RPM Day 2

The RPM Challenge officially began for me last night at a little before 7:00pm. My wife ordered take out from our favorite Indian restaurant. I was in the car coming home from work so I drove straight there to pick it up. I arrived about 10 minutes early so I started noodling on GarageBand on my iPhone. I got a couple of little melodies down on a piano. There’s not much there, but it will be developed into something useable. After dinner my wife was watching TV so I took out my iPad and pulled a second idea out of my ass. The second one is bass and drums. This morning I woke up and started on idea #3, using the iPad again. This one is bass, drums, and an organ.

I’m thinking of making one process change this year. Last year I would come up with a couple of riffs or progressions or whatever and arrange them into song structures on the iPad. GarageBand for iPad is really limited in that respect so this time I am going to work out a handful of related parts and transfer them to the Mac before arranging them together. I’ll do voices and leads on the Mac, but all of the individual sections will be done on the iPad. Assuming, of course, that all of it ports successfully. We shall see.

The project is underway!

Two Days, Nine Hours, and 54 Minutes

Two days, nine hours, and 54 minutes to go until the start of the 2013 RPM Challenge.  I have done nothing to prepare.  Here is an off the top of my head to-do list to prepare for my sixth attempt at completing the challenge:

Practice my guitar.  I have no calluses on my finger tips.  Pain is inevitable.

Decide on the platform I want to focus on.  Last year I ended up doing the whole thing on my iPad.  I think I want to go back and forth between the iPad and the Mac this time.  I expect the bulk of the writing and rhythm section tracking to be done on the iPad, but I also think I want to expand a little in an attempt to make the drum tracks sound a little more adventurous.  On the Mac I can move stray notes around so that they sound in time without messing with the quantize settings.  I want drum fills that are faster than just 16th notes.

Put the MacMini in the cellar back together.  I had moved a lot of computer equipment around a few months ago and the MacMini was taken apart.  I plan on using that to record vocals at least.  I still want to run my mic through my Mackie board so that I can EQ my crappy voice.  I’m not able to do that if I plug directly into the iPad.  I went through the board into the iPad last time and it worked, but I would like the added flexibility of working on a full GarageBand for vocals.  In Theory at least.

Clean the workspace in the cellar.  It’s a mess down there.  Really.

Test the lightning cable adapter on my New iPad.  Wouldn’t it suck if the adapter didn’t work and I couldn’t plug external sources into the New iPad?  Yes, it would suck.

If I plug into the JamUp app, can I record into GarageBand?  I’m 99.999% sure I cannot, but it is still worth looking into.

Sign up for FAWM.  Really.  I signed up for RPM last week, but the FAWM website is not going to open until tomorrow.  It’s going through a complete redesign.  While I’m on the topic, the website is fawm.org.  NOT fawm.com.  You don’t want to go to fawm.com.  Trust me.

Find some inspiration.  I was thinking about using the founders of the towns of Methuen, MA and Salem, NH as characters somehow.  I doubt I will though.  I’ll probably just write another 10 songs about my cat.

I’m sure I’ll think of 100 things to add to this list between now and the start of February, but for now this is enough.  And by enough I mean enough to make me start musically panicking.

February Music

January 23, 2013. We are eight days and a wake up away from the start of album in a month month. Otherwise known as FAWM and the RPM Challenge. I don’t feel mentally prepared. I felt the same last year when February arrived and yet managed to finish both projects on time for the first time ever. Maybe not being ready is a good thing.

If that’s the case, then maybe it’s a good thing that the 2013 version of both websites still hasn’t launched. Looks like I’m not the only one who is unprepared.

I plan on giving both challenges a shot, as always, but after finishing both on time last year the drive is lessened by quite a large amount.

We shall see.