Tag: Rpm Challenge

My Finger Tips Hurt Again

Two days in a row. I’ve played guitar two days in a row. It feels good, except for my very sore, callus-free fingers. Ouch, babie.

I worked on four songs. I put rhythm tracks onto two songs and leads onto two others. All of that plus the four vocals this morning makes it a pretty good day, RPM Challenge wise. I have a lot more that I need to get to today though. With tomorrow being a vacation day for me, I want to do more vocals in the car in the morning. I don’t have any songs that are ready for that yet, so I want to try and write lyrics for 3-4 songs before bed.

In closing, the obligatory pics. This time with Hipstamatic and shake-to-shuffle.

Like Some Kind of Lame Canary

I did some RPM Challenge work this morning after finishing my exercise and my breakfast and my daily writing prompt. What did I do? Vocals. I drove off to an empty parking lot in town and recorded the vocal tracks for four songs while sitting out in the cold. I really wish I wasn’t so shy about recording myself singing. It would be so much easier to just do this at home. The negative then would be all the noise I make and how annoying it would be to my wife, rather than me just being a wimp who is too shy to sing when other people can hear me. I’m fine singing with the band, but in those cases there is enough noise that I can trick myself into thinking I am hiding behind it. Also, I am playing guitar at the same time and for some illogical reason that makes a difference. Why? Who knows.

The only interesting thing about today’s car music is that I only had three songs prepared with a melody and lyrics. After I cranked out the vocal tracks for those three songs I wrote the lyrics and melody to the fourth song while I was recording. I wouldn’t say I improvised the vocal parts, but they are lame enough that you might think they were improvised. Who cares. I sure don’t. This means I have 11 songs with vocals, and the RPM Challenge definition of an album is 10 songs or 35 minutes… which means that even if I don’t record another vocal track for the rest of the month, I can still finish a full album. Nice.

Here are some pics from my “studio” for today.

Can you guess where the snowplows dump the snow when they clear the mall parking lot? I can.

Also, here’s the obligatory down town clock, because reasons…

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Also, because I can’t resist, I happened to catch the cats sitting together on the old cat tree just before I left the house, so you get that picture too.

My Fingers are Killing Me

I haven’t played enough guitar lately to rebuild my lost calluses on the tips of the fingers on my left hand. That didn’t stop me from playing today for almost two hours. My finger tips are killing me!

I put rhythm guitars onto three songs for the RPM Challenge, and then I put lead guitars onto three more. Do you know what that means? It means I have three songs that are finished recording and are ready to mix. Finally!

You can see GarageBand reflected in the pick up.

Friday Morning Guitars

I promised myself I was going to do it on Thursday and then failed to do it. I did not fail on Friday though. I played guitar this morning. I put rhythm guitars onto three songs. Breath that sigh of relief!

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Musical Broken Promise

Yesterday I promised that I would play some guitar today. It’s only 10:00am so there is still time, but I have not played at all today. I was shooting for some before work playing, but I did not. I did something else instead.

Jen is in the office today and I am not. I took advantage of some time at home alone and put vocals on three songs. Think of it like car music without the car.

I now have vocals on eight songs, and another 10 songs that are still lyrics/melody/vocals free. 18 songs in the pipeline. I want at least two more. 

Also, I literally recorded vocals by candle light because I am a total nerd. Yes, there were two candles lit, but there were also like eight other lights on in the room so it wasn’t only by candle light… but you get the idea.

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168/365

2024 RPM Challenge Day 8/29

Here’s a quick RPM Challenge update.

From my tumblr post for day eight:

Decent progress, but not as much as I had hoped for. That feels like a theme this year.

I put rhythm guitars on three songs. I now have a fully recorded rhythm section on all nine songs that I have right now. I also added melody and lyrics to one more song.

Current status is nine songs, two are ready for vocals and the other seven are ready for lyrics and melodies.

https://www.tumblr.com/musical-blathering-idiot

That’s it. I really need to get cracking on the lyrical front. I also need to start adding more songs. The minimum is 10 but I am hoping for 20. Looong way to go still.

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2024 RPM Challenge Day 6 & 7/29

Two days without an RPM Challenge update. Let’s get caught up. It’s getting to the point where keeping track of everything is difficult.

From the lame tumblr page for day six:

Day six was a little better than days four and five. I added song forms to song numbers seven and eight, started a new song (number nine) that now has a full song form and the bass and drums (both MIDI) complete. I also (finally) wrote some lyrics to one song. Song number one is now officially ready for vocals. I wanted to write lyrics for a second song too but I was toast by the time I finished one song, never mind two.

Here’s hoping I get a ton of rhythm guitars down tomorrow. Also maybe some more lyrics so that I can sing in the car before work on Thursday.

https://www.tumblr.com/musical-blathering-idiot

Hooray for lyrics, I guess. I am terrible at that sort of thing, but I still do it. One down.

Now for my tumblr update for day seven, yesterday, which I posted there about 10 minutes ago:

Day seven was productive, even if it wasn’t as productive as I would have liked.

I put rhythm guitars onto three songs. That’s it, I think. It’s getting hard to keep it all straight.

I have nine songs in the pipeline. At the close of day yesterday three of them needed rhythm guitars, and all but one are in need of a main melody and some lyrics.

One week down.

https://www.tumblr.com/musical-blathering-idiot

Yesterday was a busy day outside of pointless music projects so I was happy to get that much work in, even if I didn’t get nearly as much as I was hoping for. It’s something. All progress is good progress.

The additional good news, which will be included in the next tumblr update, is that I was able to put rhythm guitars onto three songs this morning. That means all nine songs in the pipeline have a full rhythm section in place now. Nice. I am still one song shy of the RPM Challenge goal, but it’s only day eight. Plenty of time for more songs. I just need to get my act together as far as melodies and lyrics go.

2024 RPM Challenge Day 5/29

Here is what I wrote on my lame ass tumblr page:

My update for day five is identical for my update to day four. Just as I was drifting off to sleep I forced myself to wake up and noodle out a couple of bass guitar lines. Together they make up song number eight.

That’s all I have for February 5th. Hopefully I will be more productive tonight, but I somehow doubt it.

Musical Meanderings

Lame. Two days in a row of the absolute bare minimum. I need to do more tonight, but it’s a work in the office day today so there won’t be a lot of time. It would have been nice to be further along by the end of the first week, but I think I am about where I usually am at this point. I know I have a lot of progress in me, I just have to get it done. Or something like that.

Maybe before I sleep tonight I can work out the song form for songs seven and eight and in the morning tomorrow before the world wakes up I can crank out a crap load of rhythm guitar parts. I am off work tomorrow for Jen’s birthday (WOOHOO!!!). We have a couple of house painters coming over to give estimates, and we are planning on a birthday dinner together. I am not sure what we’re planning for the rest of the day. Hopefully our Star Wars re-watch or something goofy and fun like that. Maybe we’ll go shopping for computer components or something else like that. You know, the things my beloved bride likes to do for fun. There probably won’t be a lot of time for music and I am 100% fine with that. Tomorrow is my sweetie’s day and I am up for anything she wants to do. 

2024 RPM Challenge Day 3 & 4/29

I haven’t checked in with the RPM Challenge in a couple of days. How have I been doing, you ask? Have I made any progress? Sure.

Here is what I wrote on my dumb tumblr page to sum up day three:

Not quite as much as I had hoped to get to on day three, but not bad.

I put rhythm guitars onto two songs (songs number three and five). I finished the MIDI bass and MIDI drums and worked out the song form for song number four, and added a new idea that now has the bass/drums/form finished. That new one is song number six.

I failed to write any melodies or lyrics so I still don’t have anything ready for vocals. I am going to be traveling quite a bit today so there’s a good chance day four might be a bust. Maybe I’ll sneak something in after dinner tonight. Let’s hope.

Musical Meanderings

Okay, so we’re up to six songs in three days. Not a bad haul to start the month. No lyrics yet, that’s a little concerning, but half of the songs have their full rhythm section down. 

Now here is my dumb tumblr summary of day four, yesterday:

I expected to get shut out on day four. It was my step son’s 21st birthday and we drove to Vermont and back to celebrate with him a little. I would have been okay with not making any progress at all, but I did manage to sneak one little thing in.

Just before I fell asleep I noodled a couple of bass guitar ideas and called them song idea number seven. It’s probably terrible, but it’s in the pipeline now so it will become a song one way or another.

Musical Meanderings

Something is better than nothing, even if it’s barely something and not terribly interesting… at least I don’t think it was terribly interesting. I was falling asleep as I worked on it, and I haven’t listened back to it today.

Tomorrow is another potential day of being shut out. It’s my work from the office day this week so my morning won’t see any work. Maybe I will sneak some in before I go to bed again. We will have to see. Wednesday could be a big day. It’s Jen’s birthday and we both took the day off. I might be able to squeeze in some serious productivity in the morning at least. We have a couple of contractors coming over to give house painting estimates and I do want to do something nice for Jen’s birthday, so there might not be that much time for music. I’ll see what I can do. Thinking about Wednesday is getting way ahead of myself though. Let’s get some shit down tonight before we worry about anything else, m’kay?