What did I post on that dumb music project Tumblr account as a summary for day two of the RPM Challenge?
Day two was not as productive as day one, but I got some stuff done and I am pleased.
I put rhythm guitars onto one song and also gave that song a melody. Later in the day I added song idea number five and finished the MIDI bass and MIDI drums and gave the whole thing a complete song form.
Day three has already seen some progress, but you’ll read about that tomorrow.
Yup. A decent haul on day two. One new song format, one song’s worth of rhythm guitars, and one vocal melody without lyrics.
Similar to yesterday, I wrote my summary of day two after I did some work on day three. I put rhythm guitars onto two songs this morning after breakfast. Hopefully I will have some more melodies and maybe a lyric or two or three at some point today. I won’t be able to do an early morning car vocals tomorrow, but I should be able to do it on Monday so I want to have a lot of stuff available to work on by then.
Every February I try to post daily RPM Challenge updates on a Tumblr page that I set up a thousand years ago and only ever use to try and track daily updates of music projects. Why? Why do I do this? Why do I even keep this Tumblr account? What the hell is wrong with me?
I find that I post to that page for a week or two and then I fall off and eventually forget all about it. It’s lame. I am lame. You could probably tell that by all the lame posts though, so I don’t expect anyone to be surprised.
Anyway, I posted the day one summary this morning even though I have already done some work on day two today. Whatever. Since I am a content whore I will quote the Tumblr post here because… ya know… reasons. I guess.
The RPM Challenge is underway once again. Will I manage to post daily updates here? Probably not. Oh well.
Day one went really well. I managed to start four songs before I punched into work for the day. Three of them were multiple riffs/changes that I noodled out on guitar. The fourth was just a bass/drum groove that I worked out on my iPhone.
After work I added bass and drum parts (MIDI) and a song form to two of the three ideas that started on guitar. I started adding bass and drums to the third but was unable to finish.
And that is my wrap up for day one. I’ve already done a little work on day two.
There you go. There is my day one summary. I mentioned the morning stuff here yesterday but the after work stuff should be new news.
As for today? I put rhythm guitars (two guitars through two amps each for a total of four tracks) onto song idea number one. I didn’t have time to add them to song idea number two too. Maybe this evening. We’ll see.
155/365 – The two amps are a Fender Bassbreaker 15 and a Vox MV50 Clean. Both are running direct into my USB audio interface.
I get a certain amount of personal time off from work each year. We accrue one 12th of that total amount of annual time each month. We can carry over some of that personal time off from month to month, but we do have a cap on how much we can have stored up at any given time. The cap is higher than the annual allotment, but it is pretty easy to accrue up to the cap on any given month. With today being the first of the month, our accrual numbers were updated today and sure enough I have hit the cap. Shit. I got a friendly reminder to make sure I book enough time off this month to get back down below the cap so that I don’t fail to accrue any more time next month.
I already had one day off booked in February. My beloved wife and I both took her birthday off. I need to take two more days to ensure that I get far enough below the cap to not have a problem in March. I booked those two days for later in the month. Interesting that this comes up in February… the one month out of the year where I go absolutely bonkers crazy working on writing and recording an album’s worth of music. Sure I do album-in-a-month things throughout the year, but February is the only one that really counts. February, also known as the RPM Challenge, is the one that matters to me. As silly as it is, I get super invested in this thing every year. I am not really sure why it is so important to me, but it is… and now I have a four day weekend near the end of the month where I can cram in tons of music project work.
We are 11 hours into February now. Was I able to get anything done this morning?
Why yes, yes I did.
After finishing my exercise and my breakfast and my daily writing prompt blog post, I picked up my guitar and noodled out three (3) new song ideas. Three of them. Already! Crazy right? Sure is, especially when you realize that just before I punched into work I noodled out a fourth new idea in GarageBand on my iPhone. It’s just a bass riff for now, but it’s there and that means I have FOUR songs in progress already.
I also have two potential album cover photos. Not that these are really in the running, but just expect to see lots of square format pic over the next four weeks. One of them is bound to end up as the cover.
154/365
In closing, allow me to summarize the progress made in the pre-work hours of day one…
Well… I sent a message to the guitar shop that put new frets on my 1978 Les Paul. I said I have a 1979 ES-335 that probably needs new frets as well but also might need new wiring and maybe kinda might need to have the neck joint re-glued.
Yesterday I was excited about this. Now I’m terrified again. Uh oh.
Note on the photo, I already replaced the missing knob. In fact, I replaced all four knobs. That’s about the extent of what I am willing to do myself as far as mods or repairs to any of my guitars.
Unrelated musical note… The RPM Challenge starts in eight hours and 14 minutes. My goal is to write and record either 10 new songs or 35 minutes of music entirely during the month of February. Actually, I am going to shoot for 20 songs or 70 minutes because double albums are fun (looking at you, The White Album and you, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway) so why not go for it?
It’s almost time to start. Will I start at midnight tonight? Don’t be silly, I will start tomorrow morning. I am way too old and feeble to stay up until after midnight on a school night. What do you think I am, young?
It happens around this time every year, or at least every year since 2008…
I just signed up for this year’s RPM Challenge. The annual musical extravaganza/torture event is happening and I will be eye ball deep in it all throughout the month of February. We wouldn’t have it any other way, would we?
I have no idea what I am going to do this year. No goals other than to finish. 10 songs or 35 minutes of music… or maybe 20 songs or 70 minutes of music, as maybe I might shoot for a double album this year. Who knows.
Maybe my 1978 Les Paul in your left speaker (or your left ear if you’re wearing headphones) and my 2020 Les Paul in your right speaker/ear? Fun, eh?
I went to sleep last night fully planning to record some singing in the car this morning but then when I woke up I just didn’t have the energy. Tomorrow, for sure. Then some lead guitar playing. That’s the plan at least. I’m not trying to write anything new this month as I am saving that up for RPM February. Maybe I should just noodle some riffs and chord changes onto a memo file to have in the bank for next month. I’ve done that before but I usually try to keep everything 100% February if I can.
So I have signed up for the RPM Challenge… have you? Well why not! Make some music next month. It doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be.
Inside the Red Head's Head 