Happy Panic Day

Today is February 20th. For me, personally, in RPM Challenge terms, the 20th is officially the day that I start to panic. Enjoy!

The 20th is the day where the end suddenly feels very close. We get an extra day this year, thank you leap year, so it’s not quite as bad as usual, but I definitely feel a sudden need to get off my ass and get shit done. I have nine days left after today. I need to get busy.

I put rhythm guitars onto one song and lead guitars onto another this morning before work. My playing was terrible. Absolutely awful. I am so rusty it’s silly, and what playing I have done in the last couple of weeks has not been enough to shake off any of that rust. I feel like I am getting worse… probably because I am.

Where do we stand with the album in a month project as a whole? There are 20 songs in the pipeline. I have not mixed anything yet, so no songs are 100% finished. Six have been completely recorded and are ready to mix. Five have their vocals done and are ready for lead guitars. Two have lyrics and melodies written and are ready for vocals. Five have rhythm guitars done and are ready for lyrics and melodies. Finally, two have their song forms worked out and are ready for rhythm guitars. In addition, the song that I put the rhythm guitar tracks on this morning needs to have the bass guitar (MIDI) rewritten because the bass and the guitar don’t really work well together. I need to change something so they lock in. That sort of goes against the RPM Challenge ethos (is that the right word?) as I don’t like going back and redoing anything. It takes time that I don’t have. In this case though, it sounds worse than dog shit so I have to change the bass.

There you have it. The state of the RPM Challenge project at this point in time. The minimum goal is 10 songs or 35 minutes of music. I am shooting for 20 songs, and then I’ll pick the 10 best and use them as the album I “submit” to the RPM website. Just as a heads up for the future, I really don’t think there are any good songs this year. The best of the best is very much meh. This is not going to be a good album. It’s feeling like my worst ever. Blah, indeed.

Logically I think I am an a good place to finish everything off by midnight on March 1st. Logic does not really apply here though, so my feeling is that I am currently buried under an avalanche of things still to finish. Oh good.

Anyway, here are a few pics that I took as I was listening to a playback of a terrible sounding guitar solo this morning. Ugh.

I’ve used my Les Paul Custom for every note of guitar that I have recorded this month. There’s a good chance that everything I put down after I get home from the guitar shop tomorrow will be played on my ES-335. We’ll see. I might sneak my Les Paul Standard into a few things too, if I can.

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…

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.

Productive Evening

I punched out of work tonight at a little after 5:30pm and started my long weekend! I took Monday off because I am going to max out my accrued vacation time next month if I don’t take two days off this month. Monday is the first of the two which means I have a long weekend.

I plan to get shit done. Get. Shit. Done.

I started tonight by writing lyrics to three RPM Challenge songs. Also, Jen and I did some work to plan for the upcoming kitchen remodeling project. When I say Jen and I, I mean Jen did planning stuff and I watched and threw out occasional comments. However it happened, I think we got some stuff done and that is good.

Car vocals tomorrow? I hope so. Run some errands? Sure thing. Play some guitar? I hope so. Repeat the whole thing on both Sunday and Monday? You betcha!

The best part about the now current three day weekend? Next weekend is a three day weekend too! My second February day off is next Friday. One week from today. I am going to Kick. RPM’s. Ass*, babie.

*Dictionary.com defines “bravado” thusly:

bravado

[ bruh–vah-doh ]

noun,plural bra·va·does, bra·va·dos.

a pretentious, swaggering display of courage.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bravado

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!

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.

Car Music

Car music happened this morning. I recorded vocals for four songs while sitting in the car in an empty parking lot next to a giant snow bank.

Obligatory clock pic:

Bonus Fenway Park scoreboard mural thing on the liquor store wall pic:

Hopefully I’ll be able to get out and record more vocals in the car before work tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

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.

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.