I stuck to my guns and played some guitar today. Again. That is like four days in a row or something like that. My playing isn’t improving, but that’s okay, right? I put lead guitars onto one song and rhythm guitars onto another. That means I have one song completely tracked. There will be a song submitted for Record Every Month this month. Pat yourself on the back, Robert.
I over slept by quite a bit this morning, but I still managed to sneak out for some singing in the car. I had two songs ready to go, both from May. I was thinking of writing the melody and lyrics for a June song while on mic, the way I always used to do it back in the old days, but when the time came I just decided to go home.
Here’s the view from my “mobile studio” today. Same as yesterday. Literally. I was in the same parking spot.
Also, a couple of random pics from the drive home.
I only had a little bit of time to play guitar today, and my hands felt pretty dead. Not sure what’s up with that, but it’s probably just down to me playing more than I’ve been accustomed to and I am WAY out of playing shape. Just a couple of tired hands is all. I put rhythm guitars on one song. Now I just need to write some more lyrics and do another car vocals tomorrow morning. Sounds like a plan-ish.
I didn’t go direct today. I played through my Deluxe Reverb and it was happiness.
Car music was sort of successful. I put vocals on three songs. All of them are June songs. I’m prioritizing June songs over May songs because reasons, or something. I probably could have done a forth song but my voice got tired quickly, my water bottle was almost empty, and my bladder was beginning to ask for attention.
My goal today is to clean the kitchen, catch that friggin’ mouse, record some more guitars, write some more lyrics, and get myself ready for more car music tomorrow.
Here’s my studio view:
That laptop on the lap thing there? I couldn’t do that before the gastric bypass surgery. Crazy new world, eh?
Last night I said I wanted to put guitars on a couple of songs today. I did it. Last night I also added a new song idea. That’s one of the songs I played guitar on this morning and boy was it sloppy and bad. Today is going to go down in history as one of the sloppiest playing days I’ve ever suffered through. I don’t care. I also added a new riff idea this morning. We’ll see if it becomes a song. I hope so.
Next on the agenda is writing lyrics and melodies. I have five songs that are ready for them. Let’s see how many I can get to today.
I played my SG yesterday and I didn’t put it away. As I was working out the new song structure last night I did it with the Les Paul in mind. Today, with the SG sitting on the stand I decided to start with a different song and use the SG as a warm up. When that song was done I swapped them. You’d think that playing something else first would have warmed me up for the new song. Nope. I sucked equally on both of them.
Tomorrow is Friday. The weekend is almost upon us once more. I want to make a musical plan for the next few days and then actually try to stick to it. As if.
I currently have 13 songs in progress. 10 started in May, and three in June. Two songs have rhythm guitars along with a melody and lyrics. Three more have rhythm guitars only. Tomorrow, before work, I want to add rhythm guitars to at least one or two more songs. If I can add a new song or two as well, that would be nice, but I don’t want that to distract me.
After work I want to focus on adding melody and lyrics to songs that have guitars. I want to have a nice batch that are ready for vocals. Saturday morning I want to have a good car music session where I add vocals to as many songs as I can. Anything I don’t get to on Saturday I hope to do on Sunday. If possible, I want to add lead guitars to at least some songs by the time the weekend is over.
If I can get through all of that before punching in to work on Monday morning, I will consider it a musically successful weekend.
Challenge accepted.
I managed to get some playing in today. I put rhythm guitars on two songs. One from June and one from May.
Progress, babie!
Music was made this morning. I started a song idea (#2 for June) on my iPad late last night and put guitars on it this morning. That’s probably going to be the plan going forward. I did not use my Deluxe Reverb as my amplifier, even though it’s in the pictures, I used my Vox MV50’s direct output and speaker simulation into my USB interface. No speakers involved at all. That makes me sad, but it also let Jen sleep so that’s a huge win in my book. I suspect the only chances I am going to have to put a dent in music projects this month, or even this summer, will be to do it before work and that means we’re going direct.
Now I just need to write 10 songs within the month of June, and finish all 10 that I started in May. Yeah. Right.
It feels like it’s been 100 years, but I finally played some guitar today. I also finally played through my King of Tone overdrive pedal and it was sweet as candy.
I worked on two new songs. I was hoping to do more, but my hands are giving up the fight. Maybe some more tomorrow?
I have finished two songs for the Record Every Month Challenge for April. My mini-challenge of recording a single each month is still on track. My mini challenge of recording an EP in April crashed and burned. That’s okay.
The A Side is okay. The B Side is garbage. I used my SG and my Vox MV50 on all of the guitar tracks, and recorded everything direct into my iPad. I also mixed on the iPad, which might explain why the mixes are worse than the usual crap.
Here’s the A Side:
Here’s the uber crappy B Side:
Next month will use my Les Paul and my Deluxe Reverb, and my new King of Tone overdrive pedal which I waited over five years to get and still haven’t even plugged in. That changes starting tomorrow. Until then, enjoy this crap.
Inside the Red Head's Head 