Tag: Song Writing

#RPM2021 Day 16

Lots of progress today. I put vocals on six songs. I fear one of those six needs to be completely rewritten because it sucked so bad. Another two or three just didn’t come out too well. I’ll have to see if time changes my mind, but my throat was scratchy and phlegmy and my ears were having a hard time picking out the right notes, and my voice was having a hard time hitting pitches. It was a rough morning. I’m hoping to do another round of car vocals tomorrow. Here’s hoping for better results.

The other good news is that I finished the rhythm guitar parts. They are all done. Most of the songs are simple with just one take on two tracks all the way through. Some songs are more complicated. One song has three rhythm parts (on two tracks each) jumping in and out, all using different tones. There is enough there that I might actually drop some of the parts. It was fun to piece it all together.

So the current count is 14 songs in progress, all of them have guitars, all but two have lyrics, and six have vocals. I was hoping to sneak in a lead guitar part or two before bed but Jen and I ate ice cream and watched Property Brothers instead… because home renovations are our thing these days.

And that is where the RPM Challenge stands tonight. It’s 9:00, I’m almost 50 years old, and that means it’s bed time. G’night, moon.

Car Music 2021

Today was my first car music of the new year. Crazy.

It was awful. Just totally and utterly awful. I worked on six songs and I think I have to redo four of them an possibly rewrite one of them. Crud.

#RPM2021 Day 15

When I woke up there was one song that had not been worked into a full song form yet. I took care of that today including sketching out an idea for a guitar part in midi, and adding a melody and lyrics. I also added melody and lyrics to two other songs as well.

I didn’t record anything, but I am pretty well set up for a good day tomorrow, starting with some car vocals in the morning. Fingers crossed.

#RPM2021 Day 14

Hello and welcome to the half way point. 14 days down, 14 days to go.

I did a lot today. I also kind of lost track of what I did.

  • I wrote lyrics for two songs.
  • I finished the song form for one of the two remaining songs that were just a single phrase or two. I also wrote the melody and lyrics for that one.
  • I added rhythm guitars to three songs.

I think that was everything.

I haven’t updated my works in progress playlist with any of today’s changes. I might do that in the morning. I thought about doing some early morning car vocals tomorrow but my step son’s car is blocking my car in the driveway so that will wait until Tuesday.

So where do the 14 songs stand at this time?

  • Six songs have rhythm guitar, melody, and lyrics and are ready for vocals.
  • Two songs have rhythm guitars but no lyrics or melody yet.
  • Five songs are ready for rhythm guitars. Of those five, three have melody and lyrics, and one has just melody.
  • One song is still just a pair of eight bar bass/drum phrases without a song form.

That’s 14 songs and 14 songs is enough for a complete RPM Challenge album and a complete FAWM project. I’m hoping that within the next couple of days the rhythm guitars and a good chunk of the vocals will be done. If time permits I might try to finish some of the leftover January songs that I never got around to. I would have to redo the bass and drum parts in order to qualify for RPM, and they wouldn’t qualify for FAWM at all, so I won’t even look at them until the 14 in the pipe now are done.

And there you have it, the state of RPM at the midway point.