Tag: Song Writing

Almost Starting Time #RPM2021

One hour and 13 minutes from now it will be 12:00AM on February 1, 2021. In other words, just over an hour until the start of the RPM Challenge.

I’ve never felt less like playing the RPM game than I do right now, but it will be good for me, I think. Who knows. Musical therapy has been a theme for the last year. Maybe now I will make the best use of it. Who knows.

I have a new overdrive pedal to use in my new music nook. I haven’t plugged it in, let alone play through it. I haven’t setup the microphones on the new vertical two amp setup. I meant to finish off the last two songs for the re-recording project as a test drive for RPM but never got around to it. Life got in the way. What did John Lennon say? Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans?

I have no plans besides limiting myself to a wah pedal, a fuzz pedal, and a couple of overdrive pedals. I am going to use the ES-335 for no reason other than it feels the best at low volume. Two amps, the Vox AC15 and the Fender Bassbreakers. No wet dry or stereo silliness, just one signal split into two amps. Simple.

I don’t have the fascist in the white house to write about anymore, but I have plenty of nazis and nazi collaborators and (worse) nazi wannabees in the congress to complain about. Just because cheeto is gone doesn’t mean we’re in the clear. I’m guessing there might be some medical songs too. Who knows. Maybe I’ll force myself to write 10-20 songs about insects just to change things up.

I mean, it could happen.

To paraphrase the Iron Maiden song, 64 minutes to midnight.

RPM Design

Jen and I have a redecorating bug and it’s crazy. We’ve had our bedroom setup like this a couple of years and it’s time to start fiddling with it. That means my little music nook is going to move and be redecorated. I’m looking for an amp stand that can stack two combos. I think I found one. I’m also going to put my humongeous pedal board into storage, which means I need to put together a smaller one. I already have one, but it’s at Mike the Bass Players house and it isn’t coming home until Covid is over… so an overdrive to pair with the Ryra Klon Klone and a wah wah. That plus the two amps will be my RPM Challenge setup……

…….I think.

Monday Morning Music

Are you enjoying your Dr Martin Luther King, Jr day? I am. I mixed a song. Wanna hear it? No? I’m going to post it anyway.

Worst song title I’ve ever come up with. The sound effect was on my original demo from April 2014. Why? More important, why did I keep it? I don’t know, stop pestering me!

January Music is Kind of Happening

Prior to tonight the January music project (10 songs or 35 minutes, all written and recorded in January) consisted of four little 4-8 bar long bass riffs. That’s it. In other words, nuttin’.

Now there are three songs with the rhythm section complete and five little 4-8 bar bass riffs.

Progress!

Two Songs

I mixed two songs today. Let’s enjoy them together (or not, whatever).

My thought for the first song is, what am I going to write about after the cheeto leaves office on Wednesday?

My thought on the second song is six years ago I could sing a little higher than I can now.

And its Yet Another New Song

I wrote this puppy last February during RPM and somehow it is not in a three way tie for the most re-recorded song on my alonetone account (there are three versions). What a strange and wacky world we live in, right?

Therapy

Tonight’s guitar playing was much better than last night. Still not very good, but better. I put leads on two songs and both lead and rhythm on another. Eight songs still to go and six are ready to mix. A fuzz box was used extensively.

Yes, everything is dusty. If you don’t like it you can lick my sack, m’kay?

A Little Better

Through the 10 months of lock down, whenever shit got too much I would play guitar and it would help me to feel better. Last night shit got too much and I played guitar and I was so bad I felt worse. This morning I tried to rectify that. I redid everything on the song I was working on last night when it got to be a little too much. Jen asked me if I wanted to check something out on youtube with her and instead of asking her to give me a little time to finish I just shut it down.

Today was a little better. I finished everything I left hanging yesterday. I wasn’t exactly Jeff Beck or anything. I wasn’t exactly equal to Jeff Beck playing with one finger, but it was okay for me. I do feel a smidge better.

Now we just need to remove the president from power. That’s all. Nuttin’ much.