Tag: Song Writing

April Music Lives Again

I went three whole days without doing any work on the April Bonus RPM Challenge.  I had four songs needing lyrics and those plus two others needing vocals and leads.  I was stuck on the lyrics.  On Monday I was able to come up with a melody for song number eight but I was coming up dry for words.  Each night on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I set aside time in my schedule to try again and ended up doing something else.

That changed last night.  I finished #8 and picked off #9.  Today I did the same for #’s 10 and 11.  All the lyrics are done and I have a melody for everything.  That means tomorrow…

Singing in the car, babie!

The music is alive once more!

All Done With That

All of my April rhythm guitar parts are done, including a bonus 11th song that I started at 3:30am today when I was too pissed off at facebook to sleep.

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I wonder… if I stop taking pictures of whatever guitar I am playing every time I play, would the world go back to normal?  Is all of this my fault somehow?

Musical Lessons

I learned two things while singing in the car this morning.

First, I am still a terrible singer.  If you were thinking I would have magically learned how to be awesome over the last two weeks then I’m sorry to disappoint you.  I still suck.

Second, I am still terrified of having people hear me.  Oh look at that guy walking his dog.  He’s two football fields away from me.  I better wait the 20 minutes for him to walk by because he might hear me.

I Lied

My plan from the moment I woke up this morning was to put in a solid day’s work, then have dinner with the family, then hang out with the family for a little while, then record guitars.

By the time I made it to dinner I was dead tired.  I thought the rest of the night was going to be a fail.

It wasn’t.

There are only two songs in progress right now but as of a few minutes ago they both have all of the rhythm guitars.  I planned on using my little Fuzz Face pedal for all of the guitars.  That lasted about 12 bars into the first take of the first song.  I guess I am not going to re-fall in love with the Fuzz Face.  Instead I broke out my Keeley D&M Drive.  That’ll be my one pedal for April.

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RPM Challenge – April Edition – Day 1/31

Two songs underway. Both with a full song form. Both just bass and drums. One song has the bass riff in 7/4 time over drums in 4/4. Zaniness ensues.

The guitar gear plan is either the Les Paul or the SG into the Bassbreaker 15, just like the March project. This time I’m allowing one pedal, the Fuzz Face Mini. I also might mess around with two mics on the amp. We will see if that plan sticks or not.

April 2020 RPM

You thought this was over for a while.  No way, dude.  No way.

The RPM Challenge has a website and a Facebook group.  There’s a subreddit and a discord chat too but I don’t use those too often.  Every February the 300 or so of us pop over to the website and sign up for the year.  Lots of people post on the forums and some people write blogs.  On Facebook people usually just post links to their music including links to live streams and gigs and things.  Normally both places are nice and busy from late-January through mid-March.  Outside of that little time frame both are pretty dead.

A couple of weeks ago there was a post to the Facebook group suggesting doing a second RPM Challenge in April.  If we’re all going to be stuck at home anyway, why not write some music.  I responded by saying I was already planning on it so I was in.  I then went over to the website and checked the forum.  There was something about doing a mini-challenge but nothing much.

This weekend, as March was winding down, I went to both places to see if anything was going to come of that little discussion.  There was nothing on Facebook.  The forum had one little mention stating that something was in the works.  Cool.  Yesterday I took another look at the website.  There it was.

The whole front page had been redesigned.  That usually happens in January.  This time there was a link to a Google Form where you could sign up for April.  This time there are more options for goals.  Instead of just 10 songs or 35 minutes, you can alternately sign up to make a sing, one song or five minutes, an EP, five songs or 20 minutes, and a box set, 30 songs or 100 minutes.  I signed up for the usual 10 songs or 35 minutes.

There were a couple of posts on Facebook from the admins announcing that sign ups were open again.  I haven’t seen much from actual participants.  There are a couple of little comments.  My favorite being someone who was happy that he got a second opportunity to ask himself why he’s putting himself through it.

Like I said, I was going to do this anyway.  It still feels nice to think that at least some of us who are regular participants are going to use it as a motivator for social distance.  That’s a good thing.  We’re all going to stay at home anyway, so why not make some music while we’re stuck.

Now the question is, how many April 2020 RPM Challenge albums are going to have titles that include Social Distance, or Shelter in Place, or Quarantine, or COVID-19, or Coronavirus?  All of them?

RPMarch is Finished!

March 2020 did what March 2014 failed to do.  It followed February’s RPM Challenge rules album-in-a-month with another RPM Challenge rules album-in-a-month.  In 2014 the March music wasn’t finished until May.  In 2020 it was finished with two days to spare, babie!  Got it in early!

Today I recorded three vocals, six lead guitars, and I mixed six songs.  I am so tired I can’t function.  Enjoy!

Tracking is Done

All of the tracking for all 10 songs is done!  Sweet.

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It just occurred to me that if I mix the last six songs tonight I will have finished March in the same amount of time as February.  Yeah, I am losing it a little.