This is the 28th finished song for 50/90. I hope to have #29 posted before I sleep tonight. At that point I’ll be out of mixable songs until I can sneak in some vocal time next week.
Progress, kids.
Tag: Songwriting
Two New 50/90 Songs
Here’s the first one…
There’s a lot of weirdness going on here.
First, King’s X has a song on their Dogman album called “Go to Hell”. It’s 30 seconds long and it’s balls to the wall and just when you start to feel the groove it ends. I thought I might try something like that. Fast, loud, and over before it goes anywhere. That didn’t end up happening with this song, but that was one of the ideas.
Second, GarageBand for iOS doesn’t have a lot of options as far as time signatures go. I wanted to do something in an unusual time, but I was sitting in a doctor’s office waiting for my mother’s appointment to end and I didn’t have my MacBook on me. So I just did some math. Eight bars of 6/4 time is the same number of beats as 12 bars in 4/4. So I set the segment to 12 bars of four and just played something that felt like 6. It worked. Hooray. Then I tried to replace the original drums using the OSX GarageBand’s Drummer function. All the fills were in the wrong place. I spent 3 minutes messing with it before deciding to just use the original drums. I did change the sounds though.
Third, as 50/90 approaches the end of the second month, lyrics are getting hard to come by. Even when I do have a subject to write about they are just hard to put together. I had an idea for forcing inspiration. I would look up old New England folklore and write lyrics based on those stories. That song is my first attempt. The story is about a guy who, backed with some zombie muscle, kidnapped his crush from her wedding. Not before killing the groom, of course. It’s a nice family friendly tale.
And now here is the second song…
Last month I did a bad instrumental thing inspired by the quiet little instrumental breaks in the last couple of Pink Floyd records. I don’t like the way it came out, but I did decide right away I’d try something similar again before 50/90 ended.
Well, here it is. Break Time pt2 is also Floydish, only this time I was thinking Obscured by Clouds instead of Division Bell. I like this one better, but it’s still more or less a throw away.
22 Songs Finished, 28 to Go
I have a total of 33 songs either finished or in progress for 50/90. This one marks 22 as finished. Miles still to go.
I’m not sure about this mix here. If I weren’t 75% asleep I might be able to make a better determination. It’s okay for now at least.
Yet Another New Song
I mixed this one last night but was too tired to take the time to share it. Here it is, better late than yadda yadda…
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This second song was mixed this evening. I usually don’t stick the lovey lyrics with the big dumb rock songs, but it seems happy here.
50/90 is now 31/48
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The tail was sung off today. I made use of every non-work second and wrote and recorded six (6), that’s SIX vocals today. The song above is the first of those to be mixed, and the 19th song posted to the 50/90 page.
My head is spinning with all the progress I made today.
Another New Song
Actual, real live percussion. There’s a little monkey drum that I bought at a Ren Faire many years ago, and a pair of finger drums I bought at the Moroccan Pavilion at Epcot Center even more many years ago. It’s the first time since I had an actual real live band in a real studio that I have recorded actual real live percussion.
The lyrics are in first person, but it’s not about me. Some one close to me is being shown an alarming lack of respect at work. This is about that person’s situation.
The guitars are all Strat, and it’s my first time messing with the pitch shifter in GarageBand. Not sure I like the results. Next time I’ll go all Trevor Rabin and shift the leads up a minor seventh. Sah-Weet.
Random Monday Thoughts
Here are a couple of random thoughts for a pre-work Monday morning.
The drive from Methuen to Canton today took less than an hour. We are firmly in the summer traffic lull. Two weeks from now cities and towns will be starting up their school years and the 55 minute drive I made today will take 90+ minutes. I know how bad it gets, but seeing how good it can be (not that 55 minutes is really that good) just makes September through June that much worse.
I indirectly gave my step kids the weirdest compliment they are ever likely to get. I was in my room getting dressed and that cat jumped onto the bed where I was sitting and got all affectionate. I tend to baby talk to the cat when I am petting her. I was saying goofy things about how the kitty loved her mummy and her big sister and her big brother. Then I said that kitty’s sister and brother love her too because they have good taste in kitties.
I told the cat that the kids have good taste in kitties. What the hell is wrong with my brain? How did that sentence even form in my head? Good taste in kitties? Please!
I played a lot of guitar this weekend. On Friday I finished (except for vocals) one song and started another. On Saturday I finished two songs (except for vocals) and started another. On Sunday I started four songs. That’s nine songs worth of guitars recorded. I was not physically prepared for so much playing and today my finger tips are literally on fire. Oh the pain!
50/90 is Now 34/57
I finished two songs tonight. This one comes from a floridaman story. Read it here.
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The second song… I have no idea what it is about. Maybe sort of about not wanting to go to work or something like that.
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The music for both of these turd burgers was written while on vacation. I was just out of control crazy like that. Must have been the proximity to the birth places of all three members of Rush.
7/8 and 5/4
The only negative to my 50/90 workflow of starting new ideas using GarageBand foe iPad is the lack of flexibility with time signatures and tempos. You can’t change them mid-song, and there are only three time signatures built in. I could easily work around that, but then I’d lose the cool segment functionality. Fortunately GarageBand for Mac has more flexibility and options.
Hence the two things I pieced together on the Mac tonight that are both in odd times. Ah, a Prog Rock wannabe.
Three New Songs
I finished three songs tonight. None of them are particularly good, but what can you do?
This one was the first idea I came up with for 50/90. I literally woke up, grabbed my iPad, and jotted this down in GarageBand. Why then did it take nearly a month to finish? Well, maybe because I don’t particularly like it. Perhaps.
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The second song is only interesting in that it’s in 6/8 time. GarageBand for iOS is pretty limited in time signatures. I expect I’ll be using the Mac version to get myself some 7/8 and 5/4 before long. Prog babie. The lyrics are about a universal topic for those of us in Greater Boston… Traffic.
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The third song is kind of about Market Basket. Who would have thought that if you stand by your people, they will stand by you. It’s just amazing to even consider it.
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There you have it. 50/90 is now 36/62.
Inside the Red Head's Head 