Tag: Songwriting

June Music Continues

I’m up to five songs. Four were written on the Strat, one using MIDI on the iPad. One has vocals. I tried working on a second vocal tonight but didn’t have time.

You’d think with all this guitar playing I’d be getting my chops up. Nope. It’s the opposite. I’m getting worse by the minute.

I’ve got a goofy idea for this month. I’m going to do all the recording on the iPad then port everything to the Mac for mixing. But… I’m thinking of doing an actual mix on the iPad too, and then putting both mixes of each song onto the bandcamp playlist.

What do you think? Too lame?

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June Music

It’s June 2nd. I’ve tortured you by making you wait a whole day for a June Music update! I’m sorry!

Yesterday I stitched together three ideas. I don’t really have a theme this month, but so far everything is 100% iPad (that won’t last), 100% Strat (that probably will last), and almost, but not quite, bluesy. Well, 1.5 of the new things at least.

All three are ready for vocals. Can you believe that? I wanted to write lyrics for one of them before work today but I decided to sleep an extra 15 minutes and then leave a little early instead.

That plan fell apart as epically as most of my music plans do. I was in the car at 7:15 on my first day back from vacation and the damn thing wouldn’t start. I had to call for a tow, and of course the tow truck driver got the sucker running almost immediately. It was fine all the way to work and back. The turd.

April Music

Tonight saw the start of the April music project. Idea #1 has begun. It’s four phrases written on guitar (for a change) and recorded along with bass and drums on my iPad. I used the Fender Twin version of Amplitude for the guitar. I’m thinking that might be April’s schtick… Fender amp. Bare bones trio. No doubling (except for vocals and even then maybe just harmonies).

We shall see.

Of course, I’m still not even close to finished with March, so this is really just silliness. Am I right?

Coffee is Gross

I took my laptop and a microphone to the kids’ karate tonight so that I could do some singing/writing in the car while waiting for the class to let out.  I drove over to the far side of the parking lot, set everything up, picked the song I wanted to work on, and started hiccuping.  Sing a line, hiccup.  Sing half a line, hiccup.  Sing a syllable, hiccup.  I couldn’t stand it anymore.  

Bill Nye the Science Guy taught me that the way to get rid of hiccups is to take five quick sips of water.  That always works for me.  I didn’t have any water (nothing is worse than needing to take a leak while waiting outside in 17 degree weather) and the only drink available was an 11 hour old cup of dunkin donuts iced coffee.  Damn, I grabbed it and sipped it five times. 

That was the single most disgusting moment of my life.  Never, ever, have I been that grossed out by anything.  I wanted to vomit.  I wanted to hurl.  I wanted to blow chunks all over the front of the car.  

The hiccups stopped though, and I was able to get a whole vocal done on RPMarch01.  Granted, it’s awful and I’ll have to do it again, but I got it done for now.

RPM Challenge – Day 21

I sort of lost count. I did either two or three lead guitar parts this morning. I think it was two. This evening I mixed one of those songs. The first four bars have been in my head for ages, but I’ve never found them a home until now. The lyrics were sort of inspired by the @floridaman twitter account. I went there looking for ridiculous stories and instead found two reports of utterly senseless violence.

http://alonetone.com/robertjames1971/tracks/overreaction.mp3%20

I hope to get some more guitar soloing in before we go to IKEA in the morning. We can discuss that later.

RPM Challenge – Day Eight (Continued)

Hey, check out the playlist I posted earlier today. It’s up to 10 songs at 39:59. That clears both requirements for the RPM Challenge. Four more songs to sketch out and I’ll have enough to complete FAWM. OF course, then I just have to finish writing and recording everything. I am feeling good about this though. (even though all my songs sound exactly the same)

RPM Challenge – Day 3

I put rhythm guitars onto the three existing songs today. The first two got the 12-string, and the third got the ES-335 with lots and lots of wah-wah.

The playlist won’t embed for some reason, and the one I posted the other day won’t update (I’ve since deleted it) so you get a link today. Bad Music Found Here.

The second song doesn’t have any drums. I’m trying to decide if I want it to stay that way. I think I do. I’m not sure though. I tried using the GarageBand Drummer function again but I wasn’t pleased with the results. I think it’s better without the drums. I can’t decide.

Completely changing the subject, there were a bunch of deer in the woods this morning. They were all over to the side of the house. I saw one staring intently toward the street. Something out there spooked her because she bolted off in the opposite direction. All of the others followed. I counted six as they were running by. It was pretty cool.

RPM Challenge – Day 2

I didn’t do nearly as much as I’d hoped today, but I did get a third song kicked off. Again, not the riff I’d planned for the second song, but something new. Jen was in the kitchen making dinner. I was helping, but she gave me a few minutes off. I picked up my iPad and, using a piano sound, played the first couple of things that came into my head. Tonight, while sitting in bed, I changed the piano to a bass, and then gave the new GarageBand’s “drummer” mode a whirl. It inserted a drum part into each of my three bits. I messed with the settings a little and came up with something that I would not have thought off, that was also clearly better than what I had in mind. I don’t know if I’ll use it again, but it was cool to play with it tonight.

RPM Day #1 So Far

Song idea #1 is underway! I am bending my RPM rule of working all songs from scratch. During November’s NaSoAlMo silliness I bought a new 12-string guitar. When I took it home I opened up garageband on my phone and recorded the first thing that popped into my head. It was just a little 2 bar thingie in A minor. Yippee. I meant to use it for that project, but I didn’t. Now it makes up one little bit of RPM song #1. I think I’ll bend the rule again for what will be song #2. I’ve had a silly little idea for a riff that couldn’t really work as anything other than a bridge that’s been in my head since the mid 90’s. It keeps coming back to me for some reason. I’ll use it in the next song, if I can.