"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

I gave myself a night off from the project that had occupied the last 27 days.  On one hand, I was excited to dive into the work of figuring out what finished versions of these songs are going to sound like, but on the other, I knew that what was probably best for the health of the project was a night away from it.  I'm definitely diving back in tomorrow sometime, but for now I was excited to step away and: 1) Start in on reading the Big Star biography I picked up earlier in the year. 2) Finally get around to doing some listening. 3) Go digging for (and successfully find) the book of tablature paper I had been looking for, so that I can actually hand write some of the trickier spots in the 100 Riffs video, and get back to work on those now that February is over and work on other stuff can start to even out with progress on the record. One of my co-workers burned me some music by Peter Himmelman and Willy Porter, and brought that along with him to work today, so I'll hav...

I did something awesome today... I finished off the scratch guitar parts for the record-in-a-month project!  And I got them done a day ahead of schedule! So many reactions to this whole thing... 1) At this point in my life, I thought that finishing a record was always going to be firmly stashed away in the "dream" category, as opposed to the "reality" category.  Okay, so at this point it's still a partial reality, but that is still closer than I've ever been in the past. 2) There's still so much to be done.  I have such great admiration for the people who do this every year, and manage to come out with a finished, polished project.  I know this was my first time really going for this, and I'm really happy with what I got accomplished.  I'm also happy knowing that I've got a list of things to focus on regarding this whole project. - Having the rough guitar parts in place, I can now better evaluate the song structures, and see if certai...

If all goes the way it should, the demos for my record-in-a-month project should be finished sometime tomorrow.  I go in to work late, because I'd be getting overtime otherwise, so that gets me a couple of hours in the morning, and then I'll have tomorrow night to finish up the final 2 demos. Yep, you read that right, there are only 2 guitar parts yet to be tracked.  Of course, they are the two hardest ones on the whole record, but I should be able to crank them both out tomorrow, much less over the next two days. If you're playing the numbers game at home, that means I got 5 of them finished off tonight, in about two and a half hours.  All that remains are the parts for songs 1 and 4.  To even be this close is a great feeling.  I'm really hoping that I can knock them out before I have to go into work tomorrow.  That way, I could spend the evening relaxing and finally getting around to that listening I've been talking about for what seems like three w...

So, I had just settled in with my coffee this morning, and was surfing the internet a bit, getting myself psyched up to go into the studio and start recording, had actually just said to myself "so, if everything breaks right today, I could get most of this done," when I got called in to fill a shift for a sick co-worker.  On one hand, I was happy for the extra hours... but on the other hand, I had guitars to record today, by God, and I was fast running out of days in the month.  I did the responsible thing, of course, and covered the shift, but doing so put me at a disadvantage when it came to hours in the day for recording. That said, I got into the studio tonight after work, and roughed out guitar parts for 4 out of the 11 songs.  I had to make a few concessions in order to get as far as I did (the biggest one being that, for now, I would shoot for rough drafts as opposed to a polished, finished product), but I had gotten to the point where I just needed to see some s...

We got out late from work tonight.  Consequently, I got home later than I wanted to, and therefore got into the studio later than initially planned.  Even so, I still got the drums finished tonight for the entirety of the record-in-a-month project. Finishing off the last three tracks took longer than I hoped it would tonight, but having them done, and having the prospect of a fresh day ahead of me tomorrow to start in on tracking guitars is an awesome thing to look forward to.  I seriously debated starting in on them tonight, but much like last night, I decided that a good night's sleep would do me a world of good when it comes to the work I hope to get done tomorrow.  I'm not sure what I'm hoping to get done tomorrow, but with four days to finish  11 guitar parts, that's basically 3 each day between now and Friday.  And considering that I work Wednesday-Friday, in a perfect world I'll get more than 3 done tomorrow. I also really want to do some listeni...

Today felt like another "put up or shut up" day in the life of this record.  Having only gotten drums done for 2 out of 11 songs yesterday, I knew I had to go into the studio today and essentially dominate the whole "drums" aspect of things.  For the most part, I did that. In two long sessions today, I managed to crank out 6 of the remaining 9 drum tracks.  As I type this, I am debating the relative merits of either: a) Psyching myself up, going back in for a third session of drum tracking, and finishing off that part of things tonight (which would free up the rest of the week for guitar parts, lyrics, and vocals). OR b) Calling it good with the 6 I got done today, and finishing up the last 3 tomorrow night before starting in on guitars. The big advantage to finishing up the drums tonight is that it would leave tomorrow night (while the Mrs. is at work) and all day Tuesday (my lone day off this week) to get started on guitars. The big advantage to puttin...

Into the home stretch on the album-in-a-month project!  Including today there are but six days left in February, and there is still so much to do! I got started on the drums today, finally.  It goes so much smoother when the tempos are actually accurate. Drums got finished for 2 out of the 11 songs.  Not as much as I wanted to get done today, but at least I've begun the process, and honestly, that doesn't seem all that bad considering I only got to spend about an hour and a quarter in the studio tonight.  I'm really hoping that tomorrow afternoon and evening will allow me the time to finish up the drums for the rest of the record. Either way, the drums need to be finished by the end of the day on Monday.  That way, I can spend all day on Tuesday working on guitar parts and trying to get that part of things in some semblance of order.  If everything breaks well, that just might leave me the rest of the week to start in on lyrics and (perhaps) vocals....

So, after trying and (at least somewhat) failing to make much in the way of progress on the record last night, and knowing full-well that I am fast running out of time in the month with which to try and finish this record (or at least the music for it), I employed a somewhat drastic strategy: I admitted that yesterday was a lost cause, and set myself up for a busy weekend if I am to have any shot at finishing this off by next Friday.  As it concerned tonight, my plan was a success.  I went back through all of the songs to re-check tempo, only this time I did it with drum sounds instead of just a metronome.  Sure enough, some of the numbers I had for BPM were way off.  Apparently I rushed through things a little bit the other night.  Either way, everything ought to be in good shape now, which means that tomorrow I can get started laying down drum tracks for the record.  My goal for the weekend is to get all of them tracked, leaving the last five days of th...

I tried today, I really did.  I got into the studio twice, and tried finding drum sounds that worked for the songs, but nothing was sounding good or feeling like a good fit today.  I'm really hoping that a lack of drum tracks today doesn't doom me for the month, and that another day of listening in my head for what things are supposed to sound like will yield a weekend that culminates in my actually getting done what I need to.  If the weekend can be good, I know I can get the guitar parts recorded in the evenings (and on my Tuesday off next week). That said, here's the rest of the musical stuff that I did manage to get done today: 1) A bit of listening (Big Star, mostly). 2) I opened up a little bit more space in the music room.  Eventually, it will all come down to getting the music closet organized. Related to that, in my chat with my brother yesterday, he was talking about how thrilled he was to finally get all of his music organized.  I told him how...

The biggest goal I had going into the tonight part of tonight/Thursday was to get the tempos figured out for the rest of the 11 songs that are going to make up the record.  I very much got that done tonight.  Tomorrow is a day off, and I need to get at least a scratch drum track set up for each track on the record, and (hopefully) get some guitar parts laid down.  That sounds like an aggressive plan for tomorrow, but in the wider view (if it's possible to have a 9 day wide view), I've got the weekend off, and then am off next Tuesday before working all the way through the 28th.  If I can really focus in during my free times the next few days, that should make the work-day nights more manageable. Had a great conversation with my brother tonight, too, mostly about finding ways to get the sounds we hear in our heads to flow out through our fingers and our instruments.  It was good to talk to him when he wasn't stressed out and buzzing. Listening tomorrow incl...

I had wanted to get the rest of the tempos done tonight, but the course of the evening didn't really allow that to get completely finished. That said, I got about half of the record done, tempo-wise.  I'm feeling a little better tonight than I was this morning, which gave me the energy to get done what I did, but it was obvious to me when I hit that wall tonight where more work wasn't going to get me any further. So, tomorrow/Thursday's goals are: 1) Finish the tempos. 2) Get the drums/percussion squared away. 3) Start laying down guitar parts. and (unrelated to the record) 4) Listen to the Volcano Choir stuff I picked up last week. Starting tomorrow, I've got 9 days left.  I'm still totally confident that it will all get done.

A few things of note today: 1) With the last two days spent out of town for family-related awesomeness (my brother straight-up killed it at the concert yesterday), things might end up being a little bit tight when it comes to getting everything recorded by the end of the month.  We got home through a snowstorm today by 5ish PM.  Trip took a total of seven hours today, after taking about three and a half yesterday.  On top of that, I'm getting a cold, so if vocals don't get tracked by the end of the month, at this point, I'll be okay with that.  There's still going to be plenty to do, though, because... 2) Not including today, there are 10 days left in February.  I've already decided that I'm not necessarily looking for full-band type performances here.  That said, I'd like to have something in the way of drums/rhythm behind my acoustic parts for the songs in this thing.  And sure, in a perfect world, I'd love nothing more than to get some electric ...

Quick and early post today. Heading out to Eau Claire.  A little bit later than we hoped, but headed out nonetheless. Really trusting that my brother won't have time to read my blog today (thus giving away the surprise), so if you're reading this, brother of mine, stop reading and forget what you just saw. Taking a notebook and pen along with me, just in case inspiration strikes.  Any time lyrics want to show up is fine with me.

Today was the first official day of the second half of my "album-in-a-month" challenge. As for today's goals, I wanted to see what I could get done in regards to track order, and get at least a little bit of a start on the lyric writing process. I spent more time working on the track order question than I did on the lyrics today, but as a result of that, I ended up with something that I think will work in terms of order. I did sit with the notebook for a few minutes at the very end of the day, and got a solid starting line of lyric and some other ideas that I hope will be jumping off points for lyrics. What I'm thinking I might do, however, is switch my focus from the lyric writing part of the process directly to the recording part of the process.  That way, if I can get the music recorded and burned onto a CD, I can take the music with me in the car, and listen and try to see what images and thoughts the music brings up.  It's a tactic that has worked for...

Tonight's goal was a simple one: I wanted to finish up the song structure and arrangements for the rest of the songs in my album-in-a-month project.  What ended up happening instead was even better than that. I not only: 1) Finished up the arrangements for the songs I know I want to include in the final project, I also 2) Figured out how many of the 14 initial ideas (11 of them) were on a level where I felt they ought to be included on the record. I'm holding the other three songs back in reserve, just in case I have a further breakthrough with one of them, but for right now, I'm going to focus more of my attention on the 11 that I feel strongly will make the record when all is said and done. That means that tomorrow I get to start worrying about lyrics and track order and recording in a more urgent, "this is all that's left to do" type of manner.  Somehow, even looking at that last sentence written out, it doesn't seem as daunting as I thought i...

I sit here tonight, still somewhat surprised that I finished off the music for all 14 songs in the first twelve days of the month.  That said, the tweaks and adjustments to the music that I predicted last night waited barely 24 hours before starting to show up.  Tonight I tweaked a chorus for one of the songs as I was diving into structure and arrangement. I'm happy to say that I got the song structure squared away for 60 percent or so of the record (8 out of 14 songs).  This part of the process has always come pretty quickly to me.  It seems like, once I get the chord progressions figured out, I can hear in my head how many times each section needs to be played through for each song.  I'm also generally pretty good at getting the order right (i.e. how many times through the verses and choruses, which comes first, where the solo sections fit in) early on in the process.  The only songs I didn't get squared away were a couple of the ones that I'm thinking ...

Tonight feels like another "mini-milestone" kind of night, much like this post did last month: http://rock-muse-ings.blogspot.com/2014/01/day-one-hundred-seventy-five-year-four.html Except that, where last month's post was a realization concerning goals, motivations, and the level of dedication it's going to take to get from where I am to where I want to be, tonight's post is all about follow through and surpassing expectations.  Tonight, I think I finished off the music for my album-in-a-month project.  That means that I've written the music for 14 songs in just 12 days .  Never in my wildest dreams did I actually believe that was possible.  I've always said that, if you handed me an undisturbed weekend, a guitar, a notebook, and a pen, at the end of it I could come out with an album's worth of music.  This wasn't quite a weekend, but considering everything else that life brings these days, I think that getting done what I did in the time th...

The farther I get into this album-in-a-month, the more convinced I am that it's actually going to happen.  I know that's the way it's supposed to work, but still.  In my more half than whole-hearted efforts at this in the past, I've never had this much success.  Guess that's where the other half comes in, right? Today had been set up as the biggest "put up or shut up" day in a little over a week, and I'm really happy with the results.  Here's what I got done: 1) I got the music written for two more songs tonight!  That takes me to 12 for the month (so far).  The goal of 14 (or, at least, the music for 14) is in sight.  The way things have been going, it's looking like I'll hit my goal of having the music written by the middle of the month.  As for lyric writing and recording, well, I'll have a whole two weeks to get all of that sorted out. 2) I got a little bit closer to having everything in the studio the way that I want it.  Aft...

Was supposed to have the day off today, and was looking forward to spending a lot of the day either moving furniture around or playing in the studio... okay, so I was going to be in the studio all day long;  first getting that bookshelf in the right place, and then working on the record. Got called in to work today, though, as someone was ill.  That lessened my time in the studio, but I still got the bookshelf properly situated and the card table moved out.  There's so much more floor space in there now, I almost can't believe it. Got down to working on the album-in-a-month after moving furniture around, and discovered that my statement from Saturday night about having the very first notes of the record, but not the song they go along with isn't quite accurate. After working on that dilemma for a while, I am now convinced that I've got the song idea for it already written. This brings me to a couple of things: 1) I think I really, really need to have the music for...

Today was definitely a mixed bag for me when it comes to music.  I had such high hopes of being able to spend a lot of time in the studio today, and that time never quite materialized.  Today was the first day out of the last 10 where life got in the way of the album-in-a-month challenge. And yet, there is good news.  It won't matter as much to those following as it does to me, but here's both the good news, and the reason why life got in the way today: The Mrs. got back from a trip to NW Iowa to help her Mom move from the house she has been living in to a new place across town.  What that means for us is that we got some new (to us) furniture to incorporate into the house.  It also means that I finally get my much-needed extra bookshelf for the studio.  With the way the bookshelf is set up, it means that I'll be able to move out the space-hog that has been the card table.  My initial intentions were to use that as a work table of sorts, but it tu...

So, after playing through everything I had for the album-in-a-month project last night, just to see how I sat with everything, I took it a step further tonight.  The first thing I did when I got into the studio this evening was to lay everything out on a single page.  All of the sketches, the verses and the choruses, just to see if looking at what I have would offer me any thoughts as to what might still be missing.  It felt good to see all 8 ideas laid out, one after the other, and it got me to sit down and consider the one sketch I started kicking around last night, but held off committing to paper, because somehow it just wasn't quite clear enough yet. The extra twenty four hours must have done some good, because I got at least some of that idea fleshed out and written down.  In the process, I also stumbled onto another, brand new sketch that I like even better than the one I started out with.  If both of those end up working out, that would take me up to 1...

Seems like the week went by really quickly.  It's been seven days of working on songs since my album-in-a-month challenge began.  I wanted to use tonight to go back through everything that got written this week, just to see where I stand with it at the end of the week.  It's starting to feel at least somewhat cohesive, which is cool.  I'm fairly certain that, out of the songs I've already got under way, I could find 5 of them that would make a solid EP, but I'm also at the point where the holes that are left in the full album idea are getting at least a little more obvious.  I'm kind of shocked to admit that, at the end of the week, I still like everything I've written so far.  Liking something I've written initially, and then not being a big fan later on has always been an issue with me, so it's cool to not be running into that issue tonight. I'm sitting at 8 songs after the first week of the challenge.  21 days to go.  Right now, I'm fe...

Tonight's writing session almost turned into a classic case of "one step forward, and two steps back." When I got to work tonight, I realized very quickly that something wasn't quite clicking with the progression I began last night.  I almost simply pushed it off to the side for now, with the thought of going back to it eventually, should I get stuck for ideas.  Instead, however, I pared down a bit of the activity in the progression, stripping it back to a bare-bones idea of what the sound and the movement entail.  That, I found, I like a little bit better than what I'd had originally, so I scrawled the updated progression into the notebook underneath the first one, and will likely come back to both of them now. The best part of the night?  After my initial struggle, I kept on working, and wound up with two more sketches for song sections.  This brings the grand total up to 8 thus far.  That's more than half of the ideas that I'll need for the project....

Tonight was more productive than I thought it would be when I started out.  When I finally gave up the ghost on last night's writing session, I found myself stuck in that odd spot of writing my way into the middle of a song and then getting stuck for inspiration.  That was all well and good for the first few days of the album-in-a-month project, when just getting the sketches down was solid progress.  The only downfall now is this: going into last night's studio time, I had the music for four songs finished.  In short, I had gained some confidence in three days, and things were seeming easier.  I had gotten to the point where a part of a song wasn't feeling like quite enough.  This is what happens, apparently, when there's one day where all the pieces fall together in the right order and I end up finishing music for three songs. So, while what felt initially like failure last night was really (and rightly) observed as success by the time I got around to p...

This album-in-a-month thing is going to be interesting.  Lessons to remember from tonight's studio session include the following:  1) I need to learn to temper expectations on days that I work this month. I had really high hopes going into tonight's studio time.  Truthfully, I expected a repeat of yesterday's progress.  It didn't matter that yesterday was the culmination of a weekend off, where I had the previous two days to work my way up to the musical explosion that was yesterday.  Two days to try out ideas, to see if this chord change worked better than another one, to make sure that all of the pieces were in place so that the progress on the first day where I really needed to come through in a big way would actually be there.  Oh, no.  Today I was going to go in there and do it again, and be halfway home on my goal of 14 songs after only 4 days... Yeah, right.  It was tough tonight.  I got a full verse (or chorus) section that I th...

So, today was my first real "put up or shut up" day in the month of February.  A lot of that had to do with the FAWM/RPM Challenge that I've given myself.  Going into today, I had the music for one song finished, and was hoping to be able to take at least two more of the "sketches" I had come up with the first couple of days, and turn them into complete songs. I got in two separate studio sessions today, and suffice it to say that I'm over the moon at the progress I made today.  I didn't just take two of my sketches from rough ideas for either verses or choruses and turn them into musically complete songs, I did that one better and took three all the way to completion.  That gives me a total of four over the first three days, with a few more ideas still sitting in my notebook waiting to be worked on. I was right, too, about the song structure stuff from yesterday.  I won't use it as a strict guide, but just having it written out and sitting there...

Day #2 of my album in a month challenge went okay.  I got the first song blocked out today, and I got another sketch of a verse or a chorus that I really liked the sound of. In my spirit of using all of the tools available to me, I sat down this afternoon with FAWM's website, and went through one of their tools that provides help when it comes to song structure (verse-chrous, etc.).  Basically, if you hit a button, you get a new song structure.  I played around with that until I found 14 of them that I either liked the flow of, or thought looked like fun to try and write.  I'm not saying that I'll use them all, or that all of them will wind up making the final record, but if nothing else, it was a way to get me thinking objectively about song structure and where my sketches might fit into that picture. I also know the chord progression/sound that will open the record.  I'm not going to do anything crazy, like try to write it in order or anything, I just felt...

Before I say anything else tonight, I want to put this out there: I know I'm trying to write an album's worth of songs this month, but I'm not going to let that slow down work on my other goals this year.  To that end, I worked (successfully) through the lesson on Travis-picking from the Acoustic Goldmine book. That said, I sat down in the studio a couple of different times today in an attempt to get started working on these songs that I've got 28 days to finish.  Seemingly like always when I sit down and start trying to write, I got a couple of things that I really liked, but they aren't anything close to completed songs.  At best, they are mini-sketches of verses and choruses to come.  My hope, at the end of this first day, is that these sketches will coalesce into something more. I think what I struggled with the most today was the sound of everything.  I like the progressions, I just went searching for the identity of the whole project through the sound ...