"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....