Music

So I still have two recording projects out there that are weighing on me. My RPM Challenge for 2010 and 2011 are still sitting in the cellar unfinished. Every time I get a free few hours I try and psyche myself up to work on one of them but I almost always find something else to do... like watch TV.

Today I did a little work. I thought that finishing the tracking of both projects was within the realm of possibility, but I underestimated how much was left to do, and then did only a tiny fraction of it. An important fraction, but not enough to say I'm almost done tracking.

2010 has 10 songs and one unrelated song that I started writing for a song fight at some forgotten moment in the long ago past. When I woke up this morning I still needed lyrics, melodies, and vocals for three of the 10 songs, and the song fight needed to have its vocals re-recorded. Also, 9 of the 10 songs needed lead guitar parts. I thought those were finished. I really did. Discovering that oversight took a great deal of the wind out of my sails today. I did, however, manage to finish all the vocals. Now, officially, all that's left to record for the 2010 project is lead guitar.

The 2011 project still needs lead and rhythm guitars on three songs. All of the vocals are already finished and six of the nine songs are as complete as they are going to get as far as other instruments go.

So I am still not close to being done with the tracking, but at least now everything that requires an empty house (I hate having other people listen to me sing without the massive noise of a full band playing along. Even worse, I am the worlds worst lyricist and I hate letting people hear the crap that I write without having it buried in a mix. Really. The lyrics are worse than garbage. I usually just sit down with a rhyming dictionary and use the first crap that comes to my head, regardless of whether or not it makes sense or even actually says anything coherent. I am so bad that I don't even really try, I just see the words as place holders that take up melody space until some far off magical day when someone with talent can write the real lyrics) is done. So, in order for me to work on vocals I need the house to be empty. Otherwise I'm not doing anything.

Tracking guitar parts is different. That only requires everyone else in the house to be busy so I can hide in the cellar without missing any quality family time. I record this stuff through a headphone amp so I can do it late at night or early in the morning. I think I might try getting up at 5:00am again and sneaking in a part or two a day. I would like to have these two terrible, horrible, ridiculously bad projects finished by the time we leave for California next month.

Not going to happen... but still a sort of mini goal.

Anyway, next stop is guitar parts. I can do that.