So I didn’t win. I recorded around 15 minutes of stuff most of which felt unfinished.

Along the way, I’ve learned a lot and genuinely enjoyed myself so it was definitely worth it.

I learned that I need to manage my time better, and I came up with some ways to do this, if a little late in the game.

At least I got something down, and I will be back on the horse next year. 5 years ago

The third time might not have been the charm, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. It’s done!5 years ago

I thought the five-day weekend was going to be magical. I’d write a whole slew of new songs, they’d be brilliant, I’d scrap everything I’d done so far and emerge with the best songs I’d ever done. Then I realized that that was the wrong attitude to take during NaSoAlMo. Last year the pressure on myself to make good songs, which is not really possible for me at this pace, messed with my head. And I realized I didn’t want to let that happen this year. So by Friday I’d decided to throw in the towel on songwriting, and just concentrate on making the existing stuff sound as good as possible. I rested, I socialized, I mixed a little, I relaxed. As is standard during the final days of the challenge, I am consumed with embarrassment about the songs. But I’m keeping my spirits up. Yesterday I reasoned that there are two possibilities, both positive. The first is that I don’t let anyone else hear the album, and therefore I have nothing to be embarrassed about. The second possibility is that I stay in such a good mood that I won’t let the embarrassment get to me, so I put the songs online. Even if I’m not in the latter state, as the steward of the competition, I want to release the songs purely out of principle. So I probably will. I scrapped A Minor Chord, Love Story, and NaNoWriMo Fight Song, leaving the current playlist at eighteen songs, just about 29:30:

Number One Rock Song
Sixteen Minutes
Fast Food Blues
B.C. Runner
Enunciation Breakdown
Brain Eats Heart
Cousin (formerly Riverboat Gambler)
Having Hadn’t Had
Rhyme with Orange
Fifty Ways (Paul Simon cover)
I Won’t Crack
What the Devil
Taking It On
Out of Ideas
Twenty-Third Day
Down to the Wire
November is Over
Next Halloween 5 years ago

Like I mentioned before, I want to go through the songs and make them better for a real album. But for the purpose of NaSoAlMo, let’s call this thing done. The MP3s are here. When I have a real album, I’ll probably take them down. Enjoy!

As I write this, I see the quote in the right column of this 43things page. It says:

“All you have to do, is decide what to do with the time that is given you.”
- Gandalf, Lord of the Rings

That gets right to the heart of how I accomplished this goal. 5 years ago

After a short trip to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, I spent this evening dealing with a hard drive that wouldn’t stop chugging. It was slowing my desktop computer down and really worrying me. It made backing up files very slow-going, too. I backed up a bunch before I left for my Thanksgiving trip on Wednesday, and finished backing up tonight. Now I need to remember to do it before there’s a problem.

I was able to make the hard drive problem stop by restoring the system back a couple of weeks. Maybe I picked up a virus or other malicious thing that my anti-virus and anti-other-malicious-things software programs don’t recognize.

This problem wouldn’t have stopped me finishing my album since I don’t use my desktop for recording, but it would have been a huge distraction. I can’t feel at peace when my computer is sick. 5 years ago

I’ve been listening to the eight songs I’ve “finished”, and there’s only one that I’m completely happy with. I’ve made notes about how to fix the rest. Fixes range from “stereo spread the guitar” to “re-record the whole darn thing.”

Most of these things are picky things, though. The voice of the inner critic that NaSoAlMo is intended to silence. So the plan is to finish the last song, “When Anaiya Smiles,” this coming weekend, and declare NaSoAlMo done based on the tracks as they are now.

After that, I have a wonderful set of songs to start with for my very first ever, recorded all by myself, real live solo album that I can send to CD Baby to sell and eventually see it show up on iTunes.

I’ve learned so much about recording and mixing over the last month, and I feel confident I can continue to learn. I can probably resurrect some of the things I started long before November and never could finish and maybe write a song or two more from scratch. Then perhaps even re-record some of my older songs that I recorded with an ex-boyfriend and make them my own again.

Such possibilities. :)

Tonight, I recorded a small string part on the chorus of “When Anaiya Smiles” and played around with a guitar solo. This will be a very simple track. 5 years ago

Must-see rock shows, must-attend birthday parties, and must-catch-up friends from out of town kept me pretty distracted from the album this weekend. It’s funny to be in such an obsessive state that I consider it a lost weekend even though I probably put a good fifteen hours or so into tracking and mixing. I did lots of rewrites, tracked a few solos, finished a rough draft of “Having Hadn’t Had” and wrote “Love Story”, but the latter might be too cheeseball, even for me, even with a punchline. If I keep it, I think I’m at about 24 minutes now. With a four-day weekend coming up and the option of doing a cover, I’m still feeling pretty comfortably ahead of pace. I also found a little vintage (ungrounded) Fender Vibro-Champ at Trading Musician and the periodic electrocutions it delivers while recording have been very exciting.

Number One Rock Song
Sixteen Minutes
Having Hadn’t Had
Fast Food Blues
NaNoWriMo Fight Song
Love Story
B.C. Runner
Enunciation Breakdown
Brain Eats Heart
A Minor Chord
Cousin
What the Devil
Twenty-Third Day
Next Halloween 5 years ago

Recorded another 3 minutes or so of stuff. I’m not thinking about the deadline anymore, I’m just thinking about finding time to do it and working out how to do it. Sounds very mechanical and all instrumental so far.

I’ve found that scheduling time and setting a time limit help. Like, I’m going to record Monday night for an hour. This marks out time for me where I don’t feel pressure to be doing something else and it stops me being distracted half way through, because I can postpone things until after the hour is up.

My creative muscle feels a little weak, but then I rarely overburden it. 5 years ago

I should be in bed since it’s a work day tomorrow, but I couldn’t stop messing with the music until I had an MP3 of Blind Ignorance to listen to. This is the first song I’ve experienced equipment problems on. I kept getting a dropout in Cakewalk (meaning the playback would stop unexpectedly) during the very short instrumental interlude. I was able to mix the song to a file, though. I’ll listen to all the songs tomorrow, and see if there are any lingering sound problems I can’t live with. There’s a lot of noise during the short instrumental interlude in Blind Ignorance, but given the problems it gives me in Cakewalk, I’m not sure I want to deal with re-recording it right now. It could be a real time sink.

All that’s left is recording vocals for When Anaiya Smiles, add other instruments as desired and mix and master it. Then all that’s left is extra icing on this cake if I want it. 5 years ago

I finished “I Don’t Wanna Be” and “The Housewife’s Lament” this afternoon. I have two songs left to deal with: “Blind Ignorance” and “When Anaiya Smiles.” I still need to record the vocals for Anaiya because I got too sick to sing before I finished it. I’m not sure I quite finished the guitar on that one, either. I’ll probably work on Blind tonight after I run get something to eat. _{I’m not really going to run. I’m going to drive.}

I might be an overachiever and do another song before the month is over. I don’t know if I have another one in me right now, but I can try with no pressure at all.

Titles and times:
NaSoAlMo 1: Madam Mam’s Thai Cuisine 3:04
NaSoAlMo 2: Salt and Pepper 3:13
NaSoAlMo 3: Tell Him No 3:30
NaSoAlMo 4: I Don’t Wanna Be 1:36
NaSoAlMo 5: The Housewife’s Lament (traditional folk song) 3:01
NaSoAlMo 6: Blind Ignorance 3:49
NaSoAlMo 7: Lunch with Brian 4:20
NaSoAlMo 8: Dear, Dear Adam 4:12
NaSoAlMo 9: When Anaiya Smiles 3:14

29:59 minutes 5 years ago

I fixed a problem I heard with the piano and finalized the track. Enjoy! Dear, Dear Adam5 years ago

I have done much work today, so I need to stop and go to sleep or something. I should eat something first. After getting “Dear, Dear Adam” filled out, I spent the rest of the evening adding bass to “Tell Him No” and mixing and mastering it. Wow… I love that song. 5 years ago

I sat down with “Dear, Dear Adam” this evening and added bass and piano. I’m so glad I was able to figure out a little piano accent to at least one of the songs. It sounds pretty. I might post it tomorrow. I need to listen to the final product some more to see if anything is annoying. 5 years ago

Madam Mam’s Thai Cuisine is ready. I tweaked the mix on other two songs I had “finished,” too. I learned a little about how to make them sound better with an EQ plugin, but I also learned what works on one song might not work on the next, so it’s like starting over every time. :P I worked out some of the problems that were bothering my ears, though. I replaced the files on my Web site.

I’m not sure what I’ll work on next. I can’t sing because it will throw me into a coughing fit. I feel like playing bass. That’s usually satisfying.

Titles and times:
NaSoAlMo 1: Madam Mam’s Thai Cuisine 3:04
NaSoAlMo 2: Salt and Pepper 3:13
NaSoAlMo 3: Tell Him No 3:30
NaSoAlMo 4: I Don’t Wanna Be 1:35
NaSoAlMo 5: The Housewife’s Lament (traditional folk song) 3:01
NaSoAlMo 6: Blind Ignorance 3:48
NaSoAlMo 7: Lunch with Brian 4:20
NaSoAlMo 8: Dear, Dear Adam 4:12
NaSoAlMo 9: When Anaiya Smiles 3:14

29:57 minutes 5 years ago

This morning, I decided to look up some information about EQ (equalization) because my songs are hurting my ears and some of the parts seem lost. Sometimes my harmonies sound like they’re creating dissonance with my lead vocals or something. I don’t know exactly. I’m sure there’s a lot of other yuck stuff going on that hurts my ears, too.

I knew this idea might result in further frustration, and that’s exactly what happened. This is what makes me not want to do music. I’m a loner, and I want to make music all by myself from start to finish. But I don’t have the ears to diagnose problems and fix them. I just know when something bothers my ears. And my songs bother (really hurt) my ears.

Blah blah blah. Anyway.. here’s what’s frustrating me right now. I search for EQ for beginners or mastering for beginners or mixing for beginners, and this is an example of the crap I get:

Try starting with a moderately low Q (wideish) with the gain right down, and sweep the low mids until you hear the tight round low end and no muddiness at all.

WTF does that mean? I understand the first 7 words and the last 5 words. Everything in between is NOT for beginners.

I’ll try to go back to making music and not worrying about what it sounds like because that’s what this project is about. 5 years ago

This evening, I recorded bass for Madam Mam’s Thai Cuisine. Then I sat at my keyboard and tried to find a flute sound to add, but that didn’t work out. Then I tried to figure out a piano part to no avail. I walked away for a while and it occurred to me that I should try to add some drum beats. I tried… didn’t work. I started to get discouraged, and then I remembered this is supposed to be fun, and if I can’t think of something to add without frustrating myself, then the song is done. So there.

I mixed it and made an MP3, but I’m going to let it sit overnight and listen to it on the way to Madam Mam’s tomorrow. I’m sleepy, and I’m so happy it’s the weekend. 5 years ago

Salt and Pepper is available on my Web site now. My ears hurt from listening to music in headphones so much, and I have 7 more songs to go. Ouch. I think tonight, I’ll work on the bass part for Madam Mam’s. It’s a little more upbeat, and should be a lot of fun.

Titles and times:
NaSoAlMo 1: Madam Mam’s Thai Cuisine 3:04
NaSoAlMo 2: Salt and Pepper 3:13
NaSoAlMo 3: Tell Him No 3:31
NaSoAlMo 4: I Don’t Wanna Be 1:35
NaSoAlMo 5: The Housewife’s Lament (traditional folk song) 3:01
NaSoAlMo 6: Blind Ignorance 3:48
NaSoAlMo 7: Lunch with Brian 4:20
NaSoAlMo 8: Dear, Dear Adam 4:15
NaSoAlMo 9: When Anaiya Smiles 3:14

30:01 minutes 5 years ago

Tonight, I added bass and a little bit of lead guitar to “Salt and Pepper.” It’ll be a nice contrast with “Lunch with Brian” as it’s a slower paced song with a melancholy feel.

Titles and times:
NaSoAlMo 1: Madam Mam’s Thai Cuisine 3:04
NaSoAlMo 2: Salt and Pepper 3:13
NaSoAlMo 3: Tell Him No 3:31
NaSoAlMo 4: I Don’t Wanna Be 1:35
NaSoAlMo 5: The Housewife’s Lament (traditional folk song) 3:01
NaSoAlMo 6: Blind Ignorance 3:48
NaSoAlMo 7: Lunch with Brian 4:20
NaSoAlMo 8: Dear, Dear Adam 4:15
NaSoAlMo 9: When Anaiya Smiles 3:14

30:01 minutes 5 years ago

I fell asleep on the couch watching a recording of last week’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” My cold has traveled into my chest. *cough*

Hopefully, I’ll be able to sleep through the night and be rested enough to resume work tomorrow night. 5 years ago

I’m not a big fan of “the show must go on,” but I’m having too much fun to let this cold slow me down much. I recorded the guitar for “When Anaiya Smiles” tonight. I must have played slower than when I first estimated the time because it turned out to be over 3 minutes long. Once I finish vocals on Anaiya I’ll be ready for the next phase on all the songs: finish adding instruments, mix and master.

Take a look at the titles below, and let me know which one intrigues you the most. If one stands out among you, I’ll work on that one next. My friend Julie at work would like to hear “Salt and Pepper” next.

Titles and times:
NaSoAlMo 1: Madam Mam’s Thai Cuisine 3:04
NaSoAlMo 2: Salt and Pepper 3:11
NaSoAlMo 3: Tell Him No 3:31
NaSoAlMo 4: I Don’t Wanna Be 1:35
NaSoAlMo 5: The Housewife’s Lament (traditional folk song) 3:01
NaSoAlMo 6: Blind Ignorance 3:48
NaSoAlMo 7: Lunch with Brian 4:20
NaSoAlMo 8: Dear, Dear Adam 4:15
NaSoAlMo 9: When Anaiya Smiles 3:14

29:59 minutes 5 years ago

If I felt better tonight, I’d record the basic tracks for the song I wrote yesterday, but my head is stuffy, and I have a sore throat. I should probably go to bed early.

Would anyone like to hear a song? Assuming at least one person will say yes, here’s an MP3:

Lunch with Brian5 years ago

Strange weekend of NaSoAlMo obsession. On both Friday and Saturday I had that “oh, it really was all downhill from last weekend” feeling. I made rough drafts of a few songs, wrote lots of lyrics, did lots of tracking on existing ideas, but didn’t have the energizing experience of a song bursting out from nothing to near completion within a few hours. By Sunday I had low expectations but my mojo seemed to have returned, and when you sum up the overall progress I’m at 12 songs, about 22 or 23 minutes of album. With 18 days left to finish 7 or 8 more minutes (which can include a cover), that’s nothing to shake a stick at. Although, if you heard these songs, stick-shaking might be a natural reaction…

My plan is to finish all writing and basic tracking by the end of next weekend, leaving the last ten days for retakes, adding solos and accents, mixing, and mastering. Or, if I’m really lucky, writing better songs so I can scrap a few of these:

Number One Rock Song
Sixteen Minutes
Fast Food Blues
NaNoWriMo Fight Song
Canadian Runner
Enunciation Breakdown
Brain Eats Heart
A Minor Chord
Riverboat Gambler
What the Devil
Twenty-Third Day
Next Halloween 5 years ago

I wrapped up “Lunch with Brian” and presented it to Brian. He said he thoroughly enjoyed it. I still laugh everytime I listen, and I’ve listened to it about a million times. Of course, it’s funny because, as Brian said, “We’ve lived it.” :D

Brian invited me to have dessert tonight with him and some of his friends at one of our favorite restaurants, so I’ll take a break in a little while and go have some yummy food.

I also finished writing NaSoAlMo #9: When Anaiya Smiles. This one was written at Madam Mam’s, Starbucks and finished at home. It’ll cover the last 2.5 minutes I need for the required album length. If I add a bridge (which I should), it’ll be even longer.

Titles and times:
NaSoAlMo 1: Madam Mam’s Thai Cuisine 3:04
NaSoAlMo 2: Salt and Pepper 3:11
NaSoAlMo 3: Tell Him No 3:31
NaSoAlMo 4: I Don’t Wanna Be 1:35
NaSoAlMo 5: The Housewife’s Lament (traditional folk song) 3:01
NaSoAlMo 6: Blind Ignorance 3:48
NaSoAlMo 7: Lunch with Brian 4:20
NaSoAlMo 8: Dear, Dear Adam 4:15
NaSoAlMo 9: When Anaiya Smiles 2:30

29:15 minutes written
Done writing! 5 years ago

I want to write the last 2.5 minutes of the album today. That’ll be NaSoAlMo song #9. I think I’ll brainstorm lyrics first like I did with “Dear, Dear Adam” and “Lunch with Brian.” Those two are my favorite songs at this point. That’s so interesting to me because I’ve never done lyrics first before this project.

My recorder only has 8 slots for songs, so after I write #9 and before I record it, I’ll have to finalize all the tracks for at least one previous song, back it up to CD and delete it. I’ll probably do that with “Lunch with Brian” because I want Brian to hear it soon. 5 years ago

I went over to my friend’s house for the start of music night. I hadn’t been for a couple of weeks and didn’t want them to think I quit them totally. It was great seeing them, but I left at 10:00, when they were just about ready to start the music. I was anxious to get home and start recording “Dear, Dear Adam.”

I recorded guitar a little differently. I had been using a mic on previous tracks, but this time I plugged straight into the preamp. I wish I had done that on the other tracks because it sounds better. I don’t have good mic-ing technique.

Anyway… I got the guitar recorded. It alternates between picking and strumming. Then I recorded vocals. Three parts in a couple spots. It’s a really lovely song, I think.

Just one more song to write, and then it’s down to filling out the songs with more instruments and mixing them. 5 years ago

I got an idea for a song years ago, but never wrote it until tonight. For this song, I sat at my computer and composed in MS Word. It’s an ode to Adam Duritz and his Counting Crows music. He writes about women sometimes. In later songs, you know the women because now that he’s famous he knows famous women. Courtney Cox and Monica Potter are two of them.

In the older songs, all you know are names. Margery, Anna, Amy and Elizabeth. Those women intrigue me. I remember seeing him behind the Frank Erwin Center in Austin after a show, and someone asked him who Anna was. He wouldn’t say.

I’m glad I didn’t write it before now. I was able to put a reference to something that happened in my life about a year ago that makes the song more personal for me.

Titles and times:
NaSoAlMo 1: Madam Mam’s Thai Cuisine 3:04
NaSoAlMo 2: Salt and Pepper 3:11
NaSoAlMo 3: Tell Him No 3:31
NaSoAlMo 4: I Don’t Wanna Be 1:35
NaSoAlMo 5: The Housewife’s Lament (traditional folk song) 3:01
NaSoAlMo 6: Blind Ignorance 3:48
NaSoAlMo 7: Lunch with Brian 4:20
NaSoAlMo 8: Dear, Dear Adam 4:15

26:45 minutes written
2:24 minutes to go 5 years ago

I recorded vocals and a short bridge with just lead and rhythm guitar for NaSoAlMo 6: Blind Ignorance. My ears hurt. That happens when I listen to stuff through headphones too much. I think I’ll watch football on TV for a while because my energy is zapped.

Titles and times:
NaSoAlMo 1: Madam Mam’s Thai Cuisine 3:04
NaSoAlMo 2: Salt and Pepper 3:11
NaSoAlMo 3: Tell Him No 3:31
NaSoAlMo 4: I Don’t Wanna Be 1:35
NaSoAlMo 5: The Housewife’s Lament (traditional folk song) 3:01
NaSoAlMo 6: Blind Ignorance 3:48
NaSoAlMo 7: Lunch with Brian 4:20

22:30 minutes written
6:39 minutes to go 5 years ago

I took my iPod with the guitar track I recorded last night to Madam Mam's Thai Cuisine for lunch. While I ate, I listened and wrote a couple of pointed, angry verses.

Then I went to Starbucks. On the drive there, the beginning of a chorus came to me: “I’ve got to hand it to you. It takes a lot of nerve.” With that in my mind, I ordered a grande decaf whole milk mocha in a mug and a peppermint brownie. The cashier must have been new because it really threw him for a loop that I ordered my mocha in a mug. He had to ask someone else where the mugs were. Then a cute Barista who exhibits a lot of confidence made my drink. I sat at a table and wrote the rest of the song. 5 years ago

I almost didn’t work on music tonight because I’m exhausted. An aside: I’ve always wondered how people have the energy to go out and do things on Friday night after a whole week working (for those who work a Mon-Fri week). Even in college, I was too exhausted on Friday nights to do much while all my friends were PARTYING.

Anyway… I made myself record the guitar part for the music I wrote the other night. I’m not sure it’s a keeper, but I’ll put it in my iPod and see if I can come up with lyrics. I’d really like to have all the music and lyrics written for the album by the end of this weekend. Then I’ll start beefing up the songs with more instruments and vocals and begin the painful process of mixing. 5 years ago

Tonight, I recorded lead vocal, two harmony tracks, bass and rhythm guitar for “Lunch with Brian.” It’s pretty awesome. heh

I probably need to set that song aside, though, and get back to writing. With 10:27 left to write, I’ll probably need to do three more songs. One 3 minute song is half written (no lyrics yet). If it’s a keeper, I’ve got about 7.5 minutes of music to write plus 3 sets of lyrics. To me, that still feels daunting, but we’ll see what the weekend brings. 5 years ago