I’ve basically got 4 weekends to do finish 10 songs or 35 minutes of music, record, mix, create a physical copy and mail in. I haven’t written anything new in the last 8 months and way things are going, its going to be a while before I can sit down and write a song for fun.
Soundtrack for this post:
Todays goals:
It’s 10:00 AM, I’ve got until about 4:00 PM to write the first batch of songs, I should have at least 8 songs written with some basic tracks laid down.
How will I manage to write 8 songs in 6 hours? Simple, by writing the drum parts first, then laying down some sort of chord progression over them, figuring out a melody and then writing some words (It’s the hardest part for me so I left it for last), that should limit me enough that I shouldn’t have much trouble over thinking things.
I’ve already posted here so I’d better have something to show for it later this afternoon.
Just one last cup of tea while I set up. Wish me luck.
Fantastic! And good luck. I may be misremembering the exact numbers but I believe Steve Allen once won a bet by writing 350 songs in 7 days…because he could.
Drums and guitars for the first 8 tracks are there… barely, but theres a song structure there and some ideas for some melodies, now all I have to do is write the lyrics. Did I mention that’s the hardest part?
Getting hungry, I’ll take a break for lunch and come back and write.
Good luck! I thought this was going to be about FAWM when I saw the title, but FAWM’s more about writing than production, though many take it as both.
I did a bunch of these sorts of things in previous years, and then found myself going idle for months in between. For me, committing to at least one song a week wound up working a lot better for getting the flow going, and now I’ve worked up to where it just comes easily and consistently. But I expect there was probably something helpful in doing these sorts of challenges too.
Day 1:
4 complete songs written, recorded some scratch tracks ready for arrangements and recording
4 more pieces of music in need of lyrics.
Not bad. I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to work on this tomorrow, If I can, I’ll hopefully write some more lyrics and I’ll start recording.
I wanted to share one of the songs I wrote today but I guess I can’t embed audio here, its pretty rough so I’m not ready to put it anywhere too public just yet. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to do that tomorrow.
I knew I wouldnt have much time this weekend to work on this which is why I tried to do most of the work last week when I was sure I’d have the house to myslef, no distractions. Anyway, managed to write 3 more songs and recorded most of the tracks for 2 which means that I’m actually in better shape than I’d thought I’d be by now,
Going to spend the next week doing most of the tracking and I’ll probably reserve the weekend for vocals.
After that I’ll probably start dropping some rough mixes for feedback. Things are looking good, looks like I might just make it!
Got some unexpected recording time today, managed to record most of the bass tracks and some guitar tracks, I was playing around with the guitar and came up with an interesting instrumental. That’s one down, nine to go.
Panic is starting to set in…
I already knew I wouldn’t have much time to do any work on this this weekend, but this is only the second track I’ve finished and I’ve only got one week left to go.
I had planned to re-record most of the vocals at the end but that is not going to happen now so I’ll have to live with what I’ve already tracked. Having said that, this one turned out OK, I think. I don’t know why I decided to write this one in english, I’m even more self-conscius for sharing it here but no time for regrets now, on to the next track.
I’m going to admit I played this in browser on my phone, but I really enjoyed it. I’m truly looking forward to singing along with that second one after a few beers.
Also, as someone who’s Spanish was pretty broken even when I was in practice, thanks for one in English!
Thank you very much! I’m glad you liked it, I’ve been at this a few hours today but nothing seems to click, I was about to give up when I read your comment, so I kept at it a little more and manage to capture something useful!
Hopefully next Wednesday will be better and I should be able to make it, just barely.
A few of the songs I wrote initally just weren’t working for me but there isn’t time to redo all that work so I took them to a weird place. I just might be able to live with them now.
Finished tracking two more songs, and pending a few arrangements and mixing that’s two more down, also made progress on a third one where the melody just wasn’t working, i now have a melody, and the song is tracked, but no words.
Scrapped three of the songs I originally wrote because they were going to be too much work to get ready in time so I’m going to replace them with a couple I’d already been working on (Hey, the rules don’t say you have to write everything in February, just record it and put it out)
I’m tired, I’m going to play some vidoegames for a while.
Maybe?
Not likely at this point, but I’m not giving up just yet.
Mrs. tachin is scheduled for surgery (nothing serious fortunately) tomorrow, We only found out Friday, so I lost the whole weekend.
I’ve finished three more tracks so I’m halfway there. I’m still working on a few things in the background so if all goes well tomorrow, I’ll probably pull an all nighter and finish whatever I can.
