Preparations

[kim n]

I've cleaned space on my Roland recorder and my laptop (where I do the
mixing). I've jotted down song idea notes. And I've decluttered my
music room so that it's inviting.

Have you done anything to prepare or are you just waiting until 12:01
a.m. Nov. 1 to jump in?

[alfonso....@gmail.com]

I'm just doing the same thing I did last year ... a lot of playing,
practicing, and performing.

Since Nov 1 is a Saturday, I kist might be able to pull off getting it
done by the time the weekend is over ... though I probably won't go
for a double CD like I did last year ... *GRIN.

Dennis

--
Treat your ears, heart, and soul, listen:
http://88.198.48.138:9600 (web-stream)
http://audiozoloft.com
http://www.myspace.com/usrsbin (required?)

[rustingw...@gmail.com]

I've cleaned off my laptop. I still need to declutter my desk, find
my pop filter, and buy a couple of cables. I've jotted down notes on
scraps of paper from work, but they probably ended up in the trash.
Hopefully, I can sit down before Saturday and write down a few ideas
in my notebook.

My plan so far is to just have fun with the music and not worry about
lyrics at first. And try to use synth sounds that I haven't used
before since I usually just use the same few over and over.

[Anthony Schwickerath]

I've been trying to get the house cleaned up so that I won't have to
think about that too much during November (both NaSoAlMo and NaNoWriMo
this year). I am avoiding the urge to do a clean install on my
computer and am settling for backing things up and freeing up some
space. I've been doing some unrelated songwriting and recording, so I
know that my hardware is in working order at this moment.

Jotting down notes ahead of time? That's allowed? Now you tell me.
Yeah, I'll be doing that as well, even though I only have a few days
left.

I'm also trying to fight off the cold/flu/whatever that has been
making the rounds here. I do not have time to be sick for the rest of
this year.

Cheers - Anthony

[James Perry]

> Jotting down notes ahead of time? That's allowed? Now
> you tell me.

I believe I raised this question myself last year, and if I recall correctly, I was told it's allowed to an extent. Notes and rough sketches from before November 1st? Sure. Fully written songs? Nope.

On a related note, I am currently wrapping up the project that began as a nasoalmo project last year but grew into something much bigger. I estimate I can get it done in a matter of days. So... maybe I'll be joining you all this year after all! We'll see. I find the do-an-album-in-a-month thing absolutely GREAT for songwriting, but it's hard for me to let go of recordings that I still consider pretty rough.

[Todd Gehman]

I spent the summer decluttering my place, so I have a much nicer space
to work in this year. Other than that, I'm not doing as much prep
work as last year. Set up the drum kit with mics last weekend, got
the tracks and levels all set up in GarageBand. I've gotten in a bad
habit of being a November-only musician, so I had to start noodling
around on guitar just to get some calluses built up. And wiped the
dust off the keyboard...

Now...the waiting...

[Cort Stratton]

I've been relaxing, reading, playing video games (legitimate professional research!), cooking nice dinners, spending quality time with my wife... I figure I'm not going to get to do any of these things for a month, so I may as well enjoy them while I can! :)

 - cort

[kim n]

My notes consist of things like:

* Sequel to "Lunch with Brian"
* Office Olympics
* Dead BBQ Grill song
* Aspartame song

Just high level ideas for songs. I think that's legal.

Hope you get well before the weekend!

On Oct 28, 11:11 pm, Anthony Schwickerath

[kim n]

Song notes on paper scraps that end up in the trash... there's an idea
right there.

[Matt Searles]

I wrote a blog post on this subject at http://mattsearles.com/podcast_blog/2008/10/31/adventures-in-nasoaimo-the-national-solo-album-month-challenge/
And I mentioned NaSoAlMo at this mornings boston media makers (google
it) which is a social media / media makers group..

So I think most of what I did in prep was planning.. and getting some
new gear.

I did program a few patches though.. In NI Massive, Absynth, and.. and
Reason..

I'm feeling like I should have done more in preparation now.

matt

[alfonso....@gmail.com]

Laid down the first hour track yesterday afternoon ... will do a
little work on it tonight ... not worried ...

Dennis

--

[singleservingfriend]

Tried to clean a little.

Bought:
Zoom H2 Handy Recorder
Bontempi10 Electric Chord Organ
Ricky Rooksby's "How to Write Songs On Keyboards"

Someone just gave me a laptop recently, so I'll run Audacity with
that, using that for layering.

Big inspirations:
Dylan's Late '60's work
The Band's "Music from Big Pink"
Neil Young's "Rust Never Sleeps"
Ryan Adams

The only thing I didn't do:
Recover my bass from my band's practice space. (It's 45 minutes out of
town) Then again, a lot of my favorite bassists laid down the bass
last while recording (McCartney, for example), so we'll see.

What's it all about?
During a short-lived tenure with a band, I was asked to submit a list
of song titles: the lead guy in the band would then use the titles as
a springboard for songs he would write. I sent him a list of about 10
songs. He mailed me back and angrily called them 'joke titles'. I
vowed I would write the songs and show him...

Good luck everyone!

Larry

[Anthony Schwickerath]

Someone once told me that success is the best revenge. All the best
proving your former band mate wrong.

Tschuess - drew

--
( anthony | drew ) schwickerath
see what i am up to at http://www.sourcescollective.com/blog/