Blocked already?! This sucks...

[Meg]

So my album isn't going so hot. I've got one set of lyrics completed
(not recorded, though) and one 30-second piano piece, but that's it.

I'm going to blame of Montreal. Their new album, "Skeletal Lamping",
was released on October 21st, and its first single, "Id Engager",
refuses to remove itself from my head. I've listened to it upwards of
15 times since last night. In fact, it is playing right now. Not only
is it funky and supremely catchy, but I adore the lyrics. The video
(with a trippy exquisite corpse going on) is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHFUXH4PP5c.

And it's not just today! The day before yesterday, it was "Campus" by
Vampire Weekend taking up prime brain real estate. Sigh. Video for
that one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47KFAaw1dU

Any advice or words of encouragement, guys and gals?

[Anthony Schwickerath]

I know how that can be I had a song trying to derail one of my Albums-
A-Day. My advice is to just start singing random things about what
you are doing, like "Now I am taking out the trash / the stench of
banana peels is like a lash / to my sense of smell / it is like a
small piece of hell / I open the lid / and in the bag slid." If
nothing else, your neighbors will start looking at you strangely and
the extreme embarrassment will consume you both giving you fodder for
your songs and driving the catchiness of of Montreal out of your head.

Oh, and stop listening to other people's music. Just turn the radio
or CD player or MP3 player or whatever off. Stay away from YouTube.
Then take a shower so that your head is filled with the cleansing
sound of white (or pink or whatever it is) noise.

Good Luck! - drew...who had a realization thursday driving home from
work so today is going to hopefully be making a valiant first pass at
lyrics for a bunch of songs and who can do it with a clear conscience
because he is seriously ahead on his NaNoWriMo word count...

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

[Lala]

I've been having good luck writing lyrics when I'm not at an
instrument - like when I'm at lunch on a workday or while I'm
commuting. I guess there's something to that whole "doing one thing at
a time" idea.

I'm finally back in the saddle after a week of technical difficulties,
and have three minutes of music to show for it. Anyone have any hot
tips on catching up?

[Matthew Egbert]

For those of you on Facebook, I've created a NaSoAlMo group..feel free
to join up.

I've written about 14 minutes of material. 5 "songs". I realize I'll
have to write a lot more -- but things are starting to sound the same.
Meg mentioned having a hard time because they've got someone else's tune
in her head. I keep getting the tune from the first song I wrote in my
head. It's really bad! I think "oh - this melody will work well" --
and then a minute later I realize I've already used it in another song.
It's irritating!

Also, all of my songs are turning out to be 3 mins or under... I guess
that means more songs!

Also, I started a spreadsheet for my songs. It started as
procrastination -- but I think it will help me keep straight what needs
to be done. Also the running length of the album...Seeing that inch up
each day will help on the motivation front.

- Matt

[Evan Gilbert]

I was thinking about doing that but was too lazy to get around to it. Thanks for making it.

I only have two songs so far, a short 1:30ish track and then a massive one upwards of ten minutes. The thing is right now I don't really like either of them, they don't sound at all like what I was hoping for when I started them so I'm thinking about forgetting the linear story I had planned, scrapping everything and starting over...

I have not been doing any documentation of my work, which I might want to fix and I think it's probably why I'm disappointed with my work so far. Oh well, I've still got over half the month to start over.

Side note to Meg: You chose great bands to be distracted by.

[Meg]

@ drew: That is an awesome idea, narrating one's life in song.
However, I don't think I can stop listening to other peoples' music,
as it is so much better than my own! Sigh. Unless you mean just when I
am trying to write. That I can handle.

@ Lala: Hmm, I shall have to give that a shot. Lyrics on the bus, in
the waiting room, while bored at work... though I hear locking
yourself up in a room and forcing yourself to write works, too.

@ Matthew: That's too bad about getting your own songs stuck in your
head. I think you should try listening to music of a different genre
than whichever one you're working in now and see if it helps. I'm
really fond of short songs, actually, so I won't complain if you have
to write bunches. Also, I'll be sure to go find that Facebook group.

@ Evan: Thank you for the side note! I think they're pretty groovy
groups to get sidetracked by, too. As for your completed tracks, who
knows what could happen? Don't scrap what you have in case it fits in
with your new direction.

Hope all of y'all are doing well!

Cheers,
Meg

On Nov 9, 7:07 pm, "Evan Gilbert" <kaosbr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was thinking about doing that but was too lazy to get around to it. Thanks
> for making it.
>
> I only have two songs so far, a short 1:30ish track and then a massive one
> upwards of ten minutes. The thing is right now I don't really like either of
> them, they don't sound at all like what I was hoping for when I started them
> so I'm thinking about forgetting the linear story I had planned, scrapping
> everything and starting over...
>
> I have not been doing any documentation of my work, which I might want to
> fix and I think it's probably why I'm disappointed with my work so far. Oh
> well, I've still got over half the month to start over.
>
> Side note to Meg: You chose great bands to be distracted by.
>

[Cort Stratton]

I had a bit of a crisis of faith this weekend, where I took a long
honest look at the two tracks I've been working on so far and decided
that the concept I had in mind for the album just isn't going to work.
Ten days of work, two crap songs (technically around 10m35s of material,
but a lot of it silence waiting to be filled in). Definitely not my
best year :(.

I've often been tempted to just give up, but no. No! Perish the
thought! After all, isn't NaSoAlMo all about encouraging creative
experimentation without risk? Well, my first experiment failed, and I
learned from it. Time to start another one! Maybe I'll get to 29m09s
by the end of the month, maybe not (and at this rate I almost certainly
won't be sharing the results with friends and family), but at least I'll
be a better, more experienced songwriter.

- cort

[Todd Gehman]

It's interesting that so many folks are having a hard time this year,
I'm having a hard time too. But I'm keeping my hopes up. The way I
figure, if the manic energy doesn't strike until the last two weeks,
that two weeks will be a fun sprint to 29:09. Meanwhile I can
flounder around piling up possible song ideas. I had a pretty
successful night last night and got a second song mostly fleshed out.
But that's it so far: two. Maybe four maybe five minutes of material.

But...I'm not freaking out yet. People are still signing up as we
speak, and they may well finish, too. Blessed with five November
weekends this year, we still have *three more* before the month
ends...

[Matt Searles]

I seem to be struggling myself.. working my butt off and not sure how
things will turn out.

I was working on one track.. it had 30 instruments, 8 aux sends.. it
was madness.. and it burned me out.. after however much work and only
a little over 3 minutes worth of mostly done stuff.

So now I'm off in experimental land.. playing around with making loops
out of strange things.. in Ableton Live... and working on warming up
my guitar playing a bit.. my fingers now hurt, just trying to type..

I'm looking around at the road forward, not knowing how I'll get to
the end of this with a finished album.. but I suppose that's the fun
part.. because its going to force me down pathways I haven't
adventured down before.. perhaps radically different.. I feel
illequipped, but what the hell.. it's those kinds of adventures that
yield the best stuff anyway!

But that's not say I'm not afraid.. lol

Matt S.

[singleservingfriend]

Wow!! That's intimidating.

I'm using a Fender Precision Bass (and a pedalboard consisting of a
Small Stone, Big Muff, Dunlop Wah and Boss Bass Synth pedals), Fender
acoustic guitar, a Bontempi10 reed organ, and an old upright piano
into a Zoom H2, dumping to Audacity. I'm also splitting drum duties
between myself on guitar cases and whatever's lying around and a
freeware drum machine.

Even all that sounds primitive compared to what you're doing! Go
Matt!

I have one acoustic blues number so far, and I have my cover song
picked out, but I'm afraid it will seem like a cop-out if I do it.
We'll see.

Thanks for this forum and everyone's input!

Larry

> > On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 9:39 AM, Cort Stratton <cstrat...@gmail.com>  

> >>>>>>> Any advice or words of encouragement, guys and gals?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -