In February, I set out to do the RPM Challenge with a goal of recording one original song. I'm happy to report that I finished it and submitted everything before the deadline. First up, here's the links to the places I've uploaded it:
So how did it go? Let's do a quick retrospective.
As I had said in past posts, I haven't spent a bunch of time writing out whole songs or original music. This challenge both pushed me out of my comfort zone and I set myself up with constraints as guard rails. I won't spend the whole post talking about constraints as a way of making excuses for what I produced, they did limit what I could do this month. When the constraints helped me to focus and reduce the number of choices I had in front of me, they helped.
I spent a lot of the month -- at least the first 2.5 weeks -- working on writing the actual music. And I threw some of it out to restart in the middle of the month. As I had said in previous posts, the kind of music I'd like to making blends prog metal and melodic music together. In addition, I'd like to be able to have strong contrasts between parts of the music, so it isn't all heavy. Two of my constraints for the RPM Challenge were: 4/4 time and staying diatonic in a major key. These meant that I wasn't going to explore much of the prog side of prog metal. On reflection, those were some good guard rails to pick. Playing heavier, rhythmic stuff proved to be hard to integrate with my overall musical ideas for this song. I spent time trying to figure them out, but threw them all out.
During the writing process, I spent time looping chords and seeing how I liked them in different orders. I experimented with different tempos. I didn't want to use an overused or cliche chord progression, but I did stick to the major key diatonic chords list. At one point, I worried that I'd picked a chord progression for my verse that sounded too close to a song from the musical Hamilton. But in the end, I was happy with it. I figured I could try and find ways to make that verse different when I layered it into the song. The verse fit in well with the choices for the chorus: a basic chord progression using power chords and resolving back to the root. The verse used more minor chords played cleaner, and the power chords in the chorus led to a more positive, energetic quality that fit with more guitar distortion. The result came together well.
Later, when laying out the sections in my DAW, the GarageBand software put a "Bridge" section in after the chorus. This led to an overall structure of intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro. I didn't want this song to be 3-4 disconnected sections of music, but I did think the bridge idea was good to implement. I'd already been watching songwriting content on YouTube to better learn how to tie together the verse and chorus. I watched some more videos on crafting bridges, but in the end, I ignored those. I played with my looper and different chords until I got something that I felt flowed into the chorus. It also took the song to a new place. The new structure was a success: the top line melody could go to a new place and then drop us back into the chorus in its third iteration. The change into and out of the bridge reinforced the energy and positive nostalgic vibes I was going for.
At some point, I returned to an idea I had read online: Imagine the instrumental song that you are writing as a 3-to-5 minute movie. Who's there? What's the setting? How does the story progress?
The unspoken feelings baked into the original verse progression included a feeling of being the one who disappointed the someone close to you. This feeling was dropped as I wrote the chorus and bridge. In the end, the "movie" in my head completely changed. This song became all about a sense of nostalgia and childhood. I dropped the sad and frustrated concepts that drove the original verse concept. The new direction led to the title "Sun-stained Memory" after playing around with words and titles. It encapsulates ideas of Saturday morning or summers off from school, how the light came into the house to "stain" those memories, and what it felt like to experience that memory now while wishing for that simpler time. The slower tempo and keeping my timing reined in (discussed in the next section) helps to keep it in that space of half-remembered nostalgia.
There was no one moment where inspiration for this hit. It was through the daily practice of sitting down and working on the song that the "movie" became clear and defined in my mind.
I haven't recorded music much music, either. In the past, I had recorded some live music. For that, I tried to get the instruments mic'd and hoped I could mix it afterwards with some isolation. This lack of experience in recording myself bit me. While I practice with a metronome, I had a hard time putting together the "demo quality" rough track. I had a lot of takes for every section I tried to record -- often 15 or more takes in the DAW before I threw them out and started over.
My guitar teacher got to listen to the rough demo version and gave me some pointers on where I needed to be more in time. It seems I have the common guitarist problem of getting excited and speeding up. I worked on this for the entire remaining time in the month, which meant re-recording most of the track from scratch.
GarageBand was helpful but sometimes frustrating. I do think it helps to have constraints, and sticking with GarageBand was one of those constraints for this month. But sometimes I couldn't get it to do what I wanted. Other times, I had to be creative. There were 2 "glue" tracks in the timeline to paper over some problems. I learned to chop up recorded audio and re-record bits, but sometimes the audio didn't match after such surgery, and GarageBand doesn't seem to be able to cross-fade takes. I ended up re-recording parts of the top line melodies enough that I ended up recording the second chorus-bridge-chorus sections in their entirety in one take. It turned out better that way, but I also worried about losing energy and feeling that I had gotten in previous takes. Some of that tone or energy was not something I could bring back after repeated takes; I was losing "something" in trying so many times.
The amount of time spent recording led to re-activating the tendon injury I have with my left hand. I got through the month, but at the expense of over-use and needing to recover now. So I have to ask myself if that part was worth it. Given what I spent so much time on, I also now know that I need to work on recording with a click track and keeping time with it. I've integrated a simple exercise into my guitar practice plan to record playing to a click track.
Closing out February, I am exhausted and spent the first day of March recuperating by doing nothing. My low back pain made itself known. And I know I have been neglecting exercise while also not getting enough sleep. I have been having some sleep issues that made the energy and focus required all the more draining. I'm looking forward to recovering. And I want to find a way to better balance a commitment like the RPM Challenge with everything else in life going forward. I want to continue making music, so I don't want to burn out on it or injure myself to where I can't play anymore.
I got lucky with recording this song, in that I don't know how to mix or master music. The song didn't need a lot of tweaks at the end. I adjusted the levels, put a tiny bit of compression or reverb on certain parts, and exported it. The videos I watched on mixing or mastering left me with more questions than understanding, and I am not sure how well the features built in to GarageBand could compare to some of the $100+ USD plugins used in those videos.
Not having to dive deep on learning mixing and mastering also meant that I could release the track knowing that I didn't have much I could do. (I have a tick list of little things to improve, but my left hand forced me to stop recording.)
Finishing the RPM Challenge felt good! It gives me confidence to continue learning to write and record music. I don't intend to make this a career or anything, and I didn't start from a place of wanting to express myself. But I better understand how to put together a song from scratch. And I see how the creative process can be rewarding.
It took a lot of beginner learning to get to a finished state. My hope is that it takes me less time and effort with each new song I try to write. That also includes the hope that I can do this in the future with less time commitment and exhaustion. After all, if I want to do this long term, I need to find a way to make it sustainable.
I have some more constraint-based ideas in mind, and may continue to work without the strict month time limit. With practice, I hope to make music in the style and sound that I imagine. But for now, I'm happy to chalk things up to learning and experimenting. In one of the first posts, I said this frees me up a bit from worrying about making my "magnum opus" or something that truly expresses what I feel. Going forward, I'll keep holding that idea of "not my magnum opus" for everything I create. It's all rungs on a ladder, or all "just practice." And if it is all just practice, then we can admit sometimes it isn't perfect or there's mistakes. Try again and do something different next time. The learning process becomes rewarding rather than a constant comparison to where you want to be.
The RPM Challenge is rewarding and I hope it become an annual thing that I participate in. If you're considering it, and especially if you need the external motivation, I'd encourage you to try it!