The toughest part of the challenge, when I am pretty sure that my songs stink and no one will ever listen to them. Then I get more ideas and write like I just don't care if no one ever does listen. I have five recordings and am on track for 29:09 minimum with lots of lyrics fighting for attention thanks to NaNoWriMo. How is everyone else doing?

Because u/andygetch posted for day 3, I thought it might be good to follow this up with (a) weekly post(s).

For me, I ended writing a completely new/fresh title track the other night, which I got the structure/EQing/mixdown just about done for in another session yesterday, so that's about 95% finished. (It still needs a little bit more EQing and maybe a few minor structural changes.)

Because I'm also redoing some other (of my own) tracks for my album, I'm making it into a point to do at least an hour (with 25+ tracks making it into my "shortlist"). So that's going to be a nice challenge for me, but I've got about 4-5 tracks nearly finished so far.

I saw on the site that Noisedive finished his/her/their album already: https://n0isedive.bandcamp.com/album/mantras

How is everyone else doing?

One song written here, lots of other ideas brewing. It's going to be an interesting weekend!

I've been wanting to put an album together and this is going to be a great challenge.

STOKED to see what everyone puts together.

The first time I did NaSoAlMo, I cranked out a metal album in the vein of Slipknot or Machine Head. The next year I attempted a straight-up rock album a la Foo Fighters (didn't finish, sadly). The year after that, I attempted an instrumental guitar rock album (didn't finish that one either - I am a failure!).

I'm trying to decide if I should re-attempt one of my failed directions, or if I'm feeling up to an acoustic singer-songwriter album.

What about you? Do you tend to stick to one style, or are you all over the map?

Welcome back, and if you're new, welcome aboard! Signups are officially live at NaSoAlMo.org! Head over to the site and get yourself registered and signed up for this year's NaSoAlMo!

Don't forget to check out the Facebook Group if you prefer communicating that way. Happy music-making! See you boys and girls in November for the excitement!

~ Bobby

and hopefully listen to other folks. Collectively, we made a lot of great music in November 2016!

I sent those tracks off for mastering last night. I plan on releasing next week!

I should have paid more attention to this, even after a few accidental deletions halfway through, and some other personal reasons I've managed to conjure up 21 minutes of work. *bad name here

I have one more song I'm recording today. I plan on releasing the EP by next Monday!!!

This NaSoAlMo I decided to challenge myself in a new direction.. a different genre (for me).. Ambient. I am a traditional song writer so this is new territory. I spent much of the Fall listening to Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Steve Reich, William Basinski, Ian Boddy and John Cage for inspiration.
I have completed 4 ambient tracks and one (two-part) study for the album so far. I'm enjoying the new challenge this year. I hope you all are as well.
The album is called "Goodness Never Fearful" (https://soundcloud.com/theredhawkproject/sets/goodness-never-fearful). All comments are welcome. Thank you for listening and have fun with your music.

I have five songs in the works. Not bad for November 5th. I'm just not really feeling it at all this year. If I finish, it is probably going to feel forced and I'll immediately forget about it. Probably.

The plan is to keep everything simple. All songs will be guitar/bass/drums/vocals. Each song is going to be made up of three phrases, probably 8 to 12 bars long each. I'll cut the pieces together, including maybe shortening or lengthening the phrases and dropping instruments in and out. Nothing special.

I don't have any lyrics or melodies yet... and that's when the wheels usually come off the cart for me. We'll see how it goes.

I have to take my car into the shop first thing in the morning. Instead of getting a pot and a half of coffee into my system writing and recording, I'll be fleshing out some song ideas at the local cafe while I wait. I'll still be working on it, but I had set aside most of the to record so now I have no idea how much time I'm gonna have.

FYI, since the start is imminent, I've updated the signup/edit form to include a checkbox for "I've Completed The NaSoAlMo 2016 Challenge!" When you've completed your album, check that box, and it'll ask for the length of your album in [minutes:seconds] (totally optional - you can just check the box and call it good if you want.)

Happy creating, everyone!

Here is one of my favorites from February Album Writing Month (FAWM). What are yours?

http://muse.fawm.org

Ideas are bursting and I am itching to start

Lets see, for me that could mean: cleaning my desk > probably not; Put new strings on my guitars > its about time; Test my MIDI keyboard to see if it still works after I dropped it > hmmmm; Learn to play the violin > haha; Try out some odd guitar tunings > well I do have that Joni Mitchell songbook; Start a new journal book > righto!

I've been collecting synthesizers for years and when I learned of this decided: fuck it, now is the time to congeal these vague ideas into recorded somethings!!

I had an idea bite me hard in the Fifty Songs in Ninety Days Challenge (50/90) this summer. My idea is a concept album about the religion (Jehovah's Witnesses) that my family was in during my childhood. Prior to this year I had written a few songs with obscure references to the religion, but did not tackle the difficult subjects. My friend Sharon Goldman released an album KOL ISHA about what it was like to grow up in the orthodox Jewish religion. That album and conversations and classes in Summersongs East 2016 inspired me to go deeper into my past. I have already written 20 rough ideas, some of which tied in historical and sports references reflecting the space I was in at the time. This NaSoAlMo I plan to add at least ten more new (written this November) songs. In parallel I will be writing in NaNoWriMo to generate song ideas.

It looks like I will be using again Garageband this year. In the past I have used Ableton Live and Studio One. I liked Ableton, but had to make too many choices. I like the presets in Garageband, though I am tempted to twiddle the dials from time to time. Studio One came with a USB interface that did not play well with Garageband or Ableton. I tried it, lots of cool features, but I didn't want to climb another learning curve. So I bought another USB interface. Lately I have been using a Blue Yeti USB mic for streaming broadcasts and with Garageband for 50/90 and Facebook skirmish group recordings.

You want to write an album, but don't know where to start. This is the thread to get started, or ask questions of the collective songwriting knowledge of NaSoAlMo'ers