What I Learnt from Writing 100 Songs in 100 Days
After completing my challenge of writing, recording, and producing 100 songs in 100 consecutive days, I've had time to reflect on the experience. This article covers what I learnt in all aspects, as well as the numbers, and my approach to AI.
Song 100/100 - Waste
This is waste - the hundredth song in my 100 songs in 100 days challenge. What a journey this has been, thank you to all of those who have supported me throughout the challenge. I didn't miss a single day, and I think you can see the evolution yourself. I wrote this song on day 82 - and as usual it cam out of nowhere, it uses a combination of DADGAD and Drop D tuning, and I filmed a proper music video (filmed by, my friend, my sister and my mum)
A day in the life of Web3's First Rockstar
My releases, EP, AI, and the day I had on June 29th - unedited stream of conscious
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What I Learnt from Writing 100 Songs in 100 Days
After completing my challenge of writing, recording, and producing 100 songs in 100 consecutive days, I've had time to reflect on the experience. This article covers what I learnt in all aspects, as well as the numbers, and my approach to AI.
Song 100/100 - Waste
This is waste - the hundredth song in my 100 songs in 100 days challenge. What a journey this has been, thank you to all of those who have supported me throughout the challenge. I didn't miss a single day, and I think you can see the evolution yourself. I wrote this song on day 82 - and as usual it cam out of nowhere, it uses a combination of DADGAD and Drop D tuning, and I filmed a proper music video (filmed by, my friend, my sister and my mum)
A day in the life of Web3's First Rockstar
My releases, EP, AI, and the day I had on June 29th - unedited stream of conscious
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Share Dialog
Continuing my trend of using books as inspiration, today I chose to create a song featured in Soul Music by Terry Pratchett. I’m only halfway through the book, but it’s already a favorite of mine—rock music and fantasy together? Yes, please! I need more of this.
This book is packed with references to real rock songs, like Great Balls of Fire and Stairway to Heaven (aptly renamed Pathway to Paradise). I decided to recreate Good Gracious Miss Polly, a song from the book - Based on Good Golly Miss Molly, but this came with a few challenges.
Firstly, Little Richard is widely considered the architect of rock ‘n’ roll, and his voice has the perfect mix of distortion and power. With modern effects, I could replicate some of this, but I also decided to take the vocals more seriously for once. Instead of relying on software, I actually stood up, warmed up my voice, and practiced singing the entire song three or four times. I’m happy with the result—this is a single vocal take with no autotune, flex pitch, or cuts between different takes. I found that by avoiding strain and focusing on hitting the notes without pushing too hard, my voice sounded much better—and I even managed to squeeze in a Little Richard-style scream at the end!
The other big challenge was the piano. I recorded it using a MIDI keyboard, expecting to make a ton of edits, but surprisingly, I barely had to tweak anything. I only quantized the section after the piano solo—yes, I did a piano solo! It’s not great, but some might call it jazzy. I only filmed one take of the piano, so I was pleasantly surprised by how well it turned out.
Finally, I decided to use lyrics referencing in world places in Pratchett's Discworld series - Such as Sto Lat, Djelibeybi, and Ankh Morpork.
For production, I aimed for a "polished '50s" vibe. I added some reverb and saturation to the master track and used Logic’s mastering tools to enhance the final sound. The picture below shows my mastering chain:
I have decided to try out @mattlee's new platform tortoise, and will release the song as usual on Youtube, Instagram, TikTok and Rodeo. I recorded a short form video, on top of this.
100 SOngs in 100 days Day 84 - "Good Gracious Miss Polly" on Tortoise https://nfeed-frame.vercel.app?id=00001521-3e04-4bf2-af65-657dad37432c&img=bafybeifo45ysmkrxp2tlh77eqvb622qmolz3dopedmui4qlnat7sm5hvyi
The creative social network.
Continuing my trend of using books as inspiration, today I chose to create a song featured in Soul Music by Terry Pratchett. I’m only halfway through the book, but it’s already a favorite of mine—rock music and fantasy together? Yes, please! I need more of this.
This book is packed with references to real rock songs, like Great Balls of Fire and Stairway to Heaven (aptly renamed Pathway to Paradise). I decided to recreate Good Gracious Miss Polly, a song from the book - Based on Good Golly Miss Molly, but this came with a few challenges.
Firstly, Little Richard is widely considered the architect of rock ‘n’ roll, and his voice has the perfect mix of distortion and power. With modern effects, I could replicate some of this, but I also decided to take the vocals more seriously for once. Instead of relying on software, I actually stood up, warmed up my voice, and practiced singing the entire song three or four times. I’m happy with the result—this is a single vocal take with no autotune, flex pitch, or cuts between different takes. I found that by avoiding strain and focusing on hitting the notes without pushing too hard, my voice sounded much better—and I even managed to squeeze in a Little Richard-style scream at the end!
The other big challenge was the piano. I recorded it using a MIDI keyboard, expecting to make a ton of edits, but surprisingly, I barely had to tweak anything. I only quantized the section after the piano solo—yes, I did a piano solo! It’s not great, but some might call it jazzy. I only filmed one take of the piano, so I was pleasantly surprised by how well it turned out.
Finally, I decided to use lyrics referencing in world places in Pratchett's Discworld series - Such as Sto Lat, Djelibeybi, and Ankh Morpork.
For production, I aimed for a "polished '50s" vibe. I added some reverb and saturation to the master track and used Logic’s mastering tools to enhance the final sound. The picture below shows my mastering chain:
I have decided to try out @mattlee's new platform tortoise, and will release the song as usual on Youtube, Instagram, TikTok and Rodeo. I recorded a short form video, on top of this.
100 SOngs in 100 days Day 84 - "Good Gracious Miss Polly" on Tortoise https://nfeed-frame.vercel.app?id=00001521-3e04-4bf2-af65-657dad37432c&img=bafybeifo45ysmkrxp2tlh77eqvb622qmolz3dopedmui4qlnat7sm5hvyi
The creative social network.
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