It is that time of year again: the new year. And with that also arrives the very first challenge of the year: to write a song a day for the next month.
This is Jamuary 2022.
You’ll recall I took part in this challenge last year and had quite a bit of fun with it. I stopped at the end of the month as I had to focus on other things. However, I did take inspiration from the event and apply it to movie making in May and then again for my own December Drumming challenge.
Unlike last year, I’m not so green behind the ears in terms of music post production, though I say that knowing full well I still have a lot to learn. But I don’t think I’ll be struggling with the easier stuff this year. Whereas last year I focused more on the integration of live sound and digital and making it all work smoothly, this year I’m looking to focus on a wider variety of musical genres but that each have some sort of movement. By that I mean, they have a structure of beginning, middle, and an end.
I’ll be using much the same technology as last year, the only real difference being that I’ve upgraded my phone since the last challenge and that alone has proven to be a huge boost in terms of productivity. Compression, tag editing, posting, and more are all possible using this little device. I have been thinking of upgrading some of my tech and / or getting a few plugins here or there, but I’m in no rush to do that just yet.
One theme that keeps popping into mind is that of “film soundtracks”. For whatever reason I have it in mind that I want to aim towards more film soundtrack-like music and tracks. That way, things should move a little bit more and have a bit more character with the idea that they can be used to complement the moving image.
Do I have a list for this year as I did for last year?
I have some ideas but, much like last year, I’m leaving things very open to interpretation. Here is a list that I compiled so far:
| Chant | Everything is a drum | Loop |
| Beatbox | Reverse | Try Something New |
| Time signatures | Instrument Never Played Before | Spoken Word |
| Alpha Theta | Pop | Remix |
| Binaural | Found Sound | Intro |
| EDM | Melody only | What feeling |
| Musical Ideas Throughout the Day | Samples | Power up |
| Film Soundtrack | Noise | Calm Down |
| Foreign Language | Phone Ringer | Plugin |
| Cover song? | Tribal | Long Breaks |
| Epic | Tape |
That list is subject to change and I don’t really feel the need to follow it in any particular order.
One other thing I may not do this year is provide a running commentary. Last year I created blog posts for each and every track complete with screenshots. This took a lot of time and added quite a bit of extra stress. Although it was nice to see at the end of the month, the practice of adding commentary was more so I could remember what I did. I don’t feel the same need to do the same thing this year but, as with December Drumming, I might do spoken commentaries as I go along as those are far easier than writing explanatory blog posts.
With that, let’s get it on!