Have an early one this time. I'm on vacation. Quite happy with how this turned out, I had some time to work on it while away. It originally had a quite different intro but I had enough time to realise it was bad, throw it away, and create a new one.

4 (Saigon Window)

I feel as though I'm finding it a bit more difficult to come up with melody lines recently. I'm still happy with this but I was struggling for a while with the topline, and still don't think it's great.

18 (Long Lost)

I like this one a lot. Can you tell I was listening to Foals this week? I set out with the intention of just having a fast pedal bass and seeing what I could do with stacking some guitar with a bunch of delay over the top. Feels like a bit of a return to form because some of my last tracks I wasn't so happy with.

I changed things up and added a photo for this one, I took this in Milan in 2015.

34 (Psychic Bike)

I tried to wrap this one up quick. I think it had some potential but it's busy around here, not much time to work on it.

43 (Star Pupil)

Not going to win any awards for lyrics like this.

44 (Give It A French Name So It Sounds Fancier)

Timing feels pretty rough at the end of this. Starting to feel a bit burnt out on this weekly beats project, but the end is in sight. I'm falling a little behind though.

45 (Condemnation)

To get the real crisp timing on a track like this will require a lot more practice. Unfortunately not something I can perfect in just a few takes, but it's not too bad.

Nearly at the end of this project now.

46 (why are you here)

Not quite sure what the genre should be here. I thought I'd give something a bit more electronic a shot, and then add some delayed guitar over the top.

I feel that I'm dedicating less and less time to these each week. The end is in sight - five more to go.

47 (Anything)

48 (Man Suit)

I'm afraid I'm really slacking off toward the end of the year. This is a bit meandering.
Merry Christmas everyone!

49 (Throw It All Away)

Well inside my comfort zone for this week. I'm away from home at the moment so just restricted to VSTs. I have a few albums in my collection of just ambient, basic piano or other electronic stuff - some of it can be nice. For tracks in this style though, I'm not sure what the secret sauce is that elevates it to greatness.

50 (Smoke And Broken Glass)

I've been sitting on this one, unfinished, for a while.

51 (Ennui)

Here we are with the final track for my weekly beats, 2023. A little late. This verse guitar part for this was pretty easy to come up with and I really like it. I spent a bit more time than usual to add in a bit of variation to the drums.

I accomplished 50 beats through 2023 and in December I knew I wouldn't quite make the deadline. Still, against the pretty ambitious goal I am happy with how this all came together.

As was my original intention, I think putting together so many tracks has helped me to just work faster and not spend too much time obsessing over the little bits that don't add a lot to the final result. I feel like I've found a style and a bunch of effects that add up to a "sound" that I hope I'll be able to reproduce and futher develop in the future.

With those benefits, though, I noticed some negatives and also a few things that need further work. I was pushing myself to play more guitar solos, and while it's true I'm now more comfortable with that, I really don't have the speed to add in the rhythmic variation that could make the solos more exciting and hold interest for longer. Also, I think since I was spending more time recording parts in just a few takes, and less time practicing a given part, my ability to keep solidly in time dropped off a bit. This is particularly noticeable on bass.

So, I've produced a body of work, and plan to continue recording - in 2024 I hope to produce something coherent. I think I'd also like to work on adding some more vocals. What I consider to be the best tracks of these 52, I will put together and release on streaming platforms, so stay tuned.

52 (Closure)

Hi all, I created this account specifically to upload my weekly beats for 2023.

It feels like an impossible task right now. The goal is to create and upload a finished track every week for the entire year. The year will be finished with 52 published projects.

I don't know how I'll possibly find the time to do this, but that's sort of the point... Part of the challenge is improving your workflow to the point that you can go fast enough. So... I write this on 28 December 2022. Let's work at weekly beats for 2023!

bWeekly

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