"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Lots of small happenings today. I got folders started for new students who are starting this week: only one of which I need for tomorrow (@ 4:30), but it still felt good to get the process underway for both of them. I also did a bit of studying on my own today.  Found something in the practice/study binder that I thought I had finished up a long, long time ago that somehow was left undone.  Polished that off no problem.  Know where I'm headed with regards to that whole thing right now.  Feels good to have traction again. Also of note (pardon the pun), I finally got a binder full of church music handed to me today before mass.  That only took 3 and a half weeks.  I already know that I'm going to have to go sifting through that before Wednesday, if only to make sure that the chords are actually a) there, b) right, and c) in keys that actually work for guitar.  Didn't really look like that was the case in my first glance through the binder.  We shall see.  Also, they wan

Lots of listening today.  Most of it classic sixties soul.  Somehow Sam Cooke just fit perfectly this afternoon. Cranked up the electric for a little while this afternoon, and worked for a bit on my self-imposed Dave Grohl Challenge.  Made a decision on music for one song, and started to get some chorus ideas for it too, so that 's cool. Didn't do enough focused practicing, which is annoying.  Hardly any of it, if you want the unbridled truth.  It was the great failing of my day. Haven't started putting together folders for the new students that are starting this next week.  That has GOT to get done tomorrow. What I did do, if only briefly, was to start diving into a bit of studying.  If I'm going to treat this like a job, punch a clock, track my time better, or whatever, then I need to start from the first page of the binder I started putting together earlier in the year.  Which means that I'm starting with the criteria from the Berklee App. that I printed

Well, I found two more people that might end up taking lessons today.  No official confirmations yet, but seeing as there's no other work to be found up here, I might as well trumpet the successes (or the possible successes, rather) when I find them. Y'know, all I really wanted to do tonight was hide out in a semi-darkened room with a guitar in my hands.  No such luck for me on this night, however.  Although, it does look as if I'll have most of tomorrow to myself.  Not entirely sure that's a good thing right now, but if nothing else it'll give me a chance to plug in and rock out for a while, which is always a good thing. Not sure there's much else to say today.  Although, I am kicking around a few lyric ideas tonight.  Maybe I'll spend some of tomorrow trying to get some words written.  We shall see. All told, today was kind of frustrating.  Here's hoping tomorrow is better.

Not a lot of news today, but what news there is today was BIG. I picked up 2 new students today!  One of them is starting their lessons on Monday afternoon at 4:30, and the other is starting theirs next weekend, we just aren't sure what time yet.  That officially brings my total number of students to 3!  Now, I realize that there's no guarantee they'll all stay with me long term, but hey, a guy can hope, right?  Maybe tomorrow I'll start putting together folders for them.  Either tomorrow or Saturday for sure. Finished reading Meet The Annas today, too.  The storyline held water for me right up until the ending, when it appeared that Mr. Dunn either ran out of ideas, or lost his way and just wrapped up the book too quickly.  Still a fun read, even if the last 20 pages or so left me a little flat.  It makes me want to go watch Grace Of My Heart , a great movie about that same period of time: Brill Building, Girl Group Pop.  Granted, Grace takes you up through the sin

Well, I was right.  My box from B&N came today, and in it was: 1) Babel - Mumford & Sons 2) Uno! - Green Day I made it all the way through the Green Day record, and about 60% through the Mumford record before I had to run off and do stuff tonight.  My initial reaction to the first couple of tracks on Uno! was that Green Day have a classic rock sort of sound now.  The rest of the record just ends up sounding like them, and it's a good, stylistically diverse record.  The hard part of talking about this album at this point is that it's part 1 of 3.  It's hard to put the first third of it in context without hearing the rest of it.  That said, I like it.  I'm going to hold off on talking about the Mumford record until I've listened to the whole thing. Also cool today, I got more feedback from my online ad for lessons!  I'm currently messaging back and forth with 3 people who are interested, and there's one more out there that I messaged yesterda

Today was an interesting hodgepodge of things.  Started reading a music book on my NOOK.  Not a biography, mind you (anyone who follows me on an even semi-regular basis knows that if I buy a music bio, it's always in real book form), but a fictional story that centers on music.  It's called Meet The Annas , and it's by Robert Dunn.  I'm only 70 pages in, but it does a good job of covering the era of the late 50's/early 60's girl group era. Taught again today.  The lesson went okay.  Didn't cover as much as we have the last few weeks, but I think that'll be okay.  Especially considering that there's a quiz scheduled for next week. And speaking of teaching, I had two people reply to my online ad for lessons!  I sent them responses, so now we shall see if I end up with more lessons.  Could be an exciting day tomorrow. Also, it's time to take Lost In Space by Aimee Mann out of the car stereo.  It's been there for a few weeks now, and it'

Oh, where to start today... I got last week's lesson reflections down on paper tonight, and got tomorrow's lesson planned out all in one fell swoop.  Feels great to have that taken care of before the day of, because that didn't happen last week. I spent some time playing today, too.  Mostly, I worked on song ideas for the Grohl Challenge.  Having found another one tonight, I think I may well be up to 7 right now.  Still, none of them are completed, but I really feel like every time I sit down and focus on it for a bit, I get something else that I might be able to use in the end. Also of note today,apparently Paul Westerberg released a song over the weekend.  He's such a brilliant songwriter.  Here's a link to the article & song: http://www.avclub.com/articles/paul-westerberg-releases-a-new-single,85327/ That's really all I know tonight.  I'm sure I could go into greater detail, but honestly, I'm exhausted.  It was a really rough day.

Posting way late today... fell asleep on the couch and just woke up.  That's twice in the last month.  Grrrr.  As with last time, at least I'm posting. So yesterday I said that what I wanted to focus in on was some songwriting.  So, when SL and I went over to her Mom's for football, I brought along a guitar.  I went in hoping to get one new song idea for the Gave Grohl Challenge, and I left last night with two possible ideas.  That would leave me with six things started for this project, assuming of course that all of them end up holding water once all of them are fleshed out. The first of the two ideas is more of a melody line that outlines a chord progression, while the second idea is a cool sounding chord progression that will need more fleshing out in order to determine if it's going to turn into something that will work.  It's got a cool sound to it, though, so I hope it works. For Monday I need to prep for my lesson tomorrow, work on the Hendrix for a de

I heard from a potential student today!  Via the Facebook Ad I posted yesterday.  They had questions about what sort of guitar to buy.  I answered as best I could having never met them, or the kids who would be taking lessons, before.  Apparently the kids who are interested are 5 and 8.  If they both signed on, that would bring my student total to 3. Played around with "All Lit Up" again today.  It definitely works better for my voice capoed at 1.  I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but it seems like any song I find that needs a capo, it's always better suited for me one fret off of where the artist originally intended it to be. I'm hoping to have some time to work on that record in my living room tomorrow.  I've gotten to play here and there the last few days, but the songwriting side of things hasn't gotten much attention of late.  I really need to block out some sort of schedule every day, if only for a little while, for the playing-related

Imported Charmer into itunes today.  Found another record that I'd had on my computer, but somehow not put into itunes as well: Genuine Negro Jig by Carolina Chocolate Drops.  That's such a fun record.  It has their version of "Hit 'Em Up Style" on it. Found another band via a Facebook ad today: Churchill.  Another one of those "If you like Brandi Carlile..." things.  They're not nearly as good as ZZ Ward (my last Facebook ad find), but they tried.  Still trying to decide if they're more than generic. Another cool thing?  I'm watching Matchbox Twenty's performance from the itunes music festival.  It's almost a 2 hour show.  Won't get through the whole thing tonight, but having tomorrow free, I'll probably end up watching more of it. Posted my lesson ad online today.  Had someone ask what age level I taught, and whether it was acoustic or electric guitar.  Told them that my current student is 8, that I would teach everyon

Well, I was right, my copy of Charmer came today.  I made it through about half of the record this afternoon.  I was doing other stuff while it was on, mind you, so there will need to be a closer listening with good headphones at some point, but that will be an awesome experience. Spent some time playing today, too. Went back through some of "All Lit Up" by Kasey Anderson, and some of "Red House" too.  Not much playing, but something to build on going into the weekend. Another Hendrix tune I want to learn is "The Wind Cries Mary."  I just love what he does chord progression-wise in that song. I know there's more to say today, but my brain is fuzzy in the lateness.  I'll write more tomorrow.  I'll play more tomorrow too, for that matter.

So, according to all of the estimates, my copy of Charmer is supposed to be delivered by the 21st.  This is awesome news.  It might be here sooner, because as of 11:30 tonight, it was in South Dakota, so secretly I'm hoping it'll be here Thursday. Heard from R. today.  Apparently she got dragged up on stage at the Silversun Pickups gig in DSM the other day.  There's photographic evidence and everything.  How sweet is that?  And how badly do I wish I had been at that gig? Finally turned in my newspaper ad for lessons today.  $40 for 2 weeks.  Seems pretty reasonable to me.  And there are other, more cost effective options, should I want to keep it in the paper longer than that.  My theory is that I see if these couple of weeks turns up any new students, and then go from there.  Now that the ad is turned in, I feel like I should be practicing 5-10 hours a day or something. In that spirit, I played around a bit with the Hendrix again today.  Not 5-10 hours worth or anyth

Taught my third lesson today.  Went great. Got home tonight and realized that today is the 42nd anniversary of Jimi Hendrix's death.  In honor of that, I went back to "Red House."  And, you know, having not looked at it it what feels like forever, the notes felt really good underneath my fingers.  I even got the vibrato right in the intro.  I've got to find a way to balance working on a specific song with other practicing with songwriting. Didn't get to the newspaper office either today.  That needs to happen tomorrow.  I'd also like to put up a social network ad. My copy of the new Aimee Mann record is on the way to me.  I'm hoping it's here by the weekend.  It was a good day, all in all, if not as productive a day as I had hoped for initially.

What a long day with not nearly enough music in it! Things I did get done: 1) Lesson reflections from last week. 2) Planning for tomorrow's lesson 3) A quick glance at the Dave Grohl Challenge 4) Listened to the latest NPR interview with Aimee Mann. Aimee Mann's tour is coming to Milwaukee in November, and considering how infrequently she tours, I'd absolutely love to go see her. Things I dropped the ball on: 1) Lots of practicing. 2) Dropping off my newspaper ad for lessons. 3) Nowhere Nights on vinyl 4) Listening, Listening, Listening If tomorrow needs to be anything, it's consistent.

Early post today, we're headed down to DSM because SL's brother and his wife had their baby today! Okay, now that the awesome news is out of the way, let me take a moment and focus on music stuff for a second here before we dash away. Song ideas for me always start as flashes.  I'll glance at one of my guitars and think, "oooh, I should use this chord," or "I bet putting a capo here would sound cool," or something along those lines.  Between last night's post and now, it's been "one of the songs for the DGC project needs to be capoed at 1." That's always where the idea starts.  Whether it actually stays there once I've started writing is up to fate (and sound), but it's the glimmer of a beginning that's important.  The only other thing I knew about this latest idea is that it started with a C chord.  So, going off of that, and knowing that I didn't want to make use of the C9 that is my usual go-to, I dove in

So, over the years I've signed up for all sorts of emailed guitar lesson-type things, where some hotshot or some blowhard tries to convince you that you can "shortcut" the hard work and make blazing progress in 8 days or some such B.S.  It always makes me laugh.  I get that I'm not where I thought I'd be when I started blogging about my musical explorations a few years ago, and I also get that most of the reason I'm not is because I haven't put in enough consistent work to get where I want to be.  Still, any time they offer me something for free, I take it, if only because I'm curious where they start to hook you in.  Tonight, as it turns out, they are starting in the same place I have started with my students: learning the notes on the neck.  I know, big surprise there, right? I puttered around late tonight with the acoustic, searching for a song idea to get me back on track with writing.  I stumbled across a few things, but nothing that really set

I snagged the new issue of Guitar World today.  SL and I went into Sioux City this afternoon for a bit, and I stopped in at their B&N to look around.  The new issue has a huge article with Billie Joe Armstrong on the making of their three (that's right, three ) new records that are coming out over the next four months.  I read part of it while I was waiting for SL to finish up shopping, and can't wait for tomorrow to finish it off. Tomorrow actually looks wide open for me, which is exciting, because it will give me a chance to catch up on a lot of the playing that has been sorely lacking this week.  Time, for whatever reason, has been hard to find the last few days. Besides, I finalized the wording for my lesson ad today.  While it won't make it down to the paper until Monday, having it done is further incentive for me to really step up my playing.  Being comfortable with where I'm at teaching kids who I know are way behind me in skill level is one thing, trusti

I find it interesting that, within ten days of me announcing that I'm going to try making a record in my living room, Acoustic Guitar magazine (who just published an article about chord progressions for songwriters) sends me an email with a link to a free PDF (and subsequent hard copy) of the most recent Musicians Guide To Recording .  I look at that, and I see fate stepping forward to tell me that I'm on the right track. Something else just dawned on me tonight as I sat down to write.  For the last few days, I've been feeling guilty if I don't get much done with this Dave Grohl Challenge.  And tonight, tonight it hits me that I don't have to do this in 30 days. Now, that doesn't give me permission to drag my feet and take forever with this either, and I know that if I strike while the iron is the hottest (and the songs are coming easier), that the finished project will be better and sound more cohesive.  All I'm saying is that I don't have to rush t

I had a fun conversation tonight with my student's dad, who is learning along with his daughter.  Apparently he tried to play catch up last night on what he missed at yesterday's lesson, and she just wasn't having it.  I jokingly told him that he can always take lessons himself as well.  He also told me that I'm doing a good job of giving them enough stuff to focus on, and not overwhelming them. Didn't really do anything today with the Dave Grohl Challenge today.  Most of that was due to the nasty cold that has overtaken my existence in the last 36 hours.  I'm starting to feel terrible about not making much progress the last few days.  I need, need to get something done on that project tomorrow. I've also got to get my ads done tomorrow for social media hyping of my lessons and newspaper hyping. Didn't do much listening today either.  It was a weird sort of day. Tomorrow has to be a better day, for my sanity if nothing else, and it will be.

I taught again today.  Second lesson.  If my student's progress thus far is any sign, in another month I'll have to be transcribing stuff by Bach and Mozart.  Okay, so this may well be an exaggeration, but still.  Considering that she's only taken two lessons, she's doing remarkably well. The nice part about it, for me, other than the obvious satisfaction of watching her improve, is that it has forced me to stop and think about how I would approach the instrument were I just starting to learn now. Also, in going back through some resources and looking for things to help her out, I'm discovering stuff that I finished off in an attempt to put together a solid program for learning, and then promptly forgot that I finished.  It was a nice moment today to realize that I had gone through all of the keys and written out every note in each one.  Finding that felt like a building block. I still need to take notes on today's lesson, but hopefully I can do that tomor

Today was one of those days that slips past you before you know it. NPR was streaming the new Aimee Mann disc, so I listened to the first half of that at least somewhat.  I'll save my first close listen of that record for the good headphones and the big stereo, but I like what I had on in the background as I was waking up this morning. Lessons tomorrow, so this afternoon I went back through the notes I took after teaching last week, if only to remind myself of what we had covered, and what was coming up next (assuming that everything from last Tuesday got assimilated).  I'll go back over it tomorrow at least once before 4:30. Started to wade through the two guitar magazines I picked up the other day as well.  The issue of Acoustic Guitar has an article on Chord Progressions For Songwriters that, I suspect, will be helpful for the making of my living room record. I didn't really get much of anything done in that regard today.  Tomorrow will be better for that, though

Well, I'm back from the DSM.  The B&N days are officially over.  At some point there will be a longer reaction to that statement, but for now what seems important is that I maximized my discount by ordering 4 upcoming releases while I was down there.  Here's what I paid to have sent to me: 1) Babel - Mumford & Sons 2) Charmer - Aimee Mann 3) Uno! - Green Day 4) Glad All Over - The Wallflowers All told, that was a pretty good set of CDs, I thought. Also of note, I got to listen to the Imagine Dragons record that came out on the 4th, and it's essentially what I expected it would be going into it.  The single, "It's Time" is probably the best song on the record, although "Radioactive," the first song and next single, is pretty good in its own right.  Not sure the album is worth a buy, though, at least for me. Didn't get anything done on my Dave Grohl Challenge while I was down there, but I did tell a couple of people I'm doing

So, I'm in Des Moines today for the first of two final shifts at B&N. It's a weird time in my life.  So many little stresses (job, wedding, getting adjusted to being in a new place, lack of quality time with SL) right now have been taking their toll in the last week and a half or so.  With so much changing so quickly, it's comforting to know that the one thing that has never let me down (music) is still here as an ever-present constant.  In fact, there have been a lot of days recently where the combination of music and the blog have been the only things that have kept me from going completely insane. I think I just need to do what I always do at times like this, lose myself in the music for a bit and just play . I'm sure tomorrow's post will have retail stories, just as I'm sure that it will have updates on my Dave Grohl Challenge.

So, I fleshed out that mysterious third song idea today, at least somewhat, and I like it.  That gives me 1/4 of an album's worth of ideas.  None of them are complete songs yet, it's all either a verse or a chorus progression that needs to be built up and added to, but it's definitely a beginning.  Especially when you consider that I really didn't have a ton of time to work on anything today, I'm feeling pretty good about what, in my head, is becoming the Dave Grohl Challenge.  It's almost better than my aborted attempts at February's RPM Challenge.  Okay, so admittedly that might be due to an awesomely inspiring quote, but still.  If I can do this, I see no reason why next year's RPM can't happen. The other cool thing that happened to me today musically?  Cherokee had a home football game tonight, which meant that there was 5th Quarter at the church after the game.  I brought my ipod and mini-speakers, just in case we needed them, and while they d

So, one of the obstacles that was keeping me from making a record in my living room was the simple fact that things weren't as well organized as they otherwise should have been.  I took care of that problem before noon today, getting all of the folders and assorted magazines off of the floor, and making sure that the tab books and LPs had a dedicated space that was both accessible and still out of the way of general traffic through the room. After cleaning things up, I took a moment to enjoy the newness of the space, and then promptly sprawled out on the floor, grabbed the notebook that I had brought with me when I taught the other day, and spent about half an hour taking notes on the lesson experience.  I filled up an entire page with reflections, notes on where my student is in her process, and thoughts on what we might do next week.  Getting that done felt really good.  I now feel like I know where things are headed going into next week, which not only sets my mind at ease, bu

I found a great quote from Dave Grohl today while surfing the internet for music news.  It came from an interview he did in conjunction with uber-producer/drummer for Garbage, Butch Vig around the time of the Grammys last year.  Grohl and the Foos cleaned up at the awards last year, and Vig produced Nevermind (you know, that record by Grohl's "other" band, wink wink).  All of that's beside the point, though.  Here's the quote from Dave, it makes reference to the multiple Grammy Winning, Vig produced record Wasting Light , which the Foo Fighters made in Grohl's garage: "It's not rocket science. If you're semi-decent at an instrument and grew up with Beatles albums, make a f--ing record in your garage. You might get a Grammy nomination. It's not an impossibility." Between Grohl's quote, and SL's statement tonight that "while you don't have a job, you should treat your music and practicing like a job.  Or your writing.&

Okay, so this is admittedly going to post late, but it's going to post, which keeps my streak alive, at least in some fashion, so that's the important thing, right? I'm just going to go in the order things happened today.  I was going to start with the teaching stuff, and then jump around, but doing it the other way seems easier, so here we go: I got the turntable set up today!  Finally remembered to ask SL if that 1/4" adapter was still in her purse last night, and she dropped it off this morning before work.  Then it was a simple matter of seeing which set of inputs and/or outputs the red and black wires connected to the 1/4" jack needed to be hooked up where, and bang!  The turntable was live.  I listened to a bit of Bear Creek before I got distracted by something else musical. SL sent a text saying that Matchbox Twenty was streaming their new record in its entirety on their website today.  I knew that North had dropped today, but somehow it hadn't o

Okay, so, Five Iron Frenzy was awesome!  I now see what all the hype was about all those years.  Admittedly, it took them a few songs to get warmed up (but when it's your 7th show back after 10 years off, that's to be expected, I think), but once they started clicking, the band was hot .  Here's what they played, although I was admittedly not familiar with any of it: 1. Blue Comb '78 2. Third World Think Tank 3. American Kryptonite 4. Oh Canada 5. Handbook For The Sellout 6. Pre-Ex-Girlfriend 7. Beautiful America 8. You Can't Handle This 9. Suckerpunch 10. It Was A Dark And Stormy Night 11. Cool Enough For You 12. When I Go Out 13. Juggernaut 14. Where 0 Meets 15 15. Fistful Of Sand 16. You Probably Shouldn't Move Here 17. My Evil Plan To Save The World 18. At Least I'm Not Like All Those Other Old Guys 19. One Girl Army 20. Farsighted 21. Every New Day Other acts we saw included: 1) Run Kid Run 2) John Reuben 3) Flight Metaphor

I know that today's post is remarkably early, but here's why:  SL and I are meeting a bunch of her college friends in Worthing, South Dakota.  Apparently Five Iron Frenzy (a band I've always heard good things about, but never actually heard ) is reuniting after 10 years apart for a gig at the festival that's going on this weekend out in Worthing. So, yeah, seeing at least one gig tonight (possibly more), and I'm not sure when we'll get home.  Therefore... a post as the day begins.  There will definitely be updates posted, either tonight when we get home (if it's early enough) or, more likely, tomorrow.

Well, I continued with the sorting of music today.  As I sit down to start tonight's post, I'm all the way through C, which feels like considerable progress, especially when you factor in that I started the day at S.  The 4 metal racks that I have (which includes the one my Mom found at GoodWill) took me from Z all the way down through D, so now I'm left with spinners and then stacks on top of the racks to cover the time between now and whenever it is SL and I figure out a better storage method than the spinners.  Hopefully we'll be able to find something after the wedding (or maybe get something as a present). That being said, all of the box sets are in place, and with most of the music in, it's not only comforting, it also looks really nice... and impressive, if I may say so myself.  Knowing me, I'll work on it for at least a little bit before I go to bed tonight. The other cool thing that happened today?  SL and I stopped at a Wal-Mart in Sioux Center, an