Skip to main content

Day Two Hundred Ninety One (Year Three)

In my excitement over my impending studio space, I've started trying to figure out, not only how to organize things, but also what resources and tools I'm still missing.  One of those things is the columns that Richard Lloyd wrote for Guitar World a number of years ago.  I've got most of the original magazines, but like the Vai workout, I've searched periodically over the last few years for a PDF version of all of the columns.  Always with no luck... until today, when I found a 14 page PDF that has some of the columns in it.  It's a place to start, anyway, even if it isn't everything.

Last night I vowed to play more and wish less, so I played again today.  Ran essentially the same scales for a little bit less time, but I still felt good about the fact that I'm finding more time to play.  The best part is that I know there is more time available, because I wasn't as focused with the free part of my afternoon as I otherwise could have been, so while that wasn't necessarily good news for today's playing, it's still a lesson that gives me hope for tomorrow.

The one thing there was this afternoon was a lot of listening.  I had some stuff to do around the house, and cranked up Green Day on my ipod.  It was a good, upbeat way to get some stuff done and stay motivated, while still doing something that felt musically vital.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day.  I can feel it.

Happy Birthday, also, to one of the distinctive voices in rock & roll history, Eric Burdon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day Two Hundred Six (Year Four)

Today was the first official day of the second half of my "album-in-a-month" challenge. As for today's goals, I wanted to see what I could get done in regards to track order, and get at least a little bit of a start on the lyric writing process. I spent more time working on the track order question than I did on the lyrics today, but as a result of that, I ended up with something that I think will work in terms of order. I did sit with the notebook for a few minutes at the very end of the day, and got a solid starting line of lyric and some other ideas that I hope will be jumping off points for lyrics. What I'm thinking I might do, however, is switch my focus from the lyric writing part of the process directly to the recording part of the process.  That way, if I can get the music recorded and burned onto a CD, I can take the music with me in the car, and listen and try to see what images and thoughts the music brings up.  It's a tactic that has worked for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Two Hundred Ninety Two (Year Five)

Today was the last seminary village cookout of the year. While we were all sitting around the picnic tables eating dinner, I got a chance to talk with a few of the Mrs.'s classmates about guitar related stuff. As it turns out, more than one of them wants to be more proficient on guitar. I'm not saying that this will lead to more teaching opportunities, but I told one of them that I would throw a folder together for them. Essentially, anytime I get a chance to talk shop is a great chance for me to reinforce some of the things I have been focusing on. If nothing else, it gets me thinking ahead to tomorrow's day off and a chance to get into the studio for a decent amount of time.
Post a Comment
Read more

Day Three Hundred Forty Two (Year Four)

Tonight was a slightly unfocused night in the studio. It was a night of acoustic stuff, but most of what I got accomplished involved tinkering with different songs by Jackie Greene and Johnny Cash.  If nothing else, I set up the next list of songs I want to figure out. Tomorrow night I need to start getting back to the Acoustic Goldmine book, as well.  Every time I sit down with the acoustic for an extended period of time, I reconnect with the emotional side of that instrument.  There's so much to learn still in that book, so much information designed to improve my playing.  I need to take better advantage of it. I know it's crazy, but I'm already looking forward to Friday.  I really need to spend a lot of the day in the studio.  Getting a weekday off of work is such a rare commodity.  I need to do a good job of using my time wisely. 
Post a Comment
Read more