Today was a great day. I had music on the brain from the moment I woke up this morning. I guess having two days in a row where I felt like I didn't get enough studio time in will do that. As a result, I spent the time in between calls at work today blocking out some scale theory on a legal pad I had in my drawer. Got to take advantage of those moments when they show up. I did a great job of it today, but need to do a better job of that as a whole. It's a crucial part of the whole "put up or shut up" thing: taking maximum advantage of the time available, and I know I need to be better about it for the rest of the year. When I got into the studio tonight, it was all theory, all an effort to get the concepts (as well as the sections of the fretboard they involve) to congeal in my head. I know I got closer tonight. Closer to having things lock into place, closer to getting my chops back to where I'd like them to be, closer to being able to get the sounds I
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Another night that didn't have enough studio time in it. When I did get in there tonight, it was for a bit more theory study, but tonight was another night where I could have easily stayed up all night working on stuff. The flaw in my logic lately has been that, whenever I've got a decent chunk of time, I've spent it figuring out songs. Not that this is entirely bad, it's just that I still don't feel like everything I hear in my head flows out through my fingers the way I'd like it to. My goal for the rest of this week (if not beyond) is simple: every time I have a decent chunk of time, I need to use it working to fill in the holes in my playing. I need to get back to approaching it (at least somewhat) like homework: not sucking all the fun out of it, but just knowing that it's something that needs to be done that will help out big time in the long run. I always come out of a bout of learning feeling good. There's no question on that, I just
Tonight was another one of those nights that I could've played, and studied, and learned all night long. Every time that happens, I'm always left wishing it was a Friday or Saturday night and I had the option to do that if I felt I needed to. I broke out the electric tonight, and worked on some theory while I did so. I started in on the new book I picked up over the weekend at Uncle Ike's. What I'm liking about it so far is the same thing I enjoyed about the PDF I found in January on Fretboard Theory. It sets things up with very general information, and builds from there to more complex topics. I feel like I keep saying it over and over again, but each new resource I've brought in since the beginning of the year has added one more building block on the path to a better overall understanding. All I need to do now is keep at it long enough (and make sure I study for long enough periods of time) that it really locks in. Not sure I spent quite enough time in t
Today was another good day. I got a little bit of theory studied this afternoon, and heading into the studio tonight, I was planning on breaking out the electric, thereby crossing off another item on my list of stuff for the weekend. And yet, when I got in there, it was the acoustic that once again called out the loudest. And it wasn't even anything I had planned on working on, either. Tonight, it was working out some Counting Crows by ear that seemed like it would be a good time. I started with "Round Here" from their Storytellers set, and then started to work through "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby" and "St. Robinson In His Cadillac Dream." It was a ton of fun, and a nice way to wind down at the end of the weekend. I've got a 6 day workweek coming up, so I'll take every chance to relax and enjoy myself that I can get. Talked to someone who might be interested in taking at least a couple of lessons this morning, too. Their former teache
Today was a really great day. I took my acoustic over to Ike's, got it re-strung (and polished up a bit), and did some looking around while I was there. Came home with a couple of song/theory books: 1) Hal Leonard's Rockabilly Guitar Method 2) The Guitarist's Guide To Scales Over Chords - Chad Johnson The rockabilly stuff is just plain fun, and it's going to provide a great link to some of the blues stuff I've been working on, as well as the swing and rock stuff I've got lined up. As for the scales over chords... I'm always curious to see how different people choose to present and explain things. What can I say, it looked informative, and sounded like fun. The acoustic really sounds great right now. I always forget just how big of a difference a new set of strings makes. As for tomorrow, I want to get to some of the theory stuff, play some electric, and get in a bit of listening.
I can't tell you why, exactly, but my Friday nights seem to be the most low key nights of the week. Maybe it's because I get through the work week and need to rest up before hitting the weekend hard. Maybe it's the time that I sit down and plan out that next 48 hours, I don't really know. Here's what I do know: 1) I know that Uncle Ike's is doing a one day sale tomorrow, and that I haven't been there in a while. 2) I know that, while I'm there, I need to get the strings changed on my acoustic. 3) I know that I want to dive into some theory & Beatles studying. 4) I want to work on my acoustic stuff. 5) I haven't picked up the electric in a couple days... I should do that this weekend, too. 6) I'd like to relax a little bit and do some listening. I also know that the Mrs. works from 2-10 tomorrow, so if I'm smart with the way I structure my time, I should have a good chunk of time to get at least some of the things on this li
So, my goal for tonight was to dive, at least a little bit, into Beatle related studying. That said, I grabbed the first volume of the Walter Everett series, and just sort of dove in and started reading. What struck me almost immediately is that the reason they were too overwhelming for me to deal with fifteen years ago is exactly the reason I know I'm going to love them now. The books are so chock full of theory and detail that they're not only an examination of the Beatles as musicians, they're almost a theory course in their own right. I'm thinking that this weekend might well have enough time in it to lay everything out and start trying to assimilate it all on a broader level, but for tonight it was enough for me to just dip my toe in the water, so to speak. The other realization I had regarding that tonight: my brother the oboe/music theory nerd would love these books. He's always griping that he misses listening to popular music, maybe this set woul
So, today has been pretty great for a few reasons: 1) I cranked up the Aimee Mann & Ted Leo record in the car on the way to work. I know it's supposed to be a record made by a duo, but musically, it is definitely an Aimee Mann record all the way through. 2) The Dan Wilson record came in the mail today! I'm through half of it, and thus far it's the record I really hoped he would make. 3) I got both records uploaded to the iPod (a small victory, yes, but one I will take). 4) I got finally got my "set list" playlist updated in iTunes. Now everything that made the list I've been working up is finally all in one spot for both listening and learning. 5) I had a good night in the studio with the acoustic, both working through some of the set list stuff and figuring out the chords to some new things. All told, a solid continuation of a productive week.
A couple of things came in the mail today... just not the Dan Wilson record. Instead it was the record by Aimee Mann & Ted Leo (The Both), and then the first half of Walter Everett's The Beatles As Musicians . I'm very quietly gathering up a pretty good library of Beatles resources from which to study and learn from their songwriting. Between the two Everett volumes and the complete scores, I feel like I have a really strong base. This Beatles unit for the practice binder may happen yet! I spent the rest of my time in the studio tonight working through some more songs, including tunes by The Rolling Stones and The Crash Test Dummies. My set list is going to be rather eclectic, to be sure, but it's going to be a lot of fun. Tonight was one of those nights I could have spent the whole night in the studio, just working away. Unfortunately, with work in the morning, that wasn't an option. Still really pleased with the work that got done tonight, though. It&
Another night in the studio spent going through old issues of Guitar World Acoustic . I didn't learn anything all the way through tonight, but I cherry picked certain parts of songs and worked on those. It seems like a bit of an odd statement, but one of the 90's songs I wish I would have written is "Building A Mystery" by Sarah McLachlan. I found a transcription of that song tonight in one of the GWA's and started learning the beginning of that. I couldn't tell you whether it was the sound of the record that draws me in, or whether it's the lyric, or if it's a combination of both, but I had a good time working on the start of that, and will learn the whole thing at some point here soon. After that it was a bit of Dave Matthews and some more Damien Rice from last night. I feel like I see things better now than I did all those years ago. Some of it, I'm sure, is that my rhythm in reading tab and reproducing it is better now than it was th
Today wound up being all right, by the time I got to the end of it. I got the new music from yesterday imported into the iTunes, but haven't taken the time yet to sit down and listen to any of it. That may well be something for tomorrow night. Then, late tonight, when I finally made it into the studio, all I wanted to do was sit with the acoustic and try to wind down at the end of the weekend. That was exactly what happened, and during that time I went through an old list of songs I wanted to learn that had made it to my iPod a while back, just trying to play along with things as they came up in the list. All told, I feel like I did pretty well at that, and it even forced me to go to my collection of tab books at one point, to try and get the exact fingerings for some Damien Rice. The best part of the whole night for me was the realization that, a lot of these things that were tougher to grasp however many years ago have gotten a whole lot easier to digest. It was very mu
Record Store Day was today. I just missed out on getting the Springsteen EP that was a limited edition release, and oddly enough, didn't come home with any records from my trip to the music store. Instead, I wound up with the following: 1) Lights Out - Ingrid Michaelson 2) About Last Night - Sleeper Agent 3) Demolicious - Green Day The Green Day disc was a record store day exclusive, so that was cool. The other two records have been out a couple weeks max (I know the Ingrid disc came out Tuesday). Also, I looked for, but didn't find, the debut record by The Both (Aimee Mann & Ted Leo). This ended up okay, because I ordered it (along with the first half of Walter Everett's two volume set The Beatles As Musicians ) later in the day. Still no sign of the Dan Wilson record. Hopefully that will get here the beginning of next week.
From the Dickey Betts & Great Southern gig tonight at The Mississippi Moon Bar It was nice to step out tonight and catch a live show. For one thing, seeing someone live always gets me fired up to get back into the studio and keep working to get better. Secondly, I feel like there's always a lot to be learned by watching others play. The biggest takeaways for me tonight came in the areas of listening, note choice, and the art of restraint. There were two other guitarists playing in Dickey's band tonight, and when they hit the stage, nothing felt like it was together at all. The three of them were consistently playing all over each other, and had started what I thought might be a disastrous gig. Things came together pretty quickly, though, with Dickey's concise, melodic playing reigning in the young hotshot guitarist he had along with him that showed no ability to play within the context of the song, and was instead spraying notes all over the
Didn't check the mailbox for the Dan Wilson record today. I figure I'll give it one more day, and look for it at the end of the day tomorrow. That way, I can hopefully start my weekend with a brand new record by a songwriter whose work I admire. Tonight's work in the studio was a mixture of things, I: 1) worked through a couple more songs to add to my notebook of "songs I've figured out from radio & cd" 2) played through a couple of the songs I've already figured out 3) worked through a bit of a Dylan lesson from an issue of Guitar World Acoustic All told, it was a pretty good night in the studio. To top it all off, I got free tickets through work to go see Dickey Betts & Great Southern tomorrow night at the Diamond Jo here in town. Should be a fun concert.
And just like that, there are but ninety-nine days left in year four of the blog. I really wanted to get back into the playing tonight, and at the same time, I found myself not wanting to jump around a lot from one thing to the next. That said, I did what felt logical: I went off of the basic travis picking lesson from the Acoustic Goldmine book, and combined it with the lesson from the very first Guitar World Acoustic on the pile. It wound up being a Paul Simon lesson. And so I had fun with sections of "Homeward Bound," "Me & Julio Down By The School Yard," and "The Boxer." Tonight was definitely one of those nights where I knew I wanted to focus on something acoustic in nature, and I had a definite starting point (with the Goldmine book), and the magazines that I long suspected held some sort of key to a big part of my progress came through with exactly what I needed at that moment. Today was a good day. Still waiting on the new Dan Wilson
I didn't have that much on my list for tonight, only three things, in fact. 1) I wanted to finish getting the Guitar World Acoustic issues squared away and organized. I did that, in the process finding that I was only missing one issue from the middle of the run when I was buying them. Unfortunately for me, it was one of the issues on acoustic Led Zeppelin! Knowing me, I'll go on some quest to find not only a list of all the issues they ever released, but also (hopefully) a copy of each one. On a related note, finishing that off tonight involved paging through the magazines a bit more, and there were so many artists they hyped that I know really well now (that I glossed over at the time). Can't wait to go through all of the old record reviews next. 2) I wanted to get the new music from last weekend imported. I got that done, too, importing the new Manchester Orchestra and the Cloud Nothings record I picked up at Exclusive. I have yet to import the new Nickel C
Started in on my journey through the Guitar World Acoustic issues tonight, and I've got to say: even though most of what I did tonight was start to get things in order for organization purposes and sift through the articles to see what great artists they hyped that I missed out on (or found out about much later). I'm already finding cool stuff, and blurbs and articles on artists I know much better now than I did when the issues came out initially. Tomorrow needs to be about: 1) Finishing the organizing of GWA 2) Getting my feet wet with some of the lessons 3) Uploading the bit of new music I got over the weekend Seems like I should have more from today, but I didn't get to much else. I'll make more progress tomorrow.
I hit the jackpot today. It feels like I've been trying to get magazines out of the storage unit that my Mom has for at least a year. And somehow, every single time I've been up to visit, it has either been snowing or raining or we've run out of time. So, sure enough, I went up there this weekend, and it poured all day yesterday, and it poured for most of today. The silver lining in all of this is that the rain stopped for about an hour over the noon hour today, and so we were able to get to the storage shed. I grabbed all of the old issues of Guitar World Acoustic that had been sitting in plastic tubs for time out of mind. There's still other magazines to get out of there, but with the extra focus on acoustic stuff this year, those Acoustic issues were the things I really wanted. Just glancing through them briefly today got me pumped up all over again. There's great transcriptions in those issues, and cool lessons, and there are probably articles on rec
Made it to Exclusive today. Picked up a couple of things. I got: 1) Cope - Manchester Orchestra 2) Attack On Memory - Cloud Nothings I looked for records by Guster and Jackie Greene as well, but didn't find anything at Exclusive that I didn't already have. Might stop at Half Price Books on my way out of town tomorrow, just to see if they'll have anything to fill in some of the empty spaces. Looking forward to heading upstairs tonight for a bit of time to sit with a guitar. I've been missing it for most of the day. It will be good to work on a bit of theory stuff, and maybe take a crack at figuring out something else from my list of set list songs. Tonight should be a good way to wind down and still feel like I'm making progress toward the long term goals for the year. Well, I'm ready to go off and play for a bit before going to bed. Might try to sneak in a bit of reading in the Beatles bio, too, if I'm still somewhat awake after I practice
Short post today, as most of the day was spent working and driving. I did get a chance to do a bit of listening on my drive up home, though, so that was good. I'm really exhausted, but I've got theory stuff, my iPod, a guitar, and a Beatles biography waiting for me upstairs, so it's entirely possible I'll do some musical stuff before passing out. Hoping to hit Exclusive tomorrow, too, so sometime tomorrow I need to sit down and sort out what it is I'm looking for when I go in. I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten to look for something I've really been wanting because I get in there and my mind goes blank. Anyway, today was a full day of travel, and tomorrow will be a day with more music in it than driving.
Yet another solid night of figuring out songs! All week, it seems, I've been able to plug the iPod into my mini-speakers, and make some serious progress figuring things out from my list of set list songs (and a few others that didn't make the list). I think I worked through the chords for at least 4 more of them tonight. Most of it was by The Airborne Toxic Event. Really been on a roll with their stuff this week, too. I've got 4 or 5 pages filled in my notebook of "songs I've figured out off of radio & cds." I had a brief moment tonight where I imagined how cool it would be to fill up the entire notebook. Thinking (way) ahead, but I know I'll get there. Especially at my current pace. Headed up to WI for the weekend. Leaving either right from or shortly after work. Haven't entirely decided yet. That said, I packed up the music stuff I'm taking with me tonight. It's almost exactly the same stuff I brought to DSM a couple of wee
Tonight was a good night in the studio. I picked up the acoustic, opened up a couple of notebooks (one with my setlist possibilities, and the other with the songs I've been figuring out off of CD), and sat down to try and work through a few of them. I wound up working through a couple of songs that I had taken a pass at last year sometime, but had neglected to write down at the time. "Codeine," by Jason Isbell, and "Million Dollar Bill," by Middle Brother, now have a place in my notebook of stuff I've figured out, as does the start of "This Losing" by The Airborne Toxic Event. I'm really enjoying figuring out all of these songs this week. And as an added bonus, the weather is finally getting nice enough that, when I work out my vocals on these songs, I can sit outside and play. For some reason, I'm terribly excited to get a chance to do that this summer. Today was good. Hopefully tomorrow is as well.
Tonight was an interesting hodgepodge of things... 1) It's the 20th anniversary of the world finding out that Kurt Cobain was gone. 2) It's Rex Manning Day. Empire Records was one of those movies that had a big impact on my teenage/college years. Not only was it a fun movie with lots of great dialogue, it was also one of those movies with so much music in it that it sent me on a musical quest. There's 49 songs that show up at various points during that movie. I think my iTunes has at least 33 of them in there somewhere. Hadn't watched the movie in a year or so, but Ethan Embree was live-tweeting it tonight in honor of Rex Manning Day, so the Mrs. and I sat down and watched it. After that, I got into the studio for a bit, and played some acoustic as a way to unwind from the day. Tomorrow night needs to get back to more serious progress, but today was good.
I finally switched it up tonight, and went mostly acoustic for my night in the studio. Somehow, it just felt like coming back home. I know I've played a lot more electric in my life than I have acoustic, but playing around with a bit of Guster and a bit of Tom Waits tonight reaffirmed my decision to focus a lot more attention on the acoustic side of things this year. In order to keep things going, I really need to get back into the Acoustic Goldmine book, and keep working on anything else that catches my eye where the acoustic is concerned. I also need to start taking better notes of what I'm working on, and what the next steps might be. I know I've mentioned this once before here, but I need to start treating it almost like I'm giving myself lessons (which, technically, I am). Starting that up again will give me another good push down the right path. Stopped off at Moondog tonight on the way home from work. Picked up the new record by Cloud Nothings. I'v
Tonight was the third night in a row where the electric won out over anything else. So, admittedly, I haven't done so well on the balance between electric and acoustic this weekend. Some of what I did tonight was very similar to the last couple of nights, especially when it comes to having a look at the whole 100 Riffs thing. What I need to start doing (in order to make the most progress) is bringing the laptop with me into the studio, so that I can have the video and the tab from Soundslice there in front of me. Either that, or I need to figure out which sections of each song are used, and then transcribe them myself, checking my progress against the video to see how close I came. Both exercises would pay huge benefits when it comes to my playing, I'm sure. I caught up on a little bit of the magazine pile tonight, as well. Which would feel better if I didn't feel guilty for not playing while I'm reading the articles. Usually, I can block that feeling out, bu
Tonight was another night in the studio where the electric won out. It was all about two things tonight, and much like last night, those two things were: 1) 100 Riffs and 2) The Fab Four I looked at a few of the riffs surrounding "Day Tripper" in the list. Not necessarily in great detail, but just to get some of the basic shapes and ideas underneath my fingers tonight. I know there are some details to be worked out still, but I really feel like I'm making some progress in getting more of this little challenge down pat. Still wishing there was a fast and easy way to get that video put on DVD, so I could take it into the studio and put it on the big TV in there. As for the Beatles thing, I've wanted to have a lesson unit on them since the moment I started laying out what I thought the practice binder ought to be. I took a brief glance at a couple of songs tonight, just to get some sort of idea what I'd be up against if I went for it and decided to st
So, tonight I sat down with the electric, determined to work my way through at least one of the 100 Riffs. What's funny is that, the riff I ended up working on was one of the ones I had myself convinced I knew already. The intro riff to The Beatles' "Day Tripper" was one of the really early things I learned when I bought my Strat, way back in the day. I've seen a lot of other players approach the riff the same way I learned it initially, so it was interesting tonight to listen (and play along), and have it not sound quite right. Finding that, I did what any person in my situation would do, I grabbed my copy of this: off of the shelf, and looked up the song. Sure enough, there's a slightly different way to play the intro that, when worked through for a bit, makes more sense, and is more economical in terms of movement. It's always cool when, at the end of the week, I can sit down and learn something new about something I'
I had one goal when I walked into the studio tonight. It was fairly simple, straightforward, and also something I've been putting off for weeks. All I wanted to do tonight was to listen through the record-in-a-month from February, and take notes about changes and adjustments that I felt needed to be made in order to tighten up the songs. Shockingly enough, I found a few (maybe three) that were in good structural shape just the way they were, but more times than not, when my ear told me that there needed to be a chord change right there! it was something that I had to make a note of. Honestly, the whole process went a lot faster than I expected it to, which was cool, not because there wasn't a lot to change (although that would be the goal for next year), but because, by this point in my life, I've listened to enough music to know what sounds good to my ear and what doesn't. Being able to anticipate the changes in a song that I hear has been a key component of thi
Today was a good day. I managed to get a number of things done in different areas. I finally got around to importing the new music I had picked up when we were in DSM last weekend, most notably, Snow Patrol's Up To Now . They were one of those bands that everyone always spoke highly of, but nobody could give me a particular record to start exploring their music, or rather, everyone recommended something different from their catalog. So, rather than buy everything impulsively, I waited until I could find the 2 disc version of their "Greatest Hits" used and at a reasonable price. The other record I picked up, Son Volt's Wide Swing Tremolo , it turns out I had already picked up. Going into the studio tonight, I was expecting a night of electric playing and a bit of theory studying. Instead, the night took me in a much more acoustic direction, and had me thinking about set list songs. More specifically, it had me thinking about two songs I hadn't been able t
So, the highlight of my musical day today was a simple one: My brother sent me 7 files over Skype tonight. All mp3's, and all of his Fall Orchestra concert, and then his recital we went to in February. He's also informed me that it needs to be played "at a considerable volume." So glad I've got tomorrow off to crank that up. Most of the rest of my night, music-wise, involved setting stuff up for tomorrow. I need to: 1) Sit down with a notebook and the record. 2) Do some listening. 3) Read through (and study out of) the current crop of magazines. 4) Theory studying. That seems like a pretty good start for tomorrow's list. If I could get to some more of that Beatles biography, that would be cool as well.