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Day One Hundred Forty Seven

Well, I didn't get to the backing tracks today. Before I shut down the computer tonight, however, I will actually burn them onto a CD so I can improve the chances I'll get to them before Monday. The last few days have been fun, scouring the internet for inspiration/things to learn. Also, I've been playing a lot while watching TV late at night, trying to pick out the melodies in the shows and movies I'm watching. I enjoy the challenge of trying to pull something out of the air that may not play again for the rest of the program.

Had an interesting conversation with a customer tonight that led to me re-learning "Ventura Highway" by America. Apparently, the last time she had been in, I had mentioned that "Highway" had such a distinctive guitar riff. How she remembered this, I'll never know, but she did. She asked me if I knew the riff, and I admitted that I had known it at one point, but would have to re-learn it. She said she was in the market for lessons, and I offered any info she might need, then told her I was definitely looking up "Ventura Highway" when I got home. I even found a capo'd version of the song that lets open strings ring out through the intro. Good stuff indeed.

And speaking of interesting conversations, I had another one with a lovely young lady who was buying Townes Van Zandt as a Christmas present. Somehow we went from Townes to the Royal Mile's singer-songwriter night, to a great number of other things, at the end of which I mentioned both my insane musical journey AND the blog, so I would be remiss if I didn't mention so here. Now, if only I could remember her name... long day at work, indeed!

Also, I likely mentioned it last night, but I'm running a lot of scales at night, sitting in the dark, in a concerted effort to build muscle memory.

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