Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day Two Hundred Twenty Seven (Year Two)

So, the new Springsteen disc is amazing.  There's enough of a mixture of his upbeat rockers, his ballads, and his message songs to make this his best record since The Rising .  And speaking of that record... Buying The Boss the day it comes out always takes me back to a specific moment in life.  It was July 30th, 2002, the year after 9/11, the year after someone on the streets of New York told Springsteen "we need you now."  I had driven to Oshkosh, WI to visit some friends, when I remembered that Springsteen's disc was scheduled to come out that day.  I drove downtown to The Exclusive Company, but had to park a few blocks back.  At the time, there wasn't much going on downtown, but when I got out of the car, I could hear this music coming from up the block somewhere.  The closer I got to Exclusive, the more it began to dawn on me, they had set up a giant set of speakers in their upstairs windows, and were blasting the new album out into the streets....
Post a Comment
Read more

Dat Two Hundred Thirty One (Year Three)

So, apparently the new Airborne EP that came out yesterday is MP3 only!  Downloaded that as soon as I figured it out this morning, but didn't have time to sync the ipod after doing so.  Therefore, I naturally had a ton of time to listen tonight that was away from my computer. On the plus side, though, I was able to spend some of that extra time with a guitar in my hands, working on the chord progression for this month's song.  I've got an opening chord change that I really like, and the flicker of a two guitar approach, with one of the two parts capoed up the neck dancing somewhere in the back of my brain.  If all goes according to plan, it could work out really well. Also, finally over halfway in the Grohl bio.  Considering I was hardly home at all today, I feel like I got a decent chunk of that read. Tomorrow should (hopefully) be another decent day for music, with a chance to play in the evening, and enough time for a few runs through the Airborne EP....
Post a Comment
Read more

Day One Hundred Forty Two

So, I haven't been sleeping much lately, and I've been staying up late. listening to music, doing a bit of playing, and watching old episodes of Behind The Music on the internet. It's funny, you know, because I never met the rest of my "band," I've become the critic. It's all right, don't get me wrong, but for a decade now I've always hoped that I'd find a way to release something. It'll happen, I know it will, but it's continually happened slower than I expected it to. I've gotten close to getting something released, as I've documented before here before, but with the winter coming and the cold closing in, I'm facing another chance to make something musical of the winter. I'm going to start by finishing up the old things that have gotten pushed to the sides in the last few months. With the buildup of everything since the summer, it should be easier. Even if all I do is spend the winter writing lyrics, trying to g...
Post a Comment
Read more