Skip to main content

Day Two Hundred Sixty Nine (Year Two)

My plan for tonight's post is to clear up a few of the loose ends that have been hanging out there for the last couple of days, and to address one issue in particular that has sprung from one of those things.  I'll start with the fun stuff first.

There were 24 CDs in the box I was left in charge of from SL's brother.  I have now sorted them into two distinct piles: one that I'm planning on adding to the ever-expanding collection of music in my house, and one that may end up making a home at Half Price Books.  First, the list of stuff I'm planning to keep:

Strange & Beautiful - Aqualung
The Best Of Joe Cocker - Joe Cocker
Duran Duran - Duran Duran
Smell The Color 9 - Chris Rice
The Future Embrace - Billy Corgan
Final Straw - Snow Patrol
Welcome To Winners - Lowgold
The Best Of: - Blur
Diamonds On The Inside - Ben Harper
Fair Warning - Van Halen
Early Days, Volume One - Led Zeppelin

All solid choices, I think... and now for the second list

Now 3
Now 5
Now 29
Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen (soundtrack)
A Little More Personal (Raw) - Lindsay Lohan
Flap Your Wings - The Choir
Noel - Josh Groban
Bleed Like Me* - Garbage
Black & Blue/Millennium/Selftitled - Backstreet Boys
No Strings Attached/Selftitled - NSYNC

So, yeah, the second list seems a lot more questionable... don't you think?  And just for the record, the only reason the Garbage record made the second list as opposed to the first is because I own it already, and don't see a reason why I ought to hang onto two copies.  The Now stuff might be interesting to cherry-pick for select songs, and somehow I can see myself at least giving the LiLo disc a cursory listen out of nothing more than sheer morbid curiosity.

The other thing I did tonight was check out the Alexi Liaho DVDs.  They're intriguing.  There's a LOT of information on them, and a lot of technical examples and explanations for things.  That's the part of it that I really liked. 

Here's the part that bugged me.  As someone who is picking things up again, and someone who is wanting to get back into teaching at some point, it puzzles me that all of the musical examples were in tunings that were not standard tuning.  Why does it bug me?  Because I really feel like new players ought to know where things sit in everyday, standard tuning before venturing out into tougher areas.  I can understand if someone likes Children of Bodom, and wants to learn their music, but I feel like the way to fully understand the sonic changes that Alexi makes, I feel like they need to get at least a few of the basics down just like the rest of us have.

That's all for tonight.  Tomorrow and Thursday will have a full "Red House" update, and get me back to where I was heading earlier in the week. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DayOne Hundred Sixty Nine (Year Eight)

Today was another good day.  I spent all of it with my brother, which I needed a lot, even though I just saw him over Christmas. Tonight we finally got around to some music discussion.  He took a look at my list of goals for the year, and sees it as a really good set of steps to get me where I'd like to be from where I am.  I picked his brain about a few of the nagging questions I still had as I get started, and he was able to put my mind at ease. Having a chance to sit and chat with him is always good for my musical soul, because he constantly drives me to be a better, more well rounded player, and I'm pretty sure that I can never thank him enough for all of the advice, support, and encouragement he offers every time we chat.
Post a Comment
Read more

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 One Hundred Thirty (Year Five)

I got more time in the studio today than I have in a long time.  It wasn't quite enough for me (as always), but it was a productive re-introduction, I thought, to my life in the studio.  I: 1) Got a bit of reading done in Songs & Solos 2) Dragged out the tab book for Recovering The Satellites in preparation for the Counting Crows shows that are coming this month.  Worked on a bit of "A Long December," and a bit of "Have You Seen Me Lately."  What struck me, in taking a closer look at the tab, were the fills and arpeggios that make up a lot of the non-vocal melody.  It's fun to play, and it comes as a teaching opportunity when it comes to songwriting. 3)  I decided on the Tom Waits Biography, Low Side Of The Road for my music reading this month. 4) I didn't get to as much of the lead guitar & fretboard work as I would have liked to, but that will give me something to focus on as the week goes along. All told, it was a really good day....
Post a Comment
Read more