Day Three Hundred Sixty Three (Year Two)

So, in preparation for getting together with N., I played through some of "House Of The Rising Sun." I had learned at least a part of it a long, long time ago. It's a really simple structure, with a picking pattern that goes by quickly initially, only to slow down after a few listens.

After that, I did some blues stuff. I've had this Hal Leonard book on Blues Guitar for a few years now, and somehow until tonight, I had never taken the CD that comes with the book out of its plastic wrapping in the back of the book. Tonight I went through with it, and played through the first few examples out of the book. Some of it went faster than I expected, but sticking with it let me make some progress toward improvement.

That may be the biggest lesson I've learned in the last two years: the best way to get make good strides is just to fight off the negativity that comes with not figuring something out right away, and stick with it, for if I keep going, I always break through. I need to remember to take deeper breaths when improvement doesn't happen as fast as I want it to, and just stay focused, because usually the breakthrough (whatever it may be) is just a few more minutes of practice away.

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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.

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...

Day Eighty Two (Year Four)

Today was the day. Not only did I celebrate a year of being married, I also got to go and get my ukulele! I wound up getting one of those "all in one" packs that came with a gig bag and a DVD. The picture is generic, I know, but it gets the point across. While I was there, I picked up a book of Bob Dylan songs for the uke, as well as a Jim Croce songbook for guitar. We also got the Mrs. a set of claves. ...

"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

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