Skip to main content

Day Fifty Three (Year Three)

So, over the years I've signed up for all sorts of emailed guitar lesson-type things, where some hotshot or some blowhard tries to convince you that you can "shortcut" the hard work and make blazing progress in 8 days or some such B.S.  It always makes me laugh.  I get that I'm not where I thought I'd be when I started blogging about my musical explorations a few years ago, and I also get that most of the reason I'm not is because I haven't put in enough consistent work to get where I want to be.  Still, any time they offer me something for free, I take it, if only because I'm curious where they start to hook you in.  Tonight, as it turns out, they are starting in the same place I have started with my students: learning the notes on the neck.  I know, big surprise there, right?

I puttered around late tonight with the acoustic, searching for a song idea to get me back on track with writing.  I stumbled across a few things, but nothing that really set the world on fire, so to speak.  I know I can't expect miracles when I'm not (as of yet) putting in 8 hour days working solely on music, but I'm human, in that I want progress to be faster, even on things like this, where I'm not always 100% in control of what happens.

Didn't get a chance to finish off that Green Day article today, either.

My only defense for the lack to quality music time today is that SL and I spent most of the afternoon/evening catching a mouse that had gotten inside, and then trying to ensure that no more of his friends were going to get in.  Lost time away from music. 

Better tomorrow.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day Three

Short one today. I've got a bunch of the DVDs that Guitar World has put out. Waded through those to see what I had, worked off of the lead guitar one. Just basic scales , but still a light place to begin. It was nice to just start loosening up my fingers again. Off from work tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get a lot of playing done. Said I'd mention the other project I'm hoping to finish this year. Back when I was living in WI, I started a hard rock band with a friend of mine. She was heavily influenced by Evanescence, and so, with her as vocalist, we started writing songs. We had written and demoed almost a full album's worth of music by the time I moved to IA, and had even purchased a P.A. in preparation for eventual gigs. We never did find a permanent drummer or bassist, so our demos sound very rough (and not nearly loud enough). I'd like to finish those songs, and make an EP of the 4 or 5 strongest, just as a way to put a cap on that project. More tom...

Day Three Hundred Fifty Seven (Year Seven)

Today was okay.  It ended up being quieter than I wanted it to be, but I got in a few things. 1.  I got the music from the car hauled in and sorted out in advance of my road trip to Dubuque for a little longer than a day.  I'm taking the Radiohead reissue with me for that, since I haven't gotten a chance to sit down with it yet. 2.  I'm also taking an empty notebook along with me, in the hopes that I might start to get some lyric ideas down on paper while I'm gone.  I watched some cool videos early this morning about the idea of writing all of the music before writing lyrics, and the way things are going that is looking like what's going on with me. 3.  I wish there had been more playing today, but I'm still feeling good about where things are sitting.  This next week needs to include a lot of writing.

Day Three Hundred Fifty Four

Today was a hodgepodge of musical stuff. Here's a list of the stuff it included... 1) I uncovered two more songs to add to my ongoing list of "supremely catchy pop music." One of the songs is the first song on the latest record by the Smoking Popes, who I saw the other day. It's called "Wish We Were," and it's a glorious pop-punk distillation of unannounced love.  The second song is by a band called the Vaccines. It's called "Norgaard," and it comes off as a mix of 60's California pop, punk energy, and surf rock. 2) Found a poster frame for my Alkaline Trio poster. 3) Heard from B. via text tonight. Apparently she has rediscovered her knack for "creepy, cool lyric writing again." I couldn't be more excited about this. When she hits that kind of stride, B. usually comes up with some pretty great stuff. She tells me she got an entire lyric tonight. Some rough ideas about melody, but nothing concrete yet. As for me,...