Skip to main content

Day Seventy One (Year Three)

First rehearsal tonight with the praise band.  I really was going to just sit and listen.  Until none of the songs they picked actually had the canned music they've been using.  So, while I didn't play for the performance part, I definitely played along a bit at rehearsal.  It helps to have a guitar stored at the church in these instances.  Apparently they were impressed with my ability to pick things up at the drop of a hat.

As an added bonus, they said it was totally up to me whether I used the acoustic or the electric during the performances... they've got an amp and an effects pedal that someone had left there years ago.  So, I imagine that at some point in the next week or so, I'll wander into the church after hours, with my Strat, and test everything out.

After I got home tonight, I skyped with my brother, and we got to talking about Circle II by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.  We grew up with that album, on family vacations and road trips, and I'm not sure either one of us really appreciated it for how awesome of a record it is until we got older.  Anyway, S. was trying to learn "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" tonight, and we figured out that it's in the key of A, and learned it that way.  Then I remembered that I've got a program on my NOOK that lets you input a chord progression, and see what the chords would end up as if you put a capo on any of the frets.  We both figured out that the progression was a whole lot easier to play if we put the capo at the second fret.  Good times.

Spent a bit of time on the Grohl Challenge today, but not enough to make any substantial progress.

I'll probably go to the jam session tomorrow night.  Even if I have to go by myself.  If I do, you'll get a paragraph about that tomorrow night.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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 Two Hundred Ninety Two (Year Five)

Today was the last seminary village cookout of the year. While we were all sitting around the picnic tables eating dinner, I got a chance to talk with a few of the Mrs.'s classmates about guitar related stuff. As it turns out, more than one of them wants to be more proficient on guitar. I'm not saying that this will lead to more teaching opportunities, but I told one of them that I would throw a folder together for them. Essentially, anytime I get a chance to talk shop is a great chance for me to reinforce some of the things I have been focusing on. If nothing else, it gets me thinking ahead to tomorrow's day off and a chance to get into the studio for a decent amount of time.
Post a Comment
Read more

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. 
Post a Comment
Read more