Last post of the year. Tonight's writing marks 2 years in a row that I've posted every single day. I sat down tonight and set musical goals for 2014. Here's what I came up with: 1a) Finish writing & recording at least an EP (while holding out hope for a full record). 1b) Either FAWM (February Album Writing Month) or the RPM Challenge. 2) Build on my recent theory studies. 3) Take (at least a few) lessons again. 4) Look into expanding my teaching. 5) Build a set list & play live. 6) Finish the last bit of studio organizing. 7) Do better with playing both acoustic and electric. 8) Focus more on genre studies (acoustic, blues, country, etc). 9) Finish off the lesson binder. 10) Take more time for listening. That seems like a pretty hefty list. The other thing I did tonight was take a look back at the last few posts of last year . At that point, my two main goals were to: 1) Write & Record one song/month and 2) Use a particular set of ar...
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Second to last post of the year. In my head, that seems dramatic, but in comparison to tomorrow's post, where I'm going to lay out all of my musical goals for 2014, tonight feels like somewhat of a false front. On some level, tonight could be a time of reflection. Of sorting out the highlights from a year that just felt busy from beginning to end. If I had to slow it down for just a second, I'd say the following would make my year-end list of highs: 1) The START Experiment. The first round of it, in particular. It showed me that (aside from lyrics, which are still hard for me), I can put together a demo in 8 days that sounds pretty good. It forced me to step back from the bigger picture, which can sometimes be overwhelming, and focus on the little things, the individual steps that take one from the beginning of something all the way through to a finished product. It never asked you to try and do it all at once (as I know I have a tende...
Today was a good day. I got to spend time with a guitar in my hands, and I started the If You Like The Beatles... book that I got as a Christmas present. I spent a little bit of my practice time today working on a little bit of "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck. My brother was playing a little bit of it in A minor while he was here, and he showed me a bit of what he was doing. It's cool, but it's not in the original key. What I really want to learn is the saxophone line, my thought being that, if I can learn the lead part, then the two of us can jam out on it when he comes back down for his visit in January. I found a tab of it that seems thorough, and is in the original key, and then I found a lesson online that covers Chet Atkins' version of it from 1973. I think I'm going to play around with both of them in the next few weeks, and see what happens. This book on the Beatles is fun so far, chronicling their rise in a few different ways. First, it...
My brother and I went over to Uncle Ike's this morning before they left town. I had hoped to either: 1) Find something I simply couldn't live without or 2) Talk to someone about taking a few lessons. Unfortunately, I failed on both counts. There wasn't anything book or accessory-wise that I needed urgently, and by the time we were done looking around, there wasn't anyone around to ask about lessons. Oh well, it's not like I won't be back in at some point in the near future. Taking at least a few lessons is something I want to do when 2014 rolls around, but I want to be picky about who teaches them, so I'm not going to rush into it without doing my research first. Also, I know I've talked about it a lot lately, but I broke down and bought that iTunes card today, just so I could finish off my "100 Riffs" playlist. Now that I've got all of the songs, here's what's even more amazing about that video: he takes what is almo...
Took my brother to Moondog Music tonight. He found some jazz by Louis Armstrong, Herbie Hancock, and Duke Ellington (which I will get copies of before he leaves), and I picked up All Hail, West Texas by the Mountain Goats. They were playing it when I was in the other day doing some last minute Christmas shopping, and it was one of those moments where the music in the room is so striking that you just have to stop and ask what they're playing. Then, tonight, we did family Christmas with the in-laws on my wife's side, and I scored $60 in gift cards from Uncle Ike's Music & Sound, the local instrument shop where I got my ukulele. I'm not sure if I want to use that money to take a few lessons, or if I'll find something in the shop that I can't live without, but yeah, my brother and I are definitely going over there tomorrow before they leave town. Might head out tomorrow and pick up an iTunes card, too. I'm close enough to the end of that "100 ...
Family Christmas this morning with my Dad, my Step-Mom, and my Brother. I got a bunch of really awesome classical music from my brother. I've been meaning to expand the classical part of my music collection for a while now, and what I added today was a nice step in doing just that. He got me 5 records. They are: Paganini: 24 Caprices - Midori Tchaikovsky: Symphonies 4-6 - London Symphony Orchestra Sonatas For Guitar: J.S. Bach - Nicholas Glouses Debussy Solo Piano Music, Vol. 1 - Peter Frankl Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphonies 40 & 41 - Mozart Festival Orchestra I also raided his laptop for more songs that are on the "100 Riffs" list, and came up with five more, bringing my total up to 71. Tonight, we hung out in the studio for an hour and a half or so, acoustic guitars in hand, riffing on a blues progression and trying to write a song. We were somewhat successful. We've got the music down, and a couple of lines of lyric, but we got ...
Merry Christmas, all! Family got here tonight. My brother brought a guitar, some music theory stuff, and a laptop with a bunch of music on it. Seems like it's going to be a pretty epic couple of days. Today was mostly relaxing, but I finally managed to get some of the new music uploaded into iTunes. The 100 Riffs playlist is up to 66 songs (and 4.5 hours of music). I'm almost 100% certain that, if all of my music were actually here with me, I'd have it up over 70, and probably closer to 80. I'll have to raid all of my burned CDs sometime soon and see what all I can come up with. It was nice to have a day that had some downtime in it, but here it is quarter to midnight where I am, and I'm itching to pick up a guitar again. Not sure how much serious study time will happen tonight, but I know I'll do some more playing before I finally pass out. That said, tomorrow and the weekend will probably be the big days. Got a couple of music books fo...
Made it into the studio at a decent hour today. Got the rest of the CDs organized, and the remaining cases safely stashed out of the way, which maximizes (or at the very least almost maximizes) my floor space. Didn't get anything imported tonight, music-wise but I suspect that will happen tomorrow. Importing new music just feels like a Christmas Day sort of activity for some reason. I did, however, pick up the guitar for a little while, which was good. Went through a couple of the guitar-related emails that have been waiting for my attention, as well. Watched a really cool lesson on this idea of partial capoing that I've heard a lot of buzz about, but never actually seen in action (until tonight). It presented some cool ideas, and has definitely given me a few things to think about, so I'll take that as a win. Can't believe that I got done with work at 12:30 today, and we've still got almost an entire day until family gets here. Time went by slowly ...
Got into the studio late tonight. Did a little bit more sorting of CDs, and, in turn, did a bit of condensing of that which remains CD-wise. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow afternoon & evening, when I'll have a really good chunk of time to finish up the organizing, and then make the switch from maintenance back to playing on a more regular basis. I'm also hoping to get some listening and uploading done tomorrow. Not only are there random songs that need to be added to the "100 Riffs" playlist, but there is also a lot of new music that I'd like to get loaded onto the iPod. I'm really looking forward to getting back into the theory & scale studies tomorrow. I've done a bit of playing this week, but it feels very haphazard in nature, and I could really use a good, solid session of learning and improving tomorrow. I've got busy days ahead of me if I want everything to be in good shape when my brother gets here, but I'm tota...
Got into the studio a couple of different times today. Did some playing, and some sorting of CDs today. I found a decent number of discs for the empty cases that have piled up underneath the work table. There's another container full of empty cases (I think) over by the rest of the music, so I'll try and wade through those tomorrow night, to see if I can't match up a few more discs. I'm starting to see the progress in the studio. When we moved in, I was more concerned about getting things squared away enough that the room was useable. Now that we've been here a while, I'm thinking not only about getting a few of those glossed over areas cleaned up for when family comes over the holidays, but also for the ability to start the year off with a clean slate in the studio. Other stuff that happened today included: 1) Finding a few more songs on the "100 Riffs" list in the process of sorting CDs. 2) A bit of listening. 3) Some time with the elect...
Well, I made some progress today on getting the leftovers from the studio organized and put away. In the process, I found a large pile of CDs that I knew we had, but didn't know where they had ended up after the move. I also got the new books from the WI trip put on the shelves in the studio. I printed off a list of the 100 riffs today, too. I've got the 61 songs that I've already got crossed off, and the other 9 that I've got here are marked as well. I'm pretty sure that I've got some of the instrumentals from the early part of the list as well, but the CDs they're on are back in Wisconsin. I'd also be willing to guess that there are a couple more songs on some random burned CDs I have from college. I got some practicing in today, as well, but I'll admit that more of my day was spent on getting things organized than it was on rocking out. Tomorrow needs to be a day filled with practicing and learning,as opposed to sorting and organizing. ...
You know, it's taken me all week to finally get back in the swing of things at home. The not so cool part of that is that it leaves me feeling like I could've gotten a whole lot more done this week (in reality, I've been so exhausted that this likely isn't true). The cool part of it is that I've got the next two days off, so I can try and cram as much music stuff into 48 hours as I possibly can. Seriously, on the list for the weekend is: 1) Lots of listening 2) Getting the rest of the WI stuff organized 3) Clearing out and putting away the stuff that has accumulated underneath the work table 4) Going through some of the guitar-related emails I've gotten of late 5) Studying and practice. Started reading a book on the final days of John Lennon. Not that far into it, but it's interesting so far. That's really all I've got for today. More tomorrow, and better. Much better.
Finally stumbled upon the other bag of books and CDs from the trip to WI tonight. I know I listed everything out as I found it, but in looking at it I'm struck again how big of a pile it is. I started listening at the bottom of the pile, with Waxahatchee's Cerulean Salt. I'm only a few tracks into it, but it's great so far. Picked up the acoustic again tonight. Ran through the chords for "Let Her Go" again. I really like that song. I also sat down at the recording console tonight, and took a listen to the ideas that I had set aside as possibles for the power pop record I've talked about forever. I came away with things I'd adjust, but feeling hopeful over all. I've started thinking, in a vague way, about 2014, and some of the things I'd like to accomplish. The first thing that came to mind is songwriting. I know I've said it at various points the last 6 months or so, but I really need to write more songs in 2014. I know I...
I feel like I got back into the flow of things in the studio a little bit tonight, and I did it with the acoustic in my hands for a change. It was nice to sit down with one of those, and not feel the pressure to try and write something new. I'll admit something (again) in this space: I don't play enough acoustic. It felt good to open up my calluses a little bit. To do so in an initial effort to figure out some songs that might make it into a set list sometime next year made it even more fun. "Let Her Go," by Passenger got learned tonight. The first place I heard that song was on an episode of The Voice this season, and it's a wonderful, subtle song. The two things about it that were cool to me tonight were the fact that it's capoed high up the neck (7th fret), and that it uses a simple, repeating chord progression. Once again, the song proves that, with all of the time and effort we put into finding fancy sounding chords for our writing effort...
I got back into the studio tonight, and while it was good, with everything new that has been added in, it's a little bit overwhelming knowing all of the listening and reading that's coming up. Actually, overwhelming is probably the wrong word. In reality, it's more of a "wow, I didn't really think I brought home that much " sort of reaction. So, yeah, needless to say, tonight was more of a night to unpack the guitar and sift through everything that came home from WI in an attempt to make sense of it all, than it was a night for hardcore practicing and nose to the grindstone improvement. Most of that stems from the fact that it was just an incredibly long day. The Mrs. works til 11 tomorrow night, though, so when I get home from work, it will be entirely about grabbing a bite to eat and falling immediately into the studio to get to work. If nothing else, stepping back into the studio has my brain thinking music full speed again, which is a welcome dis...
Okay, so today is the last of my "list" postings for a while. We just got home from the trip up north for Grandma's funeral. It was a long, snow-filled drive home, and while it was good to be there for the weekend, it's also really nice to be home. Knowing full-well that I'm excited to get back into the studio this coming week and actually get some playing done , here's what I found at Exclusive: Cerulean Salt - Waxahatchee G.P./Grievous Angel - Gram Parsons Too Far To Care (Deluxe Edition) - Old 97's Gold - The Allman Brothers The Complete Hit Singles - Three Dog Night and then I found Pete Townsend's bio from last year, Who I Am . Grabbed the latest issue of Guitar World , too. Somehow, that took forever to find this month. Then, on the way home, we stopped at Half Price Books, just to get out of the snow. Found a few cool things there, as well, all books: The Guitar Player's Songwriting Bible How The Beatles Destroyed Rock ...
So, tonight's post feels a bit on the random side, but here goes nothing. I've been working with this 100 riffs thing on and off for the last few weeks, learning one here and there as the mood strikes me. The other day, before we left for WI, it crossed my mind that it might be cool to go through my music collection and see just how many of the songs in that list I've actually got. I started in the most obvious of places: iTunes. Just going through that part of the collection, I found 61 (give or take a few) of the 100 songs. I know for a fact that I've got some of the others in the studio on CD, and I'm also pretty sure that there are some of them here at my Mom's place, on CDs that haven't necessarily made the trip with me from move to move. If I had to put a number on it, I'd guess I have at least 70 out of the 100, if not a few more. I don't know, I think a playlist with all of the songs sounds pretty cool. Whatever I don't end up ...
Tonight after all of the family stuff, Mom, The Mrs., and I went out shopping for a little bit. We hit Barnes & Noble, the local Half Price Books, and a few other places. I found some cool music stuff again today, and I won't even make it to Exclusive Company until Monday. Today's finds included the following: Best of Bowie - David Bowie (2 CD Set) Chronicles - Rush (2 CD Set) There were also 2 disc sets by Chet Atkins and The Everly Brothers. The coolest part of the Everly's collection is that the second disc has a lot of the songs from the Billie Joe + Norah record. It's going to be really cool to hear the originals, and then compare them to the new stuff. There were 3 books, too. The Songwriting Sourcebook by Rikky Rooksby, and then a book on the last days of John Lennon, and a book on the rise of Mumford & Sons. The Rooksby book was a given: I've got a few of the other books in his series, the Lennon book seemed cool, and the book on ...
So, we made it up to WI. Stopped at Half Price Books in Madison on our way up. I hadn't been to one of those in ages , so it was great fun to look around and see what I could find. They had a LOT of cool music. I came home with the following: Drag It Up - Old 97's Blame It On Gravity - Old 97's Legends Of The 20th Century - Eddie Cochran Fox Confessor Brings The Flood - Neko Case Red House - Jimi Hendrix We Walked In Song - The Innocence Mission Now The Day Is Over - The Innocence Mission Birds Of My Neighborhood - The Innocence Mission Puddle Dive - Ani DiFranco Ever since I bought Satellite Rides , I've wanted to pick up more Old 97's stuff, so that was a cool find. The only thing I know about The Innocence Mission is from their appearance on the Empire Records Soundtrack, but I enjoyed what they had on that compilation, so three records by them should be an adventure in listening. Brought the elec...
Sat with the guitar tonight, and stumbled across a chord progression that I really liked. The last thing I expected at the end of the day was to work on anything with songwriting, but there it was, so I took it and ran with it. I ended up with a verse progression that I think is really cool, and I'm hearing something a little bit more straight-forward for the chorus, but I haven't sat down and figured out exactly what form that will take yet. Headed up to WI tomorrow for Grandma's funeral, and I know for sure that I'll be bringing something along with me, instrument-wise, if only for distractionary purposes. Not sure yet whether that will be a guitar or the ukulele, but those decisions are better made tomorrow before we leave than they are tonight, when I'm at the end of the week and exhausted. Either way, there will be theory of some sort going along with me. And, I'm also secretly hoping that I can sneak in an Exclusive Company visit while we're u...
Got home late from my meeting, but still decided to try and make the most of the time I had tonight. Having been away from any real serious studying for the last couple of days, tonight I waded back into the scale lesson I've been poking my way through, and focused on using the "scale pieces at different points on the neck" aspect of it as a way to come up with a few different melodies and play them in different keys. Most of it was major scale-based, and some of it was riff-based, but it was good to explore them using the same patterns in different keys. It not only helps reinforce note identification, but it also helped with the idea that there are so many ways to play things in different places. After that, I ran through all of the pentatonic patterns in the key of G. I know the patterns pretty well on their own at this point, but when it comes to tying them all together, I'm still not where I'd like to be. Getting closer, but still not where I'd ...
Started to get back into things a little bit today, after having yesterday's musical output somewhat stunted by sad family news. Getting back into the studio tonight was good, and immediately my eye was drawn to the pile of materials currently residing on the desk chair in the music room: it's all of the scale stuff, composition stuff, and other assorted bits of theory that have been (or attempted to be) a focal point the last few weeks. I went back to the fretboard knowledge lesson from the book of stuff re-printed from Guitar One , and tried to pick up somewhere near where I was the last time I looked at it. Wound up working on the part of that lesson that focuses in on learning scalar runs from each of the different C's (or D's or E's, etc) on the fretboard. That aspect of things seemed to be getting a little bit easier tonight, at least when it comes to putting the pieces together. Considering that I didn't spend all that much time with it, I'm fe...
We lost my Grandma this morning at 2:30, so, again, I needed the studio as a method of healing today. There were 4 things on my list from yesterday. They were: 1) Finish getting things cleaned up in the studio. 2) Put together the pieces of theory I was working with last week with the stuff I've added this week. 3) Do more listening. 4) Clear up the spots that I've pushed to the side in order to make room for work to get done. I got a lot of the piles cleaned up and squared away. The studio floor is now cleared off of the many piles of books and notebooks and the like. I did a lot of listening today. That part was easy to cross off of my list. I was less focused on some of the more recent things I've picked up than I was on hearing things that felt familiar today. I took a brief look at some of the theory stuff, but didn't get far enough into it today to start tying things together in quite the way I would have liked to. And as for the random...
Today was... interesting. Some distressing family news today. Seems like my Grandma, who we just visited at Thanksgiving, isn't doing well. That news coming in when it did, I used most of my time in the studio tonight for listening. Music has always been the one thing that can help me process the more difficult moments in life, and it helped me through yet again tonight. Still, when I did get into the studio late tonight, I took a moment to take a look around, and realized (again), just how messy and frantic everything has gotten. I started to try and clean things up a bit, and in the process, I came across the scale & fretboard study materials I took along with me on our holiday trip last week. I only took a moment or two to glance over them, but what I looked at makes more sense today than it did when I put it in the bag last week. As I told my brother yesterday, the pieces seem to be coming together, they are just doing it at a slower pace ...
Early post tonight, I know, but the rest of the night will be busy, so I wanted to get out ahead of the game a little bit. We were out doing a little bit of Christmas shopping today, and I ran across the Idiots Guide to music composition. Given my transition issues from yesterday, I picked it up. I've been reading through the first couple of chapters today, up through the chapter on composing with chords. That's usually the way songwriting starts with me. It's so second nature to pick up a guitar and strum chords until something catches your ear. So many people (my brother and Wynton Marsalis included) talk about composition needing to be melody driven first, but somehow it has never worked out that way for me. Still, just doing a bit of studying, and talking with my brother for half an hour, got me to a point where I could get the transition from verse to chorus down. In that respect, it has been a good and productive day for me. I'll be honest, it...
All I had really hoped to get done tonight, studio-wise, was to finish off the chorus progression for that song I've been tinkering with. It's clear to me that I just don't write enough songs. I can get a verse progression that I really like, and/or a chorus progression that sounds really cool, but I always (and I mean always ) seem to struggle with getting the transitions right, so that they flow from one to the other, and back again. When I am successful at putting the pieces together, it's more often than not because I'm not thinking about it, and it just drops into my lap. Looks like it's time to revisit all the books on songwriting that I bought in my early 20's, because I'm certain to get more out of them at this point, right? At that time, so much of the theory went over my head, but I'm certain that, with time and focus, I'd get more out of them now than I ever did then. I'm also going to talk with my brother about transition...
With the afternoon off, I was able to sneak in two practice sessions today. The first one, this afternoon, was focused on some of the daily routine stuff that's been going on of late: scale work, the Guitar Aerobics lick of the day, a little bit of reading (the magazines I picked up the other day). I also found the chord progression my brother had written last winter when he was visiting. The whole thing is written in bass clef I also finished up a book on the rivalry between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. It was a fun and interesting read, but a little bit too short, if you ask me. Then again, I could never really get enough when it comes to reading about those two bands, so I'm probably severely biased. With the routine stuff out of the way, tonight's session was more focused on songwriting, which was awesome, in part, because it was successful. I worked on the song idea that I've been kicking around (and talking with my brother about) for the ...
Tonight was another good night in the studio. I finally sat down and hashed out the second half of Johnny B. Goode from the 100 riffs video. I still keep wishing I could find a printable version of the tab that's up on SoundSlice, but no such luck as of yet. Talked to my brother again tonight. They're coming down over the holidays, and S. offered to bring along a lot of his music theory stuff so that we can both nerd out over theory for at least some of the time they are here. After that, I asked him to throw out some chord progressions at me, so that I could translate them to guitar. He had some crazy ideas, so I wrote them down and messed around with them for a bit after we got done talking. Cool stuff. Not all of it is pop/rock material in the slightest, but I can see how some of it could be adapted to popular song forms. It makes me want to go back and find this three page chord progression he wrote out off the top of his head when he was vi...
Tonight was the first night in about a week that felt like a "normal" night in the studio for me. I may have only spent an hour or so in there tonight, but here's what I got done: 1) I got back to starting my practice sessions with the lick of the day from Guitar Aerobics . Not only does that provide me a bit of continuity at the start of my studio time, but, as I've mentioned before, it also serves as a good way to loosen up my fingers, and get my mind right for practicing. That done, I 2) Spent some quality time with the new looping pedal. This thing is incredible. I had said last night that I could see the potential in it, and tonight I started to realize that potential. I don't have the timing down perfectly yet, but I'm getting closer. The infinite number of loops means that I can add in as many crazy things as I want, and the one tap undo/redo means that I can dismiss something at the drop of a hat if I don't like it. The...
Oh, this looping pedal is going to be fun ! Got into the studio tonight and started playing about with the Ditto pedal. Didn't get anything too earth-shattering laid down, but I can definitely see the potential in this wonderful little piece of equipment. Once I get the timing straightened out, things are going to get very interesting indeed. Stopped off at BAM! tonight as well. Found the latest issues of Guitar Techniques and Acoustic Guitar . I also picked up an "acoustic rock" book of ukulele songs, and a book on the history of MTV. Found a couple of cool Christmas presents while I was at it, too. Both musical in nature, one for my brother, and one for my step-mom. Can't say much more than that, as my brother reads my blog, and I don't want to give anything away. Suffice it to say that I hope they let me read them both once they've finished with them. That's really all for today. Tomorrow needs to have some more time with the loop...
I should have known better than to think I could get a lot accomplished on a Holiday weekend with family in town. I made it into the studio for a very short time rather late tonight, and wanted to pick up the guitar and just play for a few minutes, if only so I could say, definitively, that I did make it in there tonight. I ran through the Guitar Aerobics lick of the day, spent a few minutes working with the first three of the pentatonic scale patterns, and got everything in place to set up my looping pedal. Heck, I even downloaded the manual from the internet. The only thing I didn't do is plug it in and start using it. Mostly because I knew that, if I started in on that tonight, I wouldn't be able to stop playing around with it, and would never get to sleep. Tomorrow night offers a pretty good window right after work. I'm pretty sure I'll be headed straight home and straight into the studio for a couple of hours before the Mrs. gets home from work, so yes...
Taught this morning. Both lessons. First time in a long time that has happened. Teaching early got me a bit of a chance to play this morning before the obligations of the day pulled me out of the studio. Working on the things I've been working on for the last couple of weeks is starting to pay off when it comes to confidence in my playing. I may not have unlocked all the secrets of it yet, but I'm feeling better about what it is that I have accomplished recently. Never did get around to hooking up the looping pedal today. We don't have anywhere to be until quarter to eleven in the morning, though, so I'm hoping to get up at a decent hour and have a bit of time in the studio before we're off to church and lunch with family that's in town for the weekend. Finally got around to importing the new music I picked up the other night, too. I really need to spend some serious time in the studio tomorrow. Things feel like they're getting away from m...
So, today was pretty great. I crossed something off my list that has been on it for a long time. I found a looping pedal on a really great Black Friday-type deal at the local instrument store! It's made by TC electronics, and it's a whole lot smaller than I expected it to be, but all of the reviews I've read (and the videos I've watched) have been really positive. I'm excited to have the weekend off to start playing around with it. Worked until 6, and then we had other obligations tonight that got in the way of much music-making, but I teach tomorrow morning so, if nothing else, that will force me to get up and get started on things early. It will also give me the time to get caught up on some of the things I wanted to get to today that I simply ran out of time for. That's really all today, although I did make some progress in my Beatles vs. Stones book. Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will be awesome.
Got back late tonight from Wisconsin. Stopped and did a little Black Friday shopping on the way in. I picked up a couple of CDs in the process: Reflektor - Arcade Fire and Foreverly - Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones Can't wait to absorb those this weekend. As for the rest of my day: I got to spend a bit of time with my brother, as we stopped over by them for a bit of the afternoon before heading off to eat at my Grandma's. We talked a little bit of music, played a little guitar, and generally had an excellent time, for the hour and a half or so we were there. That was, for all intents and purposes, my day when it came to music. I'll say it again: it felt weird to be home and not go to The Exclusive Company. More tomorrow. Back in the saddle after a day (almost) off.
Early post today. And a quick one at that. We're headed up to Wisconsin tonight after I get off of work to spend Thanksgiving with family. It's going to seem weird to go to Appleton, and not hit up Exclusive. Planning on taking the ukulele along with me, as well as all my scale pattern stuff, so that, if my brother and I have time, we can look at it together. I'm curious as to his insights into all of this when he gets a firsthand look at it. It will make for a late night, but it will be good to be home for the holiday.
Went back at my scale patterns again tonight. The more I work with this stuff, the more sense it makes. I backed off of my "gotta learn all the patterns at once" stance because I know it's not a smart (or healthy) way to approach things. Instead, I spent tonight focused on the second and third patterns. I feel like I've got the first one memorized inside and out. Going through "Stairway" last night really has me wanting to get back to the 100 Riffs from the Chicago Music Exchange. I played through the first three again tonight, just to make sure that I still had them down. When I started that, I made it up to "Johnny B. Goode" before I got sidetracked. I know a few of the riffs that come after it, I just need to finish out the Chuck Berry in order to tie them all together. Other music stuff that happened today included: 1) Work on the Guitar Aerobics lick of the day. 2) A phone call from my brother, to tell me he had won a concerto co...
One of the things my brother and I talked about the other day was that one of the next things I ought to do with all of these scale patterns I've been working on of late is sit down with a famous solo that uses the pentatonic scale as its base, and see just how close it comes to sticking with the patterns. Now that I think of it, I might have mentioned this idea in Saturday night's post. Anyway, one of the things I did tonight was to sit down with a print out of the solo for "Stairway," just to see how close it came. I even went so far as to find a tab of it where the solo is broken down into smaller chunks, just to make the examination process easier. As I expected, there are a few spots where it branches off into the A natural minor scale, but for the most part, it sticks almost entirely to the patterns of A minor pentatonic. Other stuff that got done tonight included the Guitar Aerobics lick of the day, and a little bit of just plain old playing on some Cou...
Didn't get into the studio until pretty late tonight; but the time in there, although quick, was productive. I spent most of it working with, and trying to burn into my memory, the other pentatonic scale patterns. I'm feeling better about them tonight than I did going into today, but I'm also left with the feeling that, just as I was getting warmed up tonight, I felt like I needed to wrap things up so I could post and get some sleep heading into the week. I know that, despite the progress I'm making, I'm not budgeting my time as well as I could/should be. This week is going to be an interesting one, what with going up north on Wednesday night for Thanksgiving with family. I'm going to have to cram in a lot of music during the next two days, because I know that Wednesday night/Thursday will seem like forever to be away from the studio. Did I get as much done as I wanted to this weekend? No, but I did push forward at least a little, and things feel a lot...
Had a great conversation with my brother today. We updated each other on our lives, but as always, a lot of the conversation revolved around music. We covered everything from classical to punk and pop. We also hit on the studying I've been doing the last few days. We both play guitar, and he was as blown away by things as I have been. One of my longer term goals with all of this lately is to sit down with a famous solo, and analyze it based on scale pattern choices. I know that so much of rock and blues is based around the pentatonic scale, I'm just curious now how close it sticks to the patterns, and how much of it could rightly be considered "out of the box." Didn't get to do a whole lot of playing today, but the chance to talk music with my brother is always something that brightens my musical landscape. A conversation with him will always push me forward, get me listening to something new, and make me want to practice more and be a better, more we...
Tonight was completely a follow-up night to last night's moment of understanding. I not only went back through the parts of the lesson I've spent the last few nights working on, but I also printed off a couple of diagrams and some blank fretboard sheets, just so that I could look at things as well as write them out. I wanted to be able to look at the patterns individually, and I found a diagram that has them all listed. That will be helpful this weekend, as I continue to reinforce things over the next 48 hours. Already having the major scale patterns printed out, my plan for the weekend is to start with the pentatonics, and work into the major scale. I just wanted to review things tonight, at the end of a long week, before adding more to my plate this weekend. I hit the lick of the day from Guitar Aerobics , too. A Friday lick that was both cool, and a bit easier than some of the earlier Friday licks. All told, a bit of a hodgepodge today, but a productive on...
Tonight's studio time was amazingly productive, and also slightly less than an hour long. I spent all day turning over scale patterns in my head. With the clarity that exercise provided, I was able to study things again tonight, and now it feels like all of the pieces are starting to fall into place. For the most part, it has been pentatonic patterns so far. While I know that everything can either be added to (or taken away from) the major scale, I wanted to make sure I understood what I thought I did with less notes in the equation first. Having sat down with the combination of lessons I've been working on the last couple of days, I then took a look at a big folder full of scales that has sat in a magazine file since we moved. Just being able to look at the diagrams and recognize the patterns lets me know I'm finally on the right track to being where I really want to be. Sometimes, in the end, it's all about seeing things you should have seen all along...
Woke up a bit under the weather today, so while I laid low for a good portion of the day, I still got some good time in the studio tonight. It started with the lick of the day from Guitar Aerobics . Tonight's lick was a bit tougher than last night's, but I worked through it enough that I got it down, which was cool. After that, I sat down with the lesson from the last couple of nights. I made some more progress, but didn't get through the whole thing. Then I went looking for advice on connecting things together. Found some good stuff that I saved in a folder for printing out tomorrow. Also, I'm thinking about taking a few lessons again, just to get some outside perspective on the work I'm trying to accomplish. This weekend I want to investigate that idea a bit further, price things out, and see if I can't find someplace to take a few lessons. Life has been so hectic lately, and the time I've had for things has felt like it isn't being used...
So, I know I said last night that I was going to spend tonight's studio time delving into that lesson on fretboard knowledge, but I got sidetracked by the idea that all I've played recently is electric stuff; and while I have all day tomorrow to keep doing that, I spent time tonight on the acoustic side of things. More specifically, I spent it looking at a couple of the highlights from Clapton's Unplugged record. Mostly, it was "Layla" and "Tears In Heaven" that I spent my time on tonight. They're both songs that I've learned the outline of over the years, but when it comes to knowing them note-for-note, I've never quite gotten there. It's just another one of those things that's on my long-term list, but everything on that list has to be started sometime, and tonight it was good to get back to some acoustic stuff. Really the only electric playing that got accomplished tonight was the lick of the day from Guitar Aerobics , which ...
Tonight was another good night. I blasted my way through the lick of the day from Guitar Aerobics , and then settled in for a more detailed look at that lesson that I glanced through yesterday. It starts off with translating open position major, minor, and seventh chords to barre chords at different places on the neck before delving into the octave shape system for figuring out scale and chord root notes. Having looked at that idea a couple of times from a couple of different resources, it's starting to sink in a bit more. I think that, with Wednesday off this week, if I can get some good time in studio-wise, things will really start to click. After the octaves, the lesson dives into different scalar approaches, and while I started to get into a bit of that tonight, I skipped to the end where it talks about learning the scales in smaller chunks at various points on the fretboard. What I probably should have done was to follow the lesson all the way through from s...
The fact that the studio got cleaned up yesterday made progress today so much easier. When I got into the studio tonight, the two things on the top of the pile on my work table were the two things that got focused on, and that worked out just fine for me. 1) First and foremost, I made it through Sunday's lick of the day from Guitar Aerobics . Pretty soon, like maybe Wednesday on my day off, I'm going to have to do an eight week review, where I go back through and try to nail down some of the harder riffs from the last two months. I'd also like to copy down (or make copies of) a few of the riffs that worked well so that I can incorporate them into the lesson binder. 2) Secondly, I had picked up a book of lessons pulled from the pages of Guitar One while we were out the other day, and tonight I sat down with one on fretboard navigation. There are a lot of ideas crammed into it, but two of them really stood out. One was a more detailed follow-up on the oct...
Today was a good day, music-wise. Found a few LPs for 25 cents apiece at one of the local thrift stores. Got a little bit of classical, and a little bit of jazz. As for the stuff from yesterday's list... I did okay, but not fantastically. I got the new Counting Crows disc imported into iTunes, and am charging the iPod as I type this. I also gathered up everything music-related that had wound up in the living room (including the couple of books I picked up the other day), and hauled it all back into the studio. I'd have gotten to a lot of playing, but when I made it into the studio, I looked around at the mess that it had become and decided to spend most of my time in there getting things put back in some semblance of order. I'm thinking I need another small shelf in there that can hold the stuff I'm currently working on, which would free up the work table for the immediate project. Feeling pretty good now that everything is back in order. Like my to...
Friday nights are always good for a little bit of fun in the music room. Tonight it was less about serious study, and more about just sitting down and playing as a way to unwind at the end of a long week. I played along to whatever the iPod brought up for two of my favorite bands: Counting Crows and Barenaked Ladies, trying to work out the chords to songs if I didn't already know how to play them. It was a fun exercise that probably could have used a bit more intense focus (and a notebook and pen, to write down what I figured out). As for other stuff tonight, there was a bit of "Twist & Shout," and the usual Guitar Aerobics lick of the day. Seven weeks into that, and the ones that really give me a harder time are always the ones on Friday. As for the weekend, I've got to: 1) charge the iPod, and add the new Counting Crows disc to iTunes. 2) collect the music stuff that has migrated out to the living room area and get it back to the studio. 3) put in a...
Tonight was another night of catching up on some things, and adding in a few new music resources. We stopped off at Books-A-Million after going out for dinner, and I found a few things that were cool enough to pick up. They were: Big Man - The Clarence Clemons biography from a few years back (for only $2!) I also snagged what looks to be a really cool book called Beatles vs. Stones . It explores the decade of the 60's set against the biggest music rivalry of the era. The other two books I picked up were more related to actual playing. They are: Total Acoustic Guitar - Andrew DuBrock and Lesson Lab: The Best of 1995-2000 . Put out by Guitar One , a now (sadly) defunct music magazine, the book highlights their best lessons over that five year time period. Both books look to be great additions to my collection, and I can't wait to dive into both of them. All told, today wound up being a great day for music, even without a whole lot of play...
Looking back on yesterday's post, there were four things that I wanted to get accomplished today. They were: 1) Get through the last few tracks of the new Counting Crows record. 2) Hit some more of 100 riffs. 3) Go back to "Twist & Shout." 4) Keep working on the AC/DC. I worked quickly tonight, but was efficient, and managed to cross everything off of that list. My session started with "Twist & Shout" tonight. It seemed like a fun way to work my way into playing for the day. While I worked through the verses a little bit, I spent the bulk of my time ensuring that I had the solo down cold. After that, I worked through the lick of the day for Guitar Aerobics , which wasn't technically on my list from yesterday, but went well just the same. Tonight's was pretty easy, and so I went back and made sure that I had yesterday's down as well. Worked on that one for a bit, and nailed it, so that was cool. Didn't do as much as last...
Today was a good day for catching up on some things that had gotten set aside for a couple of days. 1) The Classic Rock Song for November this year, AC/DC's "Rock & Roll Ain't Noise Pollution," got picked up again today, after a few days off. The intro just keeps getting smoother, and I'm feeling pretty good about the verses right now. Seems like this one is going to come down to the same thing these month-long excursions always seem to: my old nemesis, the solo. This one doesn't look all that tough, though, so I'm pretty sure that, with almost three weeks left in November, I ought to be good. 2) I've been slacking a little bit on my Guitar Aerobics stuff. Not fleshing the licks out as well as I ought to be. Got back to that tonight with a vengeance and played a bit of catch up. The licks are getting there, but they aren't quite at the level I'd like them to be. A bit of backtracking and catch up for the rest of the week should g...
Today was a good mixture of things: 1) The new live record by Counting Crows got dropped off by the UPS guy tonight, both ahead of schedule and ahead of release date! Started listening to that tonight. 2) Kept going with the 100 Riffs thing. Tonight, I got through a few of them. After finishing off "Folsom Prison Blues," I worked on "Words Of Love," "Johnny B. Goode," "Rumble," and "Summertime Blues." This is definitely going to be a fun project. 3) Did some studying of scales tonight, too. I'm trying to get better at visualizing (and playing) them from one end of the neck to the other. There's progress being made there, but it's slow and steady. All told, it was a decent day. Back to work tomorrow, which means my time for musical exploits will shrink... this will force me to be deliberate in what I choose to focus on, which is good.
For a while now, I've said that I want to find a way to trace my way through both the history of rock & roll and my history with guitar and music. Its taken me a while to stumble onto the right way to do it, and now that I have, it was something that was staring me in the face all along... I'm using the "Brief History of Rock & Roll" that came up in the last few days. It's 100 riffs, and it covers 1953-2011. I'm not going to put any sort of time limit on it, be able to play them all in one take, or make a commitment to do 1 riff/day for 100 days or anything like that. I'm just going to work on it at my own pace. Either way, I started today with the riffs from "Mr. Sandman," and "Folsom Prison Blues." Truth be told, I did a lot of my playing from the couch today, so while I spent time working on music stuff, I spent little time actually "in the studio." With tomorrow off, that will definitely change, as I'm ...
So, my brother called tonight, which means I got the chance to bring up that crazy voice mail that I mentioned in last night's post. From my viewpoint (that of someone who feels he never has enough time to get to all of the practicing he wants to do), my brother has this great life... he's going to school for music, so every time he practices, it's part of his homework. Sometimes, though, I get the feeling that he looks at my schedule, with my hour here, and my hour there, and gets envious of me . What it comes down to is this: we both feel like we have so much stuff that we want to work on, but he has professors that keep adding to his pile, while I only have me to thank for that. We both admitted that we try to do too much, and that our playing would likely improve if we simply focused more intensely on less things at any given time. I'm not entirely sure I'll actually be able to do that, but I'll try it if it will make me feel like I'm getting close...
Good night tonight. Glad to be at the start of a three day weekend. Kept working on "Twist & Shout" tonight. Played around with the solo tonight. It's short, classic, and done in 3rds. That song fits so well into my "classic song" category, along with "That'll Be The Day," and "Johnny B. Goode." Also, I found something else really cool tonight: the TAB for that YouTube video of "100 riffs, the History of Rock" online. I've wanted to learn some of those riffs (if not the whole thing) ever since I first spotted that video. Got through the daily lick from Guitar Aerobics , too. So, my plan for tomorrow is to spend most of the day in the studio. Feels like it's been a while since that actually happened, so it'll be good to get that chance. Also, I got a cool voice mail from my brother tonight. He was all hopped up to have a conversation about practicing, so I'll have to give him a call tomorrow s...
Another really good night tonight! I had the house to myself, with the Mrs. away at a retreat, and definitely took advantage, getting into the studio earlier than usual, and being productive while I was there. After loosening up my fingers thanks to Guitar Aerobics , I started off by reading a bit of the latest issue of Guitar Techniques . My original intent was to start working on a lesson on how chords and modes are related that also focused on the licking in of rhythm and lead parts. Instead, I had some fun focusing in on one of the transcriptions in the magazine, The Beatles take on "Twist & Shout." It's not a difficult song by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a blast to play. After that, I moved into a run through "Missing You," a Green Day song that I had started to mess around with a few weeks back. Better progress on that tonight than there was the last time around, so that's cool. Oh, there was a bit of Alkaline Trio involved...
Tonight was definitely a night when stuff around the house needed to get done, and therefore came before time spent in the studio. By the time I got down to the business of music stuff, I wound up only doing a couple of things, but I had fun doing it, and at the end of a long day, fun was what I needed. Most of tonight was spent goofing around, soloing over a I-IV-I-IV-I-V progression in the key of G. The G-C repeats were a good time, because they let me try out a few licks and work on connecting some phrases together. It's yet another thing I need to be working into my routines on a regular basis. Related to that, I found a CD filled with backing tracks tonight as I was sorting through some stuff in the closet, so that could hold some fun heading into the end of the week. A lot of the focus tonight was blues-based, as has been the theme of late, and I enjoyed it a lot. There's stuff to work on that has come out of it, which is good. As always, I blas...
Today was a good day. Being off from work meant a lot of time to devote to musical things. Therefore, I: 1) Got things organized a bit in the studio. It had gotten slightly out of hand of late, and so it was nice to take some time and have things looking good again. There are a few more things to do in that regard, but then again, there are always a few more things to do in that regard. 2) Picked up the latest round of guitar magazines. It was my one moment out of the house today, and I ended up with new issues of Guitar World, Acoustic Guitar, and Guitar Techniques . Seemed like a victory all the way around. 3) Spent some time with the AC/DC tonight as well. Feeling pretty good about that right now. 4) Talked to my brother for a couple of hours tonight. We hand a wide-ranging discussion that involved (among other things) listening to music vs. wading into it in order to understand it on a deeper level. I've said in this spac...
Long day today. Got into the studio late, but still feel like I made some progress. Started off, as I usually do, with the lick of the day from Guitar Aerobics . I'm finding that, for the most part, those are good for getting my fingers warmed up, which is a cool benefit. Worked a bit more on the AC/DC tune tonight. That's definitely starting to feel better, and I feel like I've hardly spent any time with it at all. Tomorrow is a day off, and looking around the studio tonight, it's obvious that I need to spend a lot of time in there tomorrow. Things aren't as organized as I'd like them to be, and there's a lot of playing that needs to be done. Really can't wait to have a whole day to do just that. Not much else to report tonight. Really feel like tomorrow is going to be a great day, though.
We got back to town around 8 tonight. As good as sit was to be away for the weekend, it sure was nice to get back home... and back into the studio. I did a few things as soon as I got in there tonight: 1) I blasted through the last few days of Guitar Aerobics . Did I get everything flawlessly? No. But I got through it. 2) I started in on the classic rock song for November. "Rock & Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" is going to be fun. I was pretty tired at the end of a long, awesome weekend, but I played through both the intro and the verses tonight, just to get some of it underneath my fingers heading into the week. Tomorrow night should be a good one for music, though, and I'm planning on spending most of Tuesday in the studio as well. Hooray for days off. It's looking like a solid start to the week.
So, having the ukulele along for the trip to Cherokee was helpful in two ways: 1) I got to play for my niece, who was fascinated by the music, and the idea of playing the uke herself. She sat and watched for a bit, and then kept reaching out to strum the strings. and 2) I got the chance to sit and try to figure out a bit of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by ear, because I didn't remember/wasn't smart enough to print out the transcription I found the other day and bring it along with me. I've got the opening few lines pretty much nailed down, but before I go much farther, I want to sit down with the tab and get a better look at it than I have so far. Regarding the classic rock month selection of "Rock & Roll Ain't Noise Pollution," I checked before we left home, and I've got a good tab of it in an AC/DC book that I've got, so I'll be good on that front. Now it's just a matter of getting home and diving in. As I suspecte...
We're heading out to Cherokee for the weekend to see family and just hang out. Leaving in a minute here, but I wanted to post something, at least. November again, which means it's time for me to learn a classic rock song. I asked my brother for song suggestions, and he came back with a good one: "Rock & Roll Ain't Noise Pollution," by AC/DC. That works for me. I'll either get started on that on Sunday night when we get home, or (more likely) on Tuesday, when I have the day off. I'm taking the ukulele along with me, so that I can get a bit of music in my weekend. Should be a good time. I'll post something more concrete tomorrow, but for now, it's time to hit the road!
Most of my musical activity tonight was ukulele related. I hadn't picked it up in about a week, and on a whim, after running through my lick for Guitar Aerobics , I took it out of the case, and tuned it up. I was a little bit rusty, but went back through a few basic chords, and found that it came back pretty quickly. Also, I finally found the "Learn Ukulele" book that I had snagged at Half Price Books over the summer. It's got good lessons in it that advance at a good rate for someone just starting out. There's also a huge chord and scale dictionary in the back part of the book, which is awesome. After playing for about half an hour, I ventured out to the computer, and tried to find a tabbed out version of Jake Shimabukuro's take on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." I found something that at least comes close , from the sound of the description, and that will be a good enough place for me to start. His version of that song is my holy grail on...