Skip to main content

Day Four (Year Four)

So, today was... odd.

I made recording progress in the morning.  Got a scratch acoustic guitar part down for this week's song.  I can tell that I'm getting readjusted to the recording process, though, because it felt really strange to put that down without having a bass part laid down first.

Then, with that taken care of, I packed up my Strat and headed into Sioux City to see about getting it repaired.  I don't know if it was because I told the guy that I was in the middle of recording this week, but he looked at my guitar right away.  I told him that I suspected the problem was in the jack where the instrument cable connects to the guitar, so he took the plate off, and immediately said, "oh, I can see where that would be a problem."

Apparently there are two wires that serve to connect that jack to the rest of the electronics.  In my Strat, one of the wires is red, and the other is white.  I peeked at what he was looking at, and the white wire had come completely disconnected from the mechanism itself.  Here's a picture of what it's supposed to look like:
      

(just substitute the black wire here for red, and you'll have it exactly, even down to the color of the finish)

While I was out, I also picked up:

1) A Bass Fretboard Roadmaps book (because when it comes to bass, I need all the help I can get)

and

2) 100 Acoustic Lessons from Guitar Lesson Goldmine, because I need to play more acoustic.

also

3) The Definitive Collection by JJ Cale, because he passed the other day, and while I have his stuff with Clapton, I didn't have any of his solo work.

All told, a good day, and a busy day.  Got tomorrow afternoon off, though, and am planning on spending it in the studio.              

Comments

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...

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.

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.