"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

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...

For the most part, today was a quiet day, music-wise. I kept working on the song from last night.  Figured out a few ideas for bass parts, but all of them seemed terribly rudimentary to my ear tonight.  I know there's beauty to be found in simplicity, but having it feel too simple isn't good either. Even though I'm not (yet) working at my pace from this summer, it still feels good to be making some sort of progress toward that somewhat elusive goal of recording at least an EP for every year we're living here. I know I said last night that I really need to get back into the Blues Goldmine book.  Tonight, I'm thinking that, what I really need to do is find a happy combination of the Blues book, and the Rock book. The other thing I did tonight was go back through the 3 licks for the week from Guitar Aerobics .  They're tougher than last week's (which is the plan), but if I keep at them, I'll have them all nailed down by Sunday night. That's re...

Tonight was a songwriting night, all the way.  Or, perhaps more accurately put, a demo starting night. I sat down tonight with the goal of making sure the chord progression I've been tinkering with since the end of last week (the one that, in my head, opens my debut record), was finished, and I think that, with the little bit of tinkering I finished up over the weekend, it is.  At this point, anything else that needs to be adjusted will become obvious in the recording of the demo. Setting the tempo for the song was a bit tougher, and it took me a little while to figure out where the groove was, but I got there eventually.  I also started to figure out drum sounds for the demo, and found something that seems to work pretty well, so that's cool. That got me through the first step on my list from the #STARTexp this summer.  If I were holding to the pattern from July and August, that would mean that tomorrow night I'd be writing the bass line.  Not sure that I...

So, I'm doing some studying at work today before taking a test about the first third of my training, and I come across a quote that the management team uses.  It goes like this: "plan your work, and work your plan."  Seemed fitting, especially given last night's post. Tonight, then, I sat down in the studio and got down to the work of planning.  I'm really happy with what I see as the first layer of learning.  It's got a musical progress form from Berklee, a fretboard diagram, scale degrees, the circle of fifths, the location of all the A's, B's, C's, etc.  I've also got a lesson that lays out a way to locate and identify notes based on an octave system. I've also got a detailed list of everything I've pulled, resource-wise, for the binder.  Next on my list is figuring out what of that belongs in the next layer of things.  Most of it, I think, will be book-related.  The Vai workout, the Blues & Rock Goldmine books, perhaps th...

Now that it's over, this week feels a little bit like one that got away. That said, it was also a good chance for me to see where I need to improve.  More often than not this week, it wasn't a question of "oh, my playing isn't good enough there" (although a couple of times it was), it was more a question of knowing that, with more focus, things could be even better than they are right now.  I keep missing chances to work on specific things and feeling badly about it.  Things just felt very disorganized this week for me, music-wise. Now I need to spend a serious chunk of time (tomorrow night) getting things put in order a bit more.   Basically, I’ve got all these things I want to get to, all these different areas that I can look to for motivation and improvement, and I really need to make sure I get to everything in an organized manner.   I need to find a way to make sure I get to everything, while at the same time, leaving enough of an opening for something ...

Oh, what a day.  It didn't go at all the way I hoped it would, but it went, nonetheless. The good news?  I got 95% of the music I wanted to get imported into iTunes uploaded onto the iPod and got the pod freshly charged. The less good news?  I spent almost the entire rest of the day fighting with the cable company, and only ducked into the studio for a small amount of time tonight.  That said, the time I did spend in the studio was enough to: 1) Mess around with a new song idea. 2) Work my way through today's lick in Guitar Aerobics . 3) Get some things reorganized and set to rights. All told, not the most productive of days, although the listening that got done after the iPod was charged up was definitely a plus. Still, tomorrow needs to be so much better .

I can't believe I'm a week away from the 100th day of year #4 of the blog.  As fast as the first three years went, the last 100 days have flown by.  So much has happened in that time... a move, a new job (or two), getting adjusted to being in a new city, and that's not even the music stuff!  As for the musical experiences, there were the two rounds of the #STARTexp, moving into and setting up the studio, adding a new instrument to my collection, slowly starting to teach again, and all of the learning I've done on my own.  Year 4 has definitely been a productive one thus far. I'd like to think in broad strokes for a second here:  While I realize that the holiday season is approaching, and that things will start to get busier, what I'd like to do in the next 90-100 days (so, by the end of January-ish) is this: 1) Learn at least a small set list, and play out somewhere , or go to an open mic at the very least. 2) Write and record some more demos. 3) Add at ...

Today was okay.  Not as much time as I would have hoped for music tonight, but if I learned anything from the #STARTexp this summer, it was to take advantage of my opportunities whenever (and for however long) they arise.  I've gone from "oh, I've only got fifteen minutes, what could I possibly get done in fifteen minutes?" to "Hey, cool!  I've got fifteen minutes, let's see what I can get done quick." Tonight it was more like a half an hour, but still. The other thing I've been pretty good about this week is changing things up.  Last night it was scales and repeating licks, tonight I worked on a couple of Jason Isbell songs that I had printed out a couple of weeks back.  "Dress Blues," and "Stockholm" are coming along okay.  Not ready for an open mic performance yet, but they're a little bit closer tonight than they were yesterday. One of the things that needs to happen this weekend is another round of uploading mus...

Today was good. I got a better start on planning out my practice sessions during my lunch break at work.  Sorted out the hour-long sessions, and got a little ways into the planning of the longer sessions as well.  I'm pretty sure that those will get finished off sometime during the day tomorrow.  I'm trying to walk the line between leaving them too wide open and having them too regimented, and I think I'm doing okay so far.  Giving myself the rest of tonight off from that is my way of going back at them tomorrow with fresh eyes.  Hopefully it works. Tonight, instead of working on songs, I worked on a lot of different scale sections, whether it was specific groups of notes, or running entire scales in different patterns.  It wasn't anything all that complex, scale-wise tonight.  I focused on: 1) E minor pentatonic 2) A minor pentatonic 3) E blues So, yeah, just easier stuff.  What I really need to do is try something like what we did in o...

What a day!  Training started for the new job.  I expected to be exhausted when I got home, and I was... at least a little bit.  Then, late tonight (10:30ish), I realized I was wide awake and brimming with energy, so I did the sensible thing:  I headed into the studio. I haven't entirely sorted out practice routine stuff yet.  In a perfect world, I'd like to have a few of them set up, so that I can change it up a bit with different materials or different lengths of time.  In reality, it felt too late in the day to start in on a project of that sort, energy or no energy.  So, instead, I used the music for relaxation while also dragging out "Yellow Ledbetter," which I hadn't done in quite a while. One of the cool things about going back to something after a bit of time away from it is that you tend to focus in on some of the smaller details of the song.  Tonight, it was the fills and note choices within the chords that were highlighted for me....

Day #1 of Week #4 of my trek through Guitar Aerobics , and the licks are starting to get harder.  It was nice to have the challenge tonight.  Getting into the studio late in the day, I needed something difficult to force me to maintain my focus.  The focus really came through, too.  It may have taken me a bit longer on this Monday than the earlier three Mondays, but I got the lick down in time with the recording, so I'll call that a win for the day.  Related to that, I really, really need to find a way to get into the studio earlier in the day.  I start training for a new job tomorrow, and the next two weeks are going to be almost strictly 8:30-5:30 shifts.  That's really going to change things for me.  I've gotten used to having time in the afternoons for the last month.  Working only in the mornings will do that to you.  In reality, I think the new schedule is going to help me, because the time I'm going to have for music starting to...

Tonight's post feels like it's going to be a few small stories that add up to something greater than the sum of its parts.  Just throwing that out there now, in case this seems a bit disjointed at times. I've wanted to make a record for a long time now.  Since before I started this blog, and really for about the nine years before that.  Granted, for most of those years, especially the earlier ones, I didn't have the skills or ability to make a record, but that didn't dull the desire any.  And, if you want to be technical, the two years before I started the blog, I was hardly doing anything musical at all , so I'm not entirely sure those years really fit the bill, but still... I read somewhere during those years, that one of the tricks to getting started when you're writing a new song is to close your eyes, picture the record on the player, watch yourself dropping the needle on it, listening for the music that starts playing, and then trying to play it ba...

Taught this morning.  Only one lesson instead of two.  Went well, though.  Second lesson and he's making solid progress. Did some playing of my own, as well.  More of it tonight than anything else.  Tried to work on some songs, but didn't come up with much that I liked.  Worked on a bit of fretboard knowledge stuff and fret hand dexterity instead.  Then I ran some blues scales while I watched  game six of the ALCS. The big thing I got done today was listening-related.  The pile of new stuff has been stacking up, and I finally sat down today and just worked my way through some of it.  Not terribly inspiring, but that's the way it happened today. Ducked back into the studio right before posting to run through today's lick from Guitar Aerobics .  It went well today. Felt like I got more done today, or at least like it was more interesting than my post has made it seem.  All I can hope is that tomorrow's musical adventure...

Today was a mixture of good and bad, or perhaps more accurately put, productive and not so productive.  On the productive side today were the following things: 1) I went over my notes, and prepped for tomorrow's lesson(s), the first of which happens at 9:30, the second at 10:00.  Got the studio cleaned up a bit too, which should make things go a bit smoother.  That alone was proof that I had been working on any number of things this week. 2) I sat down and watched the Green Day DVD on the making of their trilogy from last year.  There's so much that can be learned by watching a band document their time in the studio.  The other cool thing about the DVD?  Watching clips of Billie Joe making home demos, and discovering (again) that the process is pretty much the same for all of us.  I watched him lay down drums, put bass over the top, and then lay down guitar parts before vocals.  It's just cool to know that, no matter who you are, the process i...

Tonight, I got to cross off one of the projects I started this week.  It was the one from last Sunday's post, where I discussed the need for more organized practice sessions.  If you wanted to look back on the original post, here's the link for it: http://rock-muse-ings.blogspot.com/2013/10/day-eighty-one-year-four.html Anyway, I got the rest of my "what I'm working on" section sorted out, and added in the things I'd like to add to that list.  Haven't sat down yet to figure out how I'm going to structure my practice session yet, but I figure that, if nothing else, I can get to that tomorrow while the Mrs. is at work from 4-10. I also sat down and plotted out a bit more of the direction I'd like my blues studying to take.  It's not done yet, but that section of the lesson binder is really starting to take shape in my head, which is really cool. As always, lately, I also conquered the lick of the day from Guitar Aerobics . Tomorrow's ...

Got the call today that the record I had ordered (Lucy Wainwright Roche's There's A Last Time For Everything ) had come in.  Only took a day.  Which was awesome, because it let me swing in and grab the other two records I mentioned last night: 1) New - Paul McCartney and 2) Let's Be Still - The Head & The Heart With those purchases, I think I'm done for a bit.  That's a lot of new music in the last week, and I'll need some time to absorb it all. Besides, I've got a lot of playing to do. I think buying the ukelele has freshened everything up for me.  Learning new chord forms has put a shine back onto basic major chords.  Everything I've played the last couple of days has had an extra bit of zip to it, which really makes me want to write again.  Friday's looking wide open right now, hopefully I can take a block of time and try to write something new. As for the playing side of things today, I spent a bit of time with the ukulele, and...

Today was another good day.  Spent time in the studio with both the guitar and the ukulele, and stopped off at Moondog Music for the first time in a long time.  Couldn't pass that up on a pretty heavy new release Tuesday, but more on that later. Didn't make it into the studio until about ten tonight, but I made some good (and fun) progress when I got there.  I pulled out the book of Dylan songs for the uke, and started thumbing through, looking for a fun and easy way to dive in.  After trying a few things, I finally settled on "You Ain't Going Nowhere."  It's a 3 chord song (G-Am-C) with a steady rhythm, and I've got a few different versions of it (Dylan's, Counting Crows, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), which gives me a few options for tempo and style. Actually, I think learning ukulele is going to help my guitar playing.  Starting with a new instrument will take me back to all of the fun 50's and 60's music I grew up with, stuff that only has 3 ...

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.                                                 ...

Today was more productive than yesterday, even if I didn't get into the studio until fairly late in the day.  I got the usual Guitar Aerobics lick of the day done.  It was an easy eighth note strumming pattern today, using the same chords as last Sunday's quarter note pattern.  Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the licks are starting from a certain point, and then just building on that as a way to increase difficulty while building confidence. Then I had a realization and did something sensible about it.  My realization was this: I haven't been as good this week about writing everything down as I work on it.  I'm a few days behind right now.  So, while I need to make a more concerted effort with that, I also know that I've been working on a lot of different stuff lately.  I feel like I'm making definite progress, but also that said progress is a little bit of a hodgepodge right now.  So... I sat down and wrote out everything tha...

So, today was interesting. Didn't end up teaching after all, as my student was kept out of town longer than anticipated, and wasn't back.  What's cool about that is the fact that I'm now prepared for next weekend's lesson. Didn't end up going and getting my ukelele today either, because I knelt on some glass feeding the cats at lunch, and then proceeded to bleed all over the kitchen and the bathroom.  So, yeah, that took a little bit of time to deal with. That said, I still found time to sneak into the studio tonight and do a couple of things. 1) I worked on learning "Question" by the Old 97's.  I've had Satellite Rides in my car stereo for what seems like forever now, and I really like that song.  It's pretty easy to learn, too, so there's that. 2) Couldn't let the day go by without working on the lick of the day from Guitar Aerobics either.  So I blasted my way through that, too. Somewhat of a lost day today, and that ...

Got a fun piece of news from the Mrs. today when she got home from work.  She announced that, since she got a computer with this year's tax refund, and we aren't financially set enough to each get each other amazing anniversary presents (we celebrate on Monday), that she thinks I ought to get a ukelele.  That feels like a rather roundabout way of getting that out there, but still, I'm fairly certain that I'm getting a ukelele tomorrow afternoon.  I've already got a sheet with basic chords on it, having picked that up at MidBell over the summer.  I'm torn on getting a baritone uke (which shares the tuning of the guitar's 4 highest strings), or getting one that uses the standard ukelele tuning of G-C-E-A.  Updates will follow tomorrow.   I'm pretty sure I teach tomorrow, too, although I haven't gotten any official confirmation of that this week. Got through the next lick of the day (#5 of week 2), and I'm finding that, as long as I take it slow...

Didn't have a ton of time to spend in the studio today, but I found it interesting that, a day after I posted about a record that had gotten somewhat lost in the shuffle, I found a pile of magazines that had experienced the same fate.  I've got two music stands in my studio.  One is a tabletop stand that sits on my worktable that is usually holding whatever it is I'm currently focused in on, and the other is your regular, run of the mill, black music stand that has spent the last six weeks holding whatever didn't really have a place yet when I first started setting up the studio. Tonight, as I went to grab the notebook that holds my song ideas from the last year or so, I noticed that, directly underneath it were a few magazines I've picked up in the last few months that must have wound up there because I brought them into the studio and just needed somewhere to stash them.  At the bottom of that pile was a DVD and booklet from Guitar Techniques (still in the pl...

Swung by the local bookstore tonight in search of the new issue of Guitar World .  It's an anniversary issue for Nirvana's In Utero , out 20 years this year.  They didn't have it in stock yet, but they did have the new issues of Guitar Techniques and Acoustic Guitar .  The new issue of AG has a cover story on Jason Isbell's latest record, Southeastern , that came out back in June.  It was a record that I was really looking forward to this summer, and also one that got at least somewhat lost in the shuffle of an impending move.  Reading the cover story got me to pull out the record again, and it's one of those albums that feels like an old friend, even after only a few spins.  Isbell's songwriting was great when he was with the Drive By Truckers, and his first few solo records kept that up, but this latest one ups the ante. In that spirit, and still thinking about learning cover songs and finding an open mic, I found the chords for two of his songs, one ca...

Another great music day. Having spent yesterday mainly focused on lead playing for my practicing, I switched it up and spent tonight working on my rhythm playing.  Got to keep all areas of my playing sharp, after all.  While I switched up the area of study, the method I used for my practicing was the same.  I've got a "Rock Guitar" DVD from GW that covers rhythm, soloing, and anything else that one could need to learn to make themselves a proficient rock guitarist.  I spent over an hour with it tonight, going through the multitude of examples that covered everything from 60's era rock up through Pantera-type heavy metal.  It was good to brush up on my sight reading of those styles.  I felt like I picked up the rhythm pretty well, although there were a few examples that could use a tad bit of brushing up.  For some reason, there isn't a metronome always sitting out in my studio (although one is always readily available).  I need to remedy that....

Today was a great, great day music-wise.  I got into the studio twice today, once this afternoon after my tutoring shift, and then again tonight after 10. Having not focused on songwriting much recently, I knew going in that I wanted to spend at least a little bit of time focused in on that.  I did, and I think it was a first step towards finally finishing off a song idea that I've had knocking around for years that has never really come out sounding exactly the way I want it to.  Today, I messed around with capo placement (previously it has always been a "standard tuning, no capo" idea), and tempo/strumming pattern.  Those couple of things made enough difference that I'm starting to hear the spark of something in my head.  Hopefully the rest of the week will produce more positive results. Worked on lick #1 of week 2 in Guitar Aerobics .  Somewhat similar to the lick last Monday, except that, where last week's lick was straight sixteenth notes, this w...

Another late night in the studio.  I love those.  I only wish I'd time them a little bit better, so they could last a little bit longer without me feeling guilty about it. Looked back today on the goals I had set for myself all the way back at the beginning of September.  There were four of them, and they were as follows: 1) On days I work, I want to practice at least an hour.  Double that for off days. 2)  I want to keep a detailed record of what I practice each day, including what went well as well as what needs improvement. 3) I want to find an open mic night to attend regularly. 4)  I want to finish an EP or a full length record for each year we're there. Maybe try the RPM Challenge in at least one of the three years. Well, a month in, I'm doing okay, but not as well as I could be.  I'm getting into the studio at least an hour a day.  Haven't stuck to the whole "2 hours on off days" thing, though, and I could really stand to do t...

Taught this morning.  For a first lesson, I thought it went pretty well.  I'm teaching a father and his son, and it seems like the Dad is going to take lessons every week, and the son is going to do lessons every other week, when he's around. Stayed in the studio for a little bit after they left, and did some playing of my own.  Worked on the lick of the day in Guitar Aerobics .  As I suspected yesterday, it was a much easier affair than was Friday's. If teaching (and prepping to teach) let me figure out anything studio-wise this week, it was this: despite things looking pretty good and the studio being functional, there is still more I can do organizationally to have things make more sense.  As if I needed further proof that everything is a work in progress right now. Then tonight, we had friends in town from NW Iowa, so not a whole lot else got done music-wise today.  Tomorrow afternoon/evening will need to have a pretty focused practice session, bu...

Well, I knew it would happen at some point this week, and today was the day.  The Guitar Aerobics lick of the day didn't so much have me stumped, as it was just harder for me this time around.  Which is good, don't get me wrong.  I mean, if they were all easy, there wouldn't be much of a challenge to it, now would there?  So, I fought with it for a while, got the first half of it down pretty well, and then stepped away from it for a bit.  In that time, I looked at the licks for Saturday and Sunday, played through those, found them to be easier than today's lick, and figured that I'll certainly be able to master the second half of today's lick by the end of the weekend.  I'm really enjoying this program so far.  I know I'm only a week in, and there's a long way to go, but it's been good. The other thing I did today was prep for lessons tomorrow morning.  I'm teaching at 9:30, and while I've taught the introductory lesson enough times in ...

I had high hopes at the start of the day about a mammoth practice session.  Said session never really materialized, but even so, I was able to sneak into the studio for a bit tonight.  While I was there, I hit most of the things I've worked on all week: the next lick in the series for this week (#4!) from the Guitar Aerobics book, and a couple of things out of the Blues Goldmine book. Something else dawned on me tonight, too.  As much as the repetition of regular playing has helped me out lately, the biggest thing that has changed lately is my confidence.  My belief that I'll reach the goals I set for myself all those years ago is at an all time high right now.  Like I said the other night, I'm not there yet, but I finally feel like I'm actually making sustainable progress. Tomorrow needs to be about a couple of things: 1) Getting ready to start teaching again on Saturday morning.  I've spent the whole week thinking about where to begin, now I just ne...

I got to everything I had hoped for today, which included: 1) Lick #3 from Guitar Aerobics 2) More work with the DVD booklets I pulled out last night 3) the solo from "Yellow Ledbetter" 4) The Blues Goldmine book. Having put in three days worth of work on the Guitar Aerobics book, here's what I'm noticing... while the book is billed as a "1 lick per day" format, it hasn't worked that way for me since the first day.  Instead, it has evolved into something wherein I work through all of the licks leading up to the current one, and then tackle the current one.  So, by the end of the week, I'll be going through all seven licks whenever I sit down.  What's cool about it to me is that, while all of them are easier to play tonight than they were on Monday or Tuesday, just that improvement is obvious when I get down to whatever the rest of my daily practicing is. I ran through some of the same licks from the DVD booklets again tonight, and those...

Another night with time spent in the studio meant another day of feeling like I'm getting closer to where I want to be!  I'll be the first to admit that I'm still a long ways off, but having somewhere I can go to focus my energies has been everything I hoped it would be when we moved.  Now that things are set up and functional, however, I'm noticing things that will make the process easier. 1) A timer.  I had bought a small clock with a timer in it when I was living in WDM, but somehow it never ended up being used for its intended purpose.  Well, now I need to use it so that I make sure to get to everything I want to get to in a practice session.  I'm finding that, if there are four things on my musical to do list for the day, I'll get around to two of them, but not the others.  If I'm going to improve at the rate I'd like to, I need to be getting around to everything (or at least more than half of everything) on my list each day. Take today, for exa...