Skip to main content

Day One Hundred Fifty Six (Year Four)

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 Riffs" playlist that I just want to finish it off now.

Sometime before they leave tomorrow, we need to get back into the studio, as well, and work through some more theory stuff.  Should be a solid way to wrap up their visit.

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.