"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Today was a decent day for music.  Not quite as epic as I had hoped it would be, but I still feel like I got into the studio and got a few things pushed at least a bit farther into my head. I'm still looking for that easy fluidity that only comes with time, still waiting for that audible (in my head, anyway) click that will signify all of the pieces finally coming together.  Sometimes I think I'm in better shape when I'm less worried about what I've been working on learning.  Sometimes when I just push my way through, I surprise myself at what I already have underneath my fingers, but I know I'm still thinking more than I'm reacting, and that's the step I need to get past. I did okay today, but if I'm truly honest with myself, I didn't put in enough time today as I should have.  I really need tomorrow afternoon/evening to have a lot of time for music in it, otherwise I know I'll head back to work on Monday feeling like I let another good oppo...

The farther I get into my theory studying, the more obvious my points of struggle become.  Tonight, it was this that became clear: although I've made good progress the last couple of weeks, and although it seems that at least one more piece in the final puzzle locks into place every day, there's one thing that has held me back in my studies:  I may have worked on scale patterns for the major & minor scales, as well as the major & minor pentatonics in the last couple of weeks, and I can blister my way through them pretty well with the patterns in front of me, what I'm lacking right now is the speed when I'm not staring at the music.  I need to work on memorization this weekend, and to a certain extent, fluidity and confidence when it comes to being able to use those scales all over the neck. That said, it was good to get in there tonight and get some work done.  I'm definitely excited about the fact that I've got the next two days to try and focus in ...

So, I snuck in two studio sessions today.  One of them was a quick 15 minutes in there before I had to dash off to work, but somehow, even spending a few minutes in there to start my day had me heading to work with a bit wider of a smile on my face.  I need to start doing this more often in the mornings.  That 15 minutes was spent on theory.  Not that I could cram a lot of information into my head in such a short amount of time, but it was still something. Then, tonight, I spent a bit more time on theory, but most of my efforts were spent working out songs from Sturgill Simpson and The Gaslight Anthem.  By the time I got in there tonight, I was more in the mood to just play than I was to sit and focus on studying.  I figure the weekend starts tomorrow, and the Mrs. works til 11 tomorrow night, and 10 on Saturday, so if I'm smart with my time, and focused while I'm at it, then I should be able to get a whole lot done this weekend when it comes to music. ...

Tonight was fun. I got about an hour in the studio tonight, and got a few different things accomplished. 1) I spent about half of my time on theory related things, going through some things, and adding a few bits of knowledge to my growing understanding of how everything ties together.  Every night it seems like at least one more thing drops into place.  What I really need right now is the one thing that has consistently evaded me the last week and a half or so: a chunk of time longer than an hour to get in there and work.  Hopefully that opportunity will present itself sometime between tomorrow and the end of the weekend. 2) I spent the second half of my time in the studio working on figuring out some songs by Counting Crows and The Decemberists.  One of the things I need to find is the tab book for The King Is Dead .  I love that record, and it would be really cool to learn all of it.  I didn't get anything added to the notebook of songs tonight, bu...

Tonight was another solid night in the studio. I took the three lessons I've been using most frequently in my theory studies, and went through bits and pieces of all of them tonight, just looking to try and solidify some things with patterns and fluidity. All of the work is paying off. The scales are getting easier, feeling more normal underneath my fingers.  The connections between the patterns are getting easier to grasp, even if they aren't all the way to where I'd like them to be. The biggest thing I'm running up against is the fact that no resource has all of the scale patterns numbered the same way.  It's not causing a problem, by any means, but I think it has slowed down the absorbing of everything in a small way.  And yet, the connections are getting easier to see.  The spots it makes sense to switch from one pattern to the next are becoming clearer.  I'm really at that point where it has become obvious to me that if I just stick with it, if I stay...

I got into the studio for a decent amount of time tonight.  Not quite the 2+ hours I had been hoping for, but enough time to feel like I got something accomplished.  It seems like that always happens at the end of the weekend rather than, say, in the middle of the weekend, but that's another post entirely. What has been interesting to watch (and learn from) has been how the different resources that I've found in the last year or so have really started to come together at various moments to lock in different bits of knowledge.  It happened again tonight regarding notes within the context of a scale and their place in figuring out how everything ties together within keys. And yet, the thing that always surprises me is how it's always a trickle of information.  It really is like putting a puzzle together, where you get one little bit of something, followed by another piece that locks in, and then suddenly more starts to make sense.  It's never the flood of info...

Another night that didn't feel like it had enough music in it, and yet still felt like there was progress there. Tomorrow is shaping up to be what I hope will be the biggest music day of the weekend, but getting in there tonight and getting back to a bit of the theory studying was good for me. I worked it out on acoustic tonight, which got me understanding (among other things) that I've spent a bit too much time away from the acoustic side of things.  My fingers got at least a little bit torn up, which was probably a good thing, because if nothing else it will get me to even out things again when it comes to acoustic vs. electric. I got a few more things put away and organized tonight as well, so that felt good. It's still a slow process a lot of days, but I'm feeling more and more like, if I can just get in there for a few hours at a time, it will get a lot better.

Tonight was a random hodgepodge of stuff in the studio.  I: 1) Got things cleaned up a little bit.  The piles of magazines, CDs, and other stuff was starting to crowd me in, so I spent some time getting a bunch of it put away.  It's not perfect, but it gave me the floor space to feel like I could breathe enough to work tonight, so that was good. 2) Sat down to work on theory & scale stuff, but wasn't really feeling it tonight, so instead I, 3) Picked up the acoustic and worked through a couple of things at random from the iPod.  One of them was a song called "Delilah" by Teddy Thompson.  It's essentially an A-F#m-D-E progression with a few slight adjustments thrown in for the bridge.  Once I figured that out, and it didn't take long, I played around for a bit, putting the capo in different places and seeing how it sounded that way.  I really liked it in the key of G (capoed at the 2nd fret). Admittedly, it wasn't as much as I hoped to get d...

Tonight was a short studio session, but it was good for setting up what I hope to focus on the rest of the weekend. I've never believed that one particular book, or one particular lesson, will be the only thing to take me over the top.  I've had a lot of fun this week with the Complete Guide To Scales Over Chords , but I know that it will only be a part of the total picture for me.  That said, I took a night off from the plan of the earlier part of the week, and dove into a lesson from the Guitar One publication  Lesson Lab: The Best of 1995-2000 . True to form, it was still a scales-related lesson, but it focused less on the soloing aspect of things, and more on the theoretical aspects behind things.  It will be good to go through it more thoroughly over the rest of the weekend, but I feel like, even in a short burst tonight, I got some good studying in. It may have been a short night in the studio, but with the next 2.5 days to get back in there, I feel like ...

Today was a solid day for music. I drove to work today with the scales they highlighted in the first few chapters of the book I've been working out of running through my head. In between calls at work today, I wrote out what scales they had used (there were eight of them), and then started blocking them out on empty fretboards, going with the theory that, the faster and easier they are for me to write out, the better I know them. Tonight when I got home, I hit the studio with the intention of doing nothing but run the scales I had spent the day digesting.  I spent maybe 45 minutes playing, and most of it was related to scales and theory. Tomorrow being Friday, and with a 2.5 day weekend ahead (I work Saturday morning), I'm really excited about the time I'll have to hit the studio and keep pushing forward with my studies.  The big plan for the weekend is to dive back into the melody-based stuff the book is getting into, and to bring out the metronome for the scale pr...

I know I've said it a lot in the last week or so, but I'm really enjoying making my way through this Guitarist's Guide To Scales Over Chords.   I'm into the part of the book where melodic examples have started to crop up more and more frequently, which has been great fodder for learning.  It has also shown me that, despite my chops starting to come back around, my dexterity and quickness isn't quite where I'd like it to be yet. So, I'm in that spot where the theory knowledge is coming back more quickly.  Also known as a slightly different approach to the "I need to get better in order to really flesh out the things I'm hearing on record and in my head." At least I'm isolating the things that still need improvement, while becoming a better, more knowledgeable musician along the way. I didn't get into the studio for a long enough period of time tonight, but I again made progress while I was in there, so I'll take it. Can...

Didn't get as much time in the studio as I had hoped to this evening, but like last night, when I did get in there, I really felt like I made some solid progress. I plugged in the electric tonight, and worked on a couple of different things: 1) I figured out "Gotta Get Away," the last song on the new Black Keys record.  It's a fun blues-rock song that was pretty easy to figure out, but I just enjoyed learning something new and playing along. 2) I kept working out of The Guitarist's Guide To Scales Over Chords .  I didn't move forward in terms of chapter progress tonight, but what I lacked in that area, I feel like I gained in fluidity and comfort with what the book has presented so far. Just another small step on the way to where I want to be.  It felt like progress today, and I'll take that for however long it shows up.  Definitely another building block in place, and something to grow off of for tomorrow.

Tonight was one of those nights where absolutely nothing went right, but somehow, some way, I managed to get into the studio for a little bit, and make what felt like good progress, all things considered. I went back through the second half of last night's chapter in The Guitarist's Guide To Scales Over Chords , just to make sure that I had a decent grasp of everything that was covered, and then made the move to the next chapter. After the theory-heavy chapter I had just gotten through, it was a great relief to have the next one be more music (playing) centered.  It was all about putting the scale examples they cited in the early chapters to use in a musical context. I've seen a great number of books try to do this in a successful manner, and end up failing spectacularly, but so far I'm liking what this book is putting forward.  They give you "starter" examples, that don't necessarily make the best use of note choices, etc. and then present you with an...

So, I didn't get as much time in the studio today as I would've liked to, but I still feel like I made some good progress. I made it all the way through the chapter of The Guitarist's Guide To Scales Over Chords that I was working through yesterday, and again, got a few more things straight in my head.  I'm sure there are parts of the chapter that I'll need to revisit this week before moving forward, but I can tell that things are getting easier with each piece that falls into place.  Slowly but surely I'm getting closer to where I want to be. The weekend wasn't quite the "great leap forward" that I had been hoping for on Friday night, but it does feel like a "decent step in the right direction" sort of a weekend, and it definitely gives me a good jumping off point for my studies this week.

I got into the studio twice today. During my afternoon session I finished up what I had gotten a head start on last night.  I wrote out the last couple of scale patterns in the chapter of The Guitarist's Guide To Scales Over Chords that I've been working through on and off this week.  I know I mentioned it yesterday, but writing things out by hand really seems to help me.  After that, I actually plugged in the electric, turned up the stereo, and lost myself playing along with some things.  Hadn't done that in what felt like a long time.  I was understandably rusty, but I was thinking too much about what I've been studying instead of just applying it on the fly.  I've got a handful of jam tracks that I've come across over the years, I really need to make more use of them.  Getting that tie in with the studying I've been doing should be an integral part of learning and improving. Tonight's session was all about moving on to the next chapter in th...

I finally got smart about my Friday nights.  I've gotten tired of them not being as productive as I'd like them to be, so tonight, I sat down and did a couple of things: 1) I tried to be as objective as possible about what I'd like the weekend to be, music-wise.  Taking at least a little bit of time to sit down and envision what a productive weekend looks like ought to help me out at least a little bit. 2) Once I figured out what the first part of that would be, I took the initiative and got it done.  Tonight that involved writing out some scale patterns and laying them out side by side so that it would be easier to see the similarities between them. Getting things written out by hand always helps me to better digest whatever it is I'm working on learning. Started listening to the new Tori Amos today as well.  It's good to hear her voice on record again. All told, I feel like things are well set up for a pretty great weekend.

Tonight was a good night on so many different levels! 1) My time in the studio tonight was well spent.  Sure, I used most of it to work on some things I worked on last night as well, but the longer I work on things, the better I get.  I'm noticing improvement even over last night.  At this rate , the end of the weekend should have the breakthrough I've talked about the last couple of days.  The weekend should get me more time to play, as well. 2) Got a chance to listen to a live Counting Crows broadcast out of Pennsylvania tonight.  They played a handful of songs from their upcoming (due out in September!) studio record.  Everything is brand new, no holdovers from previous sessions, and the songs sound amazing.  Can't wait to hear the new record this fall. 3) Got the rest of the way through the new Black Keys disc today on the way home, and while the whole thing is awesome, the last track on the record seems like a dyed-in-the-wool summer song de...

Tonight was the theory night I expected yesterday. I keep working over the same things this week, in an attempt to burn them into my head.  It's working a bit slower than I'd like it to, but there was progress tonight.  Every night I get a little bit farther along in my process.  I know I said it last weekend (without taking family arrivals into consideration), but I'm really looking forward to this weekend as a big chance for me to spend a bunch of time in the studio and take the leap forward that I keep feeling is right around the corner.  I really need all of the patterns and other stuff I've been studying to finally come together in my head. Started listening to the new Black Keys record on the way to and from work today.  It's really good.  Definitely continues the general rise of their career.

Big day today, for a few reasons... First off, it was a good night in the studio.  As opposed to the recent sessions that have had a singular focus (either theory-related, or acoustic/set list related), tonight had a little bit of both things in it.  When I hit the studio tonight, I fully expected to pick up the electric and work out a bit more theory studying, much like things have gone for the last week or so.  Knowing that, I somehow ended up with the acoustic in my hands, working through a little bit of Brandi Carlile.  More specifically, two songs of hers that I have always loved, "Wasted," and "Fall Apart Again," but until tonight, never taken the time to sit down and learn.  I have a songbook with everything from the first three records, and it took me until tonight to sit down and take a look at working through some of these things. In a related note, I really feel like the last year has been so very good for my confidence, musically.  There a...

Tonight was the start to the week I needed. There was about an hour's worth of studying, and this time I was smart enough to take notes on what I was doing as a way of reinforcing what I'm studying. I've written here before about a few different things: 1) Treating it (at least a little bit) like taking a class. 2) Making better effort to reference my violin experience from my youth. 3) Admitting that I'm rusty at things that I feel I shouldn't be, and using it as a reason to grow. I've also talked about my experiences with the #STARTexp, and #30DaysofHustle.  Tonight felt like a night that worked for all of these things on some level.  I got the email last week for week #1 of month 5(!) for the 30 Days of Hustle, and it mentioned three things: I’m immature in that part of my life. It’s going to be uncomfortable. I’m going to grow.            The first of these is essentially my #3 from up above, re-worded, but it was all stu...

With family being here all day today, I should have known better than to think I could spare a couple of hours to practice at any point today. That said, I got in there for a little while tonight, and worked my way through a few things.  Once again, it was mostly theory-related.  I'm feeling, at the end of the weekend, like all of the pieces are in place for the next leap forward. What I need now is the time in the evenings this coming week to really start locking those pieces together.  Time to play, to really get deep into things, has been the one thing that has been lacking of late. In an unrelated matter, I'm excited about Tuesday's release of the new Black Keys record. This week has the feeling of one that needs to, and will be, a big one.

While last night gave me more than I expected, tonight essentially wound up being my "normal" Friday night.  Granted, we've got family in town (the wife's Mom & Grandma), so most of the day was wonderfully spent enjoying their company. Still, it was late by the time I got into the studio tonight, and having spent all day running around and having fun, I was pretty much shot before I walked through the door.  As exhausted as I was, I surrounded myself with theory stuff and tried to stay awake long enough to do a bit of studying.  All told, I didn't make it that far into things before my initial rush of energy faded. Tomorrow I really need to lock myself away for a couple of hours in the afternoon/early evening and get some serious work done.  I had really high hopes heading into the weekend, and haven't reached them yet. One other cool thing from today, though: in all the running around, I managed to find myself a copy of David Byrne's How Music...

So, I was expecting my usual Friday night... one where I spend the whole day getting pumped up about what I want to get done over the weekend, only to get home at the end of the day, too exhausted to get much done. True to form, I got into the studio on the late side tonight, intending to do a bit of theory work before packing it in for the night, in anticipation of a greater tomorrow. I worked on the theory (mostly related to scales tonight) for a little while, and then, just as I was getting ready to write off the night, I played a wrong chord in the coolest sense of the phrase, because it was a wrong chord that I liked the sound of, and before long I had what proved to be the start of a song idea.  Even sweeter was that there was a second song idea after that. I know I haven't finished fleshing out the songs from February yet (side note, I haven't looked at those in a while, I need to do that sometime soon), but it feels like the muse is sending me what feels, at least...

I wound up having about the same amount of time in the studio tonight that I had last night, which wasn't necessarily what I was hoping for. The big difference tonight versus last night?  I had a lot more focus in tonight's session than I did during last night's session.  With that being the case, I went for theory tonight.  It went well, I thought, considering the limited amount of serious study time I've ended up having this week.  Every time I sit down with the stuff, I get a little bit farther, and a little bit more of it sinks into my brain (I hope). That said, I need to have a productive weekend where music is concerned.  If nothing else, I need to be able to find a chunk of time longer than an hour to really devote to some serious learning.  I've been lucky to find 45 minutes lately, and I can tell, because things continue to feel just out of my reach. Got to try and fix that in the next 72 hours.

Tonight wasn't the best night for getting things accomplished in the studio, but I managed to persevere at least somewhat. When I finally managed to get there, I started out by working my way through a bit of the latest issue of Guitar Techniques .  They have a cool article designed to brush up your rock guitar skills, so I started with a little bit of that. From there, I switched over to the acoustic side of things, and went back through the songs I worked out last night, just to make sure everything was in order with both of them.  Luckily for me, it was. An admittedly short night in the studio, but considering how long of a day it was, I was happy to get in there at all today. Lots more tomorrow, and way, way better.

Another acoustic night tonight. At one point recently I had figured out, but forgotten to write down the chords for Ben Lee's "Catch My Disease."  There was a nice, empty spot in my notebook for it and everything.  I went back and filled that in tonight, which was a good first step. The second part of my night has a story behind it, and it goes like this... Entirely too many years ago to count (which really means that he would remember, and I simply don't right now), my brother ended up with a copy of Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly.  All I can tell you about how he came into having it is that, somehow, it wasn't me that gave it to him.  Anyway, the song he became obsessed with from that record was "What's Left Of The Flag," and the song that really caught my ear was "If I Ever Leave This World Alive." Maybe it was the fact that it started out with a solo acoustic guitar, but by the end, wound itself up into headbanging mode, I ...

I changed it up tonight. Instead of doing a whole lot with the theory side of things, I picked up the acoustic and worked my way through another song on my list of stuff to learn. Having taken a few days off from the acoustic side of things, it felt good to get back to it.  Again, it made me smile hearing how much brighter things sounded with the new set of strings.  It just makes me want to sit and play for hours on end (another common theme of late, I know). There are a handful of things I'd like to get to, starting tomorrow and heading through the rest of the week.  They are: 1) more work on theory. 2) continued focus on acoustic stuff. 3) something fun on the electric side of things. Today proved to be a long, exhausting day.  I'm really hoping the rest of the week leaves me less tired at the end of the day, and more able to get things done early in the evening instead of late.

Well, I didn't get my two hour time slot today, but I made good use of the time I had. I got some playing in, worked on some theory, and got things cleaned up a little bit. I'm feeling really confident heading into the week that all of the theory studying will continue to gel, and continue to pay big dividends.  I didn't spend as much time with it today as I had hoped I'd be able to, but the connections that I talked about yesterday got at least a little bit stronger today as well. Things are starting to condense a little bit, too.  The farther into studying I get, the more it becomes obvious what needs to be utilized in the current moment, and what topics and ideas can be put off for at least a little bit.  Every time I step into the studio, I refine my sense of where I'm at currently, and where I need to be headed. I meant to sit down and figure a few songs out this weekend, too, but ran out of time for that.  It's definitely something I can pick up at...

Short day in the studio today, but an important one just the same. I'm starting to see how all of the books and other resources I've picked up over the years are finally going to have their big payoff this year.  During tonight's studio time, I worked on more theory, and in the process, I looked at things in three different books.  They all presented their ideas differently, and they all covered slightly different material, but the connections and jumping off points really stood out to me tonight. Tomorrow needs to have in it what today did not: a two hour span of time (at the short end of things) that I can just disappear into the studio and really cement these connections that have been slowly building up throughout the course of the week. Short post tonight, I know, but that's really all I've got.  Tomorrow will be a much better day.

Another night of theory for me. I'm trying to be deliberate, to make sure that things sink in and are processed before I move forward.  Three nights in a row, at 45 minutes a session, and I'm feeling a lot better about things than I did even at the start of the week. I still need to make some notes on what I'm working on, write things down as a way of cementing them in my mind.  If I didn't have to work in the morning, I'd definitely stay up really late tonight and work on doing just that, but seeing as I've got to be in early, I'll have to put that task off until tomorrow after work. I'm making extra effort this week to be thinking, or doodling about theory stuff when I get a free moment, and I can tell that it's helping when I actually get a chance to sit down with a guitar at the end of the day. Progress is happening.  Somewhat slowly right now, but it is happening.  Tonight was good, and could have been way better with a little bit more t...

So, I'm not sure if it's a result of staring at scales in between calls the last couple of days, or if it's having to write things out in order to study them at work, or what, but tonight's theory efforts felt better than last night's. I'm inclined to believe that I'm actually spending enough time with it the last couple of days that things are getting to the point where they are getting easier.  It's moments like this that cause me to realize two things about myself: 1) If I had been smarter about my practice time as a teenager and twenty-something, I'd be much farther along than I am right now. 2) On some level, I will always be completely jealous of the fact that my brother gets to study music in college.  He has to practice and learn theory FOR CREDIT... FOR CLASS! Anyway, I'm finally coming around to understanding a couple of things when it comes to how this will work best for me going forward.  They are: 1) That I need to get ins...