Skip to main content

Day Two Hundred Eighty Four (Year Four)

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 some point this week, though.  That's the other thing I've noticed.  Between figuring stuff out from records and working on theory, my ears are sharper, even in the last week, than they have been in some time.

I'm definitely headed in the direction I want to be headed in.  Some days I feel like I'm going to get there faster, but I know I'm going to get there.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day Three Hundred Fifty Seven (Year Seven)

Today was okay.  It ended up being quieter than I wanted it to be, but I got in a few things. 1.  I got the music from the car hauled in and sorted out in advance of my road trip to Dubuque for a little longer than a day.  I'm taking the Radiohead reissue with me for that, since I haven't gotten a chance to sit down with it yet. 2.  I'm also taking an empty notebook along with me, in the hopes that I might start to get some lyric ideas down on paper while I'm gone.  I watched some cool videos early this morning about the idea of writing all of the music before writing lyrics, and the way things are going that is looking like what's going on with me. 3.  I wish there had been more playing today, but I'm still feeling good about where things are sitting.  This next week needs to include a lot of writing.

Day Three

Short one today. I've got a bunch of the DVDs that Guitar World has put out. Waded through those to see what I had, worked off of the lead guitar one. Just basic scales , but still a light place to begin. It was nice to just start loosening up my fingers again. Off from work tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get a lot of playing done. Said I'd mention the other project I'm hoping to finish this year. Back when I was living in WI, I started a hard rock band with a friend of mine. She was heavily influenced by Evanescence, and so, with her as vocalist, we started writing songs. We had written and demoed almost a full album's worth of music by the time I moved to IA, and had even purchased a P.A. in preparation for eventual gigs. We never did find a permanent drummer or bassist, so our demos sound very rough (and not nearly loud enough). I'd like to finish those songs, and make an EP of the 4 or 5 strongest, just as a way to put a cap on that project. More tom...

Day Three Hundred Fifty Four

Today was a hodgepodge of musical stuff. Here's a list of the stuff it included... 1) I uncovered two more songs to add to my ongoing list of "supremely catchy pop music." One of the songs is the first song on the latest record by the Smoking Popes, who I saw the other day. It's called "Wish We Were," and it's a glorious pop-punk distillation of unannounced love.  The second song is by a band called the Vaccines. It's called "Norgaard," and it comes off as a mix of 60's California pop, punk energy, and surf rock. 2) Found a poster frame for my Alkaline Trio poster. 3) Heard from B. via text tonight. Apparently she has rediscovered her knack for "creepy, cool lyric writing again." I couldn't be more excited about this. When she hits that kind of stride, B. usually comes up with some pretty great stuff. She tells me she got an entire lyric tonight. Some rough ideas about melody, but nothing concrete yet. As for me,...