"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Well, the good day I was hoping for never really showed up today.  Instead, I wound up using what little time I had in the studio as a time to wind down and de-stress from a day that in no way, shape, or form, went as I expected it to. I worked out a few things, and made a small bit of progress, but for all intents and purposes, today was essentially a lost day. Tomorrow will be amazing.  Because it has to be.

I'll be the first to admit that there wasn't a whole lot of time for music today.  That said, I was able to steal a few minutes tonight in which I got into the studio and was productive. In the limited time I did have, I kept my eyes focused squarely on getting a few more of the pieces in place for my practice binder.  Over the last few years, I've eliminated things that I thought would be staples of that project, and have also added in new resources that have come to my attention.  In short, I finally feel like I'm really getting to know what belongs in terms of the content for this project. Tomorrow is going to be a good day.  I need it to be a good day.

Even though I only managed a small chunk of time in the studio, today was a better day than yesterday. I started by figuring out "Shout, Shout (Let It All Out)" by Ernie Maresca.  It's an incredibly easy, four chord romp from 1962, written and made famous by a guy whose other claim to fame was being a songwriter for Dion & The Belmonts. After that, I got down to some of the theory-work I've been wanting to get to for the last few days.  I'm finally pulling together and properly ordering the things that are going to go in my practice binder that I've talked about putting together for a long time now. Once I got that started, I plugged into the amp and just played for a few minutes.  It felt both good, and also strange, to play through an amp.  I spend so much time practicing without amplification,  that it was an odd way to end the night, but it's definitely something I need to do more of. Goals for the rest of the calendar year are slowly start...

So, suffice it to say that I wasn't expecting today to be a day filled primarily with listening and song ideas, but that's what I ended up with. A friend here in the village loaned me Stephen Kellogg's Glassjaw Boxer .  Told me it was incredible and that I must listen to it.  I've got two other records by SK and his band, The Sixers, and in comparison to those records, Glassjaw Boxer feels like a much more cohesive effort.  I listened to a lot of that today. The part of the day that caught me off guard, however, was the time I spent in the studio tonight, sitting with an acoustic guitar in my lap, and looking for a place along the neck to place a capo.  I went into it expecting to find a few cool licks, or maybe a couple of chords to string together and file away for later consideration.  I came out of it with what felt like an intro progression and perhaps a chorus.  As always, no lyrics of any kind, but the music is always encouraging. Tomorrow I ne...

Today was a bit of a mixed bag, but all told, it was a decent start to the weekend. Most of what I wanted to do in the studio tonight was to get some sort of handle on what I'm hoping to get done this weekend.  When I got in there, I looked through the stuff that has risen to the top of the pile of late, and got it set out and squared away for tomorrow morning. I did a bit of playing while I was in there as well, but I didn't get too far before the need to sleep hit me pretty hard. Otherwise, there was a bit of reading (from both the Fleetwood Mac book and The Mastery Of Music ), and then the inevitable updating of the iPod.  All of the new music is ready for listening.

Today was a good day. I got a somewhat decent chunk of time in the studio tonight.  Most of what I worked on was electric guitar based, and not all of it stuck to the folder I had things in from our Chicago trip, but most of it did. The lone exception was a lesson from Guitar World's website that had popped up online.  I checked it out because it had some cool ideas concerning pentatonics and playing all across the neck. The other big thing today was uploading a lot of new music into iTunes.  It's not strictly guitar-related, but it needed to be done.  Albums by Blackberry Smoke, Courtney Barnett, The Punch Brothers, Manchester Orchestra, and Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers got uploaded.  I'm thinking that the weekend will be filled to the brim with good listening.  Can't believe tomorrow is Friday.  Bring on the weekend.

Today was a good follow-up to yesterday's time in the studio. I really started to dig back into the stuff I brought along when we went to Chicago.  I had taken a folder along that had a bunch of the things I really wanted to focus in on while we were there, and while it didn't get as much attention then as I had hoped it would, tonight it made it out of my travel bag, and I'm fairly certain that it will be the main focus for the rest of the week and beyond. While all of the pieces I've been working with haven't fully clicked quite yet, I'm noticing a distinct difference in my confidence, my tone, and my feel with the instrument.  It seems like that side of things is coming along a lot faster than the rest.  I'll take my victories where I can get them, but I'm glad that tomorrow is Thursday, and we are one day closer to the weekend, when I'm going to be able to really focus in again and make some good progress.

Today was the first day that it really felt like we were home from Chicago. I got back into the studio for a decent amount of time, really for the first time since we got back, and it was wonderful.  I spent more time with the acoustic today than I did the electric, which surprised me somewhat.  I'm trying to get back into the flow of working on songs, and no matter what instrument I find an idea on, that process always seems to come back to the acoustic guitar. The other thing I did today was a bit of comparison listening.  While we were in Chicago, I had picked up Hope by Manchester Orchestra.  It's (as I think I mentioned the other day), a more stripped-down, acoustic version of Cope , their previous record.  As someone who is frequently pulled between the louder, more aggressive world of the electric guitar, and the quieter, more personal tone of the acoustic, it was fun to listen and compare the two versions of these recordings. I didn't do much of a...

Today was another quiet day.  Work stayed pretty busy (although I did have a chance to sort out and organize a bit of the week to come), and then we headed off to an event later on tonight.  Getting home late didn't provide me with a lot of time in the studio, which just means that tomorrow needs to have an extra bit of awesome in it somewhere that has a musical bent to it. I read another few pages of that book on the making of Rumours , though, so that felt like a bit of progress in something at least. Also, there was a movie at this event we went to, so I got to sit and focus on the soundtrack a bit, and the way that the music was structured to emphasize certain points in the film.  Soundtrack work has always been one of those things that has hovered right at the edge of my consciousness, never quite coming close enough for me to get any sense of its purpose in my musical life. It was an okay day, but I've got high hopes for tomorrow.

Bigger and better didn't really happen today. We spent the morning, and most of the afternoon with family, and the rest of the day disappeared in an absolute blur. That said, I found a book on the inside story of the making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours today when the family decamped to the bookstore.  I picked that up and started it tonight (I'm 70 pages in). While there wasn't much in the way of studio time today, I tried to have music running through my head for most of the day.  I'm really hoping that tomorrow night and Tuesday will give me a good start to the week, because the weekend that I had hoped would have at least some good music time in it pretty much evaporated before I knew what happened.

So, ten hours of today was spent hanging out with my nieces while the brother and sister in law attended to some business in town. We had a ton of fun, but it didn't leave a lot of time for guitar in my day. That said, when I was finally able to get into the studio tonight, I wanted to get in a bit of work, just to get my sea legs back underneath me. I haven't gotten a lot of time in here since we got back from Chicago, and while I am still hoping to change that in a bigger way this weekend, today was not that day. There was, however, at least a little bit of acoustic playing tonight, and a bit of listening as well. Considering how busy it was today, I will take that, and then hope for bigger and better things tomorrow.

Today was a quiet sort of day. I brought the new Manchester Orchestra record with me on the way to work today. It's essentially a quieter, acoustic version of the last record, and it's amazing. The last two albums are the perfect response to the question of making an acoustic version of a previously electric record. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a good day to spend some time in the studio. It will be nice to get a chance to work in there again. It feels like it has been a long time.

I didn't have that much that I wanted to get accomplished tonight. My biggest goals were to get everything from the Chicago trip back into the studio, and get things back in place once they were in the studio. On top of that, I wanted to follow up on some of the theory work that I did while I was out of town, and see what I could connect. All things considered, I feel like I did okay. I got everything back into the studio, and also was able to sit on the couch for a while before hand and do some playing. Considering how exhausted I was when I got home from work, I will take that as a win and get ready to go back at it again tomorrow.

First off... we made it back to DBQ around 3:30 this afternoon.  Still not sure I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow, but I can't complain in the slightest about my time off.  It has been relaxing, and has given me some clarity on my musical direction for the next few months.  All of the pieces are on the table (finally), it's just a matter of making sure they all get fitted in the right places. Secondly, here are the records I had picked up yesterday in Chicago: Hope - Manchester Orchestra The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas - Courtney Barnett Holding All The Roses - Blackberry Smoke This morning's playing (before we left Chicago) focused in on a couple of places.  Mainly, I worked out of a book of exercises that had come with a Guitar World DVD.  It was lead guitar based in nature, and also tied in nicely with some of the scale work that I've been doing.  I'm hoping that I can use tomorrow night (while the Mrs. is at work) to further the connec...

We go home tomorrow, and I'm so not ready to get back to the real world.  I guess I'm not ready to go home, in part, because I over-packed, and there is still so much that I brought along that I haven't gotten to spend any time with. Today was another good day, though.  I made some progress where songwriting is concerned, and took another look at the blues lesson I was working on yesterday.  Not only are there some cool soloing ideas in that lesson, there's also a lot of really good theory knowledge embedded within the context of the lesson.  I've started to get to some of that, but haven't gotten as far into it as I would like to. We were out and about for a lot of the afternoon today (which is probably a good part of the reason I feel like I'm missing a bit of time), but it was good to be out in the city and fun to do a bit of shopping.  I picked up a few CDs at Best Buy (better selection here than at home... go figure), but we took everything to the c...

Today was a good day. There's a blues lesson in the new issue of Guitar Techniques that I spent a bit of time with today.  I learned a few new things, and helped further my knowledge when it comes to scales and soloing and fretboard knowledge. Today might not have been the ever-elusive "great leap forward," but it was definitely a day where a few pieces clicked into place. It was also a day where I got a bit of lyric written.  As usual, it was nothing complete, but it was another small step in the process. And yet, it wasn't as focused of a day as I would have liked it to be.  I would really like for tomorrow to be an intense music day from start to finish.

I have to admit that I'm still a bit dazed to be typing two posts in the same day.  The good news is that we are now firmly ensconced at the hotel where we will be spending the next three days as the Mrs. goes to her conference. I got my feet wet a little bit today, music-wise.  I took a look through the notebook that has all of my song ideas in it, and plotted out most of what I had worked through yesterday.  There are a couple of chords that might need to be dropped in for a bridge, but other than that, the music for this song is pretty much done.  I'm still not exactly sure how this will fit into the projections for the EP, but I will sleep on that idea tonight and attack it in the morning with a head that's just a tad bit clearer. I worked on a little bit of "Hey Joe" today as well.  There was a tab for it in one of the magazines I brought along.  I made a good initial stab at learning it, but will definitely go back tomorrow and continue to fill in...

So, for the first time in a very long time, I got so caught up in the events of the day that I fell asleep before I could post.  Guess that means today will be a two post day. We got into Chicago a bit before noon, and I had the afternoon and most of the evening to myself.  I got the Strat out almost immediately and got started on a bit of playing.  I worked on some Clapton for a little while, and then had a bit of fun with one of the other tabs in a magazine I brought along. The biggest "a-ha" moment of the day, however, was songwriting-related.  For a while now, I've had a couple of different ideas that have been fighting for attention.  The older of the two is an obvious chorus progression, while the newer one feels more like a verse or a bridge.  It's obvious that I haven't spent a whole lot of time really focused on writing lately, because it took me until yesterday to realize that, not only are they in the same key, but they dovetail together perf...

So, we started our journey to Chicago tonight.  We're staying the night in St. Charles, Illinois before heading into the city tomorrow morning. I brought my guitar in from the car with the intention of sitting up late and playing.  Instead, I ended up grabbing a book (The Mastery Of Music) out of my backpack and starting to read that.  There's a chance that I may still sit up and play, but in all likelihood, I will simply read before bed, and start the playing side of things tomorrow. It was a long day today, but a good one. Can't wait for tomorrow.

Okay, so we leave tomorrow after I get done with work.  I spent the night getting everything I'm taking with me squared away.  Here's the list: 1.  iPod, Headphones, Mini-Speakers, & Charging cable 2.  The Stratocaster 3.  Tuner & Capo 4.  Everything for the EP project (which I managed to condense down a lot!) 5.  All of the GW columns I've been working with 6.  Practice journal 7.  Vai Workouts 8.  The Complete Guitar Manual 9.  The Idiot's Guide To Music Theory 10. The Mastery Of Music 11. The Gospel According To Bob Dylan 12. The Stairway solo 13. My notebook of songs I've figured out from CDs & iPod/Radio 14. Lyrics & How To Write Songs On Guitar 15. Tabs for "Red House" and "I'm Tore Down" That seems like an awful lot of stuff, but with all the time I'm going to have, I figured it was better to over pack and not get to everything than it was to under pack and be bored halfway through.

It was a good time in the studio tonight. I got in a bit of playing, trying to work through a bit of "100 Riffs" and some tabs before we head out of town at the end of the week. I had my Strat slung over my shoulder, and I was working my way through some things, feeling really good, not only about the day, but also the trip coming up. I did a bit of listening tonight as well, and I started printing off a few things (namely, the rest of the GW columns that I've been slowly picking my way through for the last few months).  Seeing exactly the path that those columns take allowed me to cross at least one thing off of the list of resources I was planning on taking along, so that will lighten the load at least a little bit. We're leaving Friday night when I get off of work, so tomorrow night will be the night to get everything ready.  I'll post the updated list of what actually makes the cut in tomorrow's post.

It's Tuesday.  We leave for Chicago in three days.  In that spirit, I wanted to take some of tonight and focus in on what I'm wanting to take with me for the musical journey that Chicago promises to be.  Tonight, I sat down with a notebook and a pen and started to compile my list.  On one hand, I'm surprised that it's as long as it is, and at the same time, I'm really not all that surprised.  From a practical standpoint, this will be the first time in a long time that I'll have a stretch of days (mostly) to myself where I'll be in a spot to focus on nothing but music.  There won't be a whole lot of other things getting in my way.  Needless to say, I'm still really looking forward to it. I did a bit of playing tonight, as well, and that was good.  It got my fingers loosened up and got me relaxed enough to be ready for the rest of the week.  I feel like my control and my sense of focus are improving a lot lately.  I also feel like this t...

Tonight was good.  I got into the studio later than I had hoped to, but still managed to have a productive night. I ended up working on the last thing I expected to work on when I walked in there, but all the same, it was good to get back to the EP and actually have a bit of focus where it was concerned.  That being said, it was more new ideas, which I'm definitely not complaining about, but at some point, I know I need to work more with what I have than what I don't. I'm bringing everything associated with the project along with me this coming weekend when we go to Chicago, and I'm really hoping that, among other things, hanging out someplace new for a little under a week will offer a bit of clarity and also a bit of fresh inspiration. Aside from working on the record, I did do a bit of playing as well, and that was positive too.  The Mrs. is off tomorrow as well, but has a lot of homework to do, which should give me ample time to get a big chunk of work done in ...

Today was a better day for me, music-wise, although the time change has me wishing it was earlier than it is. I got into the studio tonight and had some fun with the blues.  I paged through the Blues Goldmine book, somewhat thinking about resources for next weekend, and somewhat looking to get a bit of playing in.  After going through a bit of that, I found a few lessons online that I watched and learned from.  Either way, it got me feeling comfortable again before the week starts. I updated the iPod with some of the new music tonight, as well.  New records from Noel Gallagher, Brandi Carlile, and The Airborne Toxic Event are now loaded and ready for the coming week.  In my hurry to get everything synced tonight, I spaced on getting to 12 Stories by Brandy Clark, but that can start as listening on the stereo and move from there. Also, I picked up a book today when the Mrs. and I were at the mall.  It's called The Mastery Of Music: Ten Pathways To True...

Today was a little bit on the quiet side, but I still managed to find a way to be at least somewhat productive. Mostly, I did some listening, and a little bit of studying of theory.  Almost all of my studying was connected to articles online today, though. I didn't get into the studio all that much.  That will definitely need to be changing tomorrow, however, as I will have to make up for lost time during the day. I picked up 12 Stories by  Brandy Clark today while I was out. I have been hearing a lot of good things about that record, and I was curious. I will give that a listen tomorrow as well.

Tonight was a hodgepodge of different things.  It was more productive than yesterday, and a hint of what I'd like for the weekend to be.  I, 1) Worked on a little bit of the theory side of things, only with a couple of the secondary sources rather than the book I've been using most often lately. 2) Ran a few of the "100 Riffs" as a warmup for my fingers.  I haven't done much with that yet this month.  I need to work on that this weekend. 3) Did a small bit of reading from a book on songwriting.  I really need to have at least a small look at the EP this weekend, if only to start building momentum for Chicago next weekend. 4) There was a small bit of listening, also.  I need to get to some of the newer things, and take more time to digest them, and I also need to update iTunes & the iPod with some of the newer things (Airborne, Brandi Carlile, etc.) 5) I split my time pretty evenly between the acoustic and the electric tonight.  I need to ...

Tonight was kind of a quiet night in the studio, and I think that's okay.  Here's why: Having tonight be a bit on the slow side will get me extra motivated to have a bigger, better day tomorrow.  And starting the weekend off right (on Friday night instead of Saturday morning) will be a good thing, because it will lead to being more productive and having more of a chance to make progress over the course of the entire weekend. So, yes, there was a bit of theory work, and some scales in my evening.  There was also a bit of reading ahead (gasp!) to see what comes next in the book I've been working out of lately. I did a bit of listening, too, and that was good for me at the end of the night.  I'll hold off on listing everything I'd like the weekend to include until tomorrow, but I'm already thinking about it.  It's going to be a good weekend, I think.

It was a decent night in the studio, all things considered. There didn't end up being quite as much time tonight as I would have hoped for, but I made good progress in the time I had.  Tonight, I worked on: 1) 100 Riffs.  Although not for as long as I maybe should have, I was still able to work out a few kinks that have cropped up recently.  Felt all right about that. 2) A bit of theory.  It felt really good to dive back into that, having not really spent a whole lot of time with it yesterday.  I'm still looking at a few different sources and pulling things together.  That seems to be going better than anything else right now, which is cool. I know it's still 10 days away, but I'm really looking forward to this Chicago trip.  I need to slow down a bit, though, and not be thinking about what books and magazines I'm going to bring with me for practicing and studying while we're there.  There's still a lot of time between now and then to prog...

Good day today.  Got to have lunch with my Dad, and then wander around the bookstore for a bit.  That gave me a chance to pick up new issues of both Guitar World and Acoustic Guitar , which was cool.  Getting out into the semi-rotten weather also gave me a chance to hunt down The Firewatcher's Daughter today.  I've listened to the album once through so far, and it feels like a natural progression for Brandi and the Brothers' Hanseroth.  Their roots music influences keep coming farther and farther forward, and I really enjoy it. Listening to that record put me in an acoustic mindset, so I worked on some of the songs and lessons from recent AG magazines.  It occurs to me that I've been playing a lot of electric lately, and that I need to get back to evening things out a little bit between the Strat and the Guild. So, not a lot of playing tonight (probably not enough, actually), but still a good day all around.  More emphasis on the playing side of t...

I was worn out and tired after work today, but getting into the studio carried with it a burst of energy. I've been focusing in on theory for the last few days, and tonight's project was to follow up on those studies by looking for similar themes in other resources.  I found a run of three or four lessons in my Rock Guitar Goldmine book that look like they will be good additions to the things I'm currently using.  Now that things finally feel like they are moving forward this year, I want to capitalize on that as much as I can, bringing together resources that will help me to tie concepts together in a way that focuses on progress. I've got tomorrow off.  It's my Dad's birthday, and assuming that the weather cooperates, he is coming to town to have lunch with me and the Mrs.  It will be great to see him.  If, however, the weather doesn't cooperate, that will leave more time for me to play in the studio.  Either way, it will be a great day! Oh! ...

Another good day today.  I finally feel like I'm starting the year off (as we enter the third month of it). I got into the studio early today, let in a bit of light, and got to work.  I focused on some theory for a while, and did a bit of playing in regard to that, but today was a day where I got a few things sorted out, and found a few things that will help me out along the way, fitting in a bit of listening as I did so. I finally got some of the piles of CDs sorted out, shrinking my "to listen" piles substantially, and actually taking timoe to get a lot of the music put away.  I'm well past the point of needing another CD shelf, so things aren't strictly alphabetical anymore, but that will change soon enough. Honestly, it was just nice to have a decent amount of time to spend in the studio, and I feel like the playing and organizing that happened today definitely puts me in a good place heading into the week.