"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Today was very similar in nature to yesterday.  I spent a little bit of time tonight going through iTunes on the old computer, and putting songs into a playlist of songs that I need to transfer over.  I made it through "C," which I will consider progress for tonight. I didn't get much time in the studio tonight, which bugs me, but I go in late to work tomorrow, so if I play my cards right, I should have at least some of the morning to get in there and get back to work on "Red House" and other things. I'm also planning on ducking out at some point in the morning to check on new releases and a possible new issue of Acoustic Guitar . Did I get to as much as I had hoped to today?  Definitely not, but after a long day at work, I'm worn out, and therefore choosing to be happy with what I got done.  Back at it tomorrow, though, fighting the good fight.

I felt slightly overwhelmed this past weekend.  Lately it has just seemed like there aren't enough hours in the day, and I feel like I'm falling farther and farther behind on things.  With that being the case, I took a break from "Red House" tonight, and let myself start the last piece of the iTunes puzzle before I can fully consider myself musically moved into the new(ish) laptop... I put the two computers up side by side, pulled up iTunes in both of them, and started wading through to see what songs didn't make the initial transfer over to the new laptop.  Not surprisingly, I've found a decent amount already, and I'm only at the very beginning of "C." My plan is to keep picking away at this slowly throughout the rest of the week, while fitting in the Hendrix and other playing around it, and then (hopefully) finish it up by the end of the weekend, burning CDs and getting everything transferred over. Once that's done, my plan is to take e...

I had a bit of a down weekend, energy-wise, and didn't get to as much as I wanted to. That said, getting into the studio tonight was just the thing I needed. I spent a bit of time going through the bag I had brought with me when we were dog sitting last week. It was good to get back to some of that. I also spent a bit of time with the Hendrix, which was good. It wasn't as much time as I was hoping to spend at the start of the weekend, but it was something, and it will give me a goal to aim for this week.

Today was a strange day. I'm all moved back into the studio, and ready to build on my week of being away, and yet at the same time, I didn't even come close to getting the things done today that I had hoped to. Some of that no doubt has to do with the fact that the day never really gathered much momentum one way or the other. Both the Mrs. and I were pulled in too many different directions today. I finally got a little bit of time to sit down and play tonight, and I worked on the Hendrix for most of that time, but by that point, I was pretty well exhausted, and didn't make as much progress as I would have liked to. I'm already planning on going absolutely nowhere tomorrow, in the hopes that it will get me more time to be in the studio. Wish me luck.

We're finally back home!  I hauled everything in from the car, and at least got it set down in the studio before collapsing at the end of a crazy-long Friday.  Sure, I played for a few minutes when we got here, but didn't make much in the way of progress.  Also, I snuck in a bit of listening as well.  I'll get started settling in tomorrow.

It was a good day today. I spent a bit of time working my way through a few lessons in the Blues Guitar Goldmine book, and also working on "Red House."  Where the Hendrix is concerned, I'm finally confident that I figured out one of the licks that has been tripping me up.  In reality, it was less about knowing where the notes fell and more about playing it enough times to commit it to memory. I also picked up a few things today, among them were new issues of Guitar World and Guitar Techniques . Also on that list was the new Kacey Musgraves album, and a new biography of George Harrison. We're finally going to be back at our place full time tomorrow.  While it has been good to be working on only a couple of things this week, and I feel like I've made decent progress, it will also be nice to settle back into the comfort of the studio.

Good day today. I got back to the Hendrix tonight, and it went really well.  I'm not sure if taking a couple of days off from it helped me out, or what happened, but in running through things tonight, I noticed a few things: 1) Things felt fluid tonight.  The notes finally seemed like they were just falling out of the instrument, and that was the kind of progress I was hoping for. 2) There's still a couple of spots in the intro that are a bit rough, but they are definitely showing improvement.  Going forward, I'm less worried about the verses than I am about the solo right now, but we shall see how that plays out going forward. I'm feeling really good heading into tomorrow, and am really looking forward to having a day off to fit in a lot more playing.  Onward and upward.

Another night without much in the way of work on "Red House."     I may look at it for a bit before I head off to bed, but I really wanted to make it through the rest of the iTunes library tonight, just to make sure that everything was there.  It is.  Now all that I have to do in order to finish off that part of my summer is to ensure the presence of all of my purchases from the iTunes store over the years.  Then I can actually get back to adding in some of the new music. True enough, the last couple of nights have been quiet, playing-wise, but what I'm really looking forward to is the way that the middle through the end of the week sets up.  I've got a short-ish day tomorrow, a day off on Thursday, and then one day of work until the weekend.  Things are setting up nicely for an extended stretch of time in the studio. That's really all I've got today.  More tomorrow, and better.

I laid off of "Red House" tonight, although somewhat unintentionally.  When I got home from work, I had intended to put in a good amount of time with it tonight, but that wasn't exactly what happened. Instead of focusing on that, I ended up working my way through a lot of the rest of my iTunes library, just making sure that everything that should be there actually was.  I'm up to Tool, so I'm obviously not all the way through, but I'm a whole lot closer than I was when I started out the evening. As an added bonus, getting all the way through that (hopefully tomorrow) will make finishing off the song list all that much easier, considering I'll just be able to work my way through it, instead of having to switch back and forth between importing files and updating the list.  Of course, the real final step on that whole thing will be comparing the iTunes library from the old computer to the one from the new computer, if only to make sure that all of my purc...

Today was a pretty good day. I got to have lunch with my Dad, and then, after he had to take off for home, I got to spend a portion of the afternoon and evening relaxing with a guitar in my hands. I worked on the Hendrix, of course, going back and forth between looking at the whole picture, and focusing in on specific sections. I'm still trying to move at a slower pace with this, and for right now I feel like that approach is doing some good. We shall see if that theory continues to hold true, but I will take what I can get right now. All told, it was both a good day, and a good weekend. I can't wait to see what the week has in store.

Tonight was a "Red House" kind of night. I got in more work on the song tonight than I have in the last few days, and it was a good feeling. Having let myself get caught up in all of the small things that I don't have down perfectly (yet) for the last week, tonight I gave myself permission to push ahead and try to get a handle on what the transitions are supposed to feel like. I'm still not where I would like to be, but I am definitely going in the right direction. It was a good night of playing for sure.

So, we aren't home for at least the first part of the weekend, and it was so very hard to decide what to bring along with me music-wise. In the end, I probably over packed, but so be it. One of the things I brought along with me was a lesson on blues theory that was in one of my magazines recently, and I split up my time between that and the Hendrix tonight. All told, it was a pretty good night, considering that I packed up some stuff on the spur of the moment. I should have a bit more time to play tomorrow.

Today was a pretty quiet day, all things considered. I worked on "Red House" for a little bit, being more focused on nuance and small phrasing ideas than I was on the big picture of the song itself.  It helped me out a little bit, mostly because it forced me to slow down and breathe.  I'm looking ahead to the weekend as a time to get some work in with the guitar trainer, slowing things down even more to ensure that my phrasing and feel hold up the way I hope they will. After that, I put in some time on the listening side of things.  That, too, was good, although it didn't have enough of a focus on the new music I've picked up. That's most of what I have today.  I really was a quiet one.

Today was a mostly good day. I didn't get to everything that I had hoped to, but I got to enough that I feel like I can safely call the day a win, and look forward to the chance to finish a few things off tomorrow. First off, I made a lot of progress with both the iTunes organization on the new computer and the song list today. I know for sure that I am well into "R" where the list is concerned, and very close to the start of "S."  I know that I keep saying this, but I think that the list could be done by the end of the weekend if everything goes according to plan. I got some good time in the studio today as well, some of it focused on finding a home for the CD rack that my mom brought down the last time she was here. With that in place  (finally) I was able to get all of the music in the "current listening" pile up off of the floor. And speaking of listening, I finally got around to starting in on the new Third Eye Blind record tonight. Nate Ruess...

No "Red House" tonight. It wasn't so much that I felt I needed a night away from it, it was more along the lines of having tomorrow off, and wanting to get some of my ducks back in a row so that I can try to hit the ground running as much as I can with the time I have at my disposal tomorrow.  That said, I got a few things put away from last weekend's trip, and thought through some of what I'd like to work on tomorrow. I also set the two new releases that I picked up tonight after work at the top of the pile for any listening that might happen tomorrow, they were: Dopamine - Third Eye Blind Grand Romantic - Nate Ruess That's really all I've got tonight.  I'm really looking forward to an awesome day tomorrow, though.

Another steady day today. I wound up sitting on the couch for most of the night with the electric in my hands, working on the trouble spots in "Red House." I didn't have the full transcription in front of me, but I felt like I made some decent progress tonight. That said, tomorrow and Wednesday will be the big days of the first half of the week. Both days need to be filled with some serious work with the transcription and the ability to slow down the recording. Not a bad way to start the week.

Most of today was spent in the car, coming back to DBQ from the DSM. That said, there wasn't a lot in the way of time today to really focus in on much in the way of playing.  I did find time to sneak in a bit of listening, and I spent some of that time focused in on the sections I have struggled with learning.  They are, in some instances, the same spots I've had problems with in the past, which tells me that I just haven't spent enough time working on them in at any point.  That is changing this summer. Once we got home, I watched a few videos and read through a few lessons as a way to tide me over for the evening.  Considering we were gone all weekend, I felt like I made pretty good use of the little bit of time I did have, and I'm definitely looking forward to the week.

I stole my half an hour of time to sit down and play guitar tonight. Naturally, I put in a bit more time with "Red House." I'll have to start incorporating the metronome a bit more seriously, because it dawned on me tonight that the spots I have been struggling with are spots where I am definitely ahead of the tempo. I need to be better about slowing it down a bit, taking that extra breath, and then letting the notes fall where they may. I snuck in a bit of listening today as well. All told, it was a pretty good day.

In DSM for the weekend. I brought the Strat along with me, in the hopes that I can find a bit of time to sit down and play in the next couple of days. In the bag I brought with me is the "Red House" transcription, the Vai workouts, and the folder filled with lessons and columns that I seem to take  with me  everywhere I go. I really need to find at least a little bit of time to relax with a guitar in my hands. I have the feeling that doing so will be important for my well being the next couple of days.

I'm  starting to get to the fun stuff on "Red House."  And by 'fun stuff,' I mean the part where I've gotten past the initial rush of learning, and into the part where I'm starting to notice where my trouble spots are going to be, for the intro for sure.  There are two phrases right now that I'm struggling to get the timing down on. Having specific areas to focus in on will help me out, I think.  It will give me specific phrases to loop and slow down, it will focus my listening on certain transitions, and it will provide the natural links for me when things get to where they need to be. Tonight was productive.  A good night in the studio ahead of a Friday is always a welcome thing.

Today was a good day.  I got some good work in on a couple of different fronts, and while I still think I could have gotten a bit more done today, all things considered, I'm all right with my progress. I worked on "Red House" for a little while tonight, finally slowing it down and working on the phrasing.  It's times like these that I wish I had another electric that I could just keep down-tuned all the time.  In all seriousness, though, I feel like I'm paying closer attention to the way that the licks fall underneath my fingers, both in terms of locations, but also where scale patterns are concerned.  Some of the studying I did earlier in the year is really helping right now, and it makes me more fully understand how important it is that I stay on top of that this summer.  I'm doing all of the things I should have done a lot sooner: working slowly, doing a better job of internalizing things, paying closer attention to the performance notes, etc. I also to...

Today was a long day. I skated into the studio right at the end of the day, though, and put in at least a few minutes of time. It was "Red House" that got the attention, of course. I spent a bit of time with my head buried in the iPod, just listening to the nuance of the studio recording, and then  (because I was already running a little bit behind schedule) I played through it with the transcription in front of me. Tomorrow, on my day off, I need to put in some time with the recording, but focus my attention on playing along with it. Good day today, but I still felt like I could have gotten more done. Better tomorrow.

I know it's the eighth of June already, and I'd have to go sifting back through my posts for the last couple of weeks, but in case I haven't mentioned it yet, I'm pretty sure that it's going to be a great summer for me. For one thing, I'm finally, finally, finally committing to learning "Red House" this summer.  Except that, this time, the only limitation I'm putting on myself is that I've got to have it learned and perfected by the end of the summer.  No trying to cram it all into a weekend or a random 30 day time period.  Nope, I'm going to spend (at least) 15 minutes a day with it, and not put any time limits on myself other than the end of August or the beginning of September at the latest.  Even to me, this seems like a glacial pace, but with everything else (writing, recording, etc.) that I want to work on this summer, I want to make sure that I give myself enough time.  And hey, if it happens faster than that, thanks to the other w...

Today was a good day. I got into the studio with a few clear goals tonight.  All weekend, I've been watching some lesson videos on YouTube (a few Brad Paisley things, mostly).  Some of them were focused on speed and the use of open strings, and some on fret-hand stretches to make things work.  What I wanted to do tonight was not necessarily try to replicate the licks in the video (that may come tomorrow), but more to test out the stretches and make sure my hands were loosened up to the point that some of these other ideas would be possible.  Sometimes my hands tighten up while I'm playing, and I think most of it is related to not always taking the right amount of time to warm up before I dive in. The other thing I did tonight was to take another look (and a few listens) to some of the Hendrix I had worked on earlier in the week.  So much of my work there seems like it needs to be centered around phrasing.  I'm feeling more confident about having the not...

I got to some of what I was hoping to get done today. I spent the bulk of my time working on getting the music organized on the new laptop. Once I sit down and do it, the part that is going to take the longest amount of time is the part where I have to go through and make sure that all of the albums are there for each artist. There is more work to do in that regard, but it is something I ought to be able to finish up tomorrow, so long as I am smart with my time. I didn't get around to much in the way of songwriting today, and I feel like I let myself down in that regard. I have got to be better with time management tomorrow.

So glad that the weekend is finally here! I spent a bit of time tonight working on some Hendrix. I haven't had as much time the last few days to dig in as much as I wanted to, and so I was hoping to use tonight to touch base with the stuff that I want to focus on this weekend. Along with the Jimi, my other hopes for the weekend include getting the song list back on track, and really setting aside some time to get some songwriting worked on. Both goals are entirely reachable, I think, so long as I am making the most of my time.

Quiet day today. I got into the studio for a little bit of time tonight, but wasn't able to get a whole lot done tonight.  I did manage to play for a few minutes, however , and also to make some progress in The Inner Game Of Music . After that, I spent a few minutes trying to get some of those files updated in iTunes, but didn't get terribly far with that either.  Kind of a lost night tonight.  So glad the weekend comes tomorrow.

Started listening to the new Matt Skiba & The Sekrets on the way to work today. Didn't have a whole lot of time to focus in on music stuff tonight, as we had a prior engagement this evening (it was a blast, but didn't leave a lot of time at the end of the night).  In light of that, I decided I would spend some time with the song list this evening when we got home.  I made it all the way into "G," and was motoring right along (the list is up to 254 songs), when I stumbled upon the fact that some of my music isn't actually present in my iTunes library.  It's in the folder marked for the iTunes library, though.  Turns out that some of the songs are still wav files (don't ask me how), and will need to be converted.  So now I'm wondering what else is missing.  Somehow I knew this would end up a bigger project than I wanted it to be, but considering the way my work day went, I can't say I'm surprised... Onward and upward.  Better things (an...

Today was a good day, all around. I had the morning off, I picked up some new releases and new magazines, and I got into the studio for a bit tonight.  Along with new issues of Acoustic Guitar and Guitar Techniques , here was what I ended up with: Silverball - Barenaked Ladies Kuts - Matt Skiba & The Sekrets How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful - Florence & The Machine I made it through the new BNL today going too and from work, and started in on the Florence record tonight when I got home.  Haven't made it all the way through that yet, but it should happen in the next few days. As for the playing side of things, I didn't hit the Hendrix tonight, instead choosing to spend a few minutes looking at a lesson in the new GT on blues theory that I am going to have to spend a lot more time with tomorrow and the rest of the week. As I said to open, it was a good day.

Today was a better day.  I ignored the song list tonight, in favor of the playing I've been wanting to get back to for the last few days, and it was good.  I got to spend a decent amount of time in the studio tonight.  All of it with the electric in my hands.  I didn't do so without thinking of the ever growing list of songs, however, and as a result, I dipped into small bits of Hendrix tonight.  It was good, because it showed me a few things that need work, particularly, some of the chordal things Jimi does. I also did a small bit of reading in The Inner Game Of Music .  I'm not very far into it, but I'm already starting to see how reading that, and learning from it, will help me out.  Tomorrow needs to be more playing, maybe more focused on the Hendrix, but we shall see.