"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

So, we made it to Denver. In our wandering around Estes Park today, I stumbled across a book on the current hit factories in the songwriting world. Most of it seems to be focused on the pop world, but it seemed like an interesting read. I need to spend at least a few minutes tonight looking at lyrics. It was a long day of travel, and there wasn't a lot of time for music, but it was a pretty good day otherwise. Tonight and tomorrow morning I need to try and carve out a bit of time to get some work done.

Today has been okay.  Early post, because we're leaving shortly for Chicago in anticipation of tomorrow's flight to Denver. Picked up the 20th Anniversary re-issue of Son Volt's Trace today.  It's as great a record today as it was when it was released.  I can't wait to get into the demos and the live show that came with the re-release. I'm taking both a blank notebook and the recent Jerry Lee Lewis biography with me.  I'm really hoping that I'll find some lyrical inspiration on the road.  I need to get started working on that side of things, because it will drive the music and vice versa. It's going to be a whirlwind few days, but I'll find something to post about each day we're gone, even if the posts are short.

Today was definitely a better day. I got all my issues with the iPod squared away.  Now it's just a matter of cleaning up artist tags and then filling in some of the albums that (still) haven't made it on there yet.  The first two Dead Weather records jump out as one of those examples. Sat down with the electric for a bit tonight.  It felt good to get back to it. I did some listening, as well, starting to try and get caught up.  Now that things are synced and loaded, it should be an easier task.  And speaking of The Dead Weather, I have their new disc in the car's CD player at the moment.  It's a good listen so far. Here's the other thing that's brewing in my mind at the moment: We're going to Denver for the Packers/Broncos game this weekend.  Leaving tomorrow afternoon.  That will give me time to do some music stuff in the morning, but as for Saturday and Sunday, it might be a bit of a hodgepodge.  I'm not taking an instrument, so it...

So, last night's effort didn't end up working out so well.  Therefore, I'm back at it again, trying to figure out why, if all of the music is on the new computer, it insists on syncing a significantly smaller number of songs (and why the processes for doing even that are taking forever).  All told, even though I finally have all of the music loaded on here, this whole process of switching computers has been a giant hassle on so many levels. Plus, this whole "getting everything new loaded onto the iPod without losing everything off of it" has taken up so much of my energy and thought processes that I haven't really been able to focus on anything studio-wise. This week has really been a disaster where my playing is concerned, and I need to get it straightened out in the next few days, because we're going to be gone over the weekend, and I ought to have at least something to show for the week.  Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

I've been trying all night to update the iPod. We've had a combination of bad weather and the internet going in and out that has prevented me from getting that done.  Honestly, it's some form of miracle that I'm online at the moment.  It was my goal to get things updated tonight, and so I'll keep trying for a bit here. I got a little bit of playing done tonight, but it wasn't much to write home about.  Tomorrow will be a better day.

Yet again, today wasn't the epic day that I was hoping for, but when all was said and done, I do feel as though I made some progress in pirsuit of the end of the EP. Most of what got done today was working through the ideas I have, looking for fresh perspective on them, trying to feel where the songs really wanted to go.  I made some progress, have a few new thoughts and ideas jotted down in my notebook, and considering the relatively short period of time I got to spend working on things, am happy with what I managed to get done. There were other things I should have gotten done today, but the middle of my day was co-opted with doctor's appointments and other such things.  Those other things I should have done included: 1. Listening 2. Updating the iPod 3. More focused practicing 4. Songwriting

Today was an interesting day. On one hand, it wasn't a day where I spent a ton of time in the studio, but on the other hand, it was a day where the time that I did spend in the studio was probably the most productive time I've had in a long time.  In short, even though I didn't spend all that much time working on the EP tonight, I feel like I got a whole lot closer to finishing it. I've been frustrated with myself lately for not finishing things a bit quicker, and struggling with the fact that, while I have been successful at finding a whole lot of kernels of songs, they haven't seemed to want to sprout into completed works.  Tonight, instead of freaking out and making myself more stressed out, I sat down and looked at a few favorite songs to see if I could sneak a peek behind the veil, if you will. The answers jumped out at me immediately.  I haven't been doing enough with the kernels.  Mostly, I haven't been facilitating the chord changes that will a...

My Dad was in town today, which made time in the studio a bit short. When I finally got into the studio, I was feeling in need of some sort of inspiration, so I turned to a book on songwriting called The Art Of Noise that I had picked up earlier this year.  I read through an interview with Noel Gallagher that offered some insight on his songwriting process, and then spent a few minutes with the acoustic.  It was just the sort of quick recharge that my batteries needed.  I'm really hoping that I can spend a better chunk of time tomorrow in the studio, working both on songs and on doing some practicing. I really just need a (mostly) uninterrupted day to spend in the studio.  That feels like it would cure a good number of ills right now.  Here's hoping that tomorrow offers at least some part of that, because I really need it.

Tonight was a fairly quiet night for me, but I was finally able to carve out the bit of time required to get the rest of the music that definitely needed to be uploaded into iTunes.  I haven't synced the iPod yet, but that will definitely be happening this weekend.  I still need to figure out why a lot of the artwork doesn't upload anymore, but that will be a fight for another day. As for playing, there wasn't much in the way of time tonight, but I got into the studio for a few minutes, and kept up with the acoustic theme when I was in there.  I'd really like to have a big day tomorrow when it comes to the studio, and hopefully get in some good work on the EP.

Tonight was a late night, but in the end, it was at least somewhat productive, which feels like a good thing heading into a Friday.  I: 1.  Finally got started uploading some of the newer music into iTunes.  I managed to get a couple of the artists crossed off the list, which was a pretty good start, considering what I had for a backlog.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend, I'll be able to get things caught up on that front so that I can get the iPod synced and really start making progress with the listening. 2.  Got down to the GWA issues, or at least starting to go through them for inspiration.  It was a start, anyway.  And again, I'll take it.  There's more work to be done this weekend, but I'll get to where I need to be by the time Monday rolls around. 3.  Didn't get to the EP tonight, but that is the other thing that needs major attention in the next 72 hours.

Another day spent with the acoustic. I took a quick glance at the EP tonight when I got into the studio, but spent more time doing a bit of listening, and then just sitting with the acoustic. Every time I leave the electric in the stand, I find myself wishing I'd do it more often.  I know I need to brush up on my acoustic playing, as a bunch of people are getting together for a jam session of sorts in the middle of November.  I've been invited, and need to knock a bit of rust off. I know I said I was hoping to dive into some GWA tonight, but the way the day went, that is shaping up to be either a tomorrow thing or (more likely) a weekend thing. Tonight wasn't the night I was hoping for, by any stretch, but it was okay.

Tonight was another decent night. I made a bit more incremental progress on the EP project.  I think I might almost have the music finished for another song. Also, I finally started to sit down and take a look at just how far behind I am on listening and importing the recent music purchases into iTunes/onto the iPod.  It's not a pretty picture, let me tell you.  I've got a list started, though, and what I need to do is either haul my laptop into the studio, or just do a couple of them each night until I'm where I'd like to be. I've been playing more acoustic the last few nights, and it's good.  Tomorrow I think I need to bust out all my issues of Guitar World Acoustic and have some fun.

Today was definitely the most productive day of the weekend.  It wasn't the perfect storm I was hoping for, but it was a good day for a number of reasons. I actually got a chance to work on the EP for a bit tonight.  I'm still hoping to have it finished by the end of the year, and even after all the time "off," I'm still feeling pretty good with where everything is sitting as I type this.  There's more work to be done (obviously), but I'm trying to stick to my plan of taking one more step towards finishing the project off each time I sit down to work on it, and I did that again tonight. I fit in a bit of listening as well this evening, but my pile of stuff is still pretty high.  I need to find more time to fit that in this week than I have been.  Try and make some sort of dent in it. Today was definitely a good day.  Hopefully the rest of the week shakes out that way as well.

Truth be told, I was fully expecting today to be a day of work on the EP, but can I really be surprised that things didn't go according to plan when nothing all weekend really has? Instead of making any tangible progress with my songs, I wound up working through another lesson from the recent issue of Acoustic Guitar .  It was a lesson that I didn't even notice was in the magazine when I bought it, but ultimately, I think it will be something that will help me out with the songwriting down the road.  It was a lesson about being a better accompanist, and it worked its way through a few different chord progressions, outlining different ways one could choose to change things up a bit in order to keep things interesting.  It had me thinking about some of the things people like Jackie Greene and Jason Isbell do to spice up their progressions. Yes, today was an okay day by the end of it, but what I really need is for tomorrow to be a day where everything just clicks....

Today wasn't as huge of a day as I had hoped it would be, but I did make a bit of progress, which gives me hope heading into the next couple of days. I sat down with a lesson from one of the recent magazine purchases tonight, and in making my way through the first part of it, I realized just how nice it was to get back to the point where I was taking at least a few minutes out of my day to really play .  That alone was worth the price of admission today. Truthfully, I would have had a lot more time, but something this afternoon that I thought would take an hour to an hour and a half wound up taking four hours.  It was a good time, but it changed the tenor of the day, and in so doing, made tomorrow and Monday (I have the day off) all that much more important. Hopefully tomorrow has more time for music in it.

It was a long Friday. Suffice to say that, somewhat like last night, I had but one goal when I got home tonight: I wanted to get everything unpacked and reorganized in the studio in preparation for tomorrow.  I got that crossed off the list (albeit late in the evening), and I'm starting to go over in my head what I'd like to try and get done this weekend.  There are a few obvious things: 1) Work on the EP 2) Listening 3) Some serious practice time As for that last one, it feels like it has been a while since I've really gotten a chance to sink my teeth in and put in a good amount of time, practice-wise, in the studio.  I'm really looking forward to the weekend, for just that reason.

Well, we're back home from dog-sitting. What that means for tonight is that I had but one goal for the evening: To get everything moved back into the studio.  I got everything moved in from the car, and while I didn't get everything unpacked and re-sorted, I at least got it all into the studio itself. Considering that it was a long day, and we didn't really get home until after 11 tonight, I'll take that as a win. While today may have been a bit slow, music-wise, the weekend promises to be epic.  The Mrs. will be out of town for a conference, and so I'll have the whole weekend to stay up late in pursuit of the music.

Today was another quiet day. I  managed to fit in a bit of time with the issue of Acoustic Guitar that I picked up yesterday. There's a cool article on Chris Cornell and his new album, and then some lessons that look like they are going to be fun. Finally got all the way through the new Jackie Greene disc on the way to and from work today. I really enjoy his music. Musically, today was an average day, but I will take it.

Today was an okay day. Not exactly the day I had expected, but it worked out okay in the end. I ended up at the bookstore for a while this afternoon, and picked up a few things while I was there: 1. Crosseyed Heart , the new record by Keith Richards. 2. The latest issues of Guitar World and Acoustic Guitar . 3. The new autobiography by Sara Bareilles. There wasn't a whole lot of playing today, which is not the way I thought the day would go. I'm sure that the rest of the week will be different, but it still bums me out that I didn't get more done today. More tomorrow, and better.

Today was a busy enough day that I didn't have a lot of time for music making. When I was able to get a bit of time this evening, I spent it starting to look at the Richard Lloyd columns. I have long thought that this series of articles will prove to be a worthwhile study, I just haven't spent a whole lot of time with them. A small bit of that changed tonight, but more of it will change tomorrow. I'm just really excited to have some time to practice on my day off.

After putting it off all weekend, we finally made the move to the house where we are dog sitting for the next week. That means that, once again, I have distilled the studio down to the bare essentials and brought it along. I grabbed the Strat, along with the following: 1. The two notebooks that make up the EP project. 2. The Vai workouts. 3. The GW columns. 4. The Richard Lloyd columns. Those felt like the essentials.  We shall see what the week brings. I am pretty sure that it is going to be a good one.

Today was a better day. I found a few more minutes to spend in the studio, and used them to take a quick look at the EP project. In spite of the short amount of time I've had to work on it for the last few days, I continue to feel better about where I am with the project than I have in a while. When we make the move to be dog sitting again tomorrow afternoon, I'm bringing everything along with me, and when I have my day off on Tuesday, I am really going to focus in on it and try to spend some serious time working on it.

Today just wasn't a great day for me where the music was concerned. First of all, there wasn't a whole lot of time today for me to hide out in the studio.  Indeed, what I was really left with at the end of the day was about fifteen minutes tonight, all of which was spent doing some studying via the internet.  So, no, it wasn't my best day of the year by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it was probably the most exhausting and frustrating day I've had all year.  I'll make tomorrow a better day.

I'm still thinking about the concert last night, mostly as it had to do with structure and song form in current popular music. Admittedly, a lot of what I saw last night was based around the piano. He used it to form the melodic base of almost every song.  From there, most of the rest of the work establishing the music was the doing of the rhythm section.  Indeed, between piano, bass, and drums, Nate had almost everything he needed to sing over.  Indeed, the guitars were mostly used for accent chords and solos. Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware that, in the current music landscape, most of the arrangements are at least somewhat centered around the rhythm section, but last night provided another interesting example of an approach to writing that centers around the drums and a creative bass line, and then filling in the rest from there. I'll likely be on a high from the show all weekend, and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to find a bit of time to get in the ...

Saw Nate Ruess tonight at Gallagher Bluedorn on the UNI campus. It was an amazing show! I've got a lot of reactions, but I am going to save them for tomorrow night and just post a picture or two.

Nights like tonight I'm never sure whether I should congratulate myself on getting out of a trap, or chide myself for falling into one in the first place. In sticking with my goal to get one thing done each night in regards to the EP project, I went back to a chorus that I have loved ever since I wrote it.  The problem being a lack of an equally cool verse progression.  In so doing, I actually went all the way back to the page in my notebook where I first started to block out the song.  What I found threw me for a bit of a loop: in my original idea, I had managed to find a progression that not only fit the chorus, but was also fairly straightforward and simple.  I wrote it down as a "basic idea," and then went in search of the ever-elusive lost chord that I thought (at the time) would take the idea over the top. Long story short, I never found my other chord, and in  the process, I ignored (for a while anyway) an idea that works perfectly for the music that ...

I told myself last night that I needed to be more focused with my time, even if it was happening in smaller chunks than I would have liked.  Tonight I got my first chance to do just that. When I headed into the studio tonight, I had but one goal: To take a song idea that wasn't completed yet, and see if I couldn't flesh out the parts that were missing.  Tonight, anyway, I was successful!  I finished off the verses to go with a chorus that I have really felt strongly about for quite some time now.  So, it'll either go that way, or the verse and chorus progression will be the same and I'll throw a bridge in the middle.  Either way, I'm happy with what I got done tonight, because it's a definite step forward.

So, I found myself a bit of time to look at the EP today, and it is becoming more and more obvious to me that working in fits and starts, with only small increments of time to really devote to the project isn't working.  I need to be better about using the small chunks of time to work on more specific things: transitions between verses and choruses, etc. I also need to get back into the habit of carrying a notebook with me at all times, to jot down the ideas (musical, lyrical, etc.) that occur to me during the day.  That way, when I get a day off (like this coming Wednesday, for example), I can have everything all in one place so that I don't constantly feel like I'm playing catch-up and reintroducing myself to the project every time I sit down. Mostly, I'm just finally at the point where I'm really frustrated that I haven't made more progress, and it's time to kick things into a higher gear than they have been of late.

Once again, I didn't get into the studio until late tonight, but I got myself reacquainted with where I sit with the EP after I did get in there.  I'm to the point where I feel good about what I have, but not about where I am with what I have.  And honestly, I think that's a good thing, because it will almost force me to push myself forward. I didn't get to the listening that I had hoped to today, but that can be something for tomorrow. I need to spend time on two things tomorrow: 1) The EP 2) Theory It needs to be a more productive day than today, although today wasn't bad.

Tonight was an okay start to the weekend.  I got into the studio on the late side tonight, but I sat down and focused for a bit once I made it there.  I started off by going back and looking through an article on essential chords for songwriters (what I really feel I need to focus in on this weekend is the EP), and taking even a quick look through that got me in the right frame of mind to hopefully be able to sit down and spend a good bit of time on the EP over the next couple of days. I need to get caught up on some listening, too, this weekend, but the primary focus will be the EP.

Going to see a live act on a Thursday night really is the perfect time.  It gives a kick of energy heading straight into Friday and the weekend. Recycled Percussion was an awesome mix of live music and off the cuff entertainment.  Musically speaking, it was a great mixture of drums and guitar, with a mixture of original beats on one hand and some familiar songs designed to get the audience involved on the other.  For someone who is slowly but surely working his way through the process of recording, it was cool to see what they could do sound-wise on truly recycled products (buckets, tubs, etc.). All told, it was an upbeat evening of live music, and just the kick I needed heading into the weekend.