"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

So, I may have done something a little bit crazy.  Last night after I finished blogging, I was checking out some things people had posted on social media, and one of them happened to be a post about joining someone in writing 14 songs in February via FAWM.ORG.  Next thing I knew, I had actually gone ahead and signed up to give it a shot.  After 2 AM, it seems my inhibitions are lowered, and I can convince myself I can do anything . I've talked about FAWM (February Album Writing Month) and the equally cool RPM Challenge in this space before, mostly in terms of the "one of these years I'm going to try that" school of thought.  A couple of years ago, I even bastardized together some bits from both websites, and tried it on my own (without signing up for either one, of course).  That got me twelve, really rough demos, which I hadn't done anything with since.  Side Note: Creating an EP out of some of those songs is on my list of things to do for this year, and...

Well, I got a few of the goals on my list from last night crossed off today, and I didn't spend nearly as much time in the studio as I had hoped to at the start of the day. The biggest goal on that list was getting things streamlined a little bit in the studio, and while I didn't get all of the excess stuff put away quite yet, I have it off to the side enough that things are looking a whole lot better for progress heading into the last day of January and the start of February. I fit in a bit of listening today, but am saving the other two items on the list for tomorrow.  The Mrs. has a paper due tomorrow night for school, so I should have a decent amount of time tomorrow to get into the studio and work on both original songs/recording projects, and the lessons that have been out there this week. The other thing I finally got around to doing today was small, but it has been on my list since I saw my brother a month ago.  I went out today and picked up an ink pad, so I'...

We spent most of the night at some friends' house after work, so there wasn't a whole lot of time for the studio on this particular Friday night.  That said, it gave me have things running in the back of my mind.  If nothing else, it let me clarify a list heading into tomorrow. 1.  Get things streamlined a bit in the studio. 2.  Work on recent soloing & lessons. 3.  Some work on songs. 4.  Listening. These seem to be the big four, but I also need to hit up a Staples to pick up a few necessary items for the studio.  And maybe check the bookstore for magazines.  Progress in the Jerry Lee Lewis bio would be cool also.

Tonight was okay.  As usual, it wasn't quite enough time in the studio for my liking, but I'm hoping to change that over the weekend. I read a bit of the Jerry Lee Lewis biography tonight.  Made my way through another chapter before I got down to any of the serious work for the day.  It was as it has been for the last few days: a bit of progress in terms of looking at solos (the Zep, again), but not quite enough time to make the kind of progress I was hoping for. The other thing I need to get done in the next few days is a setting aside/putting away of some of the resources that have ended up in piles in the studio.  There's a lot of good stuff there, but it's almost too much to have out at one time.  I need to pare things down just a little bit, if only to make sure that the things I highlight are really the things I need to get me to my goals for the year.  What I really need is a good chunk of a day (or even an afternoon) to set things truly to right...

Well, I held true to the goal I set last night.  I had written about how I wanted to start breaking down some solos based on what scale (and subsequent patterns) they employed, and I started that process tonight by using the solo that every article I read keeps mentioning: the solo for "Stairway." I only worked through the first couple of phrases, but I got them squared away, with patterns and such.  Then I went back and had a look at some of the rest of that song, just because I know it pretty well, and it was fun to drag out again. Also managed to sneak in a bit of listening, and managed to get a handle on all of the music that had ended up in the car over the last couple of months. All told, not a bad day, but still a day where I could have gotten a bit more done than I did.

Today was a better day than yesterday, but still not the day I was hoping for last night.  Most of that has to do with the fact that I woke up with insane amounts of pin rushing through my lower back today, and spent most of the day barely hobbling around. That being said, I made it into the studio for a little bit tonight.  I played through some of the examples in the GT lessons, and then at least started to take it a little bit further.  I started looking at solos, and how they fit in the context of the scales themselves.  I didn't finish working all the way through a solo, but I started the process.  Tomorrow night, I need to take it another step farther, and lay out the different measures of the solo next to the specific patterns they correspond with. Also, I did a bit of reading in the Jerry Lee Lewis biography, and got most of the CDs from the car at least back in the right cases, if not moved all the way back inside yet.  That can be tomorrow's p...

Today had a bit more progress with the GT lessons in it, as well as some listening.  I didn't quite get the time that I was hoping to have tonight, so I really need tomorrow to be a better day. Things are starting to feel similar.  Days are running together.  All this means to me is that I need to switch up my focus a little bit, or at least add in some work on the recording projects tomorrow. The progress has been good, but tomorrow needs to have that little extra kick in it to make the week feel like it's really moving. Just a slow, somewhat quiet day.

Today was a little bit like yesterday, except that I ended up feeling a lot better about the way that today went than I did about yesterday. I had a little bit more time today, that was part of it, anyway.  Was that time spent in a similar way to yesterday?  It was.  The best part about that, though, is the fact that the time I'm putting in the last few days seems to be working pretty well.  The progress may be a bit slow, but the progress is there , which is more than I can say for the end of last year. No real progress in the Jerry Lee Lewis bio today, nor did I get to the listening I had hoped to. Tomorrow, I need to spend just a bit more time in  the studio than I did today, hit things just a little bit harder than I was able to over the weekend, and see if the whole thing keeps splitting open like it has been.  I'd also like to get the music out of the car, and get myself restarted on that front.

Today was a fairly quiet day. I made some progress in the Jerry Lee Lewis biography.  I'm over halfway done with that at this point, and it remains an entertaining read. There was a bit of time spent in the studio tonight, but not as much as I was hoping to spend in there at the start of the day.  The time I have gotten to spend in there has been spent looking mostly at the GT lessons.  I know I need to get back to looking at song ideas, and I'm hoping that there will be at least a little bit of that tomorrow. All told, I've felt like the year has started off pretty well, although today may have been the first time I've really dropped the ball in terms of having a chance to get a lot done, and just not taking full advantage of it. I need to do better tomorrow.

Another Friday night, another limited amount of time for the studio. That sets up, as usual, a Friday night list of what I'm hoping to get done over the weekend. 1.  I need to continue to work on the things I was able to build on this week.  That means spending time working through both the GT articles, the GW columns, and Fretboard Mastery . 2.  Listening, mostly to the new Dylan and Springsteen boxes. 3.  Work on songs, for both the EP project and the power pop record.  The double album, at least for now, can wait. 4.  I'd like to get the music out of the car (except for the Bowie), and get some new things in there.  That may be silly, but it's there on the list in the hopes that it will get done this weekend. That, at least for now, is the list.  We'll see if anything gets added in as the next few days go along.

Today was a quieter day than I was expecting, but still a good day.  I didn't get a whole lot done in the overall scheme of things, but I was happy with the things I was able to accomplish. Finally sat down and watched The Ties That Bind , the documentary that came with the Springsteen box set I got for Christmas.  It was the shortest of all the documentaries he's done for his deluxe reissues, and while I enjoyed it, I could have used a bit more detail, a bit more depth.  Still, watching that tonight has me excited to sit down with the music this weekend: the original album, the outtakes, and all the rest of it.  I'll probably even carve out time to watch the concert film they included. When I finally got into the studio for a few minutes tonight, I ended up getting back (at least a little bit) to the Guitar Techniques lesson I had been looking at a day or two ago.  And, in running a few things up and down the fretboard, I was happy to find that the ideas pu...

I had every intention of getting into the studio tonight and continuing with the work I had started last night.  Though I got in there on the late side tonight, I had started to go in that direction, when I got sidetracked by something on social media that took me in a completely different direction for tonight's playing... Apparently, the Winter Dance Party began on January 20th, 1959.  Little did they know it then, but Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and JP Richardson (aka The Big Bopper), had just two weeks to live on this night fifty seven years ago... Naturally, seeing that sent me down the Buddy Holly rabbit hole, and I spent the night, and what will likely stretch into some of tomorrow, playing "Maybe Baby," and "It's So Easy," and "Rave On," among other things. I'll get back to the other stuff tomorrow, but tonight was a good night of classic rock & roll.

Today was another odd day, but not for the reasons I expected.  My brother-in-law was in town for the night, so studio time got pushed back a bit tonight.  I was productive when I finally got in there, though, really starting to dig into the Guitar Techniques lessons from the last two months.  I feel like I made some pretty solid progress in a short amount of time, but due to work in the morning, don't feel like I can stay up crazy late.  Tomorrow night, on the other hand, I can stay up a bit later, what with having Thursday off (for some unknown reason).  So, naturally, tonight is the night I feel like I could stay up for an extra hour and really make some good progress. Anyway, I need to be happy with the time I did have, and the bit of work I was able to get in, instead of being frustrated by what I couldn't get done in a day.  Tomorrow will be a good day, too, and Thursday will be a very productive day.

So last week we lose David Bowie, and tonight Glenn Frey is gone at the age of 67.  2016 hasn't started all that well when it comes to being famous and musical.  Add in Lemmy from Motorhead, and it just gets worse. I got into the studio on the earlier side for me today, and while I didn't spend as much time in there as I would have liked to, I was still able to get a few things done. As I wrote about a little bit last night, I'm finally starting to see with a little bit more clarity what the way forward will be for the year.  Tonight was the night that I laid at least a bit of that out for myself, just so I could get a good look at it.  It involves the GT columns from the last two months, the GW columns I found last year, and had a bit of success with, and the two books I got around the holidays (one from the Mrs. and one from my Mom).  Around that will be songs, both to learn and to write, the "100 Riffs" thing, and other things (like the Vai Workouts and t...

Today was another odd one, honestly. I got in a bit of practicing today, getting into the studio late, as usual.  The last two days haven't exactly been the oasis of time I was expecting.  I can only hope that tomorrow will be different.  That said, I felt like I made a bit of a move forward, and am pretty sure that, after all of the big goal setting, and then all of the busyness of the first couple of weeks of the year, things will really start to settle in for me this week.  I'm finding the order that the pieces fit together, slower than I had hoped to as last year turned to this year, certainly, but tonight I feel like I got a vision of what things need to tie together in order for the year to really get moving. I finally picked up the new David Bowie record today... he's been gone for a week now.  I keep meaning to make note of it here, and not doing so until now feels wrong.  He was rock & roll's greatest chameleon, always pushing us and f...

Today was an odd day. I made a bit of progress in the Jerry Lee Lewis biography, and may have inadvertently started work on the power pop record. I got into the studio on the late side, and was somewhat aimless in my initial work in there.  On a whim, I fired up the recording unit, more to access the guitar effects that are housed inside of it than anything else.  That brought me to one of the riffs that I had put into the list of things to consider for the power pop project.  I listened through, then figured out what the chords would be that went underneath the riff.  With a few suspensions to add and release tension, I had the kernel of what may well prove to be the first thing that gets that project from the "thought" part of the process to the actual "project" part. It wasn't a huge step, by any means, but after the lack of progress with writing and recording lately, I feel like I've given two of the three projects I'd like to finish this year ...

My Friday nights are always so odd.  I get home so exhausted from the week, that all I usually end up doing is collapsing for just long enough that I can't truly be productive in the studio after work.  That forces my hand into setting up a "what do you want to get done this weekend" sort of list on Friday nights.  Sometimes, I sit and wonder what the weekend would feel like if I was actually able to have some energy left on a Friday night.  That said, here's my list for the weekend: 1.  Fretboard Mastery 2.  Work on songs/recording projects 3.  Progress in (or finish) the Jerry Lee Lewis biography 4.  Mandolin/"Losing My Religion" 5.  Listening And I'm sure there's more I ought to try and get to, but it will have to be added to the list as I go through the next few days.

Tonight was a good night.  I made about 30 pages of progress in the Jerry Lee Lewis biography, so that was excellent. I also took a quick look at Fretboard Mastery before deciding that doing so in any serious manner was really more of a weekend thing, which pushes it back at least until tomorrow night, but that's okay with me.  I've got a three day weekend coming up, and that will give me a chance to not only focus in on that, but also get back to the songs somewhat, and hopefully be able to make some progress with my triple headed monster of a recording project. Those were the big things today, although there was a bit of listening as well.  That part of my day, however, ties into something I haven't addressed yet this week that requires a bit more focus than I have at the moment, and will likely be covered tomorrow night. All told, though, today was good, but could have had a little bit more work in it. 

Really early post tonight, mostly because I've got to be up super early for work tomorrow, so there's that. I spent my time in the studio tonight, once again focused on the mandolin.  Tonight it was working my way through "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M.  Working on that song was great, because not only are there prominent lead lines, but the chords also have a distinctive sound.  I didn't spend enough time in there tonight to get the song down perfectly, but I made enough progress that it will give me something to keep working for as the week goes along. I had wanted to get to some guitar stuff tonight, but didn't fit it in. On the list of things for tomorrow: 1.  Some work in Fretboard Mastery . 2.  More time with "Losing My Religion" 3.  A bit of work on songs 4.  A bit of time with the Jerry Lee Lewis biography. Today was a quick day, but a good one.

I had an otherwise awful day today  (lost my gloves, car wouldn't start either at lunch or after work, etc.), but my time in the studio tonight was a good thing. I held true to my hope of spending time with the mandolin tonight, starting to feel my way through a few basic chords, and putting them to use by working on "Little Mountain Church House" by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The chords were easy enough (I figured them out on guitar first), but it was getting them underneath my fingers that proved a bit more difficult. I made some good progress, though, so I'll take that as a win and still have something to work on tomorrow. Tonight was exactly what I needed it to be.

Today ended up being a day that was more focused on cleaning things up a bit and looking to the week ahead than it did anything else. Whenever my brother is here, if we're in the studio, we work both quickly and furiously, and end up making quite the racket in the process.  Today I finally went in there, turned off the stereo and the recording gear, and set the piles of notebooks and papers to rights.  In short, it looks like a room again, as opposed to a bit of a disaster area. So, last week, the idea of picking a single, most important goal, and then filling in other things around it worked fairly well.  Well enough, at any rate, that I'm going to try it again.  This week, I really want to focus in on the new book I got for Christmas on mastering the fretboard. Other things I'd like to get to are: 1.  Spending some quality time with the mandolin. 2.  Having picked out the songs to use in the EP project, I'd like to revisit the demo recordings, an...

So, I'm still trying to figure out how to get more than one page, and seven riffs, to print out for the "100 Riffs" transcription. Also, I'm really thinking about either FAWM (February Album Writing Month) or RPM Challenge type things right now.  I'm not thinking of anything "new," per se, I'm just thinking of using their framework as an excuse to try and finish off, or at least make solid progress on, one of the three projects I hope to get done this year.  I've still got a few weeks to try and make up my mind on that, though... and I plan to make use of those weeks. The weekend hasn't been filled with an absolute ton of music, but it has been a good one, and I'm really happy with the incremental progress that was made in regards to the EP Project.  Tomorrow is the last day of my long weekend, an I'm bound and determined to make it a great one.

So, there wasn't much in the way of studio time today, but most of that was due to the fact that we spent a goodly portion of the evening at a concert at the Heritage Center.  Ana Gasteyer (of SNL fame) performed with her jazz combo, and was surprisingly, astoundingly good. I did spend a lot of time today thinking about all three of my recording projects, though, and while finishing off the EP that I've been talking about for far too long is the obvious first priority, I'm really not sure whether to go power pop after that, or to focus on the double album.  All if this is putting the cart well before the horse, on some level, but it's going to be interesting trying to find that balance this year.  I feel like I've done an okay job for the first nine days of the year, though. That's really it for today.  I'm optimistic that tomorrow and Monday will be more productive in nature.

So, my brother got here tonight after I got done with work.  It took us roughly an hour to head into the studio. The first thing I did when we got in there was burn a CD of the songs I wanted to pick the EP tracks from.  We sat and listened to get a feel for everything I had recorded a couple of February's ago, and I got his input on what he would choose.  Combined with my thoughts, we were able to come up with four songs that were the best of the bunch.  We were also able to highlight sections of other songs from that CD that were worthy of rescue and (at least potential) reuse in other songs.  Hopefully, the next couple of days will give us a chance to sift through the rest of the music I've got tracked and try to make a few decisions on that as well. My hope is that I'll be able to steal at least a few minutes more in the studio tonight before I pass out, just to try and sort out track order for the EP.  Sometimes in the life of a solo artist, having...

Today was another good day. I spent a little bit of time sifting through the rest of the ideas on my recording console, and in the process, I managed to find another idea that might fit in with the power pop record.  Still not sure whether that will end up being an EP, a full length, or something in between the two, but I'll worry about that down the road.  Right now, I've got 10 potential ideas that I'm excited about, and with my brother coming in tomorrow (assuming the weather holds up), that and the other EP will give us someplace to start.  All told, I'm feeling pretty good about the progress I've made on that front this week.  We'll see what the weekend brings. The rest of my night in the studio was spent doing some reading and some listening.  I got back to the Jerry Lee Lewis biography, and managed to make it through a chapter of that, and then started listening to the disc of the new Dylan box set that is entirely devoted to "Like A Rolling Ston...

Not a whole lot to report today.  We stopped by the bookstore after dinner tonight, and so I got to pick up new issues of Acoustic Guitar and Guitar World . Didn't get much of a chance to sit down and have a look at song ideas tonight, but as I get closer to the weekend, I'm still feeling pretty good about where I am in terms of getting a handle on which song thoughts belong with which project.  I'm really hoping that tomorrow night will give me a bit more time to focus on some of that. The other cool thing that happened today is that I figured out a way to get at least some of the tab for "100 Riffs" to print out off of SoundSlice.  Not much time to try and figure out how to get the whole thing yet, but hopefully I can solve that by the end of the week as well.  It's probably something stupid, even though I tried the "print all" option. Oh well, not a bad day by any stretch, but not quite as good as I would have hoped for today.

Today was a good day.  Maybe the best day I've had since the turn of the year, and you know what?  At the end of the day, I still feel like there was more I could have gotten done.  Still, I'm headed to bed happy because a few more pieces slotted into place.  This year is going to be big. I uncovered another song idea for the power pop record that has been brewing for a while now.  Adding it to the list, I'm now somewhere around nine riffs/progressions, etc. that will be in consideration for that project. I was putting a few things away today when I stumbled across the DVD for the Zeppelin lessons I've been using to piece my way through "Stairway" at various points.  It's got the most in depth video lessons I've come across for the song.  Included in that is a lot on the solo.  So, I watched just enough of that to know that, between the video and the tab book that came with it, I should be able to nail that down (which is the whole point, I kn...

I talked to my brother tonight.  I had floated the idea of him coming down this coming weekend, while the Mrs. is gone for school, just to hang out and have a few days to talk music.  He followed up on the idea, and it turns out that it works.  Can't wait for that! He also made mention of the fact that he has been following my thoughts here since the end of the year, and he really likes the list of things I have to (hopefully) finish this year.  In our discussions, it came up that "Classical Gas" really ought to be added to the list, so I'll have to do that.  Anyway, we talked briefly about my post from last night, and trying to spend the week focused on song ideas.  He went so far as to say that he'd be glad to help me sort through everything this weekend, do some listening, etc. With that knowledge in my ear, I hit the studio tonight with the hopes of getting through at least some of the ideas that are out there.  I bypassed (for tonight) the pre...

Today was an okay day.  Not super productive, but not a bad one once I made my way into the studio. Tomorrow starts the first full week of the new year, and I'm in the mindset right now that one of the things that has bogged me down in the past is trying to do too much at the same time.  That said, I'm thinking of setting a weekly focus that will be a main goal, and then filling in other, smaller things around that.  All of it will be in the name of finishing things this year. Since a lot of my goals revolve around songwriting, my main focus this week will be on song ideas.  For me that involves a few different steps: 1.  Collecting - or gathering up everything I've got right now that's a potential song idea. 2.  Evaluating - or seeing where that idea stands (what works, what doesn't, what's missing) 3.  Sorting - or seeing what ideas fit with what projects. 4.  Writing - both to fill in missing parts on various projects, and to see what ...

So, I may have gotten in the studio later than I had hoped to today, but I got a few things done, and I still feel like I'm making (slow) progress, so that's good. I did the small bit of reorganizing tonight that I had talked about yesterday, and I was right in thinking that it would serve to open things up a bit in there.  The energy surrounding the start of the year is positive, even if the progress has been slow to start. I spent a few minutes with the book I had started yesterday, and they were good minutes.  Another small piece of progress. What there wasn't a whole lot of today was playing.  I'm hoping that tomorrow will offer me some of that time.

Got my start today.  First day of the new year, and I feel like the long, slow roll towards where I want to be by December has begun. I hid in the studio for a while tonight, and started reading and studying a book that I got for Christmas ( Fretboard Mastery by Troy Stetina).  I'm hoping that it's everything it seems to be early on. I got my big list of things from last night's post written down and posted in the studio as a way to keep me motivated. I also think I figured out a way to tweak things in the studio to give myself a bit more space/make my time in there more productive.  At this point in he day, I'll have to wait until tomorrow to really test that out, but I know for sure that it'll get sorted out by the end of the weekend. Today had a few small steps in it, but they are all things that will be built upon as the year goes along.  Here's to a new year filled with new adventures.