Skip to main content

Day Four (Year Seven)

It seems I'm hung up on the bluesy side of things right now.  I got to some of that area of focus today, and chose to look at some pretty cool lessons I found on YouTube.  They focused on the rhythm side of playing, and there are, from the looks of it, quite a number of them.  Sometimes it's handy to have a computer with internet access in the studio.  This was definitely one of those times.

I then took what I had worked on, and applied it to a song called "Cigarette" by The Clarks.  There was a bit of similarity in the chord progression, and what didn't match up, I worked out on the fly.  It was good to be down there in the studio, feeling like I was working on something that was really going to improve where I sit with my playing.

After the electric stuff, I did pick up the acoustic for a few minutes.  I didn't write anything, though I thought about trying to start something.  Instead, I just put on my iPod and played along with a few things.

Tonight, there was an hour long interview with Glen Hansard (of Frames and "Once" fame) that I recorded and watched.  He got into a bit of his songwriting approach, and so I saved that to watch again at some point.

All told, a day that felt all over the place, but still a day that moved things forward.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day Three Hundred Forty Two (Year Four)

Tonight was a slightly unfocused night in the studio. It was a night of acoustic stuff, but most of what I got accomplished involved tinkering with different songs by Jackie Greene and Johnny Cash.  If nothing else, I set up the next list of songs I want to figure out. Tomorrow night I need to start getting back to the Acoustic Goldmine book, as well.  Every time I sit down with the acoustic for an extended period of time, I reconnect with the emotional side of that instrument.  There's so much to learn still in that book, so much information designed to improve my playing.  I need to take better advantage of it. I know it's crazy, but I'm already looking forward to Friday.  I really need to spend a lot of the day in the studio.  Getting a weekday off of work is such a rare commodity.  I need to do a good job of using my time wisely. 

Day Two Hundred Six (Year Four)

Today was the first official day of the second half of my "album-in-a-month" challenge. As for today's goals, I wanted to see what I could get done in regards to track order, and get at least a little bit of a start on the lyric writing process. I spent more time working on the track order question than I did on the lyrics today, but as a result of that, I ended up with something that I think will work in terms of order. I did sit with the notebook for a few minutes at the very end of the day, and got a solid starting line of lyric and some other ideas that I hope will be jumping off points for lyrics. What I'm thinking I might do, however, is switch my focus from the lyric writing part of the process directly to the recording part of the process.  That way, if I can get the music recorded and burned onto a CD, I can take the music with me in the car, and listen and try to see what images and thoughts the music brings up.  It's a tactic that has worked for...

Day Eighty Two (Year Four)

Today was the day.  Not only did I celebrate a year of being married, I also got to go and get my ukulele!  I wound up getting one of those "all in one" packs that came with a gig bag and a DVD.                                              The picture is generic, I know, but it gets the point across.  While I was there, I picked up a book of Bob Dylan songs for the uke, as well as a Jim Croce songbook for guitar.  We also got the Mrs. a set of claves.                                                 ...