"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Know what's hard to believe?  The #STARTexp, which I spent most of last summer, and a good portion of last fall working on in a musical context, kicked off a year ago today.  I won't say that I've killed it at every opportunity since then, but I will definitely stand by the statement that working on those three songs in 24 days was the event that pumped some life back into my musical exploits.  Any time you work on something every day (and write about it) for as long as I've been documenting my journey to regain my musical chops, there are bound to be some times when the energy level and the progress are at low-tide.  I'm never terribly proud of those moments, but even in the low moments, the Start Experiment  has helped me to understand the level of consistent dedication it is going to take to get where I want to be. Sometimes I think that my blog really began a year ago, that all of the work I did before then was just prep work for what has started in the la...

Tonight was the start to the week I needed. There was about an hour's worth of studying, and this time I was smart enough to take notes on what I was doing as a way of reinforcing what I'm studying. I've written here before about a few different things: 1) Treating it (at least a little bit) like taking a class. 2) Making better effort to reference my violin experience from my youth. 3) Admitting that I'm rusty at things that I feel I shouldn't be, and using it as a reason to grow. I've also talked about my experiences with the #STARTexp, and #30DaysofHustle.  Tonight felt like a night that worked for all of these things on some level.  I got the email last week for week #1 of month 5(!) for the 30 Days of Hustle, and it mentioned three things: I’m immature in that part of my life. It’s going to be uncomfortable. I’m going to grow.            The first of these is essentially my #3 from up above, re-worded, but it was all stu...

Tonight feels like another "mini-milestone" kind of night, much like this post did last month: http://rock-muse-ings.blogspot.com/2014/01/day-one-hundred-seventy-five-year-four.html Except that, where last month's post was a realization concerning goals, motivations, and the level of dedication it's going to take to get from where I am to where I want to be, tonight's post is all about follow through and surpassing expectations.  Tonight, I think I finished off the music for my album-in-a-month project.  That means that I've written the music for 14 songs in just 12 days .  Never in my wildest dreams did I actually believe that was possible.  I've always said that, if you handed me an undisturbed weekend, a guitar, a notebook, and a pen, at the end of it I could come out with an album's worth of music.  This wasn't quite a weekend, but considering everything else that life brings these days, I think that getting done what I did in the time th...

Second to last post of the year.  In my head, that seems dramatic, but in comparison to tomorrow's post, where I'm going to lay out all of my musical goals for 2014, tonight feels like somewhat of a false front.  On some level, tonight could be a time of reflection.  Of sorting out the highlights from a year that just felt busy from beginning to end.  If I had to slow it down for just a second, I'd say the following would make my year-end list of highs: 1) The START Experiment.  The first round of it, in particular.  It showed me that (aside from lyrics, which are still hard for me), I can put together a demo in 8 days that sounds pretty good.  It forced me to step back from the bigger picture, which can sometimes be overwhelming, and focus on the little things, the individual steps that take one from the beginning of something all the way through to a finished product.  It never asked you to try and do it all at once (as I know I have a tende...

Tonight was a songwriting night, all the way.  Or, perhaps more accurately put, a demo starting night. I sat down tonight with the goal of making sure the chord progression I've been tinkering with since the end of last week (the one that, in my head, opens my debut record), was finished, and I think that, with the little bit of tinkering I finished up over the weekend, it is.  At this point, anything else that needs to be adjusted will become obvious in the recording of the demo. Setting the tempo for the song was a bit tougher, and it took me a little while to figure out where the groove was, but I got there eventually.  I also started to figure out drum sounds for the demo, and found something that seems to work pretty well, so that's cool. That got me through the first step on my list from the #STARTexp this summer.  If I were holding to the pattern from July and August, that would mean that tomorrow night I'd be writing the bass line.  Not sure that I...

Today was okay.  Not as much time as I would have hoped for music tonight, but if I learned anything from the #STARTexp this summer, it was to take advantage of my opportunities whenever (and for however long) they arise.  I've gone from "oh, I've only got fifteen minutes, what could I possibly get done in fifteen minutes?" to "Hey, cool!  I've got fifteen minutes, let's see what I can get done quick." Tonight it was more like a half an hour, but still. The other thing I've been pretty good about this week is changing things up.  Last night it was scales and repeating licks, tonight I worked on a couple of Jason Isbell songs that I had printed out a couple of weeks back.  "Dress Blues," and "Stockholm" are coming along okay.  Not ready for an open mic performance yet, but they're a little bit closer tonight than they were yesterday. One of the things that needs to happen this weekend is another round of uploading mus...

Tonight's post feels like it's going to be a few small stories that add up to something greater than the sum of its parts.  Just throwing that out there now, in case this seems a bit disjointed at times. I've wanted to make a record for a long time now.  Since before I started this blog, and really for about the nine years before that.  Granted, for most of those years, especially the earlier ones, I didn't have the skills or ability to make a record, but that didn't dull the desire any.  And, if you want to be technical, the two years before I started the blog, I was hardly doing anything musical at all , so I'm not entirely sure those years really fit the bill, but still... I read somewhere during those years, that one of the tricks to getting started when you're writing a new song is to close your eyes, picture the record on the player, watch yourself dropping the needle on it, listening for the music that starts playing, and then trying to play it ba...

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.                                                 ...

Today was more productive than yesterday, even if I didn't get into the studio until fairly late in the day.  I got the usual Guitar Aerobics lick of the day done.  It was an easy eighth note strumming pattern today, using the same chords as last Sunday's quarter note pattern.  Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the licks are starting from a certain point, and then just building on that as a way to increase difficulty while building confidence. Then I had a realization and did something sensible about it.  My realization was this: I haven't been as good this week about writing everything down as I work on it.  I'm a few days behind right now.  So, while I need to make a more concerted effort with that, I also know that I've been working on a lot of different stuff lately.  I feel like I'm making definite progress, but also that said progress is a little bit of a hodgepodge right now.  So... I sat down and wrote out everything tha...

So, today was interesting. Didn't end up teaching after all, as my student was kept out of town longer than anticipated, and wasn't back.  What's cool about that is the fact that I'm now prepared for next weekend's lesson. Didn't end up going and getting my ukelele today either, because I knelt on some glass feeding the cats at lunch, and then proceeded to bleed all over the kitchen and the bathroom.  So, yeah, that took a little bit of time to deal with. That said, I still found time to sneak into the studio tonight and do a couple of things. 1) I worked on learning "Question" by the Old 97's.  I've had Satellite Rides in my car stereo for what seems like forever now, and I really like that song.  It's pretty easy to learn, too, so there's that. 2) Couldn't let the day go by without working on the lick of the day from Guitar Aerobics either.  So I blasted my way through that, too. Somewhat of a lost day today, and that ...

Got a fun piece of news from the Mrs. today when she got home from work.  She announced that, since she got a computer with this year's tax refund, and we aren't financially set enough to each get each other amazing anniversary presents (we celebrate on Monday), that she thinks I ought to get a ukelele.  That feels like a rather roundabout way of getting that out there, but still, I'm fairly certain that I'm getting a ukelele tomorrow afternoon.  I've already got a sheet with basic chords on it, having picked that up at MidBell over the summer.  I'm torn on getting a baritone uke (which shares the tuning of the guitar's 4 highest strings), or getting one that uses the standard ukelele tuning of G-C-E-A.  Updates will follow tomorrow.   I'm pretty sure I teach tomorrow, too, although I haven't gotten any official confirmation of that this week. Got through the next lick of the day (#5 of week 2), and I'm finding that, as long as I take it slow...

Didn't have a ton of time to spend in the studio today, but I found it interesting that, a day after I posted about a record that had gotten somewhat lost in the shuffle, I found a pile of magazines that had experienced the same fate.  I've got two music stands in my studio.  One is a tabletop stand that sits on my worktable that is usually holding whatever it is I'm currently focused in on, and the other is your regular, run of the mill, black music stand that has spent the last six weeks holding whatever didn't really have a place yet when I first started setting up the studio. Tonight, as I went to grab the notebook that holds my song ideas from the last year or so, I noticed that, directly underneath it were a few magazines I've picked up in the last few months that must have wound up there because I brought them into the studio and just needed somewhere to stash them.  At the bottom of that pile was a DVD and booklet from Guitar Techniques (still in the pl...

Swung by the local bookstore tonight in search of the new issue of Guitar World .  It's an anniversary issue for Nirvana's In Utero , out 20 years this year.  They didn't have it in stock yet, but they did have the new issues of Guitar Techniques and Acoustic Guitar .  The new issue of AG has a cover story on Jason Isbell's latest record, Southeastern , that came out back in June.  It was a record that I was really looking forward to this summer, and also one that got at least somewhat lost in the shuffle of an impending move.  Reading the cover story got me to pull out the record again, and it's one of those albums that feels like an old friend, even after only a few spins.  Isbell's songwriting was great when he was with the Drive By Truckers, and his first few solo records kept that up, but this latest one ups the ante. In that spirit, and still thinking about learning cover songs and finding an open mic, I found the chords for two of his songs, one ca...

Another great music day. Having spent yesterday mainly focused on lead playing for my practicing, I switched it up and spent tonight working on my rhythm playing.  Got to keep all areas of my playing sharp, after all.  While I switched up the area of study, the method I used for my practicing was the same.  I've got a "Rock Guitar" DVD from GW that covers rhythm, soloing, and anything else that one could need to learn to make themselves a proficient rock guitarist.  I spent over an hour with it tonight, going through the multitude of examples that covered everything from 60's era rock up through Pantera-type heavy metal.  It was good to brush up on my sight reading of those styles.  I felt like I picked up the rhythm pretty well, although there were a few examples that could use a tad bit of brushing up.  For some reason, there isn't a metronome always sitting out in my studio (although one is always readily available).  I need to remedy that....

Today was a great, great day music-wise.  I got into the studio twice today, once this afternoon after my tutoring shift, and then again tonight after 10. Having not focused on songwriting much recently, I knew going in that I wanted to spend at least a little bit of time focused in on that.  I did, and I think it was a first step towards finally finishing off a song idea that I've had knocking around for years that has never really come out sounding exactly the way I want it to.  Today, I messed around with capo placement (previously it has always been a "standard tuning, no capo" idea), and tempo/strumming pattern.  Those couple of things made enough difference that I'm starting to hear the spark of something in my head.  Hopefully the rest of the week will produce more positive results. Worked on lick #1 of week 2 in Guitar Aerobics .  Somewhat similar to the lick last Monday, except that, where last week's lick was straight sixteenth notes, this w...

Another late night in the studio.  I love those.  I only wish I'd time them a little bit better, so they could last a little bit longer without me feeling guilty about it. Looked back today on the goals I had set for myself all the way back at the beginning of September.  There were four of them, and they were as follows: 1) On days I work, I want to practice at least an hour.  Double that for off days. 2)  I want to keep a detailed record of what I practice each day, including what went well as well as what needs improvement. 3) I want to find an open mic night to attend regularly. 4)  I want to finish an EP or a full length record for each year we're there. Maybe try the RPM Challenge in at least one of the three years. Well, a month in, I'm doing okay, but not as well as I could be.  I'm getting into the studio at least an hour a day.  Haven't stuck to the whole "2 hours on off days" thing, though, and I could really stand to do t...

Taught this morning.  For a first lesson, I thought it went pretty well.  I'm teaching a father and his son, and it seems like the Dad is going to take lessons every week, and the son is going to do lessons every other week, when he's around. Stayed in the studio for a little bit after they left, and did some playing of my own.  Worked on the lick of the day in Guitar Aerobics .  As I suspected yesterday, it was a much easier affair than was Friday's. If teaching (and prepping to teach) let me figure out anything studio-wise this week, it was this: despite things looking pretty good and the studio being functional, there is still more I can do organizationally to have things make more sense.  As if I needed further proof that everything is a work in progress right now. Then tonight, we had friends in town from NW Iowa, so not a whole lot else got done music-wise today.  Tomorrow afternoon/evening will need to have a pretty focused practice session, bu...

Well, I knew it would happen at some point this week, and today was the day.  The Guitar Aerobics lick of the day didn't so much have me stumped, as it was just harder for me this time around.  Which is good, don't get me wrong.  I mean, if they were all easy, there wouldn't be much of a challenge to it, now would there?  So, I fought with it for a while, got the first half of it down pretty well, and then stepped away from it for a bit.  In that time, I looked at the licks for Saturday and Sunday, played through those, found them to be easier than today's lick, and figured that I'll certainly be able to master the second half of today's lick by the end of the weekend.  I'm really enjoying this program so far.  I know I'm only a week in, and there's a long way to go, but it's been good. The other thing I did today was prep for lessons tomorrow morning.  I'm teaching at 9:30, and while I've taught the introductory lesson enough times in ...

I had high hopes at the start of the day about a mammoth practice session.  Said session never really materialized, but even so, I was able to sneak into the studio for a bit tonight.  While I was there, I hit most of the things I've worked on all week: the next lick in the series for this week (#4!) from the Guitar Aerobics book, and a couple of things out of the Blues Goldmine book. Something else dawned on me tonight, too.  As much as the repetition of regular playing has helped me out lately, the biggest thing that has changed lately is my confidence.  My belief that I'll reach the goals I set for myself all those years ago is at an all time high right now.  Like I said the other night, I'm not there yet, but I finally feel like I'm actually making sustainable progress. Tomorrow needs to be about a couple of things: 1) Getting ready to start teaching again on Saturday morning.  I've spent the whole week thinking about where to begin, now I just ne...

I got to everything I had hoped for today, which included: 1) Lick #3 from Guitar Aerobics 2) More work with the DVD booklets I pulled out last night 3) the solo from "Yellow Ledbetter" 4) The Blues Goldmine book. Having put in three days worth of work on the Guitar Aerobics book, here's what I'm noticing... while the book is billed as a "1 lick per day" format, it hasn't worked that way for me since the first day.  Instead, it has evolved into something wherein I work through all of the licks leading up to the current one, and then tackle the current one.  So, by the end of the week, I'll be going through all seven licks whenever I sit down.  What's cool about it to me is that, while all of them are easier to play tonight than they were on Monday or Tuesday, just that improvement is obvious when I get down to whatever the rest of my daily practicing is. I ran through some of the same licks from the DVD booklets again tonight, and those...