"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

So, I know I said I was diving back in to the record today, but that failed to take one thing into account: My Mom is in town this weekend, and so the time in studio was significantly lessened today.  That said, I picked up a few interesting things on our travels around the city today.  They were: 1) The latest issue of Guitar Techniques 2) One Way Out: The Inside History of The Allman Brothers Band 3) All The Little Lights - Passenger I spent the whole day winding myself up in my head, getting ready to dive back into the studio, whether it was for learning and studying or for recording didn't seem important, it was just something I was looking forward to. Made it to the end of the day, made it home, and I'm completely worn out and exhausted.  Instead of burning the candle at both ends when I'm already tired, I'm going to sleep tonight, and give it all I have tomorrow in the studio, taking stock of where I'm at two months in, and then moving forward from t...

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...

I focused on some electric playing tonight.  More specifically, I sat down with the "100 Riffs" video, since I hadn't worked on that in what felt like forever .  I'm getting a little bit farther into it each time I go back, although tonight was mostly spent working on the first 6 riffs (I've already got those down pretty well).  That number feels like it ought to be a lot higher, but that's what I've got Thursday off for. Started in on Rikky Rooksby's book on lyric writing tonight, too.  That came from Amazon today, so I read the first chapter of that as a way to wade into it.  Lyric writing is one of those things I really want to work hard at improving this year, and this seemed like a pretty cool way to start doing that.  I've got about four or five of his other books, and I've really enjoyed them, so this one felt like the next step in that process. I did get around to the Acoustic Goldmine book tonight for a few minutes as well.  Focuse...

Tonight felt like one of those nights that could have used a rewind button.  I spent the first hour I was home fighting with the new iTunes update (which made me uninstall, and then completely re-install the program, all the while making me think I had just lost my entire music collection).  Finally got that figured out, and then uploaded the record that the Mrs. picked up today, Is There Anybody Out There? by a band called A Great Big World.  Their big single right now is a song called "Say Something," that I first heard because of its appearance on last season of The Voice.  I liked the song the first time I heard it, but had been wary of the rest of the disc (which was released this past Tuesday).  I'm happy to report that, in this case, the rest of the record is just as much fun as the single.  It's piano-based pop that's joyous and catchy.  It's almost like a more upbeat Dashboard Confessional, where the guitars are swapped out in favor of keyboar...

Tonight was a good night.  I got some of my Half-Price Books finds imported into iTunes (the Guster and Ben Lee records, specifically), and found a burn in my collection of Guster's 1999 disc, Lost & Gone Forever, so that got uploaded too. When I hit the studio, I did so with the intention of resuming work on the Acoustic Goldmine book, lessons on finger-picking be damned.  Instead, I picked up the acoustic and started strumming chords as a way to get my hands warmed up, only to have a cool chord progression come tumbling out.  Once that happened, I grabbed the notebook with all of my song ideas in it from off of the work table, opened up to a clean page, and jotted down what I had.  The more I played, the more cool ideas poured out.  All told tonight, I think I wound up with four or five cool sounding progressions.  They may be germs of ideas right now, but there's a bit of magic in them, I think. Once I had a few of them sorted out, I fired up the...

I exercised at least a little bit of restraint today, in that, I held off stopping at The Exclusive Company before I headed back to IA.  I did , however, stop at Half Price Books before I left WI.  Found a bunch of cool music, and a pretty awesome deal on a music DVD.  Here's what I snagged: Live From Bonnaroo 2005 - Ray LaMontagne Alice - Tom Waits Ripe - Ben Lee The Fame Monster - Lady GaGa Parachute - Guster Keep It Together - Guster The DVD was The History Of Rock & Roll .  I had seen some of it on PBS some time ago, and while it's not up to date, I'm excited to sit down and watch the whole thing. The other thing I got today was a Christmas present from my Mom, and it was both volumes of The Beatles Live at the BBC on CD.  Somehow those had escaped me thus far. So, yeah, with as much time as I spent in the car today, there wasn't a lot of time left over for playing.  I can't wait to dive back into that (and some listening) tomorrow ...

Drove up to WI this morning. True to form, I brought a guitar along with me.  The electric, actually, along with a bit of my theory stuff, a fresh notebook, and the Blues Goldmine book in case I needed further encouragement. Found a lot of vinyl when we stopped at my Grandma's house.  Mostly LP's, but there was a pretty good sized stack of 45's as well.  Not all of it is rock & roll, but it should all make a good addition to my ever-growing collection. I'll probably hit up Exclusive tomorrow before I leave town, but I'm not looking for anything too crazy, so hopefully I'll find something (but not too much). For now, though, I'm off to sit with the guitar for a few minutes before I pass out for the night.  It was a really good day.  Not quite as musical as it would have been had I stayed home, but still a great day. Tomorrow will have more music in it, I promise you that.

So, I told myself heading into today that I needed to get at least three of the things on my list from Friday crossed off.  I even did myself a few favors by hand-picking what three items they would be. I wanted to charge and update the iPod with some of the newer stuff that hasn't gotten put on there yet.  Mostly, what got added was a couple of records by Old 97's ( Too Far To Care, Blame It On Gravity ), and then the first two records by Waxahatchee ( American Weekend, Cerulean Salt ).  That done, I'm charging and syncing the iPod as I type this.  The two most recent discs I picked up (new releases by Springsteen and Sharon Jones) are still on rotation in the car, which will be good, because I'm headed up to WI tomorrow morning to spend a bit of time helping out my Mom with stuff.  That said, I'm hoping to be able to cross another item off my list, and pick up some guitar mags (mostly Guitar World Acoustic ) while I'm up there. One of the other things I go...

Today was a good day.  I got things squared away in the studio to the point where I feel like I actually have space enough to breathe, learn, and create again. I sat with the acoustic for a bit, but instead of working on the finger-picking stuff, I glanced at some of the lessons in the pile of guitar magazines that have piled up.  In the end, the only ones I kept out were the current month's issues. I still need a bookshelf in that room to complete everything, but with all of the moves happening for family members in the next month or two, I'm sure I'll end up with one, so I'm holding off. The other thing I did tonight was to start playing around with a few song ideas.  I know it wasn't on my list yesterday, but I'd really like to sit down and do some songwriting this weekend, too.  And speaking of my list from yesterday, the things that will get done tomorrow are as follows: 6) Charging and updating the iPod. 7) Creating a notebook for all of the songs...

Friday nights are always a bit more relaxed for me than others when it comes to music.  If I'm going to make everything out of this year that I possibly can, that might need to change at some point, but tonight's studio time was part laid back time with the acoustic, and part massive planning session for the weekend. Here's why: I've got both Monday and Tuesday off next week.  And while I'm hoping to beat the snow and dash up to see family for at least a little bit of that time, it still offers a LOT of time to devote to music.  So, did I relax and start figuring out some Justin Townes Earle on acoustic tonight?  Absolutely I did.  But while that was happening, I was also plotting out the following in my head: 1) More time on the acoustic lessons. 2) Theory study. 3) A good electric session (100 Riffs?). 4) Getting a handle on the studio mess. 5) Grabbing some music magazines (if I head up north). 6) Charging and updating the iPod. 7) Creating a notebo...

Yesterday's post felt like a mini-milestone along the path.  What could have been a roadblock to success was instead correctly identified as a stepping stone.  I got back into the studio tonight, and did what they recommend, I took things slowly and worked to isolate and improve each part of the process.  Slowly but surely, I'm seeing improvement.  It was a good way to build on the successes of last night.  I'll take this set of lessons as slowly as I have to in order to master it, and then move forward. The other cool thing about this process is that, as the lessons go by, it's bringing up some cool ideas, and helping push forward my desire to sit with the acoustic and write again.  Didn't really do much with the electric tonight... or the theory stuff, for that matter, but I'm feeling really good about the last couple of days, and I'm excited to find out where a long weekend with time to be devoted to playing will take me. All told, a good day....

So, since the start of the year, I've labeled all of my blog posts with the phrase "put up or shut up."  Tonight was the first night I figured out exactly why I'm doing that. I've known for a couple of days now that the next lesson in that Acoustic Goldmine book of lessons has to do with finger picking.  As I mentioned in Monday's post, my technique when it comes to finger picking is haphazard.  So, naturally, the idea that my next lesson was focused on this topic had me a little bit intimidated.  my brain started coming up with all these excuses (I play more chords than anything, I'm better with a pick, etc).   That's all well and good, but, you know what?  At the end of the day I want to do everything I possibly can to become a better musician this year, and that means confronting my fears.  So, tonight, when I got into the studio, I headed straight for the acoustic stuff.  I dove right into the lesson, and made it through, but it was rough....

So it seems I've settled into an alternating day routine.  A day spent with the electric followed by a day full of acoustic stuff.  This plan seems to be working thus far. You know what's cool?  I've been associating the theory stuff I've been working on lately with the electric side of things, so when I sat down with the guitar tonight, I did so with theory study in mind.  What always  gets me is that, each resource I add finds a slightly different way to approach things.  It seems like there is always one more bit of fresh information. Those small nuggets of information are working together to form a clearer picture each time I sit down to study.  The progress is happening, it just isn't all the way there yet. With the day off tomorrow, I'm hoping that I can get in an electric/theory session, as well as work my way through that finger picking stuff on the acoustic side of things. Today was a good day, tomorrow will be even better.

After playing guitar, mostly from the couch, for the last few days, I finally took my electric and my recent theory information and got back into the studio tonight.  It just felt good to get back in there and see what sort of a mess I had left.  In a related story, some of my day off on Wednesday really needs to be spent in the studio getting things put away (again).  I can't help it if I start working in there and one thing leads to another which leads to books and magazines being strewn about, hither and yon. Know what else felt good?  Getting back to the acoustic stuff!  Tonight's lessons out of the Acoustic Goldmine book were pretty simple ones.  One of them was about moving open position cowboy chords (C,A,D,E, and G specifically) up the neck to create different chord voicings, and the second lesson focused in on the many uses for a capo. After getting those two crossed off, I turned the page and found a lesson that I'm going to want to devote a g...

Made some really good music progress today!  Oddly enough, it wasn't acoustic-related.  I know I had said last night that I needed to get back into the acoustic stuff today for at least an hour, so I didn't lose the thread on that, but after finding some of the theory stuff I did today, and working through that on the electric, I feel less badly about not getting anything acoustic-related done today.  That said, I need to get back in touch with the acoustic tomorrow night during my studio time. Every so often, I Google phrases associated with guitar, just to see if any cool resources pop up in the search.  I did that today with the phrase "fretboard theory," and found a really cool PDF by that name that will definitely add something to my recent theory studies. Heading into today, I'm almost two weeks into the new year, and I was looking for something as a little bit of a pick-me-up, even though I feel like the year is off to a pretty good start.  I'm pr...

Today was a mostly quiet day that continued on the electric theme I established last night.  I worked for a little bit on the Refreshments stuff that I had started in on yesterday, and had a blast doing that.  I hadn't intended to take the day off from my acoustic pursuits, but that's exactly what wound up happening.  Even as I sit here and type tonight, I'm really missing that part of my playing.  Got to get back into it tomorrow, and, to be fair, I probably need to spend a good chunk of time (at least an hour, if not a little more) working at it in order to feel really good about where I sit at the end of the weekend. The last thing I want to have happen is to get out of the habit of something this early in the year.  Too often, I've started things strongly, only to not have the follow through required to make real progress, and I'm not about to let the mistakes and failures of the past define my year. Sometimes it just takes the courage to close the doo...

So, the anticipated "electric" night happened tonight instead of last night.  I don't know that I was consciously thinking about it, and I did pick up the acoustic for a few minutes first, but eventually, I strapped on the electric, and started to break down a song that has gotten the 4th most number of plays in my iTunes library over the last 3 years: "Preacher's Daughter" by The Refreshments.  It's a I-IV-V progression in the key of D (D-G-A), and much of the solo happens up around the 12th fret.  It will definitely be fun to dive a bit deeper into that tomorrow, on my day off. I also printed out chords (and solos) for "Banditos" by The Refreshments as well.  It's arguably their most famous song, and again with this one, the chords were fairly easy to put together.  Another one that will be fun to crank up at some point tomorrow. As for acoustic stuff, I took the night off from the Acoustic Goldmine book, and worked a little bit on a ...

So, I know I said last night that today was feeling like it might be an electric sort of day.  That idea was all well and good, except for the simple fact that, when I got into the studio tonight, I headed straight for the acoustic so that I could keep going on the couple of lessons I had been working on last night. I finished up the lesson on adding bass lines pretty quickly.  There are still going to be a few things to sort out in that regard, recurring things to focus on and so forth.  One of those has to do with always making sure to find the easiest ways to fret the bass notes within the overall context of the chord progression. After that, I moved on to the lesson on "sus" chords that I touched on last night.  I'm feeling better about that one tonight than I was yesterday, but there are still a few spots that need touching up.  Mostly, it comes down to finger strength on acoustic with the barre chords up the neck.  Knowing what they are, and where...

So, I'm finding I can only get through two of these lessons from the Acoustic Goldmine book in any given day.  And, if I'm being completely honest with myself, I should probably limit it to one of them each day, just to make absolutely certain that I'm doing the best I can with them.  Tonight I tried to do even more than that, though, what with going back through the bluegrass lesson from yesterday, tackling the next one in line (on adding bass lines into your playing), and then having a quick look at the following lesson (on sus chords) before giving it a rest for the night.  I'm getting the feeling that tomorrow might be an electric day.  I'm sure I'll toss another acoustic lesson in there somehow, but I'm just getting the urge to be loud for a little bit. Picked up the latest round of guitar magazines today on my afternoon off.  New issues of all three ( Guitar World, Acoustic Guitar, Guitar Techniques ) came home with me today, as did a book on Big S...

One of the things I'm really enjoying about this more intense focus on my acoustic playing is that it has really highlighted the difference between acoustic and electric instruments for me.  There's so much more attention to detail and slight adjusting to be done when it comes to the acoustic (for my playing, anyway). I worked on a lesson tonight on fundamental bluegrass rhythms.  Not something I would have immediately sought out, but also something that, when taken in context with the lessons I worked on right before it, made perfect sense to me, and tied in brilliantly with the skills I was already brushing up on.  I got 95% of the lesson down pretty well, but the last example bumps the tempo way up, and I'm not quite fast enough to get it down yet.  With a little bit more work tomorrow afternoon/evening, though, I know I'll get there. I said last night that I needed to spend just a little bit more time than normal in the studio going forward, and I didn't qui...