"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

I started listening to the Cornell and the Ani today.  Didn't get all the way through either one yet, but started in on both.  Cornell's acoustic version of "Fell On Black Days" is amazing.  I wondered how he'd pull off such a hard rocking, electric based song solo on acoustic, and he served to remind me just how heavy an instrument the acoustic guitar is.  This album is going to be a lot of fun, and I really feel like it's going to be informative, from a solo-acoustic performance point of view. As for the Ani, I've really only had a chance to listen to the first track.  It doesn't start out in typical acoustic fashion.  It opens with electric guitar, before finding its way to a typical Ani story song.  That provides an interesting open for someone like me, who has become a fan of her consistency and her anger and her hope for a better world. Did some more reading in Guitar Zero today too.  That book is really spectacular. Also, picked up t...

Had a great morning before work today.  Got a chance to sit down and play guitar before heading off to the madness that was work tonight.  I had some serious fun messing about with the natural minor scale in the key of A.  I discovered that the melody from "Mexican Wine" by Fountains of Wayne is firmly rooted in the natural minor scale.  That was a fun realization.  It's one of the things that makes the learning fun.  It's one of the things that keeps the information in my brain. Also, went in on the last day of the buy 2, get the 3rd one free with T. from work tonight.  I only had a couple of things that I really wanted, so I let him pick out something and we went in together.  Here's what I wound up with: 1) Songbook - Chris Cornell. 2) Which Side Are You On? - Ani DiFranco The Cornell record will be fun.  It's a record of his solo acoustic tour last year.  I'm really curious to hear his takes on songs like "Fell On Black Days,"...

I realized today that I've had Guitar Zero for a week, and I'm made a whopping 3 pages of progress in it per day.  Really, really pathetic if you ask me.  So today before work, I sat and read for a while.  Now I'm up to about 6 pages per day, so that's progress, I guess.  I've been thinking all day about my statement that I need to play more acoustic/play live this year.  In that spirit, I went back tonight to an itunes playlist I made last year sometime called "SetList," the theory being that it contained all of the stuff I'd like to play live somewhere. Songs on this list include: Tombstone Blues - Bob Dylan I'll Be The One - Warren Haynes Sister Luck - The Black Crowes Deep, Dark Truthful Mirror - Elvis Costello Forget The Flowers - Wilco Between those 5, and the 4 I worked on for a bit the other day, I figure I'm on my way to having a decent list of songs I can approach feeling comfortable with.  Every time I get antsy or frustr...

After spending a bit of time with the acoustic yesterday, tonight I sat down with the electric for a little bit before phone calls and life interceded. It was fun.  I dove in with a sheet of essential chords and scales, started in the key of A, and just went for it.  I like the differences inherent in the acoustic and the electric.  The differences are startling.  I like the feeling of hunkering down where the acoustic is concerned, the feeling of looking at the bones of music, the structural pieces of songs are born on acoustics, to me. The electric, on the other hand, seems to me, to be an instrument both of adornment and rage.  There's more of a sense of discovery on the electric for me, at least right now.  It's a sense of slowly putting together all these pieces that I once had at my immediate disposal that have since gotten scattered hither and yon. The joy in both instruments right now is in the small things.  Realizing the shifts in scale...

So, I promised myself some time with a guitar tonight.  I was fully expecting it to be time with the electric, but that's not what ended up happening.  I wound up sitting with the acoustic for a while instead, strumming through a series of random songs that itunes told me I wanted to hear/play, etc.  The list included: 1) Accidentally In Love - Counting Crows 2) Million Dollar Bill - Middle Brother 3) Deer - Manchester Orchestra 4) A Letter To Georgia - The Airborne Toxic Event The toughest part of those four songs?  A few really quick chord changes in the Counting Crows song, and the picking pattern on the Airborne number.  Both are great songs, though, and I vow to learn them both, and get them up to performance quality.  I need to play live somewhere in 2012. Also, I just need to play more acoustic.  My fingers were hollering at me a bit after that little session.

Talked with B. today about everything currently going on with the band. She agrees with J. and I about the EP idea, which, to be honest, really surprised me, as she has been a vocal proponent of the full album idea since we started the project.  Whether or not she entirely agrees with my song selections remains to be seen, however.  I told her to look over the list of songs and let me know what she thinks by my next day off (Tuesday). According to the latest messages from J., he won't be up and running again until early February, which seemed like a long time from now, until I realized that early February is actually next week .  Still, this gives B. and I time to get some more work done.  Hopefully that makes it easier on J., as he will then have a lot to work on. And, yeah, I was all set to play a lot of guitar today, and then I spent 3+ hours on the phone, first with my brother, and then with B., so the marathon guitar session will have to take place tomorro...

Sent messages to both J. and B. today regarding the tempos.  B. was excited, and I didn't hear back from J. Started to page through Guitar Zero today, too.  Just reading the first page makes me think that this book is going to be an incredible read.  I'm excited to see what the process was that the author took to learning the instrument, having had no previous experience with it.  My situation is, admittedly, not the same, but I'm certain that there will be some things in this book that I can take and apply to my current learning situation. I didn't play today, and I'm feeling horrible about it.  Tomorrow needs to have a few hours carved out for some hardcore practicing, or I fear that I may go at least somewhat insane. Not doing so well on the 20-50 hours of practice/week, at least so far.  That may not be a feasible goal, but I've got to try before I make that determination for real.  It's about fitting it in between all of the other things tha...