"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Quiet day today. Got a few tracks farther in the Alice In Chains record. Talked to my brother for a little bit tonight.  He leaves for his music camp in North Carolina in a week.  He's so excited, and so nervous at the same time.  And me?  I'm just jealous.  What I wouldn't give to spend a week doing nothing but playing guitar. Other things I'm excited about right now?  The new Barenaked Ladies record comes out next week already!  Can't wait to hear that next Tuesday. I'm hoping that tomorrow afternoon affords more time to play than tonight did.  I could really use it right about now.

Kept going with the new AIC record today.  "Voices," the fourth track on the record is a definite favorite so far.  I'm about halfway through it so far, and it's definitely a worthy follow-up to Black Gives Way To Blue . In other news, now that the month is essentially done with, I've finally found a chord progression, and a tempo for that matter, that I'm happy with.  It's a verse progression, I think.  And it might fit in with the other progression I stumbled on about a week ago.  Right now, though, that second one is a transition into something I don't have well defined yet. Really happy that progress is being made right now, even in the small doses that it has been showing up in recently.  All told, a day that could've had more music in it, but a day with a new song idea is a good day for me.  I'll build on it tomorrow, and we'll go from there.

There are some things in music that are instantly recognizable.  One of those things in an Alice In Chains record.  Doesn't matter who the singer is.  Proved that to myself by cranking up the new AIC in the car today on the way to work.  So far, it has been everything I expected: heavy guitars, and cool harmonies.  A few tracks in and still waiting for the first cool acoustic moment.  I think Jar Of Flies was my favorite Alice record, though, so no surprise, really. Taught tonight as well.  These lessons seem to be a bit more wide-ranging than I really want them to be.  My student follows along really well, though, and is making good progress, so I can't complain.  Might've helped if I wasn't still sick. That said, it was nice to sit down with the acoustic for a bit tonight, even if it was mostly for lesson prep and teaching.  Need to play it more than I am of late. Quiet day today.  Hopefully tomorrow is filled with a ton of ...

So, I did something today that I never do: I took a sick day.  Therefore, I didn't teach a lesson tonight.  Hoping to reschedule that to another night this week, but we shall see. Much to my surprise, considering the holiday yesterday and the flooding we've had in the area, my order of the new Alice In Chains record, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here , actually arrived on time today, so that was awesome.  Unfortunately, with my head feeling the way it does, all I did was unwrap the record.  I'm really hoping that, at some point tomorrow, I feel decent enough to drop it on the stereo and do some listening, but we shall see. Picked up the guitar for a couple of minutes, but being sick stole my focus and I didn't get much done. Did, however, watch The Voice eliminations tonight.  Still absolutely shocked that Sarah Simmons went home tonight. I'll do better tomorrow, I promise.

So, here's the story with today. All weekend long, I've been getting more and more under the weather.  With each day that has passed, I've felt progressively more rotten, and today was the day that it all caught up with me.  I was essentially immobile, and on the couch all day. That being the case, I just didn't have the energy, or the focus for that matter, to work on anything music-wise. In fact, about the only thing I did manage to get done today was a tiny bit of listening this morning before it sank in just how terrible I was feeling. Not necessarily the most inspiring way to start my second thousand posts, but I'm really hoping that by the end of the day tomorrow, I'll be feeling better both on the health and the musical progress front. 

Just realized that tonight's post is number 1,000 in the life of my blog.  Somehow I feel like that fact deserves more pomp and circumstance than I'm going to be able to give it tonight, but anyway... Watched Sound City today, and it further proves my theory that everything Dave Grohl touches turns to gold.  It's a fabulous documentary about the history of a recording space, told by literally all of the people who made it what it was.  The first three quarters are about the ups and downs of the studio's existence, and the last quarter of the film is Dave getting all of the major players together to record new music on the studio's legendary Neve console after he bought it and moved it to 606 Studios, the recording studio owned by Dave and the Foo Fighters. Played some today, too, but instead of taking a look at everything that has come before during the year, I stumbled onto the germ of something new, and spent a bit of time working on that.  Made a bit of progr...

So, we headed into Sioux City today.  Last minute decision. Picked up the latest issues of Guitar World and Guitar Techniques , so those should be fun to page through at some point tomorrow. Stopped at MidBell as well, and I found a few things there also: 1) The Rock Guitar poster to match the poster I bought from them a while back.  The one today was the one I could've sworn I had all those years ago, but can't turn up anywhere.  I'm sure, now that I've picked it up again, the old one will turn up.  That being said, it's another piece to the puzzle that will be my studio space in a few months. 2) Aside from the magazines at B&N, I also picked up a book I've looked at for years called Zen Guitar .  It's less about exercises and more about the mindset that you take with you to the instrument.  I think it will be good for me. 3) We stopped at the library today, too, and I checked out the latest Springsteen biography, simply titled Bruce .  ...