"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Got started on my 1 guitar lick/day for a year "project" today.  The licks focus on one of seven different areas of study (alternate picking, arpeggios, sweep picking, string skipping, legato, string bending, and rhythm guitar); and, not surprisingly, utilize each one of the areas of study on a different day.  The other cool thing about this book is that it gives you a frame of reference, not only for the topic you're focused on, but also the style of music that day's lick is best suited for (the musical styles include rock, blues, jazz, metal, country, and funk).  I'm sure that, after a while, some of the licks will become repetitive, but the cover of the book says it's good for "developing, improving, and maintaining" technique, so some repetition is likely going to be par for the course. Spent the rest of my time in the studio tonight working on some scale & lead guitar lessons from one of the booklets that came with a Guitar World DVD.  Mos...

Another day where I got into the studio on the early side.  In a perfect world, I'd have some time in there early(ish) in the day, and then have an evening session as well.  That will be something I need to shoot for this week. Got some of the music imported that had been lying around.  The move last month really played havoc with my listening and importing.  Hopefully things will start to get back to something approaching normal.  As I type this, I'm realizing that there's another whole pile of newer stuff sitting next to the stereo in the studio.  Guess I'll have to get to that in the next round. Looks like my teaching here in Dubuque is starting up next weekend.  Our neighbor and his son want to start learning, and they will both have time to start lessons, we think on Saturday.  Time to get that cranked up again.  Guess I know where I'll be spending most of my free moments this week... that's right, in the studio, practicing and getti...

Got a little bit of the music I've picked up recently imported into itunes today.  I didn't sync the ipod yet, though, because I'd like to try and get a bit more of it uploaded tomorrow. Made it into the studio earlier in the day today, which was a good feeling.  What I wasn't expecting out of my studio experience today was a song idea, but that's exactly what I got.  Truth be told, I haven't thought much about songwriting the last couple of weeks, instead I've been more concerned with lesson binder stuff and the studying I've been doing. In other news, Ran into some people who were ready to start taking lessons tonight.  "Whenever you want to start teaching," they said... looks like I'm going to be doing that sooner rather than later.  In all reality, it might not be a bad idea to start up again in the next few weeks.  It'll give me a chance to test out what exists of the lesson binder on real people other than myself .  That mea...

I'll get the basic housekeeping stuff out of the way first. 1) Picked up Mechanical Bull , the new disc by Kings of Leon, today.    They have always been one of the bands that, for some reason, I can never remember which of their records I have.  I'm kind of hoping that picking up the new record will change that for me.  Side note, I just checked their discography, the records I/we don't have are the 2nd (2004's Aha Shake Heartbreak) and 3rd (2007's Because Of The Times ). 2) Part of tomorrow's project needs to involve charging (and syncing) the ipod.  Not only is the battery running low, but it has been a while since it was updated.  Come to think of it, I should probably look into what of the newer stuff has actually made it onto the ipod, as some importing is probably in order as well. The Mrs. works tomorrow morning, which will afford me the perfect chance to get into the studio early in the day.  I'm finding that, if I don't go chasing the ...

A few interesting things happened today that feel worth noting here: The first is this: I had something scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10 that has ended up being re scheduled until Monday afternoon.  What that means is that I end up having two (for sure) days that are wide open back to back.  So, yeah, I'll have a chance to get some serious music stuff done in that 48 hour time period. Flowing directly out of that little bit of information is this: I finally got what is at least the first round of magazine files set up and labeled.  There are 12 of them: - Fretboard Navigation - Workouts and "Ways To Improve" type articles - Lead Guitar, Scales, & Modes - Bass & Other Instruments (banjo, ukelele, etc.) - Folders & Handouts from when I took lessons - Specific Artist and/or Genre Studies - Songwriting - Guitar World DVDs & Guides - Rhythm Guitar - Acoustic Stuff - Blues That's 11 of them, the 12th has the other Goldmine books (Rock, ...

Today was one of those days where I felt like I was always running a step or two behind. I didn't get into the studio until late, and as such, had enough energy to keep going with the labeling and sorting of resources into magazine files, and not a whole lot else.  It dawned on me as I was sitting on the studio floor, putting away a few tab books that had gotten strewn about, that there are things on the bookshelf that might be better served in some of the files I've created. I got a little bit of playing in, too, though, it just wasn't as focused as I had hoped it would be when the day started.  I can definitely tell, however, that my increase in playing has started to pay off.  I'm back to that stage of feeling more comfortable with the guitar in my hands. The other thing of note that amused me today was this: The Seminary library was holding a book sale today, and the Mrs. picked up a music biography for me.  It was (of course) the Motley Crue bio from a few...

So, I had a couple of things from yesterday's post that I wanted to get done today.  They were: 1) Get some more magazine files assembled, and get them all labeled for my organizational purposes. and 2) Get some more work done on "Yellow Ledbetter." I got both things crossed off my list today.  The magazine files don't have the "Hello, My Name Is" tags on them, as we couldn't find them, but I've got some post-it notes labeled and in place.  Not the perfect solution right now, but it's at least a place to start with that aspect of organization. As for "Ledbetter," I really couldn't have asked for that to come together any better than it has.  The chordal fills have gotten a lot easier with just a few days of work.  The "interlude" and "outro" sections have fallen together easily as well.  Mind you, the outro is essentially the same as the verses, but still. The only thing that I need to do is slow down...