"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Tonight was good.  Just the start to the weekend that I needed.  I: 1) Busted out the uke for the first time in a few weeks.  Felt good to wind down from the work day with a little bit of Elvis on the ukulele. 2) Played a bit of electric.  I'm really excited to have a longer amount of time in the studio tomorrow so that I can take a bigger look at where I sit in regards to everything I've been working on, but with the electric stuff I got done tonight, I have a feeling that the weekend is going to be pretty great. 3) Other cool news tonight: I talked with one of the neighbors tonight, who has made noise for at least a year now that he wants his son to take guitar lessons from me.  Apparently they are wanting to get started on that sometime soon.  I had completely given up on that possibility, so this is awesome news.  In and amongst all of my other work in the studio this weekend, I'll start getting something put together for him just in case. ...

Another short-ish day in the studio today.  Those are wearing on me quite a bit, and I am very much looking forward to a Saturday where there will be an expanse of time to get in there and get some serious work done. Tonight's focus was, again, on the Vai workouts.  I'm getting more comfortable with some of the different scale exercises that Vai puts forth. What I need to get back to over the weekend, I think, is the GW columns.  I've stayed away from them for the last couple days as a change of pace.  Or maybe I should try to bring everything I've spent time with in the last month together, just to see if it all locks in place. Either way, it should be a good weekend.

Today was another good day. As usual the last few weeks, I got into the studio on the late side.  Even still, I was determined to pick up the electric and at the very least take a quick look at some small portion of the Vai workout.  Tonight that small portion involved running the G Major Scale in 3rds.  It was a fun little exercise.  What I'm coming to fully understand is that all of these exercises I'm looking at and working on all fall within the scale patterns that I learned straightaway.  I understood that fact on a basic level, but getting deeper into everything the last few weeks has really opened my eyes to easier ways to fret certain things. One by one, all the pieces are slowly falling into place.  What I really need this weekend is an extended stretch of time to get in the studio and take a long look at everything I've been working with.  I know today is only Wednesday, so I'll continue to take the time I can get until Friday night or Sa...

Today was good.  I got into the studio early, got a few things cleaned up that had started to clutter the place up a bit, and then got to work. Most of the playing today was acoustic in nature, which really surprised me, considering that most of what I've done of late has been focused on the electric.  It was good to get the acoustic back in my hands, though.  I played along with some Springsteen ("Racing In The Streets"), and played around with a few chord progressions that have been cropping up of late. It was also nice to get in some time for listening today (new Zeppelin reissues, and the latest Better Than Ezra disc), and get the iPod charged up again.  I have yet to get any of the newest stuff uploaded into iTunes, but that ought to happen by the end of the week. It may not have been the epic day of progress I was hoping for, but it was definitely a steady day that I really needed, especially after having things feel so very rushed the last couple of week...

Another strange one today. Got to work to find out that a co-worker needed to swap days off with me, so I now have tomorrow off instead of Wednesday!  Somehow this is better, because it let me sit with the electric for a bit tonight, going through some of the things I played around with yesterday, content in the knowledge that, come tomorrow morning, I can get up and be productive and in the studio for a nice chunk of the day. Also, I picked up the new T. Swift today, because with all of the hype of her going "pop" on this record (didn't she already do that on her last record?), I was curious about the sound and the production and all that jazz.  Only through a few tracks, but if they are any indication, there is way more pop influence in this record than there was on the last one. Tomorrow just feels like it's going to be a huge day.

Today was just... strange. I had a guitar within arm's reach almost all day long.  Had it in my hands on and off for most of the day.  I feel like I helped myself in terms of the general desire to finally here that giant clicking sound as everything slots into place. And yet, at the same time, I just said out loud "today is one of those days I wish I could just start over." I'm not sure if it was because I did all of my playing today in the middle of the house, where noise in any manner could serve as a distraction, if it was something as simple as missing the genuine calm that stepping into the studio and closing the door brings, or what it was.  Somehow at the end of the day, I feel good that I played for a lot of the day, but still feel like there was more that should have gotten accomplished. Just a weird feeling at the end of a weird day.  Hopefully the week ends up feeling more productive.

I started in on the Led Zeppelin today on the way to and from work.  The sound is amazing.  There's such a clarity to the recordings.  It just feels like I'm hearing a whole lot more than was there in the earlier remasters.  I suppose the only way to know for sure is to go back and listen to both one right after the other.  Anyway... I got into the studio for a bit tonight, but instead of trying to push on forward, I took a night just to sit and play.  I wanted to put the guitar in my hands to see how much of what I've been working on I've actually managed to assimilate, and I'm not doing as badly as I expected I might, what with available  time being the way it has lately. Tomorrow should be a big day for seeing where things sit, too.  Aside from church in the morning, there's not a whole lot on the schedule until the Packer game at 7:30, so hopefully I'll be able to get myself a better chunk of studio time than I've been able to manage the l...