"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

Talked to my brother today.  First time in a month.  It's understandable, though, he's been zooming around the country, auditioning for graduate school(s).  From the sounds of it, they all went pretty well, and so for him, the waiting game begins.  It also sounds like the whole "preparing to audition" part of things really got inside his head a bit.  That means we both had strange starts to the year.  Things seem to be rolling for both of us now though... I had a good day in the studio.  It was another hodgepodge sort of day, though.  I bounced around between 100 Riffs, and theory studying and just playing for the sake of playing.  My confidence is still high.  I'm paying more attention to the nuances in my playing, although I could stand to be a bit more deliberate and a bit more intently focused on things.  Less jumpy is really what that comes down to. Tomorrow feels like it will be a bigger, better day than today.  Wish ...

Quiet night in the studio tonight. I didn't have a whole lot of time available to me tonight, but I made good use of the time I did have by taking a quick look at some theory, and then working on the 100 Riffs project for a few minutes. Friday nights seem to be my night to take stock of what I want to get done during the upcoming weekend.  That list goes something like this: 1.  Update the practice journal 2.  Make sure I'm through the first 16 of the 100 Riffs 3.  Listening (Zeppelin, Dylan, Airborne) 4.  Theory (new book, GW columns, Vai) 5.  Record & Lyrics I'm sure there's more I'd like to get done, but that will serve as a starting point, at least.

Another really good day in the studio.  I jumped around a bit tonight, but it really feels like I'm finally getting into some sort of rhythm almost two months into the year.  Tonight, I: 1) Took a look at a bit of Hendrix.  A small amount of "Little Wing," and a bit of "Red House" got looked at and worked on tonight.  It has been a while since I've looked at those two songs, but with my confidence growing, I figured I'd have a bit of a go at them. 2) I did a bit of work on theory stuff, working out of the book I've been using all week.  It's a really cool resource, and I'm very much enjoying it. 3) I got back to a little bit of the GW columns I've been printing off and working through.  That felt good too.  A bit rusty, from not having looked at them consistently, but they are something I need to re-incorporate into my daily routine, as I was getting a lot out of them late last year/early this year. Not much listening today, other...

I got in some good work in the studio today. Most of it was related to the theory studying that I've been doing the last few days, but it was good to just be able to get in there and do some playing.  I'm starting to notice the improvement in confidence and accuracy that comes with regular studying and playing every day.  Small things, certain licks and passages, are getting easier and sounding more fluid.  It's not the total understanding and ease of expression I'm reaching for, at least not yet, but things are improving.  The next part is the hard part for me: keeping on top of everything, so that those small improvements continue to build.  I need to be better in 2015, to focus more and work harder, for my own sanity as much as anything. I'm really trying to make the most out of all the opportunities I can carve out of any day, and there's another one that is coming my way in a couple of weeks.  The Mrs. is going to a conference in Chicago, and I was...

I ran out tonight to pick up four things, all music related, then came home and discovered that I needed just one thing more... I hit up Best Buy tonight, and picked up the Physical Graffiti re-release, along with Dope Machines by The Airborne Toxic Event, and then the Blu-Ray of Whiplash .  After that, I stopped by the bookstore to see if the latest issue of Guitar Techniques was in.  It was, so I picked that up as well. When I got home, I checked out Airborne's website, just to see if there were any articles on the new record, and discovered that, if you ordered the record through their website, you got a free download of a SECOND record, called Songs Of God And Whiskey .  Having already picked up the CD, I bought the vinyl release of Dope Machines in order to get the digital only release of SOG&W. I did a bit of listening to Dope Machines tonight, but didn't get all the way through it, so I will withhold a review until I can finish the record. There was som...

Tonight was another good night that (by and large) built on the successes of yesterday. I played around  a bit with the EP, but didn't make a whole lot of progress, so I turned back to the theory studies I was working on yesterday.  I finished making my way through the "review" section of the book, and now I'm up to the point where the real lessons start to kick in.  That should be fun to get started on tomorrow night and Wednesday (I'm off). I did a bit of work with the whole 100 Riffs thing, but not as much as I did yesterday.  That I will pick up in earnest again tomorrow night. And speaking of picking things up tomorrow, there's a Zeppelin re-release and the new Airborne Toxic Event record that come out tomorrow.  I'll definitely be picking those up on my way home from work.  Not to mention a copy of Whiplash on Blu-Ray/DVD. Today wasn't as full of music as yesterday was, but it was still a good day.

Finally!  A really good day.  And one that I really needed after the frustration with the rest of the weekend. I took a step back from a few things today, and got what I hope will be a bit of clarity in the process.  Instead of worrying about the progress I really haven't been making on the EP, I told myself that I needed to be happy with the few bits of lyric I stumbled across today, and that maybe I needed to focus my attention elsewhere, at least for today. I had picked up a really cool book on music theory as it applies to guitar last Tuesday when I was out and about, and having spent a little bit of time paging through it over the last few days, I focused in on it tonight and started reading, taking notes, and reinforcing some things.  It felt like progress.  It was great. When I had worked through some of that, I moved on to the whole "100 Riffs" thing, and got myself moving on that again.  It's astounding how much I can get inside my own head a...