"Muse" - ings on Rock & Life

So, I remembered to get myself downstairs this morning, in time to both do a bit of playing and grab the CD full of rough tracks on it.  Sitting down with the acoustic, even for a few minutes, really helped put me in the mindset to do some listening on the way to work.  Granted, on the way to work, it was mostly Butch Walker that I listened to.  On the way home, I got in a couple of minutes of listening to my demos, but then wound up talking to my Mom on the rest of my drive home.  All that really means is that my truly good listening time in the car will start tomorrow. Also, I was relieved to have gotten a few minutes of playing in this morning, because by the time I got home tonight, there wasn't a whole lot of the time in the evening for a second session. Tomorrow and the weekend, though, will be excellent.

I finally remembered that I had the new Butch Walker record this morning as I was headed out the door for work, so I got to spend both the drive to and from work listening to that all the way through.  It made for a good listen, although I could have used one more slow song to balance out the uptempo rockers, but that's a simple criticism of a record that fits nicely into his canon. What putting in that road time with the stereo cranked up really did for me, though, was bring me back to the four songs that sit, in rough form, on a CD downstairs in the studio.  The music that I promised myself I would give a thorough once over on my drives to and from work now that it has begun.  I've got a mid-shift tomorrow, and one of the things on my list before I hit the road is to make my way downstairs and retrieve that disc of music. I'm hopeful that I can get at least a little bit of playing in before work, as well, but we shall see.  If not, a decent studio session will ...

I got my running done early in the day today, which left me a good chunk of the afternoon and all of the evening to try and cross a few things off of my list from yesterday.  I hadn't done a whole lot yet with either the Beatles area of focus or the songwriting one since I got things up and running.  After spending the last couple of days focused on the theory side of things, I started to take a better look at some of the songwriting stuff, and I finally made a small scratch in the surface of what I hope to accomplish with the Beatles focus. Did I cross everything off of my list? No.  But I took at least a small step toward where I'm hoping to be by the end of the year.  Not the best day, but not the worst either.

The Mrs. left for her retreat this afternoon, and when that happened, the last thing I thought I would be writing about tonight is more theory study like yesterday, but tonight finds me doing just that. I took the lesson that I watched a video of yesterday, and expanded it in the way they implied in the video.  As I expected, it made a whole lot of sense, and once I had done it, I felt as if another piece that had perhaps been either missing or overlooked had clicked into place.  There are times when I can see the whole picture with a few of the pieces missing, and then there are times when, as each piece locks itself into place, things get a little easier, lights go on a little brighter.  Tonight felt like a night when another one of the bulbs flickered to life. I've got a lot that I want to get to tomorrow, on my last day before work starts, but a lot of the things on that list involve the studio.  Some of it is following up on what I lucked into tonight, and s...

Today was a good day, if not quite the one I had expected when I woke up today. Instead of trying to get some work done on the songwriting/acoustic side of things, I opted for some theory work tonight, and I made a bit of good progress.  I suppose that the work I did ties in with the idea of really putting together a practice binder, which has been on my To-Do list for a while, but hasn't really gotten much run.  Even so, it managed to find a spot on my list of things I would like to finish this year, and the longer I wait on that, the less chance I have to get it all done. The Mrs. leaves on retreat for a couple of days tomorrow, and with me starting work on Tuesday, I'm looking at the next couple pf days as a good excuse to fit in as much studio time as I possibly can.  Something tells me that the next few days are going to be pretty epic.

Today was an okay day.  Picked up a couple of new albums for the first time in a while. Stay Gold - Butch Walker It Doesn't Have To Make Sense - Ingrid Michaelson I did more practicing in my head today than I did with an actual instrument in my hands.  The Mrs. and I were out running some errands, which left some room in the back of my mind for some mental practicing and some thinking about the recording projects.  We got out of town today, so that we could have tomorrow to spend at the house, and for me that will mean at least some part of the day downstairs in the basement trying to sort out the things I thought about today. While today was quiet, tomorrow will be filled with action and progress... I hope.

Today was better.  Not spectacular, but better than the last few days for sure. I'm starting to get a little bit of my focus back.  I'm not entirely sure where it has been the last couple of weeks, but it was good to feel it return somewhat.  What's funny is that, I had the right idea a few weeks back, I just didn't do enough with it... I had burned the tracks for the EP onto a CD, with the intention of taking it with me in the car as a way to sort out what I heard melodically and lyrically.  That was the step that never really happened.  The good news is that, starting next week, I'll be working part time at a college about 40 minutes away, which will give me plenty of car time to do some listening (and hopefully force me to better use my off days for good). If I'm really going to get everything done this year that is on my list, I need to start somewhere, and just be methodical about crossing things off of the list.  The shortest recording project i...