Mindfulness Week 1; Day 3

The year 2016 is just a few hours away, so this will be my last complete post of 2015.

Continue to use the mindfulness meditation procedure. Have to work more on changing a habit.

Good piano day, as Let it Snow is coming together. Hopefully soon I'll feel ok enough with it to send it to my internet teacher for some direction. 

Diet was abandoned today as was riding the exercise bike; will start again tomorrow with the new year.

Looks like the acoustic guitar duo might be starting soon too.

HAPPY 2016 TO ALL WHO ARE READING THIS AND MAY IT BE A HEALTHY YEAR FULL OF FUN, LIFE, ACCOMPLISHMENT, AND COMPASSION FOR SELF AND OTHERS.

Peace

Mindfulness Week 1; Day 2

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Had a nice visit with some family visiting. Struggling with piano but I'm hanging in there. Trying to deal with some weird fingerings. Encouraged by my brother who suggested that it was sounding beautiful. Don't want to give up. 

Meditation in early part of day met with some better zoning in than the latter one.

Mindfulness Week 1; Day 1

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Continue to work on my piano song, being a little less critical of myself than I was yesterday. Worked on understanding how to use my computer to share songs that I've recorded on GarageBand.

Worked on mindfulness material today appropriate for week one (of eight). 

December 28

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Trying today to get back to exercise and healthier eating.

Reading my Mindfulness book ... Almost ready to start my eight week run at it.

Celebrated my daughter's birthday today!

Practiced "Let it Snow" but man it's goin' slow. Watched part of a Keith Richards biography and just really enjoyed it.

Sometimes the idea of playing guitar sounds like such a cool thing; othertimes, I'm into the piano. I have a difficult time realizing that I can do both. 

Young Syd Barrett

Sunday

A grueling day at the piano that was made more grueling because I didn't think it would be so grueling. Working on the first four measures of "Let it Snow."

Started reading my Oscar Wilde book which begins with "The Picture of Dorian Gray," and continued reading the Mindfulness book.

Piano, Technology, and Football Blues

Working on learning "Let it Snow," and it is not happening easily. Printer not working. Philadelphia Eagles losing at halftime. They lose this game, and they miss the playoffs.

Addendum added 12/31/15 for future reference: I believe I started Let it Snow on this day, 12/26/15.

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Goodnight

Maternal Grandmom

Recently learned some interesting things about my maternal grandmother, thanks to a little research on the Internet.

Learned that her last residence before coming to America was Messina, Italy, and that she came on the ship "Patria" built in 1882. I think she traveled on that ship to America in 1908 when she was eight years old. The ship sank in a disaster in 1940 killing 267 people. Here are a few pictures of the ship:

Christmas Day, 2015

Rode the exercise bike for something more than 1/2 hour today, but my diet took a hit! 

Watched the move about Brian Wilson, "Love and Mercy," and I give it 5 out of 5 stars. A movie about music, creativity, mental illness, love, and more. 

Selected a bunch of piano lessons to watch; just need my printer to cooperate.

Christmas gifts include, but weren't limited to: a microphone with a usb jack, a book of Oscar Wilde's works, and the DVD "Love and Mercy."

Went to Catholic Mass last night and I was surprised at how emotional it was for me. Just looking at all the people who seemed so real and good, listening to the timeless Christmas music, and thinking of my dad (during "Angels We Have Heard on High"), led to an ambush of emotion.

The picture on my post for December 24th was of the inside of the Church. The priest seemed like quite a nice guy. It was cool going to a parish Church that I haven't attended in years. Still not sure where all this spirituality stuff is going for me. Here's a couple of pictures of my son taken today:

Here's a picture of my youngest, taken yesterday:

And here's a picture of my middle child taken yesterday:

Christmas Eve, 2015

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Mindfulness Piano / Christmas Eve's Eve

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Reading a cool book: "Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan For Finding Peace in a Frantic World" by Mark Williams and Danny Penman. 

Continued some work on the piano. Before going to sleep, will read a little of Mildred Portney Chase's "Just Being at the Piano," which may go along nicely with the mindfulness book I mentioned above.

Continue to struggle with issues of faith and Christianity, but feel myself moving more towards Christianity, even if slowly.

Next Step

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Finished the 30 day piano program; onto the next installment. Feeling a little frustrated but will move on.

Up to Day 29

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. 

Up to Day 29 of my 30 day piano program. I'd like to practice even a little bit each day.

Picture taken two days ago of me and my lovely wife (with daughter #2 photo bombing):

A picture taken two days ago of me and daughter #1 (with daughter #2 photo bombing):

Up to Day 28

Up to Day 28 of my piano program. This one is going to take awhile as it deals with a particular weakness of mine: the left hand. I'll get through it.

No exercise today. Road trip to see my dad for Christmas, and my brother came too:

I'm the guy kneeling on your left. Now, take a look at the following picture, and compare it to the one below it!!!

The walrus is my dad !!!!!

Up to 27

Rode exercise bike yesterday and today, each time for about an hour.

Up to Day 27 in my piano program. A big issue I need to work on is keeping rhythm.

May start an acoustic guitar duo.

Up to Day 26

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Played my last Christmas gig of this season tonight with the band at a coffee shop.

I am having a great time with my piano learning material. Up to Day 26 (out of 30). Learning some great stuff!

24

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Enjoying my piano learning material. Up to Day 24 (out of 30). Used some of the material provided to make flash cards of notes on the bass cleff. Bought a notebook where I'll hopefully start writing lyrics/ideas for my acoustic album.

Announcement :)

I hereby announce that neither my difficulty with playing the bass cleff or my difficulty with proper piano fingerings will preclude me from being a success with the piano. I don't care how old I am. I won't be a Billy Joel or an Elton John, but I can still be successful at expressing myself on the piano.  

Piano Patience

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Up to Lesson 23 in my piano program. This is going to be a long term commitment thing and that's ok. I guess. I'm impatient.

Played some Christmas music with some folks at a coffee shop today. Little or no audience.

Goals, 2016

Thinking of some goals for 2016:

1) At least some piano practice daily

2) Work on the Swing Guitar book when I get a chance

3) Write and record a CD of original acoustic guitar songs

4) Keep losing weight 

Inversions

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Practiced inversions for a couple of piano chords for a (very) short period.

Chord Inversions, Guitar

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Been listening and/or watching ROCKY related stuff. It's very inspirational. Trying to use it to help my piano learning, too. 

Working on Day 19 (out of 30) on my piano program. I guess there's no way away from them: the dreaded chord inversions. Will. Not. Give. Up.

Played a benefit today for a a charity, and it went ok. 

Thinking of going back to the Swing Guitar book to learn some lead stuff; it seemed to be quite helpful. Will not give up piano, though.

ROCKY, guitar, piano, and gig

Ate a bunch of cookies last night. Rode exercise bike for an hour while watching ROCKY. A great film.

Changed strings on my acoustic guitar. Always wanted to make a simple album using mainly an acoustic.

Up to Day 18 (out of 30) in my piano program.

Played with some folks some Christmas music for a residence of older folks. Went well. They really seem to appreciate it, and it's nice playing to an attentive audience!

Up to 17

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Up to lesson 17 in my piano learning program. Playing two Christmas show benefits this weekend.

Up to Day 14

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Up to Day 14 (out of 30) on my piano learning program. 

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Santa and Health

Busy Day... Started out playing another charity gig for the Church. Had fun with the guitar, utilizing some swing stuff learned in the swing book. Went food shopping to prepare for a week of attempting to eat healthy. Up to Day 11 in my piano learning program. PHILADELPHIA EAGLES beat the Patriots! Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Playing 3 more Christmas gigs this year... Had so much fun with guitar that I was second guessing piano stuff, but I'll stick to both.

Merry Christmas charity

Rode exercise bike for a total of 1/2 hour. Played a charity gig with three of us today. If you take a look at the pics below, you can see that I've lost some weight since last year! (The first pic is from last year; I'm in the blue shirt on the far right. The second pic is from today at the same venue; I'm in the red shirt on the far right):

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Up to day 9

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Up to day 9 in my piano learning program. Learning more about my laptop.

Up to Day 8

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Worked on Day 7 of my piano learning material. Still really like it. 

Up to Day 7

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Practiced piano a bit last night. Up to "Day 7" in my piano study material. I'm enjoying it. 

Taking better care of myself, and losing some weight in the process. I used money originally earmarked for a guitar to get my very own laptop computer and the online piano lessons. 

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Worked on piano last night. Bass clef!

Rode exercise bike for an hour.

CREED

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour / restarted piano stuff.

Saw the movie CREED and just loved it. Stallone was great, and I hope he gets an Oscar. 

- A NEW BUT OLD DIRECTION -

IWell, I started this blog with the idea of tracking my progress learning the piano. It has since gone some other directions, most recently highlighting my learning of the guitar.

Here we are, on Black Friday, 2015, and I've gone full circle back to attempting to learn the piano. I'm using the Piano With Willie website to learn. Must admit to some trepidation; wondering if I'm too old, etc., but we'll see!

There's a Martin guitar at a local music store that I just might have to purchase.

Recently went back to reading the Keith Richards biography, and it's enjoyable. Interesting to see how he utilized the open G tuning and his thinking that went along with that. An innovator!!! Great riffs!!

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Thanksgiving Eve, 2015

Walked in different time intervals, adding to a total of about an hour.

Trying to figure out where I stand spiritually. 

Worked more on the Howard book.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Ended up recording "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" last night.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Finally finished a solo arrangement of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" for guitar, and worked on playing it. Needs some time before it's ready to record.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Guitar

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. I don't think that fingerpicking style is something for me. Focused on Howard's stuff tonight. Interested again in chord melody.

Ride exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Howard and Hanson

Using two methods:

1) "Guitar Roots: Swing / The Roots of Great Guitar Playing" by Paul Howard.

I fast forwarded to Chapter 5 in this book in order to work on soloing. I'm on page 34.

2) "The Art of Solo Fingerpicking" by Mark Hanson. I'm on page 7.

Merry Early Christmas

Ride exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Played our first Christmas gig of the season and it went ok. 

Decided again to try fingerpicking. Looking into acoustic guitars. 

Ride exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Our band will play our first Christmas show of the season tomorrow.

Ride exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Yesterday, I ordered a swing jazz guitar book.

Ride exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Moving away from Gypsy Jazz. Listened to some Charlie Christian last night and thought it was cool. Not quite where to go in my learning at this point.

Gypsy Revisted

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.  Started new diet.

Looks like I just might get into Gypsy guitar again; specifically, the book "How I Learned" Vol. 1 by Gonzalo Bergara.

Herb Ellis Books

Well I think I'm going to give up learning fingerpicking guitar. It's too much to learn and I just don't like it enough.

Will try the Herb Ellis books again, starting with "The Herb Ellis Jazz Guitar Method: Swing Blues."

A New Focus

I think that instead of getting a new electric guitar, I'd like to get a Martin acoustic. My Epiphone Casino can handle just about everything I want to do electrically. I think I want to put learning improvising on hold for now. Not that I won't do it, but I find myself moving in a direction: Acoustic guitar in general, and specifically, fingerpicking.

Now I'm finding that there are generally two kinds of styles in this genre (and of course there are probably more but I'll focus on the two most prominent to me): acoustic fingerpicking blues, and acoustic fingerpicking in general. I'd like to focus on the latter.

I dug out a book that I had in my collection and I'm going to take a shot at it: "The Art of Solo Fingerpicking" by Mark Hanson.

- Getting interested again in fingerpicking acoustic guitar. Sort of like jazz chord melody, but less jazzy and more acoustic. Relatedly, thinking of giving up my search for an electric guitar (my Casino is fine), and looking for a Martin.

- Trying to learn that it's ok to just not like and/or trust everyone. That not everyone is s good person, and that attempting to please everyone isn't the way to go. Self-respect in the face of others not being respectful. 

Happy November

Continued practice on how to improvise over a minor chord. Learning to use the Dorian scale and the minor arpeggio in many places on the fretboard. 

There's a lot to learn and I worry about the potential for confusion as I add more scales and arpeggios to my knowledge bass. I also worry about the potential for confusion and frustration as I try to hit certain target notes (the 3rd, etc). 

Just need to keep the self criticism to the level of healthy feedback rather than unhealthy harshness which can lead to quitting!

Minor Arpeggio

Working from an online source: learned a minor chord arpeggio. Guitar hunting.

Major Scale

Time to move on from the major scale in the Aebersold book!

Improv

Using Vol 1 by Jamey #Aebersold to learn #jazz #guitar #improvisation (the book adapted for guitar by Corey Christiansen). Want to learn just regular scales with the book's exercises to see where it might get me. 

Reading "Schindler's List."

Simple (But Not Too Simple)

Sorry I forgot who said it, but someone said something like 'keep it simple, but not more simple than it has to be.'

Anyway, that saying relates to me learning guitar improvisation with the Silver book. The book is an elegant method of teaching improv. However, I found something out tonight: I was trying to make it too simple by only taking pieces of it, and focusing on just those pieces. Ok so I enjoyed the appetizer, and now it's time to really sink my teeth into the whole meal that the book has to offer.

Practice practice practice

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

 Had a dream that ended about 4:30 this morning that I was giving a presentation on the blues to college or high school folks some of whom I knew. I sang "My Babe." BB King was there. It was a classroom. I had to go to my classes after it so I told BB that and I said something like "I gotta go now BB so you know what it's like for me." BB took the hint and said "the thrill is gone."

Guitar practice today focused on really trying to get Silver's patterns more and more internalized. I like how it is working out.

On "Methods" (with regards to learning improvisation)

That's it! There. I've said it. NO MORE METHOD Books! Or DVDs! No more!! I got yet another book recently and it ain't no help. 

Tried some things today. Tried a minor scale from one book. Sounded nice. Looked at the major scale in another book. Ok. Thought of keeping it simple by using the pentatonic scales only. Or some combinations. But decided to STOP the silliness. 

I'm on information overload right now and I think it's time to step back and stop making it more complex than it needs to be.

What I need to do is play music more and keep using what has always been a great source for me: The Marc Silver book. It's all there for me if I will just get to know the stuff in there better. Learn it. I don't mean have a cursory knowledge of it. I MEAN LEARN IT AND INGRAIN IT. It's really so elegant and I just have to INTERNALIZE the information more. I don't even know if I need to go through the whole book. But if I internalize the stuff I know already, I think that can take me pretty far. 

Will really try to internalize the material that I know from the book already. 

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Monday

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Yesterday worked a little more on arpeggios.

Interesting

Learned and practiced some shapes from one book that are the similar, yet play different roles from the context in which I learned them before. 

Addendum: An exploration on the guitar revealed to me that actually both ideas are very similar.

Started a little arpeggio work; sounds like they might be quite useful.

WOW!!!

What a difference a day makes!!

I tried improvising again today to the same exact song I used yesterday and I just love how it came out. The difference was because of a couple of factors with the first being the most important:

1) I re-analyzed how I was supposed to play certain thinks, and yesterday's analysis was full of mistakes. I really have to take my time in analyzing what I'm doing or else I will just play notes that just will not fit.

2) I shifted stuff around and did not remain limited to a certain idea. Though an original idea may have fit ok, using a different one resulted in improved results.

3) I like how I shifted the solo to use higher notes sometimes.

4) I was more relaxed today compared to yesterday.

Sounds really cool!

Improvising

Tried to improvise tonight and the results were not earth shattering. I would like to try to get back to the first Aebersold book for guitar.

Charlie Christian

Not feeling too well today but managed to get in a little improv practice. Using the Silver book, I can probably say I'm getting there! Using the ideas in the Charlie Christian book, I practiced a little using the ideas therein. Adding a little scale stuff with some stuff from the Charlie Christian book might take me further in my quest to improv. 

I'm liking the Godin 5th Avenue Kingpin (with one pickup). I have been saving money for awhile now but need to save more to get a new guitar. Will not sell my Epiphone Casino. It's my buddy.

Improvisation

Utilizing Silver's ideas, tried some improvisation to some of the chords of "Just the Way You Look Tonight." Went ok; but it will definitely take more practice. Got better by not giving up. Getting there. May try some other ideas from a book that teaches the utilization of triads in improvisation. Found another book on line about arpeggios that looks interesting, also. Tomorrow will begin practicing for Christmas shows with a couple band members. 

Buddy Holly & The Everly Brothers

HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY JOHN LENNON!

Not an Easy Guitar Day

Started working on chord melody version of "Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas." Struggling with that as well as with improvising to it. That's not fun but ok.

Guitar Improvisation

Tried to adopt a notation system I'm using for guitar chord melody to piano; wasn't 100% pleased but may keep it in mind if I get the urge to play piano again.

Tried an improv method that I worked on a little in the past, and I wasn't hooked. Utilized Marc Silver's ideas and was pleasantly pleased as I found myself doing some nice melodic improv to some of "Here, There, and Everywhere." 

Thinking of going back to Garrison Fewell's "Jazz Improvisation for Guitar: A Melodic Approach" for some more improv ideas.

I owe what I judge as being some great progress in guitar improv to the Marc Silver book "Contemporary Guitar Improvisation," and I'm not even done with it yet. Thanks Marc!

Silver's Book

Just practiced some of the stuff in Silver's book. Very interesting.

Improv

The Blues Band disbanded. Tried an idea to learn improv., but I didn't  like how it was working out. Going back to the Marc Silver book, "Contemporary Guitar Improvisation." 

Blood Moon

9:19 PM:

9:39 PM:

10:22 PM

A Little Bit of Disney Night Music

Spent just about the whole day on two Disney songs done chord melody style: "When You Wish Upon a Star," and "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes." Recorded them with crickets on a seperate track to give it an "evening" mood. 

Learned that playing single notes during the course of the song is ok; no need at this point for me to get burdened down with a bunch of chords for many melody notes. 

Learned to notate the songs in such a way that will hopefully be useful in maintaining them in a repertoire. Memorization just doesn't cut it for me. 

Will put Conti's book "The Formula!" on hold for now.

Moving towards getting into Garrison Fewell's book "Jazz Improvisation for Guitar: A Melodic Approach."

Thanks again to Robert Conti for making the world of chord melody guitar accessible to me.

Star Wishing

A great guitar day. Learning by doing. Worked on a chord melody arrangement of "When You Wish Upon a Star" mostly using Robert Conti's book "The Assembly Line." Just a great book. 

Came to good insight that might go against the general advice of some: I'm not going to memorize my chord melody arrangements, but rather I will look at my charting of them. Can't stand memorization.

Tomorrow I think I'll work on finishing the song, going over some of the Aebersold book 1 for guitar, and get into Conti's "The Formula!"

Happy Thursday / Ted Greene

- Recently found an absolutely awesome resource and read a little about the guy's life: Ted Greene. The website is:

Tedgreene.com

There's a section there depicting chord melody notes, and I'm going to try it. I think I have a good system figured out. 

- Thinking of maybe if my system works out well, I might try to make some arrangements in more complex styles utilizing Robert Conti's "The Formula!"

- Thinking about getting a book about Ted Greene's life written by who seems to have been his common law wife.

- Thinking about also getting the only album he released of solo guitar.

Great advice from a band member

Well I've been struggling with trying to learn chord melody guitar. Torture! A band member suggested that I'm trying too hard. I think he's right. I took his suggestion and just played out of a Fakebook "Yesterday." Perfect? No way. But I liked it. I think I'm going to keep doing it this way. Instead of trying to sound like Joe Pass, I think it'll be fine if I just sound like me. And I can always add new chords to the mix. And I don't have to memorize songs!

I'm going to try to use the 'not try so hard ' approach to improve.... Just learn some scales and see what happens. Hello again, Aebersold! 

Play guitar more than worry about guitar...don't hang around to long in the left brain! 

Slow But Steady Progress

- Watched parts of "Rocky." What an inspirational movie.

- Slow guitar day: slow but steady progress on the jazz improv and the chord melody song. Keeping in mind that this stuff doesn't come overnight.

Good Guitar Day

* Finished working on voicing "Do You Know What it's Like to Miss New Orleans." Need work on memorizing it. 

* Now that I think I have a pretty good idea of how to voice a chord in the context of building a chord melody arrangement, I might try to go back to using Robert Conti's "The Formula!" or the other two more recent chord melody books I bought in order to learn how to add embellishments. 

* Thinking it might be a cool idea to keep voicing songs, but making up a three ringed binder of my voicings for chords and their associated melody notes in order to get better and better at quickly arranging songs.

* Need to get back to Conti's "The Jazz Lines."

* Good band practice today, gearing up for a charity rock and roll / jazz standards gig this upcoming Saturday.

"The Jazz Lines"

Up to Lesson 2 in Conti's book. Pleased with my progress. 

Just Doin It

Continue to work on my chord melody song; I'm up to the middle part.

Up to page 13 of Robert Conti's "The Jazz Lines" book, and it is interesting for sure. 

So my two sources of instruction remain:

1) "Through Chord-Melody & Beyond" by Howard Morgen

2) "The Jazz Lines" by Robert Conti

Going well.

Robert Conti

Continue to work on my chord melody arrangement.

Started working out of Robert Conti's "The Jazz Lines" book regarding learning improv.

Chord Melody & The Blues

Good practice with the blues band today. We may alter our direction to do more upbeat rockabilly and very early rock and roll stuff.

Continue to work on my chord melody arrangement.

Need to get back to exercise, diet, and, oh yea, learning how to improvise on guitar.

New Orleans

Interesting: working on "Do You Know What it's Like to Miss New Orleans," chord melody style, using Howard Morgen's book. I like it.

Two books

Going to work with:

1.Howard Morgan's: "Through Chord-Melody & Beyond." 

2. Scales and modes haven't cut it for me. I know, I know, I'm changing learning materials yet again, but I'd like to try improvising using chord tones, or arpeggios, rather than scales. Going to use Kimie Kim's "Jazz Guitar Arpeggio Soloing."

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Mish-Mash

Yesterday, we played  a really nice gig for appreciative folks at a retirement home. 

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

That's it. When it comes to learning how to improvise, no more learning 500 shapes to utilize at certain points in a song. I'm going to play the guitar more to learn improvisation. Will be using Robert Conti's "Ticket to Improv" Volume 1.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Cut the darn grass.

MONKEES

What a great night of music. Saw the Monkees (Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz) tonight in a concert. Mickey's voice was great and quite amazing. Peter's guitar playing was also cool; tempted me to get a Martin acoustic. Those songs!!!!

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Feels good taking better care of my health.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Taking care of health better. Yesterday I continued to work on Elliott book. May get a book re: chord melody. I don't know my chords that can help with chord melody! 

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. 

Guitar

JazzGuitarLessons.net is a cool source of info.

Up to Chapter 2 in the Elliott book.

Learned some maj7 chord fingerings.

Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Guitar

Selling some piano learning stuff on order to get a Fender Telecaster.

Up to page 4 in the Elliott book. 

Tomorrow starts a diet challenge with a friend.

New Post

It's been awhile since I've posted in detail, so here is a "new post" as to what's going on musically.

* Still in the band that plays jazz as well as old style rock and roll.

* Still in the Blues band. We will be expanding what we play to include rockabilly as well as old blues. 

* Sold my Epiphone ES-339 Pro. Bought an Epiphone Casino (picture is below this post). I had a Casino before, sold it, and missed it! I really like this guitar.

* Made an "offer" on a Fender American Special Telecaster. We'll see what happens there.

* Still struggling with learning to improvise. A couple of bandmates suggested that I am approaching the issue too academically. Perhaps I can benefit from just playing jazz more rather than focusing on learning it.

* However, I still need a methodology! I'm now working on the book "Introduction to Jazz Guitar Soloing" by Joe Elliott.

Anyway, here is my Epiphone Casino: