Improv

• Tried some improv on guitar to the Beatles "All My Lovin." Needs work!

Improvising

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour. Yesterday I tried some improvising.

• Trying to improvise on the guitar using the Silver book. Achieving some interesting results! Learning that taking it slow is key.

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Touching Base

• Haven't posted in a little bit so I figured I'd just "touch base." Everything musically for me is kind of in a state of flux these days with no real definite personal sense of purpose other than learning to use the Silver book to learn improv. I've been working o that stuff.

- Almost bought an Epiphone B.B. King guitar yesterday, but I decided against it.

- Must get back to exercise and diet.

- Still in the blues band as well as the jazz/rock and roll band. 

Me and Music

Every once in a while I don't know where I'm going with music. Moving now towards going back to the Sudnow Method (I love the sounds of solo piano more so than the sounds of solo guitar), and going back to the Marc Silver book with regards to guitar improv.

The Silver book is fun.

Guitar

Here comes a new challenge:

• It will last one year.

• Utilize the Joseph Alexander book to learn improv.

• Utilize the book "THROUGH CHORD-MELODY & BEYOND" By Howard Morgen to learn chord melody.

Blues Band

• Had first meeting with blues band today. Went well, will continue.

• On page 11 of the Peter Gelling book: "Progressive Jazz Lead Guitar Method."

Guitar

• Started preliminary work on the blues songs for the blues band with the other guitarist tonight. Looks like our first rehearsal will be in three days.

• Going to start working through a new guitar book: "GUITAR FRETBOARD FLUENCY / The Creative Guide to Mastering the Guitar" by Joseph Alexander, BA hons, Dip, HE

Blues Band

• Looks like I'm starting a Blues band, and these will be the first songs we'll be trying:

LITTLE WATER- "My Babe"

SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON- "Bring it on Home."

LITTLE MILTON- "I Can't Quit You Baby."

JIMMY REED- "You Got Me Dizzy"

JIMMY REED- "Little Rain"

MUDDY WATERS- "You Shook Me"

Guitar and the Blues

• Had a chance today to listen to a bunch of music: 

1) BAND OF GYPSIES / Jimi Hendrix

2) LAYLA AND OTHER ASSORTED LOVE SONGS / Derek and the Dominoes  / (Eric Clapton)

3) WILLIE DIXON / Box Set / Assorted Artists

Some notes/prizes:

The SILVER MEDAL goes to the Hendrix album. He can really get his guitar to really sing and emote! Great stuff, even if it was a bit long! 

The BRONZE MEDAL goes to the Clapton album. Just could not get into it. Some stuff was definitely good, but it just didn't touch my spirit as much as some other stuff I listened to today.

The easy winner of the GOLD MEDAL goes to the Willie Dixon box set. Wow! It was mostly by old electric blues that was just absolutely grooving. Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley were just two of the artists on it. So much groove in the music. And the guitar tones and sounds in general were so cool. 

Guitar

• Getting bored with piano. Will probably get back into guitar playing. Learning of improv using that jazz book, maybe songwriting, who knows?

• For a long time, I wanted to play piano in a restaurant setting. Now I'm thinking that such a gig would ultimately be a letdown. No one would listen anyway. 

Ringo!!!

• Rode exercise bike for 1/2 hour.

Franz Liszt, 1884:

• Continue to work hard on OVER THE RAINBOW. Almost done with it.

• Happy 75th birthday to Ringo Starr!!

His vocals on "With a Little Help From My Friends" are awesome.

Rainbow

• Continue to work mostly on RAINBOW. My recent jazz guitar book may be looked into as a diversion.

Get Back to Where You Once Belong

• Trying to get back to being more healthy. Since January, I lost a good amount of weight, but I've been putting the pounds back on. Rode the exercise bike today for 1/2 hour.

Dissonance in the Rainbow

• Played repertoire, but most practice time today was spent with OVER THE RAINBOW. 

• Some observations:

1) In voicing, stick with the dissonances for the most part. Learned this in playback of a recording I made of me playing part of RAINBOW.

2) The dissonance (in the dominants) sounds ok if I KNOW THE SONG SO WELL THAT I DON'T PAUSE DURING MY PLAY IN CERTAIN PROBLEMATIC SECTIONS!

Wedding Gig

• ....went well! Tiring though! 

• Did get to practice piano on the day of the wedding. Was tempted a bit to stop learning piano after I heard the piano player at the wedding....encouragement from my wife helped knock that down though! 

Eve of Independence Day

• Yet another good practice day. Went over repertoire and completed voicing OVER THE RAINBOW. Now it's time to learn it. Playing at wedding tomorrow.

Rainbow and Wedding and Sounds

• A short, but good piano practice time. A couple of my repertoire songs are getting frustrating but I'm working on that. I have two versions of OVER THE RAINBOW on sheet music. I'm finding that mixing the two arrangements is yielding the best result; this works well because both are in the key of Eb, and I don't like either in isolation. 

• The band and I have been practicing for a wedding gig to be held July 4th. We'll be playing two songs for a prelude to the service itself (guitar, harp, bass, and mandolin) and we'll be playing mostly jazz standards for the cocktail hour and possibly longer (two guitars, keyboards, drum). We'll be doing just a little singing; some guest performers will also join us.

• Been tempted to really play loud. Jimi Hendrix style. Voodoo cool funky artsy electric stuff. Would love to mix the melodic beauty and sounds of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper," Hendrix's "Electric Ladyland," Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" and Dylan's lyrical power and sounds of his cool bluesy sounds that he's been making about the last 20 years.

Another Good Piano Day

• Worked on piano repertoire, including OVER THE RAINBOW work.

• OVER THE RAINBOW is developing as being a tune utilizing some significant dissonant chord clusters.

• Not repeating what I know, and spending time on certain sections of songs, is helpful.

• Was a bit tempted to go back to chord melody guitar, but the temptation didn't last.