Thursday

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z4o7di69qv20b3s/Lit.m4a?dl=0

Getting back to the guitar. Would like to continue to arrange songs as above and play then with our upright bass player with improvs.

Lull

Just a bit of a lull. Stay tuned.

Instrumental

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yqvlpxvcnhkpvw0/Instrum.m4a?dl=0

Wednesday

Now need to lose 36.8 pounds instead of the 50 I started with.

Charlie, Neil, and Joni

Bought a book to learn guitar improvisation in the style of Charlie Christian and started to use it.

Listened to Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush," and Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark."

Sunday

Tried to play piano today but couldn't do so for more than about a couple seconds. Time to do more.

Thought it might be time to get into gypsy or some kind of swing jazz stuff on the guitar. Looked and listened to some of my learning materials, and found myself much more drawn to old swing guitar than gypsy guitar. Going to get into again a book I used before: "Guitar Roots: Swing," by Paul Howard. Will skip the rhythm material, though, and get to the material on improvisation.

Not giving up the piano, but just doing more.

Saturday Swing

Practiced with band this morning.

Played some piano and was fristrated.

Listened to some really cool old jazz guitar on YouTube and I'm liking it. I like the old jazz a lot more than the stuff from the 1940's on. The old stuff swings. The old stuff has melody.

That old guitar sound is something I am tempted to get into. Eddie Lang.

Friday

Music is not just "notes." Music is not having a knowledge of how to voice major, minor 7s, and major 7 chords. Music is not having a knowledge of thirds. All those things are important, but they are not "music."

Music is also rhythm. And I've been missing that consistently in my piano playing. I think it'd be beneficial to continue to work on "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" until I got the rhythm (playing on time). Still, since playing on the fly from fakebooks is a goal, I can continue to do that. However, I think it'd be a good idea to always have a song that I'm working to perfect in terms of rhythm and timing. 

Not perfect timing but better than the previous recorded version:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9jy5m42not29dww/Hark.m4a?dl=0

Thursday

Getting bored. But not giving up. Working on getting the minor 7 chords and the major chords memorized / need to work more on them as well as the major 7 chords. Anyway, here's how "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" is sounding today with mistakes:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gxr9e31zt5a2k0q/My%20Song%206.m4a?dl=0

Looking forward to getting into a couple books I have on guitar fingerpicking.

Wednesday

Now need to lose 41 pounds instead of 50.

Learning the thirds on the piano (away from the piano). 

Listened to a nice album: Graham Nash's "Songs for Beginners."

Tuesday

Listened to an Eric Andersen album: 'Bout Changes and Things and enjoyed it. Some of it was beautiful.

Had a return to piano day, and it was ok, I guess. Mostly reviewed some chords already memorized and tried to put them in practice by playing Christmas songs, most notably "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." Frustrating not being able to move around quickly. Tempted to walk away from the piano. 

Sunday

Interesting musical day. Worked mor in memorizing piano chords. 

Listened to Leo Kottke's "Greenhouse" album on vinyl, and some things are getting clearer to me about the kind of acoustic guitar stuff I like. I'm not really a fan of the acoustic blues guitar. Came as an insight today (though I knew it all along) that I really like the sound of new age type of acoustic guitar. Not a fan of showey fast players. I like sounds! I like melody. Looked up my Mark Hanson instructional books.  I also have a book of alternative tunings that may be helpful. I'm a fan (not enormously) of Travis picking, but it might be interesting to learn. Still saving for a high quality acoustic guitar.

Saturday

Cool to have my son home for the Labor Day Holiday.

Band practice went well; rehearsing for a charity gig for which we'll play in two weeks.

Back at the piano, trying to memorize chords.