Game Plan

Thought of a practice plan for now. Each day, spend time on:

1) The "Assembly Line" chord melody forms.

2) The "Ticket to Improv." book.

3) A Chord Melody Song

Today I watched the intro to the "Ticket to Improv." DVD and started it. It's cool to get back to it. Worked on the first measure to "Satin Doll." Also went over five chord melody forms. Amazing how easy they are forgotten; especially the minor 7ths, for me. 

Simplicity is best for me: not getting hung up on changing guitars, tone, different learning methods, what should I buy next , etc. 

Sticking to what I got for now.

Change Time?

I think it may be time to vary my guitar practice and pick it up a notch or two. As much as I don't have a lot of time to practice, I'm going to have to spend some time learning to improvise.

Maybe I'll just stop adding on new chord melody songs and work on cleaning them up while learning improv.

What a Wonderful World

I like the sounds of this. I raised my left leg by putting the foot on a briefcase and put my guitar on my left leg (as taught in my old guitar lessons). I also messed around with tone controls. This was a relatively easy song to learn; started learning it last night and recorded it this morning. This song is a keeper for the repertoire.

Take a listen:

https://app.box.com/s/8n4zxlfpi3dhdkqznn0t

What a Wonderful World

A lot a lot a lot of rain today. 

Had a good Gypsy Jazz Band practice today, getting ready for our upcoming gig. I'm playing mostly rhythm guitar but taking lead on one tune: "Dark Eyes." Looks like we will be continuing to get together past this gig, and that's a good thing.

Started to work tonight on my next chord melody song; decided to work on "What a Wonderful World." This song is one of my favorites of all time, and performed by one of my favorite musicians ever, Louis Armstrong. He also happens to be one of  my favorite people of all time. One of my favorite books is his biography, "Louis Armstrong: An Extavagant Life," by Laurence Bergreen.

Thoughts of Suds

My piano buddy composed this piece some time ago. It's called "Thoughts of Suds (Remembering David Sudnow)."

I met my buddy on the Sudnow Piano Method forum, and she helped my music enormously with her support and encouragement.

After listening, I realize that I could benefit from making the bass notes more pronounced.

So here it is:

https://app.box.com/s/ub1nuh96pel4ftkyxjfe

Success

Finished with my friend's original song. Feels good to have completed it. Surprised it was actually recorded tonight. Sent it off to my friend, and I'm looking forward to hearing her reaction!

It's a funny thing, these musical doubts. Thought of maybe stopping with this song....won't get it right....etc. But it came through. It's a matter of just hanging in there, shutting down the negativity by just playing the guitar, and things ain't that bad.

From now until Christmas I just might focus mostly on learning Christmas songs. A favorite is "Have Yourself a Merry Christmas."

Starting to get that itch again to learn to improvise!!!

Upcoming Events:

Gypsy Jazz gig coming up soon; practice for it will be tomorrow night. Playing at Church Saturday night. Will be playing in December for the "Make a Wish" Foundation.

Just a Little Detour

A friend recently discovered that he can make audio recordings on his phone, and today he sent me a song of him singing and playing guitar. I thought it was great! Through the years I have bombarded him with my recordings, and I didn't think he had it in him! So what I spent my musical time doing tonight was recording his song onto a first track on GarageBand and I added reverb to it.  I then added I think a violin on track two, a cello on track three I think, and a stand up bass on track four. On track five was just a snippet of his vocal. Sounds good, and I'm looking forward to what he thinks of it!

Trying

Trying to get some practice in, worked on some of my friend's original song.  Sacrificed some practice time to have a good time laughing with daughter #2 playing Scrabble. 

May be difficult to get a lot of practice time in the next few months because this is the time of year that I add more hours to my work day.

Hard to believe that tomorrow would have been John Lennon's 73rd birthday.

Just a bit of an addendum:

Ended up working a bit more on the song, and I'm getting there. 

If only there was more time to practice.

So glad to have played Scrabble though!!

Time with kids is much more important than practicing music!! It was fun to laugh with daughter #2 and be silly!!

For some reason tonight I feel more disillusioned with the USA; just not trusting this country and authority here.

Cool Gig

Gig went so well today that I just might stay in the band; it's just the weekly practices that were a drag. I had a chance to sing "Pink Cadillac" and it was cool. Our two female singers do a great job doing Andrew Sisters harmonies on "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." A good gig!

Guitar

Fairly good practice day. Getting ready for tomorrow's gig with the band. This band consists of me on vocals and guitar, another guitarist/vocalist, a drummer, two female singers ( who sound great on "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy!"), and a keyboardist/vocalist.

Continued practicing my friend's original song today, but didn't put as much time in it today as I did yesterday.  

Just some thoughts:

Tomorrow is my last gig in the band unless something comes up and they ask me to join and it's something I wouldn't mind doing. They are staying together, but the pop sound they are doing just isn't my thing at this time in my life. I asked them to get together for the gig tomorrow, it'll include a reunion concert for me but not a reunion tour!

It gets on my nerves when actors try to become musicians and vice versa. Why don't they just keep doing what they do best? Well, I think I know why. What comes most naturally to me is playing my acoustic and singing along. Just playing the acoustic comes somewhat natural. But I want to do other things!

Maybe an electric blues band?

Not sure if the Gypsy Jazz band I am in will stay together past our gig later this month. 

Will DEFINITELY stay with the Robert Conti learning stuff. Love the chord melody stuff; after I learn a number of songs and have more familiarity with the "Assembly Line" methodology, it'll be on to "The Formula," which apparently teaches how to make more sophisticated chord melody arrangements of songs. 

Still want to improvise better; still may get into the Conti "Ticket to Improv" material I have; there's also a book on Amazon that looks tempting.

Jesus

So difficult to accept that Jesus loves me.

Hard Workin' Day!

Played a bit on the acoustic today; my wife prefers the acoustic over the electric sound.

Worked hard tonight on a song written by my piano buddy; she wrote it some years ago, but I'm working hard on a chord melody version. I'm not sure my brain can take any more work on it tonight! Worked on it using my cool Epiphone Sheridan ii. 

New Guitar Day

Cool day. Practiced a bit of "Misty." Traded in my Ibanez for a great solid top Fender acoustic. Made a quick recording with my new guitar that you can hear by opening the link below:

https://app.box.com/s/2m1n4hfk5wyv5ox36ipv

Cool

Was way kind of Robert Conti to like my activity on Soundcloud today! Just played some forms today .