Scales

Sent away for an inexpensive music theory book....also gonna learn this book: "The Guitarist's Scale Book" by Peter Vogl.

July 25, 2012

The two original songs? Not good enough. But won't give up. Got a beautiful white PRS guitar today in a trade...

Song #2

Working on song #2 with the lyricist.... Getting into guitar again ....

S o n g

Looks like a song the lyricist and I have been working on has a chance of being demoed soon.... Then possibly off to publishers.... Excited!

July 16, 2012

Couple of things: 1. Saw Roger Waters perform "The Wall" on July 14th...wow!!! Great show, great message, and what made it even better was I got to bond with my son by bringing him to the show. Great time in the car listening to Pink Floyd and the Beatles too. 2. Might be adding a drummer to the band....

July 7, 2012

Had a good time last nite playing with the band for about 34 senior citizens in a retirement type home. Was great: they seemed quite appreciative, and they seemed to enjoy us. That's what sharing music is about. Might be auditioning a drummer soon.

E X P A N S I O N

Been working with a successful lyricist. We've been working on an original, and he suggests it's about 90% ready to be sent to publishers for consideration; needs some polish. Also putting my toes in the water with regards to possibly joining a band. The present band I'm in has a gig tomorrow as well as a gig sometime next week. Been looking at guitars on line....(sigh....) Listened to the latest Beach Boys album yesterday, and today doing some listening to Springsteen's Wild, Innocent, and E Street Shuffle album.

June 25, 2012

Been getting into my first musical love, the BEATLES, again. What started it is playing on the piano yesterday some of their songs. Brilliant. Picked out eight songs that are originals that I'll hopefully be presenting to a collaborator soon. Who knows....wouldn't it just be something if one . . . yea, even just one gets published? Yea, yea, yea !

Sorry, but....

....it's been a frustrating day with music. Fighting with GarageBand, not a focused day.

GUITAR

The guitar is calling me again. Met a neighbor who has been a successful lyricist and may do some collaborating there. May go to a local music store today to check it out. The piano, in my hands, can be such a source of good feeling as well as frustration... Looking to get back into songwriting which I haven't gotten into in a bit.

When You Wish Upon a Star

Here's how it sounded this morning: May need to copy and paste the following link to your browser: https://www.box.com/shared/62488e63509967533d01

June 21, 2012

Was up early this morning and had the opportunity to work on the Disney song....worked on the middle section; also worked on ending it an octave higher with non colored chords in left hand.

First Day of Summer

A little frustrated getting my fingers to cooperate fully with the clusters I'm working on in "When You Wish Upon a Star." Wish I could move quicker from cluster to cluster.

Working on Wishing

Working on When You Wish Upon a Star, using my notation. Sounding ok! Not convinced I'm into the larger, Black Gospel type of chords, at least not yet.

Father's Day, 2011

Nice dad's day today. Daughter #1 hung up signs in the stairway greeting me; got a nice card, Amazon gift certificate, out to dinner, then Rita's Water Ice. Trying to walk one hour a day; today took a walk to some local stores including purchases of stationary to help with my notation system that I'll try to use on lead sheets. Played around with some of the system integration. On the back burner, is maybe learning Sudnow's stride voicings for at least the dominants. Chilling tonight listening to Blues Piano on Pandora. Worked earlier on p. 12 and 13 of the Improvising Blues Piano book by Tim Richards. Summary of Piano Stuff I'm Doing: 1)Learning to play songs using some ideas I learned from the Sudnow Method for Major Chords and Minor Chords; utilizing the Moody System to play notes associated with Dominant and other chords. 2) Using the Richards book.