Gig Report

I'm trying to think of a way that could sound more pretentious, but I think I nailed it right there. For lack of a better term, I played my first gig (ever) as a musician this past Saturday. It was for a sitting room only crowd of 15 family, friends, and general well wishers. I played acoustic guitar while my sister Debbie sang Amazing Grace, followed by my niece Heather on Over the Rainbow and finally with How Great Thou Art (Carrie Underwood version) with Debbie on lead vocals and Heather singing harmony.

I played modified versions of the Tommy Emmanuel arrangements of AG and OTR. It was a memorial service for our grandmother Nonie who passed away last month at the age of 85. It went pretty well, there were no big mistakes and everyone seemed to appreciate the effort. Heather was temporarily overcome with emotion while singing OTR because she said made eye contact with our audience and they were all crying and that set her off. It made the moment more emotional and poignant. I studiously looked at the guitar and didn't look at audience. I don't know if I would have become overly emotional, but I could have easily lost track of where I was in the song.

I know I didn't play it as well as I would want, but it went okay and there were no glaring errors made. Somewhere in there I started to actually disconnect from the mechanics and feel the emotion of the songs. I can say that details are hard to recall, it was mostly a blur. I want to get out and perform again but I'm not sure if I want to pursue the solo acoustic path or electric guitar in a rock band path first. I want to do both, but I'm a little more inclined to rock right now. I need to keep working on my set list of known songs so I have something to offer any potential bands. I'm more inclined to play with a covers band, at least at first.

First Gig

It's been awhile since the last update. There's lots to talk about, but of primary importance is my first "gig" coming up Saturday. Gig is probably being generous as it's just a couple of songs for my Grandmother Nonie's memorial service. Luckily my big sister Debbie and niece Heather will be singing vocals so that can only help me sound better. We'll be doing altered versions of Amazing Grace and Over the Rainbow as arranged by Tommy Emmanuel but adapted for vocals and my technical limitations. We'll also be doing How Great Thou Art at my mother's request, although it will be the Carrie Underwood version. I'll be playing my Maton acoustic through my recently acquired Fishman Aura preamp and Roland AC-33 acoustic amp. I bought the Roland because I thought we would be doing the ceremony outside, as it's capable of running on batteries. Fortunately the venue has moved indoors, so I'm assuming we'll have access to power. I could probably go straight acoustic, but I wanted some extra compression/reverb for the harmonics on OTR. It's been a learning experience as I've discovered the challenge of playing an instrument while trying to listen and respond to a vocalist. This may encourage me to purse an open mic in the future.

Concert Schedule (Updated)

Roger Waters - The Wall - Austin 5/3/12
Van Halen - Dallas 6/20/12
Boston - Grand Prairie 7/10/12
Tenacious D - Dallas 7/20/12
Iron Maiden - Dallas 8/17/12
Australian Pink Floyd- G. Prairie 10/4/12
Joe Bonamassa - Dallas 10/30/12
Rush - Dallas 11/28/12

Just recently saw Opeth/Mastodon/Ghost at the Palladium in Dallas. It was a good show overall. I enjoyed all three sets, but definitely enjoyed Opeth the most. The biggest con were the truncated sets since they were dual headlining. Mastodon played about 80 or so minutes and Opeth was shorter than that. It was a decent set list, mostly from the new album and a few select cuts from the past, most of which were regular vocals. They played a couple growl tunes at the end for their long term fans. They closed out with "The Grand Conjuration" from Ghost Reveries which is a pretty cool tune. I wish they would have played something from Blackwater Park, but hopefully I'll get another chance to see them when they're performing a full set.

Mastodon was high energy, but it was near impossible to understand the vocals, or even sus out exactly what the guitars and bass were doing at any given point. Loud and distorted but lacking a little on the clarity. Not that I was surprised by that. I think most of the fans (and it was a young crowd) were there for Mastodon and probably less than half were there for Opeth.

New Rush Day!!!

Well, technically the real New Rush Day is in June, but they released the first new single (since Caravan/BU2B last year) for their new album, "Clockwork Angels". 

If the three songs released so far are any indication, this album is going to be one of the all time Rush classics. Yes, I'm biased, but even taking that into consideration, this thing is sounding epic. Listen for yourself. 

Concert season is warming up

March is dry for concerts, but starting in April we'll have a regular run of at least one concert a month until August. Coming up in two weeks is Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame on his solo tour supporting his second album. He'll be playing the HOB Dallas and the only real negative is that it's on a Monday night, which along with Tuesday night are the least desirable concert nights. I like to combine concerts with a long weekend and those two nights are the least ideal.

The next week (Thursday, yes!) it's Opeth/Mastodon/Ghost for some metal mayhem at the Palladium. Aeyong will be skipping that one, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't enjoy it that much. A couple weeks after that it's Roger Waters performing "The Wall" in it's entirety (and apparently nothing else) in Austin. I had skipped the last few Roger Waters tours because I've always held out hope I could see David Gilmour and he has always been my preferred member of the band. But I came to realize that if I don't see Roger Waters now, I'll most likely never have seen any member of Pink Floyd live in my life, and that's a huge void in my concert going history. Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Queen are probably the 3 biggest omissions that I wish I could rectify, but it isn't likely to ever happen. If Queen tours with Paul Rodgers (or even Adam Lambert) I'll go see them, because I love Brian May and Roger Taylor and Paul Rodgers is awesome (actually saw him twice with Jimmy Page in the Firm) and I can tolerate other singers if the band founders find them suitable.

Case in point would be Yes with Benoit David (although I'm not sure if he got fired now). We have seen the more recent lineup with Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, Oliver Wakeman, and Benoit David and I think they did a fantastic job. I think the "Fly from Here" album is the best thing Yes (the more classical-ish, non Trevor Rabin lineup) have done since ABWH. I love the Trevor Rabin Yes as well, it's just a different band with him in it. Trevor is such a strong musical force, that the magnetic poles in Yes shift when he's in the band, more than with Steve (and I love Steve and consider him a primary influence).

Anywhoooo....

Roger Waters is in early May, and then about 6-7 weeks later is potentially the highlight (for me, anyway) of the summer with Van Halen at AA center in Dallas for the "A Different Kind of Truth" tour. A new album, with David Lee Roth. A really good, no great VH album, with David Lee Roth. Let that sink in. Have you bought it? Listened to it? No, I mean, LISTENED to it? If not, go do that and come back. Take a couple weeks of heavy rotation. Preferably on a good home stereo if you have one of those. No, not those crap logitechs next to your monitor. I mean a home stereo. Not the $199 HTIB that you got on black friday 7 years ago at WalMart. Ok, if necessary, go make some money, buy a respectable home theater speaker system (or go old school stereo if you want, that's perfectly acceptable, and you get style points from the audiophiles if it's a good set of speakers) and then listen to the cd or make sure you're listening to a lossless or high resolution audio format. Lather, rinse, repeat.

WARNING - MINI VH ALBUM REVIEW FOLLOWS THEN CONCERT DISCUSSION RESUMES LATER
This new Van Halen album is easily the best thing they've done since 1984. Sure, it would be different than the SH (or even Gary Cherone if you include him) era because of DLR and Wolfie, but it's not the novelty of having DLR back. I honestly considered DLR peripheral to most of the VH stuff I really loved, because it was always about 80% Eddie, 10% Alex, and 10% of the other two for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Michael Anthony sings great backing vocals and is a "decent" bassist (staying out of Eddie's way is his best skill), and DLR is the ultimate showman. Yada, Yada, Yada. I just always felt like VH could have been a Zeppelin equivalent (in importance, not as a successor to their sound) for me if EVH had a vocalist/lyricist and bassist that were in the same league as him. Imagine if Eddie had musicians as talented as John Paul Jones and Robert Plant or Freddie Mercury in Van Halen. Think of all the great music and imagine if you had someone like Roger Waters writing lyrics for it. See?

But all criticisms aside, DLR has truly gained some wisdom and honed his craft as a lyricist and singer since we last saw him and the VH boys. It's amazing because he's still the same vaudevillian/showman that he has always been, but he's gotten really good at it and his lyrics are so much beyond what they were in the past. Funny, irreverent, insightful, obscure, random. These are just some of the qualities to his new lyric writing. "Swapmeet Sally, Trampstamp Tat, Mousewife to Momshell in the time it took to get that new tattoo, tattoo, tattoo". I don't care what anyone says, those are perfect VH lyrics. It reminds me of Alice Cooper and some other great cerebrally funny lyricists through the years.

DLR manages to reference current popular culture (social media, music, mid life crises, etc) and mix it with classic Vh tropes (sex, drugs, and RnFR baby) while ensuring that it fits the feel of the music perfectly. This album actually makes me feel like the perfect VH lineup was always there, but in DLR and wolfie's (more about him soon) case, it just needed to mature (literally in Wolfie's case, he was an infant in their heyday).
On the subject of Wolfgang, or Ed Jr. (probably either is appropriate) he has really developed as a musician. We first saw him during the VH 2004 tour where he came out during EVH's solo (it was a running gag, EVH stops playing and the solo continues on the PA. A few seconds later, out comes a mini-Ed playing a Frankenstrat and it's Wolfgang, sounding like his Dad). Fast forward to 2011 and he's been the bass player since 2007 (maybe much earlier, not sure how long he's been playing bass). This dude has chops. He's a chip off the old block and now Eddie finally has a bass player that can keep up with him. It's actually changed the dynamics in the band quite a bit now, and I even think Eddie is approaching his tone differently (wah, anyone?) because of Wolfgang. More on VH later. Suffice to say, the new album is what the VH diehards have been hoping for all these years. All the people whining about the exclusion of Michael Anthony are seriously lacking in musical taste. And I think Michael's a respectable bassist and great backup singer. Wolfie's better, much better. And now it's the new and improved Van Halen. With 25% more Van Halen than ever before (see what I did there?). I don't know if any other living Van Halen's are musical (their Dad was, but I think he's probably passed on by now) but it would be interesting to see if they could pull off a VH quadfecta just for laughs.

BACK TO CONCERT CALENDAR DISCUSSION

VH in mid June followed by Boston in early July. Tom Scholz is essentially the only original member of the band now as far as I know, but that's fine with me, since Tom Scholz is Boston to me. Brad Delp is definitely out since he committed suicide several years ago. I haven't really kept up with them, but Boston and Scholz's guitar tone were defining sounds for me early in my guitar fandom. Don't Look Back was one of the earlier albums I purchased and really got into, replaying it on my turntable over and over. I know I definitely air guitared my ass off to that album. And, as established by Whitehead/Russell in Principia Mathematica, Air Guitar Worthy=Concert Worthy. It's in the appendix, look it up.

Closing out the presumably sweltering summer in August will be Iron Maiden back at the Smirnoff, I mean Superpages, I mean, whatever the hell they're calling it now shed. Iron Maiden is supposedly going to feature a big chunk of the set list from the "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" tour, so that should be cool. I was a bit letdown by the last set list in 2010, but I'm going to make sure I'm more familiar this time around. I have always been a Number of the Beast through Somewhere in Time era fan, but there are some other great Iron Maiden albums in there as well.

And hopefully concert season will be closed out by Rush in the early fall for their Clockwork Angels tour. All in all, it's going to be a good concert season.

NGD!

If you have to ask, this is probably not the blog for you. Ok, ok, the fact that you are actually reading this means you're the other person who reads my blog and for that I'll make an exception. NGD is New Gear Day, my friend. Yes, it's capitalized since it's essentially a national holiday (so why the hell am I at work?). I shipped out my two most recent Ebay sales (Charvel San Dimas and Line 6 Variax Acoustic) yesterday, and their sale essentially netted me a new James Tyler Variax (with the newest generation of L6 variax modeling hardware) and about $100 cash. I technically lost money on the guitars themselves, but I don't mind depreciation in a guitar that's not being used anymore since it allows me to replace it with something I will use. I didn't lose too much on either guitar, and I actually exceeded the most recent average auction prices for both guitars which made me very happy. I actually lucked out because I thought I had put a Buy It Now price on both, but I forgot to do that and I ended up getting more than the Buy It Now amount I would have set.

The Charvel was a good guitar but with the Suhr Modern, I really wasn't going to use it anymore. The intent with all my instruments is for them to fulfill a role sonically, and if they're redundant, I'll probably replace them or sell them. With the addition of the JT variax, my arsenal is going to be pretty stable until I add a PRS SE Angelus acoustic when they hit the market later this year. After that, it will probably be several years before the next new guitar (famous last words). It's a good thing my wife doesn't read this blog, or she would use it as evidence against me.

The L6 acoustic was good for what it did in its time, but I have grown more picky when it comes to acoustic tone, and I was just rarely using it at all. It would have been good as a swiss army knife guitar live, but once I saw the newer capabilities of 2nd? generation variaxes and found out that they were actually James Tyler designed guitars that were regular electrics in addition to being variaxes, it was an easy decision to replace the L6 acoustic.

One of the great things about the JT is that it has four times the processing power of the previous generation and they have used that power to make the most common alternate tunings as well as improved models of a variety of electric and acoustic guitars available at the flip of a switch. These guitars can be played like straight electrics, straight models, or a mix. In a way, this will give me capabilities that I haven't had since I sold the Brian Moore several years ago. To wit: dual guitar tones concurrently. I'm not sure how easy it will be (pretty easy I think), but it will be nice to be able to alternate quickly between electric and acoustic during the same song.

It's on the Fedexcellent express right now, hopefully it will be there when I get home tonight.

The Ides of March

and my guitar resumption anniversary. I started playing guitar (again) 8 years ago today after about a 15 year lapse since my early twenties. I've posted on the topic several times in previous blog entries. Suffice to say, it was one of the most important decisions I've ever made in my life. Probably only outranked by marrying Aeyong, joining the Army, and pursing college/PA school. Becoming a musician again (I've always remained a fan) filled a void in my life that I wasn't aware existed. Aeyong would say it created a void in our bank account, but ahem, that's another bag of picks.

It's strange how certain things can validate you internally moreso than other events that have more significance for the world at large. Of all my accomplishments in life, finally getting close to playing songs like Eruption or any number of Tommy Emmanuel pieces means more to me than just about anything. Maybe it's easy to say when I'm on the inside looking out, at least as far as my military and academic achievements. I don't know. But I feel like it wouldn't matter. I had such an early connection with music and I still vividly remember many musical events through my life. It's probably pathetic in the eyes of others (not that I care) that I'm still pursuing musical goals that were born 30+ years ago. But this is what charges my batteries and makes me happy.

In retrospect of the last 8 years, I've made significant progress and also gone through a large volume of gear changes. When I resumed playing, I could still play basic chords and I sort of remembered the blues/major scales. It seemed like I progressed very rapidly at first, and after a few months I started playing primarily acoustic. I made an important decision at the time to start learning songs that were several years of practice beyond my current ability. What I have learned over the years is that progress on guitar, or any instrument, is based on plateaus. Or at least it seems that way. Regular, focused practice of the correct things (usually that means your weaker points) will be rewarded with improvement, although it may not be apparent for a long time.

Before I started playing guitar again, I spent my leisure time playing golf, video games, watching tv, reading books. I still have those hobbies (not so much golf) but they have decreased in relation to the amount of time I spend playing. What I discovered with guitar, and later all the instruments I play (keys, bass) is that you get back what you put into it. If you work hard at improving, you will. It may be hard to measure progress at times, but if you're spending regular time with your instrument (in an effort to improve) you will get better. That's not really the case with video games, tv, movies, books. Yes, you can learn and grow from these types of media, but I mostly read and watch to escape, not to grow. I do read non fiction and classics fairly often, but I mostly just want to be entertained.

For me, the big picture improvements (learning to play Eruption, being able to improvise over chord changes effectively, writing, etc) are the more long term goals you have for playing, but I have discovered that the incremental improvements are a big part of ongoing satisfaction as well. In the course of learning more difficult songs, little sequences within the songs are often points of challenge. It can be a fast run, or a difficult chord stretch, etc. When you finally get to the point where you can just play a sequence like that smoothly without having to stop (even if it's not up to tempo yet) it's an amazing feeling.

I've discovered that after about 3000 hours of practice (that's my highly accurate scientific estimate) I actually enjoy the busy work of being a musician. I stole that phrase from Brandon Sanderson's description of why he chose writing over chemistry. He's a popular fantasy writer with several best sellers but he went to college as a chemistry major. He said he enjoyed the big picture concepts of chemistry, but he really got bogged down with the tedium of lab work. However, he never minded the busy work of writing which can be hours and hours of daily writing and rewriting for months or years before a publishable novel is finished.

I feel the same way about music and being a musician. The real payoff is when you learn a song the whole way through and can just play it from an emotional standpoint without focusing on the physical task. This is quickly possible for simple songs (3 chord Dylan tunes for example), but takes years of work for others. However, along the way you see incremental improvements in the parts that make up the whole, and I derive pleasure and fulfillment from that as well. If I didn't, I would have given up long ago.

I think the only important quality that separates an accomplished musician from a "failed" musician, is that they wanted it more so they never quit working at it. Obviously that probably applies to any hard task that takes a long time to complete. There are several books and other published works out there about innate talent in relation to hard work. I'm firmly in the hard work camp. The generally accepted amount of time required for one to become a virtuoso musician is about 10,000 hours. This was based on various longitudinal studies of professional musicians and the common separation between the university musicians who would go on to become renowned and/or highly successful musicians was that they practiced more often for a longer period of time than their peers.

The simplest way for me to describe the long lasting appeal of music and being a musician is that it's like a never ending well for me. I always find something new to enjoy, whether it's totally new or just a new realization or discovery about something I already was playing. I also have discovered that I kind of like that music is so hard at times. I think that's one of the reasons why it's so much more satisfying to accomplish things in music. For me to be able to play Eruption represents 30+ years of wishing I could play it, combined with several years of practice (not consistently and consecutively for Eruption in particular) to get to the point where it's achievable. Even if I never played it for anyone, it's still a very significant milestone for me as a player and fan. And there's no other way to get that feeling. I've gone to hundreds of concerts over the years, and we still go (we have 6 upcoming between April-August 2012) on a regular basis because we (mostly me) still experience a high at concerts that nothing else can replicate. But the feeling I get at a concert is different than the feeling of being able to play a song by my idols or one I've written myself. Not necessarily a superior feeling, but a different one that can't be replicated by any other means.

Updated Gear List

Since you asked. You did ask, didn't you? This is the list as it will look in a few weeks:

Guitars
Gibson Les Paul Custom Black
Suhr Modern Black Cherry
Fender Eric Johnson Stratocaster Tobacco Sunburst
James Tyler Variax Tobacco Sunburst
Maton EBG808 Acoustic
Fender Geddy Lee Jazz Bass Tobacco Sunburst
Yamaha Classical

Keyboards
Roland RD700GX Digital Piano
M-Audio Oxygen 25 Midi Controller/Keyboard

Preamp/Processors
Fractal Audio Axe Fx II
Fractal Audio MFC 101 Floor Controller (Mission Engineering EP-1 Expression Pedals (2))
TC Helicon Voiceworks Plus

Mixing/Signal routing
Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2 Digital Mixer
Line 6 Relay G50 Wireless

Amplification/Sound Reproduction
JBL EON 515 (2)
Atomic Amplification Reactor Powered Wedge
Mesa Stiletto 4x12 Cabinet
M-Audio BX5A Studio Monitors (2)

Computer Hardware/Software
Apple iMac desktop (primary DAW)
Apple Macbook Pro (secondary - used with roland setup)
Apple Logic Studio
Native Instruments Komplete 7

Miscellaneous
Blue Chip picks (regular & thumb)
Slick Pick Thumbpicks
Elixir acoustic strings
D'Addario electric strings
Lava Cables
NYC Pedalboard

And last, but not least, the "to buy" list:

PRS Angelus SE Custom (this is the short term acoustic upgrade which will necessitate the sell of the Maton first), PRS Angelus Custom (this is the long term, after we buy a house, nice acoustic), Matrix GTFX800 SS Amp (for powering axe through Mesa stiletto or other guitar cabs), Port City Amp OS 2x12 wave cabinet (most likely will sell Mesa if I'm going to get this), Godin multiac nylon (with synth pin), Gibson ES (can't decide whether to go all out with an ES-175 or something semi like an ES-137), Roland electronic drums, nicer PA system (most likely JBL, but just a higher power system with subs). That's all I can think of at the moment. The only relatively likely item in the short term is the PRS SE Angelus. The others are all probably years down the road.

The ever evolving gear list

I don't think your gear list stabilizes until you die, and then technically it continues to change based on who inherits your stuff although at that point it's no longer your gear. The latest major changes are the addition of an MFC-101 Floor Controller for the Axe as well as two mission engineering pedals and a NYC pedalboards custom case to house them in. Right on the heels of that will be a new James Tyler Variax, which is essentially the second generation Variax electric from Line 6 designed by boutique-ish luthier James Tyler and I think assembled in China (South Korea?). It will be replacing my previous Line 6 acoustic and Charvel San Dimas, both of which are currently on Ebay and confirmed to sell as they both have received bids, thank you very much. My hope is that the bidding will go up enough that I break even on the whole encounter. Right now I stand to lose about $400 if nothing changes as the Line 6 acoustic started at $500 and the Charvel at $600.

There's been a decent amount of interest in both and I'm hoping that tax season means enough interested bidders have spending money to get the bidding up a bit. $750 for each is probably a stretch, but it's still a good deal and I've gotten decent use out of them. In the case of the Charvel, it's been a good guitar for what it was designed for, but I got the Suhr Modern about 18 months after I got the Charvel, and since then I haven't really had a good reason to play it. I was holding on to it as a backup if I needed to play a seedier dive, but when I started to consider that it and the Line 6 were gathering dust and I did a little research on the JT Variaxes, the decision was easy.

The JT variax will allow me to have a true swiss army knife guitar that is actually a good instrument on it's own. The nice thing is that these guitars are regular electric guitars with pickups that can be played in that manner, or you can use the modeled guitars. They have also have the ability to change tunings with a knob, as opposed to the previous generation where this had to be done through software. This may end up being a primary(ish) gigging guitar, although it has the stop tailpiece and not a tremolo which might necessitate the Suhr. The nice benefit is that I'll have access to all the electric models like Gretsch, Gibson ES 175s and equivalent, Rick 12 Strings, Sitar, several acoustic models and the aforementioned custom tunings (drop d, Eb, dadgad, etc.). This will satiate my need for a semi/hollow body for awhile. I still can't play that style well enough to justify a nice guitar.

On the subject of the MFC 101, I'm slowly figuring out how to use it and how I want to use it. It's been really nice to be able to continue playing while switching effects on and off. Just being able to kick in the phaser after the intro of Eruption was awesome, and I like being able to cycle reverbs on some of the acoustic numbers I do (light reverb on strummers, heavier reverb/compression on the slower fingerpicky stuff). I'm also discovering never before used (by me) effects like wah, whammy and others that benefit from the quick sweep control afforded by a pedal. The AxeFx defaults the first pedal for volume control, but I've discovered that I'm not really wanting to use a pedal for volume, so I've been messing around with other parameters like drive/distortion, wet/dry amounts for effects, etc. I think I can probably do what I need to do with two pedals if I rethink how I have my presets laid out.

I need to start thinking more about my own "preset" that can encompass most of what I need in one preset. Either that, or I'll come up with one bank of five that should cover most of what I need. After that it's mostly just copping tones for certain songs by other players. The process is slowly getting me to delve more deeply into individual effects since I now have more control within the context of a song as opposed to coming up with one stock setting per effect. That's one of the many great aspects of the AxeFx in that it is so modular and customizable.

Demo Reel

For lack of a better term, a future project for me is assembling a guitar video to demonstrate my playing for bandmix and equivalent sites. There's a brilliant guitarist in Europe (Sweden or Norway I think) named Ketil Strand who has become somewhat of an Internet sensation, at least among guitar players. He posted a series of videos as a tribute to the history of guitar called "Evolution of Guitar" a few years back. He updated them after the release of the AxeFx and I think that's when I first saw the videos. Essentially he goes through the history of modern guitar starting with the earliest influences (modern era) like Charlie Christian, Django Rheinhardt, Chuck Berry, etc. He goes on through most of the influential rock guitarists like Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Eric Johnson, SRV, and many others. He picks some of the more recognizable riffs/songs and breaks them down to small excerpts and runs them together. It's a brilliant highlight reel (mainly because he nails the tones and playing) that not only honors the guitar greats, but demonstrates his mastery of many different styles and tones.

I'm not as skilled or as comprehensive in my current repertoire (there's always the future) to pursue something of that magnitude, but I think the framework is a great way to demonstrate my ability and tastes to other musicians. Plus, I think it will be a good learning project for me as well as adding a few more tunes to the repertoire (word du jour).

I'm thinking I will at least include some Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Alex Lifeson, Steve Howe, Tommy Emmanuel, Andy Summers, and a few others. I'm thinking I'll approach the tunes in a similar manner to Ketil's in that I'll pick 3 or 4 signature tunes (that I can play) for a medley of each player. Jimmy Page - Rock & Roll, Whole Lotta Love, Black Dog, Ten Years Gone; Eddie Van Halen - Eruption, You Really Got Me, Panama; Jimi Hendrix - Little Wing, Wind Cries Mary (need another); Alex Lifeson - Limelight, Spirit of Radio, (need to decide on a third); Steve Howe - Mood for a Day, Roundabout, Heart of the Sunrise (have to learn that); Tommy Emmanuel - Endless Road, Amazing Grace, Over the Rainbow; Andy Summers - Message in a Bottle, Roxanne, Every Breath You Take. There are several other bands/guitarists I want to add to that list, but I know that this is already going to be a massive undertaking and the truth is that I hesitate to actually post these excerpts until I can actually play the whole song at full speed. That caveat may add a year or more to the process. I'll probably start working on this soon, starting with the songs I can essentially nail right now.

My biggest challenge for this project, and for my playing in general is that last 5-10% of mastering a tune (which is actually closer to 90% of tune mastery, but that's another discussion) which takes the song from being recognizably close to the original (I'm not going for note for note accuracy, but an equivalent level of proficiency) to being as smooth and effortless as it was for the original artist. That's why Eruption has been taking so long for me. That, and the fact that I haven't ever really totally focused on only one song until I mastered it. That's probably what I should be doing, but at any given time I'm working on about 20 different songs on acoustic and electric as well as playing piano and now bass.

RPM

It's safe to predict that I won't complete the challenge this time around. I really have only completed (recorded) one song in the last month. That sounds really pathetic, but I must note that I have come up with riffs and chords for at least 10 if not more songs in this timeframe. The primary task for me now is to learn how to take a riff or idea and make a complete song with it. Probably like saying all you have to do to become a doctor is study hard and go to medical school. I had divided some of my time in learning my new bass and trying to prepare for the scheduled jam session with Chris by working on the songs we had agreed to play. I also realized that I just didn't know enough about Logic so I got back into watching the tutorial videos on macprovideo and so far I think I've watched about half of the level one videos (100+ out of 210) and in that process I've definitely learned a lot about the program.

I'm going to try and stick with my original 2012 goal of a new composition per month and a new song learnt by ear every month as well. I did okay for January, but February is coming to a close and I don't have either of these completed. I'll have to ensure I complete two of each by the end of March. Technically you could say I learned two new songs for the jam sessions (Hotel California and Slither) but I cheated and used tab because of the short time frame. I did okay with the Black Country Communion song "The Great Divide". I think I essentially know the whole song, I just have to develop my chops to be able to play the solo, and that will take several months to nail down since it's a pretty fast solo in parts. I'll pick a couple of more tunes to learn by ear, most likely something I know I can't get a good tab for. A Tommy Emmanuel song would be a good challenge, or for that matter I could try Eleanor Rigby by Pete Huttlinger (have to learn tremolo picking for that one, a completely new technique for me) or Harry Connick's version of Stardust for piano. Now that I think about it, those are probably the two songs I have jones'd the most for that don't have sheet music or tablature available. I won't necessarily nail those in a month either, but if I can get close to at least learning the actual music for both then I can practice the playing.

Musical developments

I've been practicing with the bass and I'm slowly adapting my fingers to it, the right hand being the bigger challenge. I could have made it much easier on myself by just using a pick, but my favorite players (not counting Chris Squire) primarily use fingers and I think it ultimately gives you more options. I've also noticed that it has given the added bonus of increased strength and dexterity for my piano playing. And I need all the help I can get.

I was supposed to jam with Chris yesterday but he had to postpone due to illness. Hopefully we can make our jam sessions a regular thing in the future. I've also gotten several contacts on Bandmix and I'm trying to decide whether to pursue those opportunities in the short term or to practice my stagecraft and gigging ability a bit longer. I'm leaning toward the latter since I haven't really focused on getting individual songs completely gig ready, as in I can play these songs standing up all the way through including solos as if I was playing a gig.

My goal is to go into any band or gigging situation fully prepared and in control of my playing and stagecraft. I know that's probably the musical equivalent of combat operation orders, since they are valid until first contact with the enemy. I'm not calling the audience the enemy, mind you, I just mean that I won't truly be prepared for live gigging until I actually do it and get that experience. That being said, I know the typical songs I want to be prepared to play will need some more work before I really throw my name out there as available to play.

Gear, Gear, and more Gear

Enroute today is the MFC-101 Foot Controller for my AxeFXII. I've needed a new foot controller since I bought the original Axe Ultra, but I had put it off since I wasn't gigging and was able to manipulate it via software and front panel. This will free me up considerably to play and make changes mid song without having to stop and tweak knobs. It's going to require significant modification to my AxeII patches since they haven't been setup with a foot controller in mind. I also ordered two expression pedals from Mission Engineering as well as a pedal board/case to house everything in from NYC pedalboards. It will probably take a month or more for the NYC pedalboard to get made and shipped. Once it's all received, I should have a good gigging pedalboard that will allow me to control all the Axe parameters and run various pedal options like wah, volume as well as many customizable options.

New Gear Day

I should be getting a visit from the Fedexcellent later today, and they shall be bearing none other than a Fender Jazz of the Geddy Lee Sunburst variety. I've wanted to add a bass to my gear for a long time, and the recent songwriting efforts as well as some informal jammage with my nephew Chris has motivated me to finally take the plunge. I may be overly optimistic, but I'm assuming I'll be able to make faster progress since I already play guitar, more specifically fingerstyle guitar where I use my right hand extensively. Getting used to the size and spacing of the strings will take a little while, but I'm hoping to start making something musical with it really soon.

I don't really have the intention to define myself as a bass player, although I will be trying to learn some parts that will most likely take me years to do them justice (it is a Geddy Lee model, after all). Feel free to laugh, but here are some of the tunes I already have in mind: Xanadu, Freewill, Tempus Fugit (Yes), YYZ (damn, I still need to learn the guitar part on that), La Villa Strangiato (that too). I'm leaving out many, but I'm hoping that a lot of the "less" challenging parts (you know, the ones not played by Geddy Lee or Chris Squire) will come easier.

Streets - my first(ish) online composition

This isn't really the first song I've written, but it's the first complete tune I've written and attempted to complete in a long time. I wrote it as part of the RPM/FAWM challenge previously discussed. It's of the ambient/electronic variety since I not only love that style, but it's also about the easiest to create on a digital audio workstation.

2012

Before welcoming in the new year (albeit 2 days late), I wanted to give a nod to 2011. 2011 was a good year. Not necessarily a GREAT year, but essentially good on most days, which earns an overall good rating.

The year started with us in Killeen and no immediate or even medium term plans to move or change anything that substantial in our lives. I had just started working for MEB at Ft Hood and by the end of January I knew I couldn't last long term in that position. The highlights of the year were my subsequent decision to seek new employment, and I began looking primarily in the D/FW area with the intent to relocate. Ultimately this culminated in my finding, applying, and getting hired for a Comp & Pen position with the VA at their new FW outpatient clinic.

We put our house on the market and Aeyoung was very fortuitous in finding a home to rent that was not only convenient to work, but very suitable from a layout standpoint and pet friendly. Besides the upheaval of the move and a couple of months of not collecting a regular paycheck in the summer (and the resulting red on the bank ledger), the year otherwise proceeded as normal.

On the family front, Aeyoung and I celebrated our 21st anniversary in April and just continued to happily share each other's lives with our 3 furry children. Our most recent addition continues to attempt to exert her dominance as the favorite. It's funny how smaller dogs seem to have Napoleon complexes.  I incrementally improved at playing guitar and keyboards, continued to run, and near the end of the year I began studying Korean again, although a little more in earnest this time. Hey, better late than never, you know the old saying. 

Onward to 2012. Aeyoung asked me the other day what my new year's resolutions were going to be. I usually have a significant reassessing of my physical fitness at this time of year, so she's used to me swearing off alcohol and fast food and committing myself to exercise. The good news is that I have been a consistent runner for the past two years and this really hasn't changed. The only ironic event is that I did a number on my right calf in mid december when I was out for one of my pre-marathon long runs. This resulted in my not being able to run for the last two weeks of the year, and now I almost feel as if I am starting a new year's resolution by returning to running. I managed to run 1195 miles last year which is okay.

I had 3 significant down periods due to illness and injury, but this last one has been the longest. I'm hoping I can get my weekly average up to a consistent 30 miles or so, although this means I'll have to run 15 miles on the weekend unless I add an extra weekday. My long term goal is still to run a marathon, but this is the second train up in which I've suffered a significant injury setback that essentially has derailed my plan near the end. I think I will need to reassess my general approach to running/fitness and include some muscular strength and flexibility traning to supplement my running/cardio. I also think about 10-20% weight loss may do alot to minimize the injuries. 

Along those lines I'm going to have to commit to less junk food and alcohol (this is really only a weekend phenomena), and start to really manage how I fuel my body for general health and for running. I think my plan for now will be only social drinking (in our case that means concerts), and limit the junk food to only one or two meals a week. Aeyoung will cook this kind of food more often just from a convenience standpoint, so that means I will probably have to step in a help with some of the food preparation. 

Our financial goals for 2012 are fairly simple. Keep doing what we're doing, but do it better. Get the red off the ledger book that was necessitated by the relocation (and is harder to overcome currently because we're paying rent and a mortgage at the same time). The most important objective for the year would be to sell our house in Killeen, although it's hard to gauge how reasonable a goal that is. We will pay a tax penalty of 8K if we sell before August, so right now we're not being aggressive in our pricing.

That will most likely change if we haven't sold by then. Once we can sell that house, our financial goals will be centered on our eventual home purchase in the D/FW area. That's a 2013 and beyond goal. The eventual home purchase will hopefully be our last. We're hoping to get at least a one acre homesite in a planned development that will protect us from urban sprawl in the long term and allow us to stay in that one home indefinitely. We're looking to settle in the Mansfield/Arlington/Grand Prairie area. This will get us a little closer to the middle of D/FW while keeping my work commute to a manageable timeframe. 

My other 2012 goals center on continued learning and development. I want to continue studying Korean, at least every weekday like I have been striving to do. I'll probably start trying to either read some comic books or watch the occasional television program with Aeyoung. I haven't developed my comprehension and vocabulary enough yet for those to be possible. 

In music, I'm going to commit to two initial goals. Learn at least one complete song by ear per month, and compose at least one complete song per month. To learn a complete song by ear, I'm going to start with something a little more simple and approachable like Led Zeppelin or equivalent. I know bits and pieces of many tunes, but I've been dependent on tablature for the bulk of all songs I've ever learned. I've figured out countless riffs and chunks of tunes, but I haven't forced myself to sit down and learn a complete song from start to finish. It's definitely an easier task now than it was when I first learned guitar. The software tools available make it about as easy as possible. I just need to do the work. I'll build up to harder material once I have several complete songs under my belt. 

On the compositional front, my goal is to have a completed song with all instruments, arrangement, orchestration, production, etc. completed every month. I haven't decided yet if I'll make completely new songs from scratch, although that is the way I'm leaning. I have ordered a small two octave keyboard controller to keep at my main desk to help with the songwriting. As a guitarist I find it easy enough to write riffs while I'm playing my guitar, but I think the keyboard will handle the bulk of the overall compositional duties since I can not only write/play melody and chords, but it's also my only interface for drums, bass and synths. 

'Tis been awhile

It's nearly November and I've been firmly ensconced in my new job for the past few months. Life has settled into a fairly predictable pattern. We're still trying to sell the Killeen house, fortunately we have a new realtor that actually has been trying to justify their 3% although the house probably isn't much more likely to sell in the near future. The Killeen market, while being healthier for sellers than DFW is still very much a buyer's market and very much down.

On the homefront the most significant developments (in my narrow minded view of the world) have been a substantial upgrade to the home theater and this year's most significant musical gear upgrade, the Axe FX II. On the home theater front, we now have a system that truly discourages going to the movie theater anymore. The only reason to go to the theater now is for those movies we're really dying to see or just an excuse to do something. The specific equipment upgrades include a new Epson 9700UB HD LCD projector, Golden Ear Triton 5.1 surround system, a Yamaha Aventage RX-A3000 receiver/amp, apple tv 2.0, and a Carada 117in viewable screen. We now have a home theater experience that I can be happy with indefinitely. I don't foresee making any changes unless something breaks beyond repair or until 4K becomes the new standard. Watching movies on that size screen with the new speakers is actually better than most theater experiences we have and I'm not talking about the ability to pause, go to the bathroom, lack of screaming kids, etc.

I just got the AxeFX II last week and haven't really had time to reveal how significant an upgrade it represents. I love everything I have discovered so far, and one nice new feature is the ease of achieving quality tones with minimal effort. Great tones were in the Ultra, but it took a little more work and tweaking. It seems with the Axe II that great tones are just a few clicks away. There definitely is a higher level of clarity and responsiveness. It's somewhat equivalent to the difference in sound between my old home theater system (klipsch center and bookshelf front l/r with unmatched kenwood surrounds and sub) and the new matched Golden Ear 5.1 system. You just hear so much more detail and the quality of the different timbres is so much higher. I don't think I'll ever be an audiophile or tone chaser to the level of an Eric Johnson, but I have a new appreciation for what higher quality equipment can do to the listening/playing experience. With the guitar, it still holds true that the most important aspect of sound comes from the player's hands/brain, but having powerful sound processing that is so user friendly and streamlined really helps the process. I'm going to start alternating my electric playing with my acoustic so I can continue to progress on both fronts. I've been in a fairly strictly acoustic phase for several months and while I've made some decent progress, it's been to the detriment of my electric playing. Part of the appeal of the acoustic is analogous to piano in that it's easier to play fully formed songs as a solo artist, where with the electric I'm mostly working on guitar parts that are part of an ensemble/band.

The amount of divergent interests and goals I have in my life makes it difficult to pursue them all with any regularity. I'm trying to get back into studying Korean while I'm also trying to write, compose new music, continue improving on three different instrument disciplines, working on my ear and theory, fitness, etc. Not to mention I have a full time job and like to chill out with a good movie or book on a regular basis as well. I guess it's still a good thing when you so many different interests that there isn't enough time in the day to pursue them all.

Auto tune for guitar

Thanks, Yngwie.

Leave it to Yngwie to say one thing in an interview that actually solves a problem I've been struggling with for a long time. There was a question about speed (with Yngwie of all people) and he said "If you don't have your left and right hands synchronized, you'll never play fast."  Now, this seems like common sense, but it's one of those fundamentals that seems so simple you don't think about it. The most effective way to synchronize your left and right hands is to play with a metronome (or equivalent) only at a speed that you can play the material perfectly. I've heard this over and over, but sadly I had gotten away from metronome playing for a long time. Since I started incorporating 5 minutes of steady metronome scale playing a few weeks ago I've already started to notice improvement in my fast scale playing. Yeah, I'm kind of a genius. Or an Idiot Savant with heavy emphasis on the former.

New Guitar Day Approaches

The longest anticipated guitar I have ever purchased is in the hands of Fedex and on the way to my house as I type.