Mindspew About My Musical Journey

spinland
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Sat Apr 08, 2017 7:38 am

Heh. I've been practicing the vocals to the recording from their greatest hits album. I'm treating it as an exercise in trying to re-tune my voice after decades of neglect and maybe get some of my old range back. Surprisingly, I've been doing better than I expected.

I may still transpose it a key or two, and I'm arranging a guitar version that's a wee less busy than the piano score. We'll see. Call it a long term project song—and yes, I am a glutton for punishment. I've always whipped myself rather hard. I got back into music as a release, not another source of burnout, but sometimes it's hard to resist a challenge. :silly:

Mark


spinland
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Sat May 20, 2017 9:14 am

Theory nerdery follows; you have been warned.

Just had a glorious "ah HAH!" moment. Business stuff has kept me from my guitars for far too many days, and I blocked out this morning for quality practice time. Messing around with some four-note blues box shapes I saw on YouTube, and the guy does a fun little turnaround ending in a chord fragment.

Thanks to CAGED I realized he was just using the C shape for an E7, and that I could drop in one more finger plus add the treble E and have a richer, more full-sounding E7 which I found very pleasing to the ear.

All this shite is starting to come together. Love it! :side:

Mark


spinland
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Tue May 23, 2017 7:50 am

Gettin' down to the basics. #DeltaBlues

Actual playing video coming asap. Still need some practice time.

Image

Mark


spinland
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Wed May 24, 2017 6:58 am

Quick shout out to Bill Somers for sage advice on acoustic strings. Just did a string change on Rose and installed a set of Martin Retro 80/20 11s. Definitely less bright than the D'Addario phosphor bronze; very nice tone.

Mark


wrsomers
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Wed May 24, 2017 7:14 am

I'm glad you like them Mark. Can't wait to hear them.

Bill


spinland
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Wed May 24, 2017 7:17 am

Soon, Bill.

My life's gotten crazy recently and lots of fun stuff (like music) has suffered accordingly. Things are beginning to fall into a new rhythm and I spent over three hours last night practicing and trying to catch up.

Mark


spinland
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Sun Oct 08, 2017 10:51 am

I just spent a fruitless period of time trying to find the particular thread I was in some time back when Ness was putting me on the spot concerning my guitar goals: where did I want to go, what did I want to do, et cetera. As I recall I hemmed, hawed, waffled, and otherwise gave unsatisfying responses, because well, I really didn’t know. I just knew I wanted to get more into making music with guitars than I have been.

My druthers are becoming more clear to me of late, and I confess I’m more than a little surprised at what’s been “turning me on” musically. In sum? I want to sing with my guitar. Melody, vocal elements, all the stuff that I guess come under the umbrella of lead and soloing—and especially electric.

No, not heavy metal and rock shredding, think less Angus Young and more BB King. As I add and then sell off guitars while searching for That Thing my stable is solidifying around a collection of guitars suited for blues soloing and some rhythm thrown in because, well, I don’t have a backing rhythm section. :side:

Definitely into the 12 string acoustic sound, and have already ordered one, but one of my criteria was it had to have high quality electronics and I’ll be exploring stuff like The Eagles where a plugged-in 12 string sound is very useful.

Of course I realize “the basics” are still critical and I’m not neglecting working to improve chording and strumming and all that, but I now realize that to me those are foundations and not an end goal. I’ve been working very hard at vocal expression with guitar: slides, vibrato, bending, and all the elements to give my playing a “voice” to match the melody I have in my head. Probably goes hand in hand with my earliest musical exposure being in vocals.

Not ignoring acoustic playing, but that’s not my main focus; it’s a tool to help with the foundations I need for where I want to go. Yes, you are going to see more electric style stuff from me here. TEG has a lot of great lesson resources but it’s not a “home base” in the sense of a place to share and grow and fellowship. I’ve been reassured multiple times, both by staff and long time members here, that this is not Totally Acoustic Guitars and have even been encouraged by some at IGC to bring some more plugged-in style stuff here.

I’ll be doing that. You’re welcome. :silly:

Mark


spinland
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Sun Oct 29, 2017 9:14 am

Little bit of Sunday morning musing.

For the past couple of days I’ve made a point of working on my current song project on my acoustic, even though the tune’s tailor-made for a nice, syrupy Gibson 335 style tone with reverb added to taste. In addition to the acoustic having its own rich, enjoyable tone, I’m honoring my pledge to myself (and to Ness) not to neglect the good that acoustic playing brings to finger strength and to playing accuracy/technique in general: almost impossible to hide flubbed fretting when you’re playing unplugged. :side:

After several hours of fighting those 11s to get clean sustain for long sides and full/half step bends, I went back to one of my electrics for a few and it felt like I was playing spider silk. :lol:

And so it goes.

Plan to record at least one full run-through later today; whether I deem it acceptable enough to post (even as an in-progress draft) remains to be seen.

Mark


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