Tag: 12-string guitar

Today’s Photo a Day

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I only played for a few minutes this morning. I noodled on a song idea. It’s not much of anything and I don’t know if I will even do anything with it. I’m feeling a little creatively brain fried right now. Not sure why.

I’m about to punch in to work. We’re going to be at half strength today. Hopefully being Columbus Day means that most people will have the day off and we won’t have a lot of issues to deal with. There were a few things going on over the weekend that some of my staff may have been pulled into. I will get a status update on all of that shortly. Hopefully it stays quiet.

Okay then, let’s get this Monday started. Duck and cover, folks… here we go!

Warping?

I broke out my 12-string today. The only acoustic guitar I currently have. I had a six string too but I loaned it to the singer in my band years ago and I don’t know if I’ll ever see it again.

I’m worried about my 12-string. Is the neck starting to warp a little? I hope not.

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I was thinking of making any new songs I work on this month be acoustic guitar focused, but after playing for a few minutes this morning… this thing is hard to play. I might be changing my mind a little.

Addendum: For future reference, this is a Takamine F-400S and based on the serial number on the neck block inside the guitar it was built in March of 1978.

Things to Do Tomorrow

I talked it over with my boss and I am not going into the office this week. For the second week in a row Covid is making me work from home for the full week. Even if I test negative I am still working from home this week. Wednesday is the in the office day, and the rest of my staff (with the exception of the guy who is on vacation) is going in, but I am staying home. We’re all in agreement that it’s just not worth the risk and we’re all more comfortable with me staying away, even though the CDC tells me I am not contagious.

So that’s good.

What about music? I’m feeling better so I should get back to that, right? The 50 songs in 90 days challenge ended on October 1st, two days ago, and I was very far from finished. I have a bunch of unfinished songs in the works that I plan on finishing, but I am sort of thinking that 50/90 should become 66/121 this year and I should just keep going through October. Either that or I will just add a 10 songs or 35 minutes of music album in a month on top of finishing off what’s still in the works from 50/90. Something like that. I just watched a bunch of Mahavishnu Orchestra concert videos on YouTube and watching John McLaughlin tear a 12-string guitar a new asshole (figuratively speaking) is making me want to put the focus on any October songs onto my acoustic 12-string… which really would be as far removed from anything McLaughlin did on his electric 12-string as humanly possible, but really the idea of me and John McLaughlin being mentioned in the same paragraph is utterly absurd given that he is possibly the most talented guitarist in history and I am a complete and utter hack. Whatever.

I’m on season 16 of the original Doctor Who. That binge watch continues at a break neck pace. There is also a concurrent binge watch of Good Omens 2, Futurama, Archer, Daryl Dixon, and Ahsoka (which is going to be over before I sleep tonight) with binges of Severance, Silo, and Foundation all being finished within the last few days. There is so much TV out there that needs to be watched. Also, Jen and I are about to finish 90210, which is amazing given how many thousands of episodes of that show there are. Unfortunately, Amazon Prime Video’s license of the show is dreadfully incomplete and nearly half of the episodes of the last few seasons, including the series finale, are missing. Something to do with not being able to secure the music rights? I don’t know. All I know for sure is that the writers and actors strikes are going to push all new shows back for a long time which means we have to enjoy what we have while we have it. Oh yeah, and Loki season 2 kicks off later this week, so that’s yet another show to add to the list. There is so much TV!

Okay, time to hit publish and watch the last episode of Ahsoka. I bet I am going to love it. How can I not love an episode of a Star Wars show?

Right then, see you tomorrow while I work from home and dig my 12-string out of the cellar closet. Good night, friends and neighbors and kind readers.

It Lives!

The 12-string guitar… it lives!

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Three of the 14 songs had space reserved for acoustic guitar. One of those three was designed to have all of it’s rhythm guitar parts be acoustic (and it’s in drop D too!). Those parts are all finished now.

After I recorded the last piece I sort of felt like I was in the groove, ya know? So I kicked off two new songs. One is just a 12-bar blues but it’s in 7/8 time. Take that, establishment! The other is the second song inspired by something I read on the FAWM forum. Someone threw out a challenge to write a song using the “ice cream changes”. That refers to a chord progression that was used and reused extensively in the 1950s and early 60s. Basically, rock and roll pre-Beatles. It is, for the theory nerds in the audience, I – vi – IV – V. I actually used that progression once already, on song #14, but I transposed it to a minor key, making it i – VI – iv – v. (For the non-theory folks, a capital roman numeral refers to a major chord, and a lower case refers to a minor chord.) As I referenced with The Who song I posted yesterday, I am embracing the fact that all of my songs sound the same, and just not worrying about it this year. Given that, I used the ice cream changes again, only this time I kept it in a major key.

So if you do the math, I’m up to 16 songs now. No lyrics yet, and some of them don’t even have a song form yet. Still… 16 songs! WOOHOO

Go RPM Challenge!

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Every January I get psyched up for the RPM Challenge in February, and for the last two years I’ve actually finished. Every October I get psyched up for National Solo Album Month in November and I lose interest after a day or two.

Why? It’s essentially the same project. Why can’t I keep my focus through both? I don’t know.

This piece of crap is the only thing I’ve ever started during a NaSoAlMo that has ever been finished. Of course it wasn’t finished on time.

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I have this vague idea of doing something with all of the rhythm guitar parts being played on my 12-string, but the action is so high on that guitar that playing is painful. I don’t think I would get very far.

I want to do it. Maybe I will. I don’t know. Maybe. We’ll see.