Tag: Cover Band

Stuff Going On

I have two things going on today besides work. First, I had to visit my father to help out with that thing that he needs help with that I am not going into details on. I usually do it after work, but tonight there is the second thing going on. Tonight is the first band practice in about a month or so.

I just got home from my father’s place. All went well. He’s good for the day. Nice. When I got home I logged back in to work and sent off a facebook messenger message to the band. Are we still on? As of right now we are, but one band member may have traffic issues. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

I also just ordered a capo from amazon. I know I have one somewhere, but I just can’t find it. I’ll have to go with the alternate tuning solution tonight if we play that one new song. I’ll have a capo for the next practice, I promise.

I’m not sure how dinner is going to work tonight. We still need to figure that out. I expect it’s going to be protein supplements for ol’ Robbie, but I want my beloved bride to have something nice.

Okay, back to work with you, Mr. Robert.

Morning Music

I feel better about my place in the universe now.

I got up, did my exercise for the day, ate breakfast, and played the guitar. I learned two songs for tonight’s band practice. One of them requires a capo! What the hell, bro? I own a capo but I haven’t a clue where it is. I tuned the guitar up a full step to F# and learned the song that way. I’ll have to get a capo this weekend and re-learn the song for next time. There was a third song on our to do list but I seem to recall our singer saying to drop it. I hope so because there is a keyboard part that will tie my hands in an a knot if I have to play it.

After working on the new songs for the band, I recorded rhythm guitar parts for one song and lead parts for another! We had band progress and 50/90 challenge progress. Epic!

And even with all that music, I was not late for work! WOOHOO!

343/365
Two amps. 343/365
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One Les Paul

Thinking Ahead to Tomorrow

I absolutely, 100% have to play guitar before work tomorrow. Not because I need to make progress on the 50 songs in 90 days challenge thing, but because I have a band practice tomorrow after work and I have 2-3 new songs to learn for it.

That’s a nice change of pace, eh?

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342/365
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It’s been a long time since we had a practice. I really need it. Hopefully the rest of the band needs it too and it doesn’t get postponed the way the last four or five or whatever were. Fingers crossed, music lovers.

Scheduling Things is Difficult

The band’s facebook messenger chat page is exploding right now. We’re trying to get all four of us into a room together and it’s proving to be more difficult than ever before. Our traditional 6pm on Sunday rehearsal time is not doable. We’re waffling back and forth between earlier on Sundays and after work on Thursdays. Thursdays appear to be in the lead at the moment.

Scheduling things is difficult. Was it this hard to do when we were kids? Is this an adult thing? Is it a middle aged adult thing? It’s tough to say. Sometimes acting like a grown up sucks, but what can you do? The alternative (not being a grown up) is probably worse.

Okay. We’re booked for Thursday. I put it on my Google Calendar. It is officially set in stone now. Or something like that.

Band Practice

Overall, tonight’s band practice went well. Well… as well as could be expected. My fingers hurt a lot and my arms got really tired, really quickly. My playing was pretty piss poor, but on the whole it went well. We probably won’t practice next week, but we should be back the week after that. There was serious talk of looking for a gig around Halloween.

I’m loving the Les Paul Standard into the AC15. Last time I had some pedal issues, but I cleared it all up tonight. The Ryra Klon clone into the Mr Vermin Rat clone was -chef’s kiss-. The Tri Pi ’70 Big Muff clone into the Ryra though… -chef’s kiss times 10-.

Day Four

I wrote a post about this yesterday. I am supposed to work from the office two days each week and last week, thanks to a head cold left over from our Florida vacation, I didn’t come into the office at all. That means for the rest of the month of June I would owe two days in the office.

Well… assuming I can survive for the next 3.5 hours or so, I won’t owe any more. Today is the fourth day of the work week, and I’ve been in the office all four days.

I am exhausted.

Prior to the pandemic, four days in the office and one day at home was the norm. Thursday was my one telecommute day each week. The rest of the week I was in the office. It’s not the same office I’m in now, but that’s not important at all. Four days in, one day home. I am pretty sure this week marks the first time since Covid came to call that I will match that schedule. Well… not exactly. Friday will be my work from home day this week. That is not important either.

What is important is that I have made up the two days I missed last week. I am back on track. Next week will only have two days in the office and all will be right with the working world again.

I just can’t get over how tired I am. The commute, the noise, the stress… it’s just wearing me out, man. How did I manage this for 16 years or so before Covid? I can’t wrap my tiny little miniature brain around it.

Tomorrow I will work from home. I have to move back to the basement office because Harry is home and I won’t be able to use the desk in his room. That’s oaky with me. Who knows, maybe if the weather cooperates I might work outside for a while. Maybe I’ll give it a try at least, just to say that I’ve done it.

In other news, my House of the Dragon season one rewatch to prep for Sunday’s premier of season two continues. I’m through six out of ten episodes which is nuts given that I only thought of doing this four nights ago. I’m caught up on Star Wars: The Acolyte and loving it so far. Three episodes in and I am coming up with some crazy theories. I’m ready for part one of the two part season finale of Doctor Who which airs tomorrow night. We still don’t know who the bad guy is. I haven’t a clue. The new season of The Boys is supposed to launch today at some point. I’m not sure exactly when. There will be three episodes released at launch. I am probably going to hold off on them until I get through the last four episodes of HotD. I’m not sure though. We’ll see.

No band practice this week. No band practice next week. After that I am hopeful that we’ll be able to string together a bunch of them and start getting some of the songs back up to speed. Not to mention growing calluses on my finger tips so that playing doesn’t hurt as much. I’m really looking forward to that.

Oh good! One of the guys in my group at work submitted a bug yesterday and someone in the Dev group just picked it up off of the queue. Here’s hoping we get a quick turn around! That would be excellent. I love it when things go according to plan.

Until next time… I am so freakin’ tired!

Big Night for the Band

There is a high potential that tonight will be a big night for the band. If things work out the way they seem to be working out (and there are still a couple of hours for it to go wrong), tonight will be the first band practice with all four of us since before the last gig on February 1, 2020.

Now I know I’ve said this a bunch of times before, but it sounds like whatever was keeping our singer away has been resolved and he seems to be fully on board again. Like I said, it could all blow up any minute now, but at this particular instant in time, it’s happening.

I put new strings on the Les Paul Standard. I’m nearly ready to go. I just have to pack a few things into a bag to take along with me. My fingers are firmly crossed.

I also used the Gibson branded multi-tool that came with the guitar for the first time. Cool, eh?

I had to take the back cover off of the pickup selector switch to spin the whole thing a little in the counter clockwise direction and then tighten it all up. The switch came a little loose recently and when I tightened it by hand from the face of the guitar, the switch moved a little and it was facing in a new, slightly awkward direction. I think it’s all set now. In further 2020 Les Paul Standard 50’s news, is there a little issue brewing with the nut near the high E string? Maybe. It’s tough to tell. At least I have a relationship with a luthier now so if it needs help I know where to take it.

Is the Search Over?

I think my band’s search for a new singer might be over. I am hoping we’ll know for sure this coming Sunday.

Who might our new singer be?

Our new singer might be our old singer.

He told us he moved back to the (Merrimack) Valley from Maine and he has the itch to play in a band again. Is that itch to come back to the band permanently or is it to just jam around for fun?

I just asked our group chat if anyone was up for some Rock and Roll at an absurd volume on Sunday evening. So far I have one positive response. If we get two more… then Sunday will be the day we find out what’s what.

It would be really cool if we could put the singer search away and just get back to playing regularly again. I haven’t played a gig since February 1, 2020. I really, really want to play a gig again. I want to play my new Les Paul through my new Vox amp in a public place in front of a crowd of happy (re: drunk) people. I want to know what it feels like to be up on stage for four hours without being 200+ pounds overweight. Will I have the strength and the stamina? Who knows. Let’s find out.

Cautious optimism, folks. Cautious optimism.

Musical Notes for This Week

This is a to do list… read the title… it is a pun, my friends. Get it? I made a pun! It’s punny. It’s puntastic.

Ugh.

The current home recording music project is to take 10 songs from the 2020 Fifty Songs in 90 Days Challenge, edit them, rearrange them, rewrite them, and completely re-record them. When I punched out of work last night I had the 10 songs picked out. One is mixed and finished. Five are completely recorded but still need to be mixed. The other four hadn’t been touched.

Last night while sitting up in bed I took one of them and got as far as finishing the MIDI music bed. Bass, drums, arrangement, song form changes, all done. This morning after I finished today’s errands I cranked out the other three. Now I have four songs ready for rhythm guitars.

Best case scenario is that I track all of the rhythm guitars tomorrow. I work in the office on Monday so nothing is happening then. Tuesday morning before work should be car music where I track all of the vocals. Wednesday is back in the office. Thursday is lead guitars before work. At that point I will have all tracking done for all 10 songs before we leave for Florida.

Yeah. Let’s see if we can pull this off.

Note: It is 99% certain that I will not pull this off. When it comes to the musical planning stage, Robert is not terribly reliable.

Unrelated musical note… one of the reasons my band’s singer quit was because he moved to Maine. He told us yesterday that he’s moved back to the Merrimack Valley. He also mentioned getting “the itch.” Now is that an itch to just have one band practice just for fun, or is it an itch to get back into the band? I don’t know but I am thinking about maybe being hopeful that our singer search could be over. It’s probably not, but if I can’t be optimistic about the Bruins anymore this year, then I’ll be optimistic about this.

Band Practice: Week Two

Week Two

We had some moments tonight that were pretty good. Unfortunately it’s going to be a while before we can rehearse together again.

Also… am I a Vox amp guy now? This rig sounded pretty freakin’ sweet tonight.