Guitar Playing Avalanche

Eight songs. I put lead guitars on eight songs this morning and it was all before 8:15am. My finger tips are a burning agony right now. I saved the song I am playing my step son’s guitar on for last. The strings are probably 7-8 years old and feel like barbed wire. I was hurting before I played that puppy, and I am hurting more now. Ouch babie, ouch.

364/365
364/365
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Two Days Left

I started my photo a day challenge on September 1st. There are only two days left in this year’s running. Tomorrow and the day after and that will be it for my fourth consecutive photo a day.

I took this picture this morning before I left for the office because I wanted to have something shot with my Z5 rather than my little point and shoot, or my iPhone. This is number 363 of 365. Crazy, right?

363/365

Fun with Depth of Field

No guitar playing this morning. I’ve had a couple of personal screw ups that have messed my plans up quite a bit today, and all before 8:00am. Wonderful.

I meant to play guitar but instead I just took today’s photo a day picture. I had a little fun with depth of field. F2 for the win. Today’s photo a day is 362. Only three days left. It would be just my luck to screw it up now.

362/365
362/365
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Guitar Fun

I spent two hours recording guitars today. I got through so much that I can’t even remember it all.

I started by adding song idea #37. I threw it together on-mic, as it goes. I recorded it as I was writing the guitar parts. It’s super simple but it exists now when it didn’t before. Cool.

I then put rhythm guitars onto three more songs. There is a twist on one of them, I’ll share it in a bit.

I put lead guitars on a bunch of songs… I actually forget how many. Let me check my trello notes… five songs. I put leads onto five songs.

Add the five songs that got vocals this morning and it’s been a pretty cool day, music-wise.

How about some gratuitous guitar pics?

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So what about that twist that I mentioned? Years ago my step son was taking guitar lessons. For his birthday I bought him a very inexpensive beginner/student guitar. Given that it was me doing the shopping, I of course bought him a Les Paul. Not a Gibson, but an Epiphone package deal that came with a tiny little solid state amp.

When he moved out we cleaned out his room and I saw the guitar sitting in his closet. He doesn’t play anymore. He’s a piano guy and a percussion guy. Guitar fell off of his musical map. I told him I wanted to play his guitar on my recording project thingie and he didn’t say no so…

One of the songs that got rhythm guitars was played on Harry’s Epiphone Les Paul Special II. Gratuitous photos, of course.

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What’s left to do tonight? Hopefully more lyrics and melodies. Maybe a mix or two? We’ll see.

Morning Music

It’s 9:00am on Thursday. I am punched into work, starting the day for reals. What did I do before work? Besides my morning exercise, breakfast, a shower, and a kiss for my wife as she left for the office for the day?

I played some guitar. I put rhythm guitars onto two songs and lead guitars onto two other songs. I have a metric ton of stuff left to do by the end of next month, but we’re picking away at it and a little progress was made. Sigh of relief, babie!

358/365
358/365
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Photo a Day

Yeah, I think I am going to give up on the little 2008 Casio point and shoot.

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It took about five tries to auto-focus on the sky. Like… how much more light do you need? I want to get something new, but there aren’t a lot of pocket sized options anymore and they are way more expensive then they should be in the days of the iPhone. I don’t want to go back to doing all of this on my iPhone but I think we’re heading in that direction. Shit.

Why do I not want to use my iPhone? Snobbery. That’s all. What can you do?

Fortunately my guitar is still out of the case from when I played it the other day. I was able to sneak a couple of super narrow depth of field pics in before I left the house this morning and one of those will be my 357th photo a day pic for this round of 365 days.

357/365
357/365 – Eight days left in this challenge!

Productive Morning

Talk about a case of the Mondays gone wrong, right?

I got up early, did my exercise, watched a Doctor Who (priorities, yeah?), ate breakfast, wrote a blog post, showered, went to the grocery store and got a few things that we forgot to put on the shopping list yesterday, took a photo for today’s photo a day challenge entry…

355/365
355/365

…Came home and put away the groceries, went down cellar and put rhythm guitars onto two songs that I started fiddling out last night, put lead guitars onto one song from last month, took a couple of obligatory I-played-guitar-today photos, and punched into work with about 10 minutes to spare.

Here’s hoping the work day is that productive too. Let’s keep the motivation rolling! Happy Monday, gentle readers!

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Guitars!

I put rhythm guitar tracks onto SEVEN songs this morning. I have actually run out of songs again. There are 29 in the pipeline and they all have rhythm tracks!

Now I have to get dressed and go food shopping and then figure out what to play on next! It’s a music day, folks. Play it till your fingers bleed as if it were the summer of ’69!

354/365
354/365

Morning Photo Nerd

I made two photo stops today. I tried for three, but all of the parking lots near the riverwalk behind the Tsongas Arena in Lowell were blocked off and I just gave up.

I stopped along the train tracks near the old duck pond in Andover. I took a couple of digital and a couple of black and white film pics.

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Photo a day 353/365
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Now that I have taken train track photos I feel like a real 21st century photography nerd. It’ll be more impressive when I get the film shots back, assuming they come out okay.

I was annoyed by my failure in Lowell so I took one of the Aiken Street bridge in auto mode while I was driving across. Take that, Lowell.

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Next stop was Riverside Park in Methuen. I was getting some Merrimack River shots today and there was nothing you could do about it, universe.

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There is a new little fishing dock at this park. It helped me get all artsy and nerdy. Blurry background, don’t you know.

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By this point both film cameras had run out of film. I now have three rolls ready for development. I will wait a few weeks before I send them out. I haven’t decided if I am bringing film to Disney World, but if I do I will bundle them all together. We’ll see what happens.

So… downtown Lowell tomorrow morning? Maybe.