What Are You Working On Right Now?

la szum said:
Geesh! Tell him to "Suck it!" already, Tom. He'll survive. :LOL:


Still impressed by your determination and ability to grind. I bet you could probably teach
those.... uhmmm.... who try to pose as being superior to you a thing or 10! :beer
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I only asked because I couldn’t see anything remotely stretchy. 🤣
 
Eagle said:
I only asked because I couldn’t see anything remotely stretchy. 🤣
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Yeah, I said 'stretch' because it was simpler to say, than trying to explain what I needed to do with how I was fretting that section.

It's actually not a big stretch, esp being that far up on the guitar. It's just the sequence of notes, and the speed.

It's always THE FUCKING SPEED! His internal clock must be 30% faster than mine!
 
TSJMajesty said:
AARRRGGGHHH!!! My muscle memory is not..., memorying!!
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That happens to me but often playing something else with the same structure but different notes gets me past it. I got this from Paul Gilbert who showed me how to play the arpeggio section at the end of Scarified. He applied the same number of notes and sequencing to a regular minor scale without the stretch or string skipping. You can get it flying on the familiar ground then you just stretch it out and your right hand is already moving around correctly. Certainly works for me. I think Paul did this for a lesson somewhere too.
 
Figured I’d pull this out today and play through it. Been a looooong time since I played these songs! Lots of fun, lots of memories

IMG_5003.jpeg
 
Staying with my practice of 2 note-per-string/even # of notes-per-string, I found this cool lick from DT's Dead Asleep to help me:

1753585178440.png

I can keep a downward PS thruout, except for the very end, which is more like playing a single nps lick. Plus it just sounds good! And of course it's faster than I can play it!
 
Got up at the crack of dawn this morning and moved some gear from my cluttered studio to the dining room table, which I'll be using temporarily as a work station while the Mrs. is out of town.

effectors.jpg


I'm booked for a live solo guitar set at a small local venue in early September, as part of an event involving other acts throughout the day. So I decided to string together some of my EHX pedals, and this is the tentative beginning, although once I get these four working, I'll tweak the order.

I've used the 720 quite a bit, but the others not as much, so I'll begin by reviewing settings and trying them out with different parts of the songs I plan to play, for what might work best on each.

I do these solo sets a few times a year, and since it's mostly for fun, I vary the arrangements and the guitars and pedals I'll use for each set, so even if I play the same songs, there's some new colors.

guitar-amp.jpg


I'm planning to use this guitar I picked up in Tokyo recently, 1970s Gretsch Chet Atkins "Super Axe." I'm still acclimating to it, but so far it's fun to play. What I like about it is the built in effectors, with a compressor and phaser, so I don't need those in the pedal setup. The amp, for now, is a Henriksen Blu Six, but at the venue I'll likely use something from their backline, most likely a Roland JC-120.

I plan to integrate the pedals into arrangements I've been developing for the past several months. The set consists of: "Tired of Waiting for You," a "Beatles Suite," and "Killer Joe." The first two I've performed live before, although I added "Yesterday" to the "Beatles Suite." I call "Killer Joe" at jazz jams, but I think it'd work well as a solo guitar piece. The entire set should run to about 40 minutes.
 
I'm having one of "those days", but in a good way. I decided to dial things up to my max tempo, and things started getting messy around 150 bpm (a few 16th-note solo parts that are fairly "linear" that I rotate thru), but I was pretty tickled nonetheless.

My picking strokes are getting much more concise than ever, and I can tell that's really starting to help. And I'm not having to think about my pick slant quite as much.

So I slowed everything way back down, and started at 90 and only advanced 5 bpm once I could play them perfectly 3x's in a row. I'm up at 120 atm, and it's feeling like I broke thru a sort of barrier. And my tension is getting under control.

So I'm kinda stoked! :rawk:banana:rawk:pickle


But now I'm having a new problem: That string-skipping riff I've been practicing has gotten my pinky's muscle-memory reaching too far on other riffs, so I'm now missing notes on stuff I've had down for quite some time! I have to consciously look at the board, and aim my pinky so as to not overshoot the note.

It's always something... :rolleyes:
 
Gothi said:
Nothing. Have just released our third album, and now I am going to vacate with my mc909 and its just upgraded sample lib. Hopefully nothing has become something when I return.
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Since some of you have been nice and polite to like my short-headed post above, I feel I owe you the happy ending.

I have returned from my Wellness week with my daughters and can tell that nothing became something. A basic loop for at tune. I ended up with this as my vacation studio. Would have brought my MC909, but I got paranoid. On a few occasions, kids have broken into the park´s vacation houses, and I am not taking any chances with my very rare black mc909. Since my aim was to explore JV1010, it was okey. Reason is doing my drums, and if I push them a little forward, there are no latency problems. The agenda from here is to make a tune based on JV as much as possible.



Case is I am on an important gear mission. I am old school and do not click with much gear beyond 2010. What I need are workstations to shift between because I run cold when making 4-6 tunes on the same set up. I have found two loves in my life, my MC909 and Miko TSE, but I still need at least a third workstation to keep flowing. I have my mac and Reason 12 w. plugs, but pure ITB productions do not inspire me at all. I only use Reason for making samples to my hardware, finishing a tune fast before it dies, and some postmastering. I have tried most modern workstations from Fantoms to MPCs, but they are not made for me for sure. However, this set up could work for me as a third retro-workstation, 00 style. I used JV1010 as a preset machine for my Roland W30 back in 1999. This time I have set up program change and cc controls for it in Reason, and it works well.

So vacation mission accomplished.

Happy Music Making
Gothi
 
Eagle said:
I can’t find him talking about exactly that but this is the idea.
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I just worked on a string skipping lead/melody for a song I'm recording. Definitely not a pick only thing, there are certainly hammer ons. Fairly straight forward technique and it can work great for guys that hybrid pick.
My particular lick starts on the 12th fret low E then to the 19th fret. So it's a bit of a stretch and helps to loosen up first. Index and pinky fingers only. From there you skip to the D string 12th to 19th, and then to the A string 12th and 19th, and then to the G string... and so on, and in any other combination. It just deals with 12th and 19th frets only, and usually 3 or 4 notes per string before skipping. Played in the context of E5, and works with C and D variations. Has a touch of EJ vibe when played a certain way.
 
I am getting pretty close on my new album titled "Knock Knock Knock"! I was very close prior to leaving on a vacay at the end of May. I was then gone for 3 weeks, got home and sick for another 3 weeks (some sort of bronchitis that effected my throat and singing even longer than those 3 weeks). Now that things are getting back to normal with my voice and playing, I am almost there. Yesterdays take 59 only had about 6 mistakes total on 15 songs that would keep me from releasing it (and a couple of those were simply hitting wrong foot switch on the FC12). It was probably my best take of the album so far. For some perspective, my last album, as well as this one, is me playing the entire album all the way through with no punch ins, no overdubs, no fancy studio effects, just a pure "studio live" performance of my material. I play the guitar, sing and strike the cajon with a drum pedal. Left foot switches stuff (vox and guit are run through the Axe FX) on the FC12. I am doing it this way for several reasons. One of those reasons is I really enjoy the continuity of the whole album being a single performance. Another is wanting to be able to reproduce live, pretty much exactly what I release. A third reason is to avoid digital modifications and crutches (AI, autocorrect, fancy layered studio effects, etc.) as much as possible. Anyway, I am thinking at the rate things are going, in the next week or two I will have a take that I like enough to get this album out the door and can move on to other material I have written this year. One of the great things is, I LOVE playing every single one of the songs on this album so it makes just sitting down to play it a very pleasurable experience ;~)) Today is a day of rest! Voice needs it as I had a pretty solid week of singing/playing for several hours every day and I have to take off at least one day a week even in the best of times. Going to see the new Jurassic World movie ;~))
 
FuzzyAce said:
I just worked on a string skipping lead/melody for a song I'm recording. Definitely not a pick only thing, there are certainly hammer ons. Fairly straight forward technique and it can work great for guys that hybrid pick.
My particular lick starts on the 12th fret low E then to the 19th fret. So it's a bit of a stretch and helps to loosen up first. Index and pinky fingers only. From there you skip to the D string 12th to 19th, and then to the A string 12th and 19th, and then to the G string... and so on, and in any other combination. It just deals with 12th and 19th frets only, and usually 3 or 4 notes per string before skipping. Played in the context of E5, and works with C and D variations. Has a touch of EJ vibe when played a certain way.
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Adding some audio context to my post. I used the above technique for the main melody section but kept it simpler with just 2 notes per string and a few variations. E flat key fwiw. The lead section uses similar wider scale ideas but more freeform and noodlely. :grin

Excuse the mix, I rushed it and need to fix some things.

 
In addition to prepping for an occasional solo guitar live set (described in post #829) or other occasional formal performances, my main regularly occurring musical activity is participating in open jazz jam sessions. So that is also something I'm working on, prepping for jam sessions.

Fortunately, there are five venues within reasonable driving distance (less than an hour each way) that hold open jazz jam sessions, and so in any given month I’ll participate in several, at least once a week. Here in Japan, at jams we use the 2 volume Jazz Standard Bible, with upwards of 500 tunes. Anything in there is fair game to call for a spontaneous unrehearsed jam. Sometimes, participants will bring charts for tunes beyond the JSB (esp. vocalists who have charts in their preferred keys).

I’ll play on most tunes called from the JSB, and I also have my favorite JSB tunes to call, but on occasion there are tunes I like to play that aren’t in the JSB. If I want to play them at a jam session charts are needed. Some people use iReal but arrangements vary so I prefer bringing charts. This can include bringing charts from the Real Book. Japanese musicians who lived in the US may have at least the first RB volume, but it's not on hand at sessions so as a courtesy I will prepare charts.

Today, I worked on prepping charts for two old swing tunes that I love to play, "If I Had You" and "Makin' Whoopee." I can bring copies of RB charts for them, but since jams are attended by horn players, I have to at least hand out chord charts for Bb and Eb instruments that are consistent with the arrangements on the RB charts that I use and which I give to the bassist and pianist. And, while I'm at it, since I use iReal Pro at home to practice tunes for jams, I edit the iReal charts to align them with the RB arrangements. There's a jam tomorrow night and Saturday, so I plan to try calling them.

Both tunes are primarily known as vocal numbers, and sometimes even sung as ballads or as slow swing tunes. But they've also been done as instrumentals, and I like the way they sound with a more bouncy, medium swing feel. While what we do at jams is our own thing, it's always nice to listen to renditions by those much more adept than we are. Below are versions of each that I like.

The first is "If I Had You" by Benny Goodman. It was something like his signature tune and he did it many different ways. His version that I like, and which I have in mind for jams, can be heard on an old cartoon. There's also another version by four top-notch guitarists, so I'm including that, too. You can really see their glee in playing around with its interesting changes, which is something to aspire to. "Makin' Whoopee" got on my radar from my brother, a drummer, who suggested it as a jam tune for when he visited Japan last year. I watched the film it was from and most versions are vocal, but I love how these guys do it. I also included my ad-lib on the latter from when my brother was here, which in this case happened to be from an open mic that was recorded by one of my students.







 
metropolis_4 said:
Working on building up the callouses on my picking hand fingers… ouch

But I’m liking the thumb pick + fingers approach more and more!
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Ever since I watched Bernth (guitarist/teacher extraordinaire on YT) inform that the proper pick grip for playing fast is laid across the 2nd bone of your first finger, then clamped onto with your thumb (I trust his teachings), I've been gradually moving mine down. I couldn't do it all at once since it felt unnatural at first.

As I worked it towards the 1st knuckle, I started developing a very-unwanted callous on the side of the tip of my 1st finger. PITA! I'd even go so far as to cut some of it off with fingernail clippers. Yep- a callous from my pick! I play a lot. ;):rawk

But I'm happy now that I'm comfortable with it where he said to place it, no more callous, and it has improved my picking.
 
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