Done deal... mostly

So yeah, we recorded and it went okay, and I have only listened to hear mistakes and problems and not to see whether I LIKE it... stay tuned... or not...

More interesting to me at the moment is that I have decided to learn to play electric guitar, really play it, not just play AT it. If I would have started playing electric when I was 10 I'd probably be having a pretty good time with it by now. But starting to seriously learn it at 44... well, that's different. But I'm determined to get there, because I've had a hankering to for years.

Most guitary stuff comes pretty naturally to me, so having to struggle with something is very new. So I'm bringing books and DVDs home that I can work with - got a new one from Hal Leonard, At A Glance Blues Guitar with DVD, which seems like a good thing to start with. I know scales and stuff, but I don't practice that way. I think this fall and winter I will do some serious woodshedding.

For any fellow guitar nerds reading this - I borrowed a Taylor Solid Body Classic, which is a really nice guitar, with 2 mini-humbuckers and a 5-pos switch, one volume, one tone, and I'm playing through a Peavey Bandit 112. So far I'm keeping it clean, because I just don't know how to do dirty... being an acoustic guitarist, I tend to want to hear THE GUITAR and not so much the amp - the less I notice the amp, the happier I get. But electrics, wow, you gotta play the amp as much as you play the guitar, and that's the thing I'm really struggling with.

Is there anybody who can actually articulate an explanation/answer for what I'm not getting? More than, "Well, you just... do it, it's a feel thing. You'll know it when you feel it." Well, no shit, Sherlock, that's real helpful. Roadmap, anyone?

Well, whaddayaknow?

I recorded yesterday... didn't mean to, nor did I really want to, but the man talked me into it. Cajoled and manipulated is more like. And the tracks turned out really well. I played as well as I ever do, and everything seems real solid. We recorded guitar and vocals separately for the first time in my entire recording history, and much as I hate to admit it, it really worked. Shock and surprise. Now there are some other technical difficulties plaguing the project, and if I have to record it all again I will hurt somebody.

Long quiet

It may seem as though I have been quiet a long time, and while I have not blogged for months, I have been anything BUT quiet. It's perhaps too long a tale to tell.

The CD I was so dedicated to recording is still in limbo. Many reasons. But I have decided that I need to get it done by the end of the summer, so... by September 21. No later. That's it. I am playing better than I have in a very long time, and will continue to keep playing and working on my chops several times a week, so when I am finally ready - really ready - it will be much easier.

I hope.

Recording is not relaxing or pleasant for me. Always too stressful. But it's gotta be done.