Fright-night

Jam night tonight.. woooooooooooooooo
and Happy Halloween. :)

Last lesson-for now

I had my last lesson last night, worked on a little bit of technique stuff, Roger worked on the setup on my bass a little bit, and went over a little bit of scales. I did come to a realization though. It's really hard for me to play even simple stuff for him, without messing up, and playing VERY stiff. I don't know if I'm just nervous, or what. But trying to practice some stuff after the lesson on my 5-string was actually easier than trying to play it on my Ibanez during the lesson. I'm going to have to work on relaxing.

update... sorta

Quick update.
Haven't been practicing much this past week. I did play some pretty good stuff, and got a few compliments about my bass and rhythm guitar playing on Friday night. Ed said I'm an excellent rhythm guitar player. Which is great to hear. :) I've got my last lesson tonight, and probably heading up Tim's with Dad and Ed next Wednesday night. Jam with the big boys again for a bit. I'll have to practice playing standing up for a bit, so I embarrass myself less. I'll probably end up playing guitar for a bit too, since Ed is a much better bass player than I am.

Running out of time

Lesson 3 of 4 is down. I took the cd to the lesson, and Roger helped (okay he did all the work) me learn the bass line for most of Running Into Walls by Into Another. Fun little bassline, and sounds a lot more complicated to me, than it really is. That being said, I was VERY impressed with Rogers' ear. He listened to the song, plucked a couple strings, and then bam, started writing down the notes on the staff for me. I was more impressed with how he was able to pick out the bassline, then I was with his playing of it. Regardless, it was a lot of fun. I'm actually starting to like taking lessons. I wish I wasn't so broke, so I could keep them up. Unfortunately next week if my last lesson. :( On the plus side, I've got tons of stuff to work on, so the plan is to work on saving up some money, practice a whole bunch, then go visit Roger again, and say look what I can do now, what's next? But till then, I need to practice more, and keep working on playing a few songs really well. Oh, and of course writing my own stuff. :)

two down, two to go

Lesson number three is tonight, I'm planning on bringing a cd to see if Roger can help me work on picking out basslines. I'm bringing a HARD song to learn, so maybe he can explain more of it, than a simple Root-third-root-fifth type line. Also I told him I want to work more on technique, since I'm still working on the scales and stuff, and once I memorize them, it'll be easier to learn the rest of what he might be able to teach me. Welp, that's the updates for now. Take it easy and wish me luck "true believers".

Drummers really do help.

I skipped on having a bass lesson last Wednesday, but I'm going back this week. The original reason for skipping a week was to have more time to practice, but things didn't really happen that way. I did however have a great time playing Wednesday night. I joined my dad and a few of his friends for a jam night. I brought my 5-string, played standing up, and with a drummer for my first time ever. I'm not used to playing the 5-string, and I've very rarely played standing up, so it was a pretty awkward experience, and I wish I could have played better. I did okay though, my song structure knowledge and guessing where the progression goes is getting better. I enjoyed playing with a drummer though. It did help me realize my timing is pretty good. I do want to start learning songs, not just scales. It's a lot of fun to just jam and play stuff off the cuff, but think I need to work on some more structured stuff, to help with consistent playing. I'm thinking a few Pink Floyd songs, like Money, and Comfortably Numb. I have a rough idea how both of them go. Money I've got in one of my books too, so I'll have the music and tabs in front of me, plus I've got them both on cd, so I can practice playing it "live". So much to work on, so little free time. I want to try working on my ear too, like trying to sit down and listen to a song and figure out how to play the bass line. That one is going to be tough.

My Best Friends Are Poured From Bottles

Just a working title for lyrics in the works. Here's another set of lyrics that aren't finished. Ditto on the music. I've got a strum pattern and chord progression, no bass, no leads(probably won't be much in the way of those), no clue on drums/percussion, etc.

I wake up and I crack one open
I sit down and drink it back.
Drunk all day and into night time
Just can't seem to put it down.

A lot of nights, that I can't remember.
Plenty of mornings where I wake up drunk.
My best friends are poured from bottles.
I know you'd like to disagree.
Vodka's always been a friend of mine
Tequila's helped to keep me sane.
Always there when I need Southern Comfort
Always here when I need some peace of mind.
Pull a bottle from the freezer
Pour a shot, and drink it down.

Snake Bass?

Naw, just still working on scales... a snake bass could be kind of cool though. I'm still pretty confused about different modes of scales. My bass teacher and book kind of contradict each other. Maybe I'll do some research. I love the fact that I'm taking lessons, but I don't feel like I'm getting a ton of use from them. I don't have a lesson this coming Wednesday, but I am going back the week after. I haven't had much time to practice lately, but when I do, it's all about scales and finger exercises. It's odd, it's almost like I'm just now starting to learn how to play. I'm trying to relearn how to read music. Mostly the bass clef for now, I'll work on treble after I get good at bass. I guess the way I see it now is, I'm actually learning how to play music. I know HOW to play the bass, I don't know how to play music. If that makes sense. I'm relearning the fundamentals, like how you build scales, how you use them, and the theory behind playing. I have a basic understanding or chord structure and song structure, but I'm pretty clueless on how to effectively apply it to playing. I am realizing how important fretboard knowledge is. If I was better at that, it would make figuring out new chords(on the guitar) much easier.

Key things I'm working on...
1.) Learning scales, starting with major and minor for all 7 keys(yes I know there's more including flat keys, those are next. Which includes memorizing what's sharp or flat in each key.

2.) Learn the neck! When someone says Bb, I need instinct to kick in and I hit the Bb, not look down, find a note I know and count up or down to find it.

3.) Reading music, specifically the bass clef. Honestly right now, this isn't super important for me, tabs can get the job done as far as notes. Yes the timing is hard to figure out, but how often am I going to be trying to learn a song I don't know? Not very. I'm not in a cover band, and a lot of the stuff I want to do, is write my own songs.

4.) Practicing more consistently. I need to give myself a set time to play, and what I'm going to play. I also need to try and remove any distractions. Ideally, I want to practice everyday.

Insert pretentious song name here

I don't have a name for this, but I do have a rhythm pattern. Played it for a bit with Dad. He laid down a little bit of some blues licks over my rhythm. It sounded pretty good. Dad seemed to like it too. No bass tracks or anything yet, but it'll come along. There's definitely some more lyrics needed, but not a whole lot.

The clouds have opened up my eyes
Wrapping 'round the glowing sun
Holding on for dear life,
like a child to his mom.
The sun is shining too bright
The rays are hurting my eyes
I think I'm going blind
All my senses seem so dulled
Perhaps it's my time to go

There you have it, my first "published" lyrics.

Forgot to mention

I started working on a new song... I know, I know, I haven't even finished the last two! But sometimes, it just kind of hits me, different timing to the lyrics, and they don't quite go with the others I've written. I've learned I can't force my brain to push out the lyrics as I want them. I have to wait until it's ready to spill them onto the page for me. I'm usually VERY insecure about my writings/lyrics, but that's how I am with most things. Which is one of the reasons I have this blog. I've got the stuff written down at home, so maybe later tonight, I'll post them up in here, and maybe get some feedback from you? All one of you who reads my blog(thanks Chai ;)). I'm hoping as I get more comfortable with posting stuff here and in general with my writings/music/self I'll be tossing more and more up here.

I do realize a bit of my writings have my own rhythm that I hear in my head infused with the wording. The problem with that is, you can't hear my rhythm(until I can play it well enough and sing it, with music for you). So I'm hoping the stuff doesn't read as poorly as I think it may.

Ding! round one is over

So, I had my first of four(minimum) bass lessons last night. The teacher is a really nice guy. A little frantic and spacey, but overall a nice guy. We went over a bit of the basics or theory. How chords are built, how scales are built and how the modes are built off of the scales. Some of which I understand and know already, so we just glanced over the stuff I know. It was a nice refresher course, and made me realize I understand more than I thought I did, but I apply it less than I thought I did. If that makes any sense. The lesson did confirm my knowledge of the fretboard is abysmal! especially once I get above the A-string. I'm working on remembering to call the E-string low, as in it's the fourth string on the bass, not the first. That's something that's a matter of perspective, but I'm finding more people who refer to the G-string as the first string. I also noticed that I've already gotten too used to having the B-string on my new bass. I brought my Ibanez to the class, and kept starting scales and such on the A-string, when I should have been starting on the E. I have a feeling I'm really going to want to keep up my lessons for a bit after my four "free" ones, but I really don't think I can afford it. :/ We'll see how the next 3 lessons go though. I head back next Wed. at 8:00pm.