Since my last entry on my blog, the band, Route 62, has had two practices. Last week we added the final two songs to our set list for our forthcoming gig, and now we have the luxury of just polishing them up and bringing them to an acceptable level for public performance. As this is going to be our first gig, I am sure that we will be ok, but not as sharp as we are going to get through playing a few more live situations. The one pain in the neck though is almost having to re learn the earlier so
As I said in my last blog entry, our band, now officially known as Route 62, is getting close to our first gig, which although is being done for free as a thank you for some very excellent rehearsal facilities which we enjoy without cost, we are expecting some sort of spin off one way or another via a couple of paid gigs. However, on a personal basis, I have not played live for a few years, so it will be good to dip my toe in the water again. Also, it will give us a chance to see which songs wor
The weekly practices are happening and things are moving forward nicely. However, we found that our success and work ethic of the past few weeks was the result of a really good plan - we had the first fourteen songs pre selected so we knew exactly what we were doing. As the main lead player in the band, I could work on solo parts weeks in advance and be ready when they were needed at rehearsal. It was an excellent method and was working really well. Anticipating the arrival of the day when we wo
A new year starts and we are back to getting the show on the road. Our new drummer has settled in and is now a part of the band fully. For a couple of months I have been very dubious about his commitment to the band, that he was just testing the waters and seeing how it goes with us - if he liked it he would stay, if not he would clear off and get another gig elsewhere when it came up. So, we are now a permanent set up as a band and I feel that I won't be having to get a new drummer again and br
This entry the story continues of our band trying to consolidate with a new drummer, Allen, an old hand enjoying retirement from work. You can see pictures on the thread I started entitled Band Practice.
We very sadly had to let our last drummer go. We liked him very much as a person, who ticked the essential box as being a nice guy. He could play well and we all liked him. However, he was the weak link in the chain and was the reason we were not going forward. Alongside a lack of communicat
It's been a while since I last updated my blog here on the HOC, Been meaning to, but I have been waiting until some developments came along so I had something more to write about.
Our band of four more was seeming to grind to a halt this year, Pete's daughter's brain tumour surgery took him out of action for two months, then he ended up in France picking grapes for three weeks, came back insect bitten but sun tanned and having a good time. He has a house of some description down in France an
After more than a year of planning, testing and procrastinating, the board has been upgraded to the latest version of the IP.Board software. Many changes have occurred, but the foundation of the HOC--it's members--remains in place. Hopefully, the new features will be a positive factor and not detract from the discussion and interactions.
If you notice anything broken, or experience any difficulties, please don't hesitate to drop me a PM.
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While on vacation this week, I realized that I had strayed a great deal from the intent of the blog starting with the ending of lessons with Sal. From there, I got more and more into learning songs than practicing theory (although I still do this fairly regularly). Throw that in with engineering school starting for me and I just simply don't have the time to invest in this as I want to and once had.
Thanks to all that followed it!
Been a couple weeks. I have a ton going on now. Between work and the baby and the girls, I have school now. Yep, back at college for my BS in mechanical engineering. Very good school for it, too; so, I am excited. I was seriously bummed when I heard they didn't have a jazz band anymore. Oh well.
I do have a jam prospect coming up though. A dude who is a Berklee grad says he'd like to put something together for small cafe gigs and what not. I am nervous at the prospect for sure but I know thi
So here we are, with a band up and running that can play some half decent songs, we have a superb practice facility which is free to use and the two guitarists and bass player duly spend our spare time practicing at home so we can at least get things done at rehearsals. We are fortunate, our drummer is a guy we get on really well with and has constructive input and good timing, knows his job and does it well.
But why do drummers seem to think that they can just turn up at a few practices and
Been a couple of weeks. Been playing a good bit.
Of course, still playing All of Me but I also picked up a new tune: Why Don't You Do Right as made famous by Peggy Lee.
Simple changes: Dmin7 (4 beats)- Bb7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) - Dmin7 (4 beats)- Bb7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) - Gmin7 (4 beats) - Bb7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) - Dmin7 (4 beats) - Bb7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) - Gmin7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) - Gmin7 (2 beats) - A7 (2 beats) .... and repeat.
I added a bit of rhythmic fl
I was visited by my old friend Ian Bolder,brother of Trevor recently.I'd shown him the entry I made on the Spiders From Mars,and the photo I took of his brother in ASDA ( Wall Mart ) Hull.He dropped by again,and left me this photo of his band playing a local pub in Hull called 'The Good Fellowship' Inn,towards the end of the '60's.
L to R, Mike Wright ,drums,Paul Sutton on a Gibson 330 guitar,Trevor Bolder on a Burns Trisonic bass,Singers name forgotten ( Sorry ),and Ian Bolder on a Vox Phantom
Still messing with All of Me. Getting to know the song better and better. I am up to being able to do a more learned improv up to the first Dmin from there... I just noodle.
Wound my first coils for pickups. Here is how it went. The first coil did GREAT! I got 3.92k on it! For what I was wanting, that was ON IT! Second coil.... not as well. Got a 2.7k out of it. Put the two together and I would be only slightly more resistance than a Fender single coil and would lose a noticable portion of t
Good week for me musically.
Still playing around with All of Me.
What I started to do was play along with a nice
.
I graduated from playing just the chord changes, to the chord changes with the melody included in the lead tones and then just just the melody.
After playing with the melody for a bit, I started to add little notes, sometimes just neighbor tones but others being from the scale.
For instance, the first part of the melody that has the lyrics, "All of me,..." is R-
Alrighty. What a week!
First off, I am registered for school. Good news is that I am starting as a Sophomore. So... only about 4.5 years to complete the degree as opposed to the 6-7 year track I was looking at. Very pumped.
Next, and many of you reading this on the Heritage Owners Club forums may already know, I got my first new guitar that wasn't a 'scratch and dent' that was heavily discounted and required some amount of work from me or some of my friends to get it functioning again. I
Sorry I have missed so many entries. I have had a full couple of weeks. I am preparing for starting school in August for my bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. On top of that, I had a nice lake getaway for the Fourth of July weekend. Been reading books on pickup making and so on. At work, they let go of everyone in what was our Toronto office so we are having to pick up their work load as well as shoulder what we already had.
On a playing note, I have really been messing around with
Ok. Another late one. So sue me. haha.
Been a busy week. My mother-in-law came in from Detroit. Good visit. She came for my son's first birthday which was this past Sunday. Had family over. Cooked out. Good times.
Musicially, I got very little playing in. With the guest and getting the house together, I just didn't get much time in that way.
Yesterday, however, I did get my book in on the history of pickups. Great, GREAT read. This is the one I got.
Sorry there isn't much info
Hello all.
Bad news on the pickup winding front. The school where I was going to go wind the pickups at got flooded so it may not be this weekend that I get to wind pickups but maybe a couple of weeks out. I should find out today or tomorrow whether or not they could get the water out.
Other than that, another good week. I got accepted into the university I wanted to go to for my bachelor's of science in mechanical engineering. Now it is just paperwork, funding and so on. I start this fa
Busy, busy, BUSY week!
I played for sure. I did a bit of jammin on Autumn Leaves. Always a good tune. More jammin with Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley.
Still working my way through the 6/4 position in the key of C major. I am up to the Fmaj7 arpeggio diatonic to C. As I complete these sets of arpeggios, I work on tying them together. I will go from Cmaj7 in the 6/2 position to the same in 6/4 and back. Dmin7 in between the two and so on. I will also go from, say, Cmaj7 in 6/4 to Dmin
It's 5pm here in very sunny Yorkshire, which as you may or may not know is the centre of the universe as we know it. And as I have been tidying the house for when she who must be obeyed arrives home from the surgery, I have been thinking about various guitar related stuff.
Since the arrival of my brand spanking new Tokai Les Paul, which I thoroughly believe to be better than the current Les Paul Standards I see in the shop, I haven't been able to put it down, and as a result, my playing is s
Due to my late entry for last week, this entry only comes a few short days after my last one... but I needed to get back on track.
Since my last and very recent entry, I have been going after the Dmin7 arpeggio diatonic to Cmaj in both the 6/1 and 6/4 hand positions. I have already committed 6/2 to memory.
The interesting part for me is that in the 6/4 position, the fingering pattern for Dmin7 is the same as Emin7 in the 6/2 position also diatonic to C. What this could ultimately mean fo
Sorry for the delay in getting this up.
Not much to report really.
Still running through exactly what I did last week going though all of the arpeggios diatonic to C in the 6/2 hand position. The cool part is I am feeling those runs being committed to habit and am having to think less and less about it as I do it.
Also, of the things Sal taught me, one of them was that the melody dictates the chords and not the other way around.
Taking that info, I went to a song me and buddy mes
We all love to make live music with our guitars, and it has been a good nine months since the last band I had put together called it a draw when all of a sudden the other guitar player decided that he didn't want to play in a band anymore. But I can respect that, he was after all, coming a long way and was working some long hours. So, we called it a draw and that was that. However, after a few months had gone by, Tony, our drummer, who incidentally had been brought in by Mike, our old guitarist,
