I'm Just Sayin'...

Well, I never thought this day would come...



It's not here yet, but supposedly you can listen to the whole album on the GnR myspace page. No, I'm not going to give a link. If you're interested then Google the damn thing...

Is it any good? I've not listened to it yet (though I'm sure I will over the weekend out of some perverse curiosity). Reviewers seem to be giving it a reluctant 4/5, saying that it's no "Appetite..." but it's better than "Use Your Illusion". Overall the response has been positive. The primary criticism leveled at it seems to be that none of the songs are "Paradise City" or "Sweet Child..."

I'm not a major Guns fan. I own "Appetite..." and love it, but I never heard anything off the other albums to make me sit up and take note...

And no, I have no idea why I can't be bothered to type in the whole track names! Sue me! No, not you Mr Rose... please don't sue me!

Oh, and Project news, blah-blah, Rockschool tonight... AND band practice. I have to cut part of the end of class and part of the beginning of Band Camp to shoehorn both into one evening. Eek!

Geez...

When the hell was the last time I posted????

Apologies, avid reader [cough]. Busy, busy!

Last post was about band practice, eh? Okay, catchup time then.

First up, had Rockschool the following day (last Thursday). Had our first little exam. Did okay. I think I scored 80%. Most of it was about chord construction, what chords are in the major keys etc. Some was practical 'play this scale in this key' stuff. I pretty much goofed on 2 out of 10 in each section. I was really distracted that night, I can tell you. I even had to ask for one question to be read out again as I'd zoned out completely, thinking about work.

For homework we were supposed to learn our study-partner's song, then learn and tab out the chord structure for the first song in our 'easy' songlist. Mine was "Mr Tambourine Man" which has a structure, albeit a rather changeable one depending upon how many lyrics Mr Dylan wanted to throw in. We were also given a number of pentatonic hammer-on exercises, which, for some reason, have been giving me trouble. They shouldn't be hard, but my issues arise on the high B/E strings. I can't seem to get the notes clean and switching from the 2 semi-tone to 3 semi-tone interval from the G to B-string trips me up every time. Not a clue why. I used to think I was pretty good at that stuff!

I actually didn't work (real work) at all over the weekend. My excuse was that I was stuck at home waiting for a plumber, who didn't come on Saturday then didn't turn up on Sunday until late... and who's supposedly coming back tomorrow morning to try to fix our boiler startup problems, though he doesn't come across as particularly convinced that he knows what the issue is. The upside to that was that I got to wail on the axe for a bit, both acoustically and with some electrification. It felt good. Very good.

Band practice this week is on Thursday, overlapping with Rockschool, so I'm going to have to cut out of class early and arrive late at the studio. I used to complain that I didn't have enough guitar going on... now I'm having scheduling conflicts! Quite the change. I still don't know how I'm going to juggle Rockschool and The Band and still do both justice. Frankly, though, The Band comes first in my books. It's what I want. In many ways it was the reason for signing up to RS in the first place. It just so happened that, like London buses, I waited forever then the two came along at once.

Tonight I have to write out the structure of "Mr Tambourine Man" properly so that I can perform it in class on Thursday. Any more playing than that is a bonus!!!

Oh, and as Tim's away on a residential course this weekend I should have lots of time for practice. If I can I'm going to head down to the Magic Ship (supporting) gig in Barnes on Friday night to hopefully kick of a rockin' weekend.

Band Rehearsal #2

Okay, before I forget, The Project's now into its last 50 days. That's not many shopping days 'til Xmas, campers! I guess come New Year's I'll reflect on where I'm at, what I'm doing and where I'm going. I'm tempted to do so now... but 50 days is 50 days (except it's actually 48 now). Anything can happen.

The other thing I want to say up front is that I'm shattered, mentally bunged up and about as stressed out as I've been in my life. Work. Why do we have to do it, people? Why, I ask you? Would civilization really crumble if we all just stopped?

[Don't answer that. I know what you're going to say]

I remember the days,
Free and clear,
The world so small,
Was big enough for me.

So, work, stress, ugh.

Outside of that little arena I have the two major things going on. Band and Rockschool. It's too early to write off Rockschool completely (and I'm not going to), but damn, it looks like it's going to be hard work and I don't currently see where all this practice time is going to come from!!! Maybe after the contract I'm working on is done I'll have more time but right now juggling all these balls is getting to be a challenge. I can't even goof off much because a) we get tested on it and b) we're working with partners. I'm not going to complain, though. I signed up for it and the value for money quotient is super high.

That leaves band news. We had rehearsal #2 last night. Everyone turned up, plugged in and played. If I'm being 100% honest I didn't feel like I acquitted myself well last night. Not enough practice time... preoccupied... stressed. I did okay, but only 'okay'. The three hour session went in a flash. Scary.

As with last time I really enjoyed the moments I got the room to myself while everyone else was off for a fag break. It meant that I could just close my eyes, crank my amp and lean into my very own wall of sound.

[Note: the amp I got last night was an old Peavey combo... which really, really sucked]

If anything, the highlight of the evening was running through "I Wanna Be Your Dog". It's not hard to play but I got to take out a lot of my current frustration, really just letting go and surrendering myself to the moment.

We ran through the other songs we'd played before, including "Supersonic", "Strange Brew" etc. On "Strange Brew" I do the groove-rhythm. Boy did I suck the first couple of times!!!! Finally I started getting it, but my fingers were just not working early on.

We did some Hendrix stuff, too, and also had a go at revamping "Once In A Lifetime" by Talking Heads. It has potential to be rocked-up.

The surprise addition to our playlist was a song that the other guitarist, Bo, had written. It sounded really good. Most of it was just a vamp on E and A5 with some pinky 'add' notes and some low E runs. I think it may end up being worked up into our first very own original.

I have to say that I'm actually really impressed with everyone in the band. They're good guys, open to stuff 'n' all, all bringing something to the table. If anything I feel I'm lagging behind as I just haven't had the time and energy to invest in it this past month.

Energy. I need energy. I've been at work pretty much every day for as long as I can remember now. We have a major milestone on Tuesday and then another the end of the month. It'll be done, because it needs to be, but I really just want to NOT work this weekend, hang the consequences. I've spoken with my boss to try and 'manage his expectations', so we'll see how that goes.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

And it's Rockschool tonight, so I can't work late. The positive spin on RS is that it gives me a chance to escape real life. For those two hours every Thursday I get to step out of my day-to-day situation and relax. I just hope I don't end up being the guy who comes to class but never does the homework. That'd be a major waste of time.

Venice Day

Okay, so this is going to sound like I broke my 'never drink before lunchtime' rule... which doesn't apply when one's in New Orleans, obviously... but for some reason I really felt like I should be in Venice today.

I think it started this morning when I climbed onboard my gondola... erm... scooter. The blue skies and crisp cold air were strangely reminiscent of the last time we were in the city of fallen angels, almost two years ago.



Two years. Wow. It doesn't seem that long.

I know it sounds weird, but I'm sometimes hit by 'spirit of place' moments. Some days I feel like I should be on a greek island... sometimes in Paris... quite often in Amsterdam. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to feel like I'm centred in London. On days like that I feel a real connection to the city, seeing it with the fresh eyes of a tourist.

The love of travel is both a gift and a curse. Some days you wake up to the city in which you live, knowing deep down that at that precise moment in time you're 'supposed' to be somewhere else.

Shit, maybe I just need another vacation. At least in a few weeks we're off to visit friends of ours in Paris to celebrate Thanksgiving. The benefit of being one half of an anglo-american couple. You get two turkey days a year!

I think that sometimes feeling displaced like this is a good thing. It often signals the start of a creative patch... let's hope that's the case this time as my creativity has been running at an all time low.

It's band practice #2 tonight. Maybe I'll be inspired to start writing some original songs for the guys. Right now all I'm shooting for is to be able to find my G-string with both hands.

Monday Blurp...

Once again, no time!

Toxic Slut set on Friday was really good. They did 30 minutes and really had everyone along for the ride. Covers included Clash, Aerosmith stuff and so on, punkee-stylee.

While I didn't spend the whole weekend in the office, I was briefly at work both Saturday and Sunday, which sucked. Particularly as I got embroiled in the traffic diversions from the Lord Mayor's Show during a serious downpour on Saturday. I was soaked to the skin even before I could find somewhere to pull over.

We finally get to have our second band rehearsal this week! Yay! Oh... now wait a minute... I've hardly had any time to practice the material. D'Oh! Best pull Red out tonight I guess. Neighbours, I apologise in advance.

With Rockschool, I decided to shoot for the Grade 5 exam in June. From their website:

"You will be confident in a range of physical and expressive techniques. You will be able to demonstrate your abilities across a number of styles and have control over tone and sound adjustments to suit the playing style of your choice."

Exam requirements:

These should be played at 100 bpm in a straight feel: eighth notes

Group A Scales 2 octaves to be prepared chromatically in the keys of G-B, root note 6th string
• Minor pentatonic scales: The candidate must prepare all positions and the examiner will ask two consecutive positions

Group B Arpeggios 2 octaves to be prepared chromatically in the keys C-E, root note 5th string
• Major arpeggios
• Minor arpeggios
• Minor 7 arpeggios
• Dominant 7 arpeggios

Group C Chords
• Root 5th string barre chords: C, Dm, Em7, F, G. Play as a continuous sequence

Group D Legato Study. Candidates should prepare the eight bar legato study to be performed with the backing track.

Doesn't sound too bad... but I don't know how I'll play in an exam type situation! Realistically, passing the exam is secondary to getting something out of the course for me.

Rockschool homework...? Been trying to learn all the notes on all the strings. It's not easy to do without resorting to some kind of 'relative' methodology, such as knowing that if you skip two frets down then two frets over, then if that's a C on the A-string then it's a C on the G string... just have to keep plugging away at it I guess. I learned the A-string by remembering that the 3rd, 5th and 7th frets were C, D and E respectively. Once you know that, everything else falls into place. Brain exploding... Danger Will Robinson, Danger!

Maybe I should just stick a crib sheet on the back of my guitar in case we get tested this week!