The New Kit

After playing Bryce's drums a couple of weeks ago I decided that I would like to play drums again (after a 10 year hiatus). I took inventory and found some stuff to sell that would come out to about the same as the new kit. I looked at some used kits and found that I could get a new starter kit with hardware for about the same price. I ended up with a Sonor 503 kit. It is a 5-piece kit and it sounds suprisingly good for the little amount of cash that I spent on it.

Do not be surprised to see many drum related posts here in the future.


The New Kit


VK gives her best surly rocker look


The drummer pose

The Turkey Jam

The friday after Thanksgiving found me hosting another jam, this one was particularly cool because it was a gathering of friends. The legendary Jimmy Z of Southern Illinois University fame, Dr. Sean also of SIU fame, Chuck (a fixture here at Juniorrocker blog) and the long lost yet not forgotten Mr. Sauzer showed up to take my new drums for a test drive.

As a side note that made the Cubs to Cardinals ratio 4-1 in favor of the Cubbies.

We had an excellent jam, we found the addition of drums to be a welcome one, and sadly missed our bass player, and our substitute bass player and also our 2nd substitute bass player.

Dr. Sean played a fine blues and rock harp, and Jimmy, Sean and Chuck all ventured to the mic to add a little vocal spice to the tunes.

Pictures are posted below.

Chuck on mic

Chris on rhythm guitar

Flat on harp

Chuck and his Blues Hawk on lead

The Turkey Jam Setup

Wilco -- complete tablature!

Here is a wonderful discovery! All things Wilco . . . including tabs for all songs * all albums!
Wilco

Teaching VK to Drum

I am the proud owner of a 1995 Tweed Fender Blues Jr. Amp!

It arrived yesterday and I rushed to play it. I plugged it in with my chain of effects (Digitech RP-80, MXR EQ, Dunlop Crybaby Wah) and the damn thing buzzed its ass off. It sounded cool, especially with all my effects off. It still buzzed and I feared that I had become the proud owner of an amp someone else didn't want for a reason. I then unplugged all the crap and plugged straight into the amp and AHHHHHHH silence. So now I have an amp that sounds sweet totally straight. No lugging around a bunch of pedals, just me, my tele and my fat Blues Jr.

My "new" Fender Tweed Blues Jr. amp

ActiveGuitar.com

Activeguitar.com is an excellent site, I am especially impressed with their lessons. The have a good selection of bluse lessons, and of particular note are Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lightnin' Hopkins, and John Lee Hooker style lessons.

I learned 2 things and corrected something that I thought I knew in the first 10 minutes. The interesting thing is that I was actually googling "Lightnin' Hopkins Tab" to get a feel for the riffs that he plays. I was listening to him on the ride home from work and jamming blues harp. I swear people in traffic must think I am crazy or smoking crack or both, but it don't matter to me.

Two Big Head Todd and the Monsters songs we should learn

Here are the tabs to two Big Head Todd and the Monsters songs that I think would be fun to play and easy to learn for "jamming". If you jam with me and read my blog. . . try them out.

Broken Hearted Savior

Essentially:

Verse:
GCF
GCF
Bridge:
DCD
CD
C

Circle
Easy song that goes essentially:
Verse:
E DCD E DCD x4
Bridge:
EDGD
EDGD
EDGAE

Bryce Jamming

Bryce (in an attempt to escape a girl party at his house) came over tonight to play, and record some stuff.

I managed to capture the Bryce song in various forms (Both Bryce's bass, and my crappy guitar, and just Bryce's bass line alone) and get it onto my computer for editing etc.) as well as most of a 12-bar blues in E.

11/13/04 11:00 AM - Here is the version of the Bryce Song that I recorded.

I really enjoy the time I get to spend with Bryce alone because he is an excellent teacher, and although I sometimes feel bad that I spend more time soaking up stuff than playing I get the sense that he has enjoyed my progress (if you didn't know this Bryce got this thing rolling over a year ago by loaning me a couple guitars and giving me a few lessons).

Some of the stuff I learn is very tangible, like he showed me the fingering for "wish you were here" by Pink Floyd as a way to work on my G-Chord as opposed to the sloppy thumb/ring finger way that I have made a G forever. Some of the stuff that I get is a little more esoteric like watching his strumming techniques or observing the way he can figure stuff out by ear.

I am looking forward to next weekend when Bryce will bring his drum kit over so I can bang on his drums which will be the first time in about 10 years for me. I had drum instruction and sat in as a practice drummer for a gigging band when I lived in Rhode Island in the early '90s.

Anyway thanks Bryce. It was fun as always.

Guitar Tab at Guitar Tricks

Nevermind. This site is evil, and although I found some useful stuff the pop-ups and ad timers are way to big a price to pay for them.
This is a silly site, but has some fun riffs and stuff.

WARNING!! Lots of ads and popups.

Guitar Tab at Guitar Tricks

Blues Tools - Get the Right Gear and Sound like Your Heroes

Guitar Player Online - Archives

My new Fender Blues Jr. Tweed Amp

Blues JuniorTM 15 Watts
This warm-toned favorite takes our 15-watt, tube preamp and power amp platform and pushes it through a 12” Jensen Fender® Special Design speaker.
Add our renowned Fender Reverb, flexible controls, and footswitchable FAT circuit for golden tones.
• 15 watts into 8 Ohms
• Two EL-84 Groove Tube output tubes
• Three 12AX7 preamp tubes
• Master, Preamp Volume, Bass, Middle and Treble
• FAT switch
• Fender Reverb
• Chrome panel
• Vintage pointer knobs
• 16” H x 18” W x 9.18” D
• 31 lbs.

Acid Loops and song composition

Jamming has taught me a few things, and one of those important things is that music is more than one instrument. Although music can be stark, like that from one instrument like a guitar, it is more lush and full with a complement of instruments.

My little drum machine that I use to practice with has helped me with rhythm, and I definitely create more interesting sounds with it, I have been lacking a lot of the other basics.

To solve that I purchased some loops. I got one called Bass Taster which allows me to play over some bass lines in a variety of keys and tempos. I can lay these on top of some drum tracks from either of the other loop packages that I got Discrete Drums: Slow Rock Drums, These Drums are Loud and then add some other elements from the Pop/Rock Guitar Toolbox.

I have just started playing with this a little, but it goes something like this . . . I import some bass parts into Cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro then find a drum part that sounds good with it, then pump it into my Tascam 4 track, and play some guitar stuff over the top of it.

I seriously lack composing skills, so the results are often horrible. BUT. . . like everything else in this world the more you do something the better you get at it, and as I work at it I am better able to focus my learning energy to find the type of information that helps me make progress.

Perhaps sometime soon I will put something together that doesn't sound like a porn soundtrack or the theme song to CHiPs, and post it here.

Bruce Springsteen does the National Anthem

Bruce performing his interpretation of "The Star-Spangled Banner"

11/11/04 - Apparently I posted this without the link. It now works.

Garage Recording

I really wanted to play and record acoustic tonight, but didn't want to disturb my sleeping wife and baby. My solution was to take all my gear (the Tascam 4 track, my Martin Acoustic-electric, and my trusty microphone) out to the garage farthest away from them.

For two hours I recorded miscelaneous stuff in the cool cold garage. Tomorrow I will listen to it, and see if anything is worth keeping. I did something different this time, I just recorded stuff and didn't have any do-overs intentionally. I find if I am trying to play something perfectly I am very picky and never get through it. This approach felt better, so we will see tomorrow if it was effective.

My weird friends

Just for a shot of fame apparently my friend crm posted this:

I would risk the serpent's bite
I would dance around with seven
I would kiss the diamond back
If I knew it would get me to heaven

Chorus:
'Cause I want to get right with God
Yes, you know you got to get right with God
I would burn the soles of my feet
Burn the palms of both my hands
If I could learn and be complete
If I could walk righteously again
I would sleep on a bed of nails
'Till my back was torn and bleeding
In the deep darkness of Hell
The Damascus of my meeting
I asked God about his plan
To save us all from Satan's slaughter
If I give up one of my lambs
Will you take me as one of your daughters?

Sadly these passages are lost on me as I do not feel the need to "get right with God", nor do I favor Lucinda Williams who seems to get the credit for this particular verse.

What is up with you people trying to freak me out. You should all read Shaharazada Jones' post about my whiteboard and leave me more nice comments like that.