Here’s Mike's music rig, I call it his Karaoke machine as a jest. He custom built that cabinet, which he sets up in a bar and plays harmonica to pre-recorded music. That’s what I’m helping with. Bass and drum tracks. Mike is destined to be a solo because he does not grasp the things that have to change to play in a band. Like everybody playing the same version at the same speed. Mike knows zero music theory, so everything must be done the hard way. He’s not the only one, but it’s frustrating when someone can’t even imagine what you mean.
Not my day, certainly. And the rulebook says I have to tell you about it. So, I will try to pick out the nicest things. I did manage to hold to my strict diet. I had morning coffee at Kiss and learned they know Agt. M. The French Canadien lady stopped to talk for more than the critical four minutes, so you think that up on your own.I put three chicken thighs into a sour orange marinade. Then answered by e-mail world-wide. My now ex-lawyer called to advise me what I (not he) could do meet the conditions under which I gave him my money. In return, I reminded him the difficulties were a result of his doings, not mine. We did not discuss the limits of his responsibility, only that he, as an expert, knew the amount of time it took to get a hearing. He gave me the wrong advice and should make it right regardless of whether he personally is responsible. No, I’m not happy, but I think we can forget the summer in Colorado, the new motorcycle, and the Fishman PA system.
Mike said let’s record, so I was there for the afternoon. I needed distraction. That lawyer seriously set me back. Mike and I undertook a lengthy Blues recording session including passages that were needlessly tough. But I was in the mood for tough and we succeeded in producing three solid backing tracks I mentioned none of it was usable for my show, whence Mike said I need only change my attitude. Is that the kind of thing you learn in guitar school?
Also recorded was a sample of generic Blues in A, a practice track for the lead riffs slated for upcoming practice. Today’s recording reveal an engineering shortcoming with solid state mixer/recorders. The ones with memory cards (Tascam) have only two inputs and the ones with many inputs (Zoom) have no memory cards. First they unloaded the mixers with “x – 2” sets of input controls, and now this garbage. Also, the LCD screens, though backlit, remain far too small for the job.
I found time to study the lead patterns more closely. A lot of it is hammer-ons, bends, and technique. All of which we intend to learn in two months of effort. The goal is not to be the best, but to do basic blues breaks, and equally important, fills. It is tiring to find a fill player because these short riffs get drowned out by their egos.
Singapore has been prolific with advice concerning the transistors. That means they more than once met up with the same situation. This week’s lab taught is to stop regarding the lowly transistor as a tiny part of an IC, but to treat the device itself as one tiny IC. More precisely, to always place the load before the switch (at least with NPNs) and when not possible, to ground the base lead to make sure it is really off. These experiments are on the bench and not yet complete.
On that, I felt a deep tired inside and went up to Jimbos for a quiet drink and contemplated plenty. I did meet this guy who was in around 90% of the same places I was in Thailand, albeit ten years later. He did not speak Siamese, but certainly he must have been there to have such memories. Like myself, he rented a motorcycle a week at a time and really saw the country the tourists and backpackers always miss.
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