One year ago today: March 7, 2017, rice & chicken.
Five years ago today: March 7, 2013, I grabbed my tomatoes.
Nine years ago today: March 7, 2009, delivering the wow.
Random years ago today: March 7, 2005, I still have that Denon.
Have you seen this photo before? Then you’ll know it is a radio direction finder strapped to this Gestapo agent’s waist. The strap around his neck served as the antenna. He would walk around seeking the direction from which the radio signal was strongest. So, what is the relevance to this blog? Well, have you ever wondered why your electric power sometimes winks off and back on again for no apparent reason? It could be the authorities have detected an unregistered (notice I did not say illegal) transmitter and they will cut off power in each section of a city until they narrow down the location.
Rehearsal went surprisingly well. So, we now have proof that she can play the material. She’s got a distinct style about it, but that is no barrier. Thus, I can report progress. She really clamped down and learned nine of the tunes. However, I’m not somersaulting yet because this means this band is going to happen the hard way and I was kind of hoping I’d get some kind of break on that after all these years. This still overshadows everything else for the day. And I emphasize this is further than any other guitar player has managed in two years.
The sound is country duo, as I’ve explained, but we are playing some definitely un-country tunes. This betrays my background as a lounge musician. The music is still in character for the typically small venues
What I’m hearing is people saying how they would have liked to have us instead of the band that played this or that place. I gather they are mostly talking about eating establishments. This is unknown territory to me. I like to think of my band is a little racier than what would be suitable for a restaurant, unless it was like a chili cook-off or similar. Let’s not rule anything out until we hear what they are offering to pay. There is one band that is getting definite complaints, and I agree because I’ve heard them. That’s the same two 30-ish guitar players mentioned here more than once and the same ones featured in my video “Nobody’s Listening”.
They take the Hippies set list and play it to death. That list is filed under “Guitar Funeral Music”. When people compare us to that duo, I just say that they would win any music contests. That’s true, technically they are fine musicians. But I think to myself my god, they aren’t playing that junk on weekends, are they? It’s like listening to a music lesson.
As a reminder, after a certain age, every positive is offset by some negative. I supposed that explains why so many older people are cynical, though I will never dismiss poor life choices as the primary cause for that. In this instance, I arrived back home just before dark totally exhausted. Enough so that I already know I can write off tomorrow as well. This is the reason I invested in a 28 pound PA system. And my entire band gear is small enough that if I had to, I could sleep in the car beside it. Don’t laugh, and may you life long enough to have such troubles.
San Antonio, Texas.
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Immediately after the lesson, I grabbed a coffee and analyzed how it went. This material is very presentable, but she still has that slight hint of her old comping habit. In the main, however, she is able to play a unique strum to the tunes we covered today. Nine tunes, which is a respectable rehearsal. She did not learn the circle of fifths as I advised, and now she is sorry because she has to learn most of the chording the hard way. It also means she has to memorize things that would be automatic if she’d done the theory and it makes it almost impossible for her to change keys quickly. Oh well, I warned her about that since day one.
She’s also getting better at keeping things simple, this takes work. I prefer a basic chop with perfect timing to all the lead breaks in the universe. This is becoming noticeable in her playing as she begins to spot how it tends to be a better sound, particularly during my frequent and highly syncopated bass runs. This is important, because it means she has learned the strumming well enough to notice my arrangements tend toward the intricate. Makes sense, since they are chosen for that quality. Only rarely are we both playing the same thing, and this is a hurdle many guitar players can never get over. We do it, but even then, it is planned for effect.
The last big improvement for today’s rehearsal was that once she got that “drum beat” concept on guitar, it freed me up to not have to play every root note. In some bands, you have to do that consistently or they get thrown off. The effect gives us a fuller sound, which is, in my opinion, wonderful. When you hear just the music, her on guitar, me on bass, you can also hear a very distinct drum pattern that isn’t there. Got that? It also means we can now strum through most of the instrumental breaks playing just what we do. (Mind you, I generally punch up my runs to add some spice, hence, the accusation that I’m “playing lead” on the bass.)
The above, I am proud to say, is the exact thing most lead guitar players do not want to hear. Since we practice at her place, anybody is free to listen in, but the main audience is the five rescue dachshunds, who form a ring around me on the sofa and fall asleep. Do we get criticism? Sure, but mainly it is not anything I’d worry on. I’m not concerned with how well the music would be accepted at other venues, since I’m zeroed in on the largest market.
But that doesn’t mean let down my guard. I am prone to overkill, that is, to put so much distance between what I do and the rest that they are reluctant to even try. This has backfired on me before, may times actually. You see, the fact is it is always easier [for my competition] to copycat than to create. There is nothing difficult about what I do, what sets my act apart is the infrastructure, the way it is put together and presented. That would be a challenge, but to merely play the same songs and imitate at that level, my system is vulnerable as hell. On that count, I’ve had people who could not compete go so far as to break up the band.
My own brother turned on me over that, you know. He did nothing but berate me for my interest in music until he was around 14. Then something snapped and he went ballistic. He accused me of “stealing all the ideas” of things he was going to do, behavior normally associated with someone half that age. There really wasn’t much he could do to me, so he went after the band. Constantly telling them they didn’t need me, they were better than me, I was only holding them back, etc. It took him a year, but eventually the band broke up and reformed without me. Their reward? While they’ve played here and there over the years, they lost money on every gig. They had fired the money-making part of the band.
[Author’s note: once again, I know I’m over-recording the events surround band start-up, but I also believe the blogs I write on that topic to be one of the only truly definitive sources about what is really involved. I have read just too many glossy magazine interviews where successful bands describe their Disney World version of the way they remember things—and I know for a fact those false memories displace what really went on.
For instance, I often warm up by playing amusing (to me) riffs from other types of music, particularly lounge music (think Jimmy Buffet) which I have never played in Florida. I told you, the cruise lines made on-shore lounges extinct except in hoity-toity hotels, which I dislike for the same reason as most Florida musicians.
The point here is my guitarist is figuring out the method I’ve shown her is excellent for playing Rock and Blues. The snag there is I cannot sell that brand of music. But now she is glomming onto all kinds of non-country tunes that I never intended to be on the list. She loves them rock numbers. So do I. But it took me 30 years to learn why not to play it.]
ADDENDUM
The only unusual item on my diet is that I regularly eat raw fish, mostly cod or herring. From reading, I identified this category as the most neglected item in the North American diet. They have to put iodine in the salt to make up for it. I love sardines, but could not find any this morning. Instead it was a can of boiled oysters. How did that get here? Anyway, I tried them since I once saw JZ eat 39 in one sitting. Remember Fort Meyers Beach? Well, I never cared for them years ago and got the same reaction this time. I tried them on toast, then sautéed in butter. Nothing helped. If you want some, help yourself.
That so many people are allergic to this kind of food suddenly seems rather convenient for them. Boiled oysters. I think I’d prefer just to eat the horseradish sauce. But if all else fails, maybe develop an allergy to anything I don't like? Nomsayn?
Last Laugh
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