One year ago today: January 8, 2020, a sure sign of C+.
Five years ago today: January 8, 2016, with French lyrics.
Nine years ago today: January 8, 2012, they try, then quit.
Random years ago today: January 8, 2003, um, read the author’s notes.
The Beat Buddy is on my counter, and it began showing serious defects right out of the box. The major shortcoming is once again “guitar-think”. It has hundred of built in beats, most of them useless. Seriously, could I have a show of hands how many of you have ever used any Brazilian beats? That’s what I thought. While my influence is not on the original Beat Buddy, there are definite signs of it in the Singular Sound model—but once again, the builders could only copy, not innovate. First, take a look at this photo. Four Chrysler technicians. One hour. Now will everybody believe me those seats will not fold down?
You’ll see this as a verticall blue band that steps to the time left to right across the ridiculously tiny view screen. That’s the first symptom of stupidity. You must time your stage work to that timing. You heard me, you must look down at the pedal and time your playing to when the blue band is in the left-most position, or you will be off beat. That’s one more thing you have to do, which can somewhat be alleviated by their “intros”, a drum flourish that brings in the song. Problem. Many songs are not that suitable for flashy intros. Reverting to the built in metronome intro merely gives your stage performance that much-sought-after “ticky-bop” appeal.
I have not yet checked if the sold-separately foot switch addresses this problem. The footswitch is a hipster product, advertised for sale on-line but not available in the stores. You get there and the scam is you invested you time and gas and they’ve got you. Give them your identity for now, they’ll get the rest out of you later. But that is another story. The machine appears to have the usual 8 or 10 usable beats.
There was a Swede named Jan Ostman to published an Arduino sketch (the techie term for a program) that ran a drum machine on an Arduino. I only recently found out about a drum chip that is available, called the micro808, or ยต808. I had considered programming this into a stage-friendly machine, since the only changes I would be making are what makes the system super-friendly for live performances. Items like displaying the actual song titles, you song lists, and the actual drum tracks, which generally are not copyrightable. However, around a year ago (wouldn’t you now it), Ostman’s code suddenly disappeared and all his web sites and Wordpress account were shut down.
World’s best volleyball player.
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Here is a list of the newest tunes on my song list. Easy on the comments, I did not say this material was current, only that I'm laerning them. There is a tall set of qualifiations so the very latest hits may be lacking when it comes to what I consider fit for live performance in a solo setting. You don't get the whole rulebook, but if you've read much of my blog, you'll know the fundamentals. No slow music, no ballads, no jazz, minimal instrumental breaks, happy lyrics, and danceable.
That’s My Story
A Little Less Talk
Get Drunk & Be Somebody
Ain’t My First Rodeo
Brank New Girlfriend
One More Last Chance
Pretty Good At Drinking Beer
I Brake For Brunettes
I Like Girls Who Drink Beer
If you guessed I also avoid the overplayed standards, good eye. This are the popular names of the tunes, probably abbreviated since prevailing song titles tend to be lengthy. Is this a trend? These were also chosen for qualities that suit presentation with a drum box, such as stops and sections of just drums and vocals. From experience, I quickly adapt to using foot switches, this will just be the first time while playing guitar.
