After multiple weeks of keeping the guitars safe and sound in their carry bags within the office closet, we’ve finally created enough room where I can put out the two electrics again! My Gretsch (which is in dire need of cleaning and retuning, seems like) is now parked right next to my desk where I can pick it up and noodle around on it whenever I feel the need. My Fender P-Bass is nearby in front of one of the other bookcases.
I don’t remember if I’d mentioned it here before, but I’m thinking of getting rid of my two acoustics as they acquired more dust than play during the Spare Oom years. I enjoyed playing them, I just never found enough time for it. I’m thinking of selling them to Tall Toad up in Petaluma (where I bought my Gretsch), though whether for cash or store credit is up in the air. I doubt I’ll buy another guitar, but I could probably use the credit for recording hardware or something like that. We shall see.
Still, it’s great to see them out in the open again, and I’m looking forward to playing them again. After I give them a good cleaning, of course.
My friends circle on Discord has come up with something nifty as an alternative to the dreaded New Year’s Resolution that never seems to stick. Instead of declaring I will quit a bad habit or I will learn a new craft or I will lose weight or what have you, the idea is to come up with something you already like (or love!) to do but don’t always give yourself a chance to do it for one reason or another. Do it once a week for fifty-two weeks simply for enjoyment!
I got to thinking about it and I thought: I have four guitars collecting dust because I don’t pick them up all that often. I’d even bought new strings for the two six-strings (one acoustic, one electric) about six months ago but never got around to putting them on! So I figured, why not? Once a week I’ll pick up the guitar and either learn a new song, or write a new one! I do enjoy doing both, I’ve just not given myself the time over the last few years.
Sure, I’ve mentioned how annoyed I am with myself guitar-wise because when I do pick them up I end up playing the same handful of songs, and that gets boring really quickly. My dad used to do that on his piano and he enjoyed it, but I also really enjoy the creativity of learning or writing a new song and I haven’t done that in a LONG time. I want to do more than just play the same songs, I want new sounds to surface, just like when I write my novels!
So for the first two weekends, I allowed myself a related option: let’s start by putting on those new sets of strings. The acoustic was relatively easy, but restringing the Gretsch electric (see above, and pardon the dirtiness of the frets) was a bit of a chore, given that they’re held on there via the Bigsby bridge (aka the built-in vibrato bar) and a lot of tension, but it got done and it sounds great!
And just to make sure it was in tune, I taught myself the basic chord progression to REM’s “Radio Free Europe”, inspired by having just finished reading Peter Ames Carlin’s biography The Name of This Band Is REM. Learning that Peter Buck is self-taught and figured out his style by playing along with records — exactly how I did it — gave me the inspiration to keep going with this.
The aim here is not to be professional, or even release anything on Bandcamp or whatever (although I won’t rule it out if it sounds halfway decent), but just to revisit what I loved best about playing with The Flying Bohemians and jeb!: the pure enjoyment of musical creativity. Anything more than that will be a bonus.
Now that I temporarily find myself with all the time in the world until further notice, I’m bound and determined to make the most of it. As much as I’d love to futz around with my mp3 collection and watch cat videos all day long, I know I’ve been given this time to do what needs doing.
In other words: remember all those times I’ve said “I’d love to do (x) if I only had time?” Well, NOW is that time. Let’s get crackin’.
One thing that’s been on my mind as of late is the fact that I have been woefully stuck at “amateur who knows some neat chords and solos but still plays the same damn songs over and over” level of guitar playing. I’ve been stuck at that level for years. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that if I want to stay at that level, but I want to be better. I want to get to the point where, if I felt like dropping some tunes on Bandcamp for sale, I could do so and be proud of the results. Sort of like how I’ve worked on my novels over the years.
I’ve heard all the stories about guitarists like George Harrison who would practice on their guitar until their fingers literally bled. Bryan Adams sings about it in the first verse of “Summer of ’69”. I’ve read so many music bios and memoirs about building up those fingertip calluses and strengthening those fingers and working on dexterity.
I think, now that I have the time, I really should start doing exactly that. I no longer want to just noodle around for ten minutes playing the same chords. I want to explore this avenue. I want to see and hear where it goes. I want to find my own true style and not just imitate my influences. I have the equipment for it, so there’s nothing to stop me right now.
First, here’s a video of The Smithereens playing “Blood and Roses”, one of their first hits and one of my favorite bass lines of the 80s:
Whenever I’m in a guitar store and checking out basses, I usually use that riff to test it out. It’s a relatively easy lick (even if technically it’s dropped down a half-step to E-flat) and if I can pull it off without my fingers cramping, then it’s a bass I can use. I’m posting it here because it’s also a riff that I like to use when I’m practicing.
So what’s the deal here? Drunken Owl? What?
That’s the name of my current music project, named from the 18th century British slang term “drunk as an owl” (thanks to A.’s wide-spanning reading material for the source). It’s one of those phrases that doesn’t quite sound right logically, but makes for a good band name.
I’ve been meaning to return to playing and recording music demos for quite some time, though, like with most of my other grand creative plans, it was put aside so I could finish the Great Trilogy Revision Project. So! Now that that behemoth is out of the way, I can finally move forward with it. I don’t plan on any grand masterpieces or anything…all I really want to do is lay down my songs. I’ve amassed a decent amount of them over the years, and I’m itching to write and record some new ones as well.
And like my books, I want to see how far I can DIY it. I’ve recorded a few demos on my phone, for starters. [The sound is mono, but the quality is actually pretty good, considering!] I plan on using the instruments I have already: the basses, the guitars, the keyboard, the funky lo-fi drum pad (it’s hiding behind my camera bag on the floor under the keyboard in that picture up top), and maybe some slightly better (but still relatively cheap) editing-mixing software.
Any plans on releasing them on Bandcamp or whatever? Eh, probably not, but we’ll see. I may just upload them to Soundcloud and share them here or elsewhere. The main reason for this ongoing project is mainly to make good on my lifelong loves of writing, music, and art. [Yeah, I’m trying to get my art up and running again as well.] The main goal here is to have fun with it!
[Edit: Just learned this morning that Soundcloud is going kerflooey. Guess I’ll have to find a different embedder!]
Do me a solid and head on over to my bud Mark Stratton’s blog Aggaspletch(yeah, I’m not sure either, but I like onomatopoeia, so there you go). He’s got a nifty iPod Challenge series going over there, and that there link is to a guest post about bass playing written by yours truly (yay me!). He’s got quite the eclectic tastes in music, but he knows his stuff and he’s a great writer to boot. So check it out!
Walk In Silence 