Bass Fun

Got myself a new toy yesterday after work. Managed to slide in to the music store a few minutes before it closed. It's actually my xmas present from my parents. Long story short, I couldn't find a video camera at Christmas time that would work with my old laptop, and in the time since then I now have a webcam in my new laptop and also been borrowing a video cam from my bro that he seems ok with letting me hang on to long term (he upgraded a while ago). I've had several other ideas of what I might want but most of them seemed to involve more research and planning and at this point it seemed like it might be NEXT xmas before I got anything. I've been catching up on my Harmony class homework this weekend and I was hearing some bass bits in my head and thinking it'd be nice to have one to play them on.

So yeah. I had a couple moments of panic yesterday - what if I can't play it? What if it's a crap one and I should have done more research and gotten a better one? It's a Fender rip-off from what I can tell. Pretty basic. It should suit my purposes - adding my little bass lines to home recordings and such.

Anyway, I was working on my latest assignment, and I discovered that I could plug my acoustic in and use these virtual effects pedals that are in the new version of GarageBand and get a pretty rockin sound - I chose a dreamy texture for the guitar and liquid bass, lots of reverb. Found my chords, found a drum track that worked. And then I plugged in the bass. Started figuring out where the notes were, keeping it super basic. Set up GarageBand so I could do several takes in a row, and mid-way through one of those takes I got a huge smile on my face and thought "I'm having a blast!"

It was a moment of total fun and pure joy at what I was creating. I was doing it for me and because I liked the way it sounded. Something I don't think I've really felt in a while while doing music. Too many critical voices telling me that what I'm doing is boring, too simple, unoriginal, etc, etc. Too much trying to make things "follow the rules", not enough of the spontaneous just following my ears because they are the only things I have. And yet I WAS following some rules, the structure that was set up for the assignment. But it was kind of like an improv game - set up the boundaries and then let loose inside them.

The bit I came up with is still pretty much just a draft/sketch. A verse and a chorus. Enough for the assignment, not really ready for sharing out of that. I'm not sure if I'll ever develop it into a full song. The teacher might rip it apart when he grades it. But whatever happens, I'm so grateful for that moment of inspired joy. Glad to know it still exists and I could probably find it again. Tells me I made the right choice to buy the bass.

Slowly slowly

catching up on my music theory homework. It's very dry stuff that, for me, involves a LOT of counting on my fingers over and over again. At least so far everything CAN be counted on my fingers. It's the whole backwards and forwards alphabet starting from anywhere between A and G that has me spinning.

Have been wanting cookies for the past couple days, and finally gave in before getting down to the homework, but with them made I really had no excuses. Bummed there was no milk to go with them, but it's probably better as I still have a wee bit of congestion.

Had coffee and a scone at the new Paradiso branch in Everybody's today. Corrected one of my assignments from last week. Intervals. grrr. Was getting really mad because no matter how many times I checked and counted and looked on the virtual keyboard I kept getting a perfect 3rd. Except there aren't any perfect 3rds, just perfect 4ths and 5ths. It's called a major 3rd. doh!

Had to confess my utter lack of maths at work today when I was asked to total up my hours "real quick" and had to admit it would probably take me a long time and that the whole calculating hours things is one of my biggest weaknesses. sigh. Luckily the other hourly guy had a formula that we were able to pop in to the spreadsheet, drop down and it WAS real quick. woof.

Is my brain truly just not wired for this math and arithmetic stuff? It's always been hard for me, since grade school, and it hasn't really gotten any easier. I know the fundamentals of what I need to do to figure out the answers, but I can't snap calculate things. So I can always figure it out eventually, it just takes me waaay long.

But I was able to pick out a bit of the melody of "I'm Flying" from Peter Pan once I figured out it was build on ascending triads. Kind of shockingly simple, and effective - it flies up the keyboard just like the kids fly up in the air, with a couple little blips I had to rustle out by ear. So I might not have a head, but I have an ear. Or my ear is quicker than my head? And neither is great yet but neither is horrible horrible, just the ear is faster. This goes back to FEELING the guitar doesn't it?

Mergh

That's how my head feels. I asked. I said "How are you doing head?" and it said "Mergh". "bleah" my chest piped in, "hack, hack"

As I said on my Twitter: 6 bottles of juice, 2 big pots of tea, 1.5 boxes of kleenex and many, many vitamins & slices of toast later... head is still stuffed up. :-(

I'm making progress, I definitely woke up feeling better than I went to sleep the night before, but I was in no shape to go out today. Luckily my brain was cleared up enough that I managed to get through my music theory homework, which I definitely was NOT able to do yesterday, after 2 attempts. Got through it being the operative phrase, still not sure if I got it right, but I think I've finally gotten it.

Most of the lessons are actually a bit vague, and if you can't grasp the concept out of lesson you're a bit screwed. But not really, the professor has always helped me through it, and somehow after the 3rd round or so something clicks in. This is not for all the lessons, some are a breeze. Mostly stuff that has to do with minor scales and intervals that trips me up. sigh.

One of my twitter friends reminded me about using neti pot to wash congestion out of the nose and sinuses. Off to dig mine out of the cupboard and try it out.

Sicky poo

grrr. So went to bed with sniffles after a hot bath/shower last night fairly early, especially compared to the stupid late nights I'd been pulling earlier this week. Woke up at 3am with a clogged up head full of racing thoughts and melody snippets - some mine, some others, and one I couldn't identify. Wondering where on earth I might find the full words to that song I co-wrote with a bunch of people for our Senior Capstone presentation, and hoping that if I found it I would have had the good sense to write down the chords.

I wrote all this stuff in college thinking I'd never forget it, but 7 years later, well, it's hit or miss sometimes. I'm pretty sure I have the chorus right, but I can't even remember the verse words. Anyway, I have no idea where it would be. If I could find some box full of old notebooks/class journals there's a good chance it would be in there, but I don't know where those boxes are... maybe in the garage.

Also thought about that tape of my songs I made out at the Twin's fairy house in California, and sent off to all the girls. I need to ask if anyone has a copy and then figure out how I can transfer it to CD/mp3, because that's a bit of history that would be nice to have. Just a simple tape recorder, the quality is probably crap, but I'm sure there is an innocent charm/joy to it.

Remembered how in those beginning days I was more confident, or maybe more clueless, or just didn't care, or expected less of myself, but how I carried my guitar around campus and stopped in the street to play someone my latest song that I was so excited about. Wondered why/how/when I lost that freedom of expression and brought the critic in so harshly.

Finally gave in at about 4 am and went downstairs to grab my laptop and watched a couple of episodes of Ugly Betty before going back to bed again. When I woke up later I finished the last episode and then caught up on Samantha Who? I feel kind of stupid that watching those shows was something on my nagging to-do list in my head, but I like the story lines and the characters and it's a bit different than mindlessly watching whatever is on.

Spent most of the day in bed, bummed that I was missing the Cafe Paradiso Grand Opening of their Everybody's branch, I had really wanted to check it out (I've seen the cafe, but it seemed like it was going to be a fun event). And tonight I'm missing the Funkin' Donuts at the Broadway Building Paradiso.

Now I'm just hoping I'll be better in time for my radio show on Tuesday. Work I can do from home if I'm still sniffly (I did it from home on Friday), and normally I'd just have them throw on an old show to cover for me, but I have an interview so that's a bit harder. If I keep taking care of myself I should do ok though, I feel like it just got me and needs to run it's course.

Bit frustrated though, I've tried to do my music theory homework twice today now and my head has been too clogged up to focus properly. It's hard enough when I have a clear mind, like this it's brutal. I just don't want to get too far behind because I already need to correct last week's, do the exercises AND assignments from this week's, and tomorrow a new week starts. CRAP.

My mom came over this afternoon, said that Peter Pan was REALLY good. Can't wait to see it. I showed her our Halloween pictures, she hadn't seen them yet. Maybe you haven't either:

Should be if you click on it you'll get to the rest of the Halloween set of pix. People kind of freaked out at the piercing, but they were just little bits of plastic glued on. It was neat because on my way to the store I was trying to figure out how I could pull off some facial piercings without actually piercing anything, and low and behold, next to the black lipstick was a whole little kit of piercings. The chin one came off partway through the night but all the rest behaved properly. I don't think I'd ever have the desire or the guts to do anything other than a little nose piercing on my face in real life, but it sure was fun to be a total badass for a few hours. And I thought G looked pretty hot too. :D

Speaking of hot, time for a bath and back to bed for this sicky poo. :(