back on track

Ok. First off I have decided to take a break from bodybuilding. I would like to focus a little more on my own music as well as not be broke. Spending 2-300 dollars on food and supps. is no joke. I have 3 songs completed for Undermind. 2 of them are all guitar one is all bass guitar. I have 3 other songs in the making. Im working on a new setup so that i will be able to play live by myself. My songs are composed so that i can play them on guitar solo, or another instrument may join. I will have recordings shortly.

My new setup will be:
Schecter hell raiser FR6
line 6 spider II amp head
line 6 3X12 cab
Loop station (not sure which yet)
chorus pedal
Electro Harmonix Russian Muff/boss ds1 distortion

Pretty cool setup especially on a budget. I have found I like the spider II better than the spider III

Anyway, since the last time I updated, Ive had numerous noise jams with Dom. These are very liberating. Talk about improvisation. While I made "noise" on the guitar, i still kept a consistency in my playing. I did not play the guitar like a guitar, but other instruments fused in one. Its basically taking everything i know how to play, and blending it into one instrument. Ive been opened up to a lot of new music as well.

Currently, I am averaging 3-6 hours nearly everyday. I do not believe it is best to be practicing rigorously everyday. Your mind and muscles need rest. Resting is how you grow.

I just watched Nevermore's dvd, Year of the Voyager. Truely motivating and inspiring. Jeff Loomis is the best metal guitarist there is. He plays flawlessly and writes very interesting and thought provoking music.

I will start analyzing and writing down what im practicing from day to day. All I know is that i am going to teach myself how to play jazz. Ive been getting a lot of chords down and have started working with modes. Im also learning other scales such as the harmonic/melodic minor and the idminished scale (half-whole)

Anyway, I will be back to updating on a regular basis!!!

Im aching to write. Ive had a great deal of emotions and thoughts stir in me. Ive just been very tired. Im about to have an outburst of writing though and i cant wait. Im trying to figure out Back to back by the Montgomery Brothers, really cool jazz piece. Im also working on a cover of Elevation, by Blut Aus Nord. Next up, im going to learn more metallica and Dream theater


Also, im going to write down what i need to practice. Ive reaalized i have a lot of the basics either mastered, or i know it well enough that i need to finally move on from them, (not 100% of course). and yes i realize my grammar is off..

im studying the fretboard
what the hell does that mean

im looking at everything as notes instead of numbers. Next step is to start visualizing intervals and predicting how they will sound. Im also looking at the guitar from more of abird's eye view rather than focusing in on one point. It helps connect the dots when it comes to soloing and learning scales or modes.

Theres a point where a guitar player will know exactly what his fingers are doing without looking at them. That is when you can start looking elsewhere on the guitar more efficiently. Thats basically what im doing

Ok, 2 hours a day on average so far. Thats ok. Gotta take small steps before i go higher. So many things influence my mood and desire to practice, but im finally getting my motivation back. Ideally I will go through another summer averaging 6 hours a day, or at the least, 30 hours a week. Im a little mixed about practicing so many hours per day. Your body and mind need rest in order to grow.

I have 3 songs almost complete for my Undermind project. I have another one that im slowly working on as well. Those will be recorded in a few months, im working on familiarizing myself with them a lot more. Itd also help if i recorded them, but im lazy and stubborn. This will change though.

new music

Luciano Cilio, Italian songwriter, only made one album, which is a shame. Classical guitar with piano and strings. Amazing ambience/classical music. Very inspirational

John Mclaughlin. I never paid attention to him much for whatever reason. Mahavishnu orchestra is one of the best groups ever. Im still learning about these artists so now much will be said in this post

Im kinda re-finding all the jazz thats on my computer or mp3 player and its wonderful.

My current obsession is Bitches Brew by Miles Davis. Words can not express what that album is like.

Ive moved so far away from death metal at this point. So much of it is so repititious and not ground breaking enough.

jam session/band

had a great jam session with my brother on cello and his friend josh on guitar. Josh knows a ton of shit about theory that i dont. Im happy i finally found someone who can school me with knowledge. I cant wait to learn more. Jamming was very interesting and different. I never really improv jammejd with three people so it was really cool. We connected really well i liked a lot of what we had played. So now, the band has officially started. This is my new motivation to practice.

Im getting much more serious with Anthromorphic. Going to be practicing the songs for hours, since they are that hard. I really want to get serious about it.

thats all for now...the fire has been rekindled

STARTING FRESH

its been a bumpy road. Many periods of motivation and demotivation. Ive learned a lot about stress and how it effects the body and am currently learning about how nutrition will help lower stress, thus helping my practice better. I have a lot of shit to update.