Posts Tagged ‘guitar’

Better Than

May 5, 2008

As school is finishing up and the weather is getting warmer (and Iron Man is in theaters!), thoughts of this summer are looming. 80% of the summer will be spent working, but the other 20% is what’s important. Depending where someone lives, the summer could be the most profitable time to forget about play. Above everything people hope for, they hope this summer will be better than the last.

I can’t tell you much about how last summer went for me, but I know it could have been better. I live practically on the ocean and I hardly went to the beach all summer. That might have been because I don’t have the sexiest chest, just the sexiest nipples. I did a lot of thinking about getting slightly fit enough for the beach, but I guess it’s just not in me to care. After buying a few weights and a bench I realized that.

The thing I want to work on most is my guitar playing. I know for a fact that I am better now than I ever have been, but with more practice, just like everything else, I can be better. I was recently watching a live “White Stripes” DVD and was amazed at Jack White’s playing. It occurred to me that he can play like that probably because he spent days and nights in his garage just playing for hours.

Maybe I’d have more practice time if I got off the internet for a bit…

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Open Mic Adventures 04/23/08

April 24, 2008

I was sitting at the beach around 4pm. It was one of the nicest days in a long time so I figured where else should I be. I also was aware of the open mic happening at Empire that night. The dilemma was do I play at all? and if I do play should I write something new only 3 hours prior to the event? Or should I play the same old shit.

I picked up the guitar and started messing with different riffs. I was sitting on the wall at the top of the beach so I had some involuntary audience members. I thought I would just play some covers. I dropped the 6th E string to a D and began playing “Everlong” by Foo Fighters and then “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World. A mother and her child were walking by when the child pointed at me. I had an official, voluntary audience member.

After finishing the song, and after the only real fan I had that day left, I came up with a catchy tune. I looked around for some paper in my car to write on. There was tons of paper, and then there was no pen. I decided that I could just write the words in my head, and at the same time that would insure better remembrance of the words. I just thought of something that I was going through and started singing words. I came up with a rather simple, but, to me, catchy song. The lyrics have a very serious, but at the same time lighthearted meaning. I even threw in a joke or two because I guess that’s just part of me, I have to always try to make people laugh. There was a lot of repetitiveness in the lyrics, but that was probably due to the method I was using to write them.

I ran to my friend’s house and sang the song to him to get his opinion/good graces/blessing. He said it was catchy and had a “HOOK”! I’d never heard any of my songs described with that word, and I thought it was nice of him to throw that word in there.

There was some difficulties getting to the Open Mic destination, but I made it. I got there in the second half of it all. There was two guys playing songs before me who were awesome. That’s what I got for showing up late: following two of the best acts the people would see that night. As I was waiting for my turn to go up I was thinking of stupid jokes I could say. There was also an instrumental going on so I jumped up there and started dancing, and it was possibly a sexual dance which I, subconsciously, always end up doing. I get up there and totally lose my mind for some reason, and the only kid that heard my “joke” was the kid who I was using as the subject. It was the performer who went up before me, Max Prussner. I said something about how he looked like Tom Cruise and tried to get him to do a Tom Cruise laugh, but I overlooked the fact that I wasn’t using the microphone so it was more of a private, awkward conversation. He probably thinks I either like Tom Cruise or guys. I decided that I would no longer plan jokes, and hopefully just say what comes to mind when I get up to the stage.

The next mistake I made was thinking: since I had no electric acoustic, I shouldn’t use the microphone. I ended up having to scream at the top of my lungs when one of my friends(INGRID) had begun to make some sort of blow job action, which I guess meant microphone. Then my strap popped off in the middle of my second song so I had my leg propped way up high on a speaker. Then Strapping Max fixed my strap from behind my back(oh snap oh snap that’s like a rap). I’m pretty sure he touched my butt.

The night proved to be mostly successful. I played decently, but more importantly I think I sang better than before. If you were there, then I thank you for your moral support and guidance and hope you enjoyed all the musicians. If you weren’t there, then you missed a live sex performance. Oh yes, it was hot.

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Order 66

February 29, 2008

There are a thousand times anyone can count that they said they would change a money spending habit. I’ve just hit a thousand and one. Just when I think I’m doing well on controlling my spending money…I get hungry. When I get hungry I spend money on eating out all week. Then when I want to make an important investment, no cash.

My important investment this time around? An electric-acoustic guitar. Specifically this one.

I am taking drastic measures to not spend any money. I have no problem taking orders from myself and following them. I am executing Order 66 and NOT touching my debit or credit cards for anything. If I need food, I’ll scrap some shit together at home. But no swiping PERIOD. I’ll take 20 bucks out of my checks each week for small expenses here and there, but once that’s gone it’s gone.

I’ll keep updates on my new orders and how well I comply.

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Open Mic Adventures – 02/13/08

February 15, 2008

It has been a challenge lately for me to write new songs on the guitar. Then put the songs together and practice them. I just have a lack of places to do so. I finally jumped on that shit because I wanted to play at the open-mic. I was working on a song and it was the day of the open-mic, and i had to scrap the song because it was crap. It was just repetitive and got annoying, and not because I practiced it ten million times, it was just a boring song.

I love when I can say, “damn i wrote a shitty song” and move on. I’m not sure if thats a generally easy thing for a musician/songwriter to do, but hopefully they all do it. Even though I was confident it was going to work, I’m glad I came to the realization that the song sucked and should never be heard by the ears of mortals for they might go deaf.

I was angrily strumming my guitar trying to think what i would play at my open-mic debut, and dug an older song out of the vault. It was a song that I played with my previous band, so the challenge was how can i make it sound good acoustically. I practiced it and a plus was that i was mostly comfortable with the song already, i knew all the words no problem and I knew how to play it. I took a break and went home, then about an hour before leaving for the show I picked up the guitar again just to get it down, and then I made the best modification to the song. I just changed the pre-verse riff from a boring, overused, progression into a brand new thing. Since it was a brand new riff I made sure to play it over and over so i wouldn’t draw a blank when I got on stage.

I showed up at the open-mic and there weren’t too many people there yet. I decided to wait to put my name on the list until the second half. It paid off because more people showed up as it got later. The first bunch of people that got up on stage included a 50 year old blues guy, that told me he got divorced and kicked out of his house, and was sniffing lines of coke. So THAT was cool. I loved a line he used in one of his songs.

The older we get
The better we used to be

That stuck out to me, it is true for the most part. Sure there are plenty of cases in which people get better as they get older, but there’s always a point where you get in your life and then it all goes downhill from there.

I have a friend who was also performing there that night named Andrew. He always does a hilarious stand-up routine based on whatever he was doing recently. I was up right after him, and i decided to tell a story about me and him prior to playing my song.

“Hey guys, i just want to say that Andrew is one of the funniest people I know. And when I was 7 years old i accidentally saw his mom in a bra.”

“HEY it’s not like shes hideous or something!” Andrew yelled from the back.

I came back, “No no, i know. (then in a creepy whisper) It was good”

During the first hour of the show before I played, I was just pumping myself up with energy. I was bouncing around to all the songs, and I was even bobbing up and down to stories/poems/comedy. I think that payed off a lot. You can’t just like get up from sleeping and play a show, it just doesn’t work like that. It was crazy, trying not to sound cocky but I sounded way better than I have ever heard before. Singing wise mostly.

My friend Ian let me borrow his guitar because I couldn’t get my electric-acoustic in time for the show. I also talked about that.

“I want to thank Ian for letting me borrow his guitar for this performance. I couldn’t come up with enough money to get one by today. Apparently not as many people want my body as I thought.”

Did anyone laugh? Well the problem I have is I tend to not remember ANYTHING when I get off stage. I basically just do my thing and some how blackout about the rest. But I asked my supporters(about 2) and they said that there were some laughs. And for whatever reason there was an obscene amount of middle-aged people there, so they probably didn’t appreciate my vulgarity. Especially when Andrew got back up for another routine and I yelled from the back

“I saw his moms tits!”

It was good.

Thank you to everyone that told me “good job”. Even though I was a dick and acted like you were lying. Sometimes I just don’t know how to take a compliment. Thank you.

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The “Sing Your Balls Off” Mobile

February 11, 2008

I would love to be playing a lot more shows then I currently am(zero). One problem I run into is the lack of a practice space. I live in a house with people living upstairs and downstairs. The problem with that isn’t playing guitar, but practicing vocals. Singing is basically screaming, and I can’t just scream for an hour in my house. Especially when I’m writing vocals because that goes through a painful sounding process which I would prefer nobody else heard.

Today I decided to transform my car into a mobile practice room and pulled into the beach parking lot. I situated myself in a backwards, twisted way so i could comfortably hold my guitar on my lap. And then I started playing. And checked out the surrounding area and then got to singing. It was nice having the privacy of being able to sing my balls off and nobody there to listen to a voice lacking practice. It was a little awkward at first, getting used to my own singing voice again.

I sang a couple Foo Fighters songs to get warmed up and then went right into a song I’ve been working on. Getting the vocals down on a song is harder then I remember. When I was in a loud rock band you could scream until you got it right the way you want to, but just one acoustic is a little tougher because it is much easier to notice when you’re singing terrible notes.

I also started a new song writing method. Over the past week I came up with a few different parts that I knew I wanted to use in one song. And then today I sifted through a pile of different lyrics I had written and picked one out that I thought was pretty decent. I probably wrote it about six months ago, so i hesitated because things have changed since then and I don’t quite feel the same. But I like the fact that I can revisit older feelings and try to express it through the song as much as possible. I matched different riffs with different verses and choruses and now i still have a bunch of random pieces to a song. But now that I have all the pieces I will put them together tonight and then take my mobile practice room back to an isolated area and practice, practice, practice it for the open mic this Wednesday.

Last time I played an acoustic show was rough, only because I honestly didn’t practice at all. Hopefully this will change. Can’t wait to be shitting myself right before i get up on stage. But I think that load of shit helps me do better. Thats gross, I’m gonna be sitting down and everything.

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Some Mutant Snow, a Loud Talker, and a Guitar Dissapointment

February 10, 2008

Right now it is snowing outside, but it’s not the cool snow. You know, the snow that floats down and sticks to stuff, and you can pick it up and throw it at a stranger’s car and/or face. Nope, it’s the heavy huge snowflakes that come plummeting towards your windshield and automatically turns into a huge splat of water. Or when you are walking in it you just get soaked and it’s cold. That fucking mutant snow.

Sitting in a coffee shop on a Saturday night can be kind of fun. Except when the person sitting next to you is talking loudly on the phone in another language, like what is happening to me now. If you are going to talk loudly on the phone at least speak English so the rest of us can enjoy whatever you are enjoying, so much that you have to scream with enthusiasm. What loud phone conversation would be enjoyable to hear? The one where he’s talking about how he got so smashed the night before and woke up in the morning in an alley way full of homeless people with the words “Stick Penis Here” on his butt. What that never happened to you?

I went to Guitar Center yesterday in hopes of buying an electric-acoustic guitar. Could have gone for the mediocre $350 Ibanez, or the much better $800 Parkwood. So i could get the Parkwood within a couple weeks but blow my savings on it. But I will do the responsible thing and wait it out. My goal is to record some performances and get those videos up here. And be a whore.

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