Strong Week

  Finished up the fifth and sixth performance videos (out of seven I’ve been focusing on), pretty much sweating my face off working on them during these 94″ degree days.
I did learn that I should do one totally “over the top” take to get more loosened up and wild, then figure out where to go from there, it really helps the process move forward.

 

I reviewed some video footage of live shows from awhile back, and posted some of those; I had played about 200 shows in cafés around the Albany NY and Tristate area, but they were sparsely attended, and rather than play showcases where we might get more notice, my duo partner wanted to keep doing the same old thing, so I’ve preferred to mostly focus on writing and recording since then. But here are some highlights:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlvFQ4G0v_ktG49TSKyl5wW7KsiSji9u5

  I got to write three new song melodies this week, and as I was working in the “1950’s style” of Pop, I was struck by how there is a complete absence of the F# chord in my empirical study from about sixty songs of that period. In my harmonic system, F# is equated with anger, so I got to reflecting on how that interesting time period of American culture does in fact seem to be characterized by what could be called “the absence of anger”. Veterans and their families were trying to build up a positive façade beyond the horrors of World War II, forced smiles and denial of dysfunction, which actually gave the Beatnik counterculture fuel to work with, then that led to extremes in the other direction, and it still has ripple effects into today’s culture.

  I’ve been digging this old Bob Seger song “Shame On The Moon” this week, bit of a “tear in my beer” type of song, which made sense since I had just finished a pint of Coors Banquet when it came on my itunes, but the song was well done:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuYCX5XK_So

  I was tossing and turning last night, and ended up thinking a bit more about a concept I call “Bass Symmetry Chords”, where you can take four notes from a “box” shape on the fretboard and make them into many combinations; I’ll try to express the two boxes in tab here:

Box one, notes of: f-g-a#-c (makes 24 combinations: 18 in major or minor and 6 in Mixolydian)
g——————————-
d——————————-
a—1—3———————-
e—1—3———————-

So you can start on any of these notes as your “root chord”, and build something that will sound pleasing to the ear, due to their “symmetry”.

Box two, notes of: f-a-a#-d (makes 12 combinations in major or minor)
g——————————-
d——————————-
a—1—5———————-
e—1—5———————-

  I discovered one of the combinations was the “Doo Wop ballad” formula of I-vi-ii-V (supposedly derived by them from Hoagy Carmichael’s “Heart And Soul”), so the “Bass Symmetry Chords” do go back at least that far, the idea shows up in a handful of Beatles songs, then I noticed it featured in 90’s music and some current songs.

Here are some other examples:
-Beatles “Help!” verse: A – C#m – F#m – D
-Pixies “Where Is My Mind”: E – C#m – G#m – A
-Weezer “Say It Ain’t So”: C#m – G#m – A – E
-Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit: Fm – A#m – G# – C#
-Weezer “Only In Dreams” verse: G – C – Am – D
-Billie Eilish “What Was I Made For: C – Em – F – Am

  I saw a good deal for a membership to the video lectures site “Masterclass.com”, it was $60 for 12 months access, which is way down from their previous asking price of $250 and up, so I signed up to check it out. The format is kind of like “Ted Talks”, but with celebrities and doctors; I was surprised when the site offered, for $120 more, “Talk about your problems with an A.I. version of a celebrity.” 

  These A.I. developments sure pop up in unusual places this year; so for instance, I watched the drumming lecture by Ringo Starr, and let’s suppose I wanted to talk to Robot Ringo on an iphone video call about my problems…”Robot Ringo, it’s 11pm at night and I had too many sugar snacks. WTF?” Even if they had uploaded Ringo’s entire brain, what kind of advice would he give, “Peace and love. Drop some acid and it will all be groovy”? Not exactly the wisdom of Solomon…on the other hand, I could do a conference call between A.I. Bill Clinton and A.I. George Bush, and talk over the merits of voting Bigfoot For President…

  Irish Folk songs group is going fine, making connections with some nice guys there, and apparently all of my jokes are hilarious to them, which is nice to get that appreciation. The group leaders asked me to hold down the rhythm by stomping on an unusual wooden board with a piezo pickup attached to it; sort of sounds like knocking on a door.

  I got that CDL-A “unrestricted” license today, so I can drive any type of vehicle on the road throughout all of America, which is pretty exciting. I’m looking into some recommended companies and considering the new job options now…

New Marshall Amp

Worked on some Bass demos for that 90’s Grunge idea of “5th note to start chorus”, I found four songs that would work well with, so I’ll be re-recording the Bass for those coming up.

  Also working on more Guitar demos…it’s a little tedious doing the “trial and error” bit of running through the list of ideas, but quite necessary for variety and supporting each  song; I hope to do some more recording this weekend though.  

I’ve been doing weekly workouts for a couple months now, it’s going pretty well for getting back into shape. Usually I play side one of Weezer’s debut album, it’s high-energy and good guitar sounds. Having gotten more interested in those guitar sounds of the debut albums for Weezer and the Rentals (the Bass player from Weezer started his own band but used the same guitar sounds); I found an article describing their technique:

“ran through Mesa/Boogie Mk1 (atop a Marshall cab). The impact of the gain-heavy tone was exemplified by Sharp and Cuomo playing constant downstrokes on the guitar and bass, locking together both high and low-ends with a rock-steady momentum.
“We try to keep all the voicings really low to give us a crunchy sound…Cuomo and Ocasek opted to record the amp volume at a surprisingly low-level, with the gain (and microphone level) dialled up high, this resulted in the resultant bulky but still ultra-crisp tone.”

  I was friends awhile back in my college days with an Albany NY Pop-Punk band called “The Last Year”, who were striving to sound like “The Ataris”, and I first played a Marshall amp at one of their rehearsals. They had asked me to write a song for them, which I did, called “Heather”, but then shortly after they split up, so I’ve had the song for awhile.

  After that I bought a Marshall amplifier called the Marshall JCM 2000, I kind of liked the high-gain option but it kind of had a one-dimensional sound, and the “clean” channels didn’t sound musical at all, with the Bass tone knob seeming to be a dummy knob that never increased the low end. Eventually I pawned it off in Denver, but then later on came to realize that it was a “solid state” amp with no tubes in it, which was why it didn’t sound musical enough. So I got to perusing some music equipment websites and saw that a certain Marshall tube amplifier, the DSL40CR, was on sale for $150 off!

  So I hooked up the deal with my preferred dealer and got a price-match going on, just got the amp in the mail today, jamming on it and having a rocking good time.

This particular Marshall amp has a “Resonance” knob too, which has a similar Bass-Boost function to the low-end Gain knob in the Mesa Boogie Rectoverb, making the low-end sound either more “tight and snappy” or more “loose and flubby”. 

Here’s a good video review showing the range of sounds this amp has:

  Now I can do pretty much 20 kinds of two-amp combinations as well, between the Fender Twin Reverb, the Vox AC30, the Orange Crush Pix, the Mesa Boogie Rectoverb, and the Marshall DSL40, using eight electric guitars of different tonewoods!

The whole world of Rock music is literally at my fingertips!

Fender Twin Reverb +	Vox AC30	Orange Crush Pix	Mesa Boogie Rectoverb	Marshall DSL40
Vox AC30 +	Fender Twin Reverb	Orange Crush Pix	Mesa Boogie Rectoverb	Marshall DSL40
Orange Crush Pix +	Fender Twin Reverb	Vox AC30	Mesa Boogie Rectoverb	Marshall DSL40
Mesa Boogie Rectoverb +	Fender Twin Reverb	Vox AC30	Orange Crush Pix	Marshall DSL40
Marshall DSL40 +	Fender Twin Reverb	Vox AC30	Orange Crush Pix	Mesa Boogie Rectoverb

  When I record guitars for “Heather”, I’ll probably do a combo of the Marshall DSL40 with either the Fender Twin or the Mesa Boogie Rectoverb…the song is on the border between surf-rock and grunge and Buddy Holly. 

  I’ve been enjoying the Louis Jordan “jump blues” song “Caldonia” this week; Louis Jordan was the idol that Little Richard was trying to copy for his whole career.
I can relate to it this song, because with the way Jazz music gets on my nerves, I’d probably be screaming in my songs like that too, if I had Jazz music in the background.

  I didn’t really understand Little Richard’s screaming until I experienced the sheer nerve irritation of this background Jazz music in Louis Jordan’s songs. “Caldonia! What make your big head so hard?”

  Watching the “Joe Pickett” show on Paramount Plus, it’s pretty interesting, I’m on Season 2 now.