No Bill this time, which was expected because everybody seemed particularly busy this weekend, and getting four of us together was the best we would do.
The main objective of the session turned out to be working out our PA issues, which was fine with me after the last show. The core of the problem is that Keith was having trouble hearing his own guitar, so he kept turning up, leaving me unable to hear anything other than Keith's guitar, including lead vocals. In addition, Andy and I can't hear each other on stage, and Dale can barely hear my bass. Hardly a mix that lends itself to a tight band and good group vocals.
While waiting for Keith, the remaining three of us experimented with Andy and I going directly through the mixing board. It had the intended mix effect, but sounded muddy. Not good. After Keith arrived, we ultimately arrived at a reasonable compromise and tried it to see what would happen. Bottom line is that the compromise seems to be a success. We'll be running a small amount of my bass and Andy's guitar/keys through the monitor system, turning up the vocals, and putting an additional monitor speaker back with Dale. Worked like a charm in practice; I've never heard the vocals and Andy's guitar so clearly.
We did run through some songs, including "Surrender" and "Movin' On", with myself and Keith on lead vocals respectively. Not bad; it should be no problem to include both in the upcoming shows.
I was doing some experimenting of my own, turning down the output level of my five string bass to more closely match the Rick, so I won't have so much difference in volume when I change from one bass to the other. Still needs some work, but better.
Dale had made provisional set lists for the March show. Lots of commentary; not much settled. Looking forward to next weekend, with Bill expected back and an improved sonic balance.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Saturday, January 19, 2013
JW - 1/19/2013
Everybody on board after skipping a week due to Keith's illness. Similar to the last session in that we sounded very rough to start, then got a lot better. I'd say we sounded pretty good by the end. Personally, I felt run down (from work) and wasn't at my best, but I missed playing last week and couldn't wait to get at it in spite of how I felt.
We started work on some of the new songs. "Let It Be" works well enough. Doesn't seem like a good song for a bar band to me, but I'm willing to give it a shot and see how an audience likes it. Could be a great change of pace, and certainly a song most bar bands won't touch in spite of popularity.
"Movin' On" by Bad Company has a few timing issues, but is a natural fit and won't be much trouble to work out. "Surrender" also came together quickly, though I'd like to work the vocals out more precisely than we have.
Those three will be added to the list for our 2/23 show, along with bringing some songs back from the sidelined list. I'd like to have more change from the last time, but it seems that everybody has their hands mighty busy these days in their personal lives, myself included. I'd also like to see more of a steady rotation of songs coming in and out of the list, rather than the relatively few substitutions we've seen to date, but I'm alone on that front. Most of the group tends to resist any attempts to organize some things (one of them being the set list) too rigidly.
We had some fun today with bringing back some of the sidelined songs and getting a little creative with them. "Mississippi Queen" and "Born on the Bayou" were back, with brief spontaneous digressions into other songs during "Born on the Bayou". We also played the Stones' "Brown Sugar", which I'd played years ago with other bands and apparently used to be part of the JW song list. It sounded really good almost right away and might be added to the list.
We had some discussion re: our PA set-up, and agreed to experiment with running everything through the mixing board. Keith thinks we'll lose too much of our sound that way, but seemed to be the only dissent. Everybody else is at least willing to try it. Looking forward to that, since it should result in a much better mix. I believe that will help our playing, since we'll be able to hear each other much better, which should help to reduce the goofy little mistakes that we've had too often on stage in the past. I know we're better than we've sounded in public so far.
We also had some discussion of possible upcoming shows. Still nothing terribly new, but that's okay. I'd rather get the bugs worked out of our performances before going too much further.
We started work on some of the new songs. "Let It Be" works well enough. Doesn't seem like a good song for a bar band to me, but I'm willing to give it a shot and see how an audience likes it. Could be a great change of pace, and certainly a song most bar bands won't touch in spite of popularity.
"Movin' On" by Bad Company has a few timing issues, but is a natural fit and won't be much trouble to work out. "Surrender" also came together quickly, though I'd like to work the vocals out more precisely than we have.
Those three will be added to the list for our 2/23 show, along with bringing some songs back from the sidelined list. I'd like to have more change from the last time, but it seems that everybody has their hands mighty busy these days in their personal lives, myself included. I'd also like to see more of a steady rotation of songs coming in and out of the list, rather than the relatively few substitutions we've seen to date, but I'm alone on that front. Most of the group tends to resist any attempts to organize some things (one of them being the set list) too rigidly.
We had some fun today with bringing back some of the sidelined songs and getting a little creative with them. "Mississippi Queen" and "Born on the Bayou" were back, with brief spontaneous digressions into other songs during "Born on the Bayou". We also played the Stones' "Brown Sugar", which I'd played years ago with other bands and apparently used to be part of the JW song list. It sounded really good almost right away and might be added to the list.
We had some discussion re: our PA set-up, and agreed to experiment with running everything through the mixing board. Keith thinks we'll lose too much of our sound that way, but seemed to be the only dissent. Everybody else is at least willing to try it. Looking forward to that, since it should result in a much better mix. I believe that will help our playing, since we'll be able to hear each other much better, which should help to reduce the goofy little mistakes that we've had too often on stage in the past. I know we're better than we've sounded in public so far.
We also had some discussion of possible upcoming shows. Still nothing terribly new, but that's okay. I'd rather get the bugs worked out of our performances before going too much further.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Meditation/Work Pressure
Work is not a good place to be right now. The short version is that we've been saddled with a very top down plan by a new Big Cheese who apparently doesn't remember the realities of desk level work. It is literally impossible to do our jobs, as the volume of work daily far exceeds the time available and there is no opportunity to gain ground unless you work far more hours than anyone is likely to work. A lot of people tried working extra hours, only to find that they were simply falling behind at a slower rate, so they simply gave up.
One of the arguments we've heard a lot lately from management is that this isn't necessarily a 40 hour/week job. I see the point, and have no problem with having to work some extra time to get over a temporary overload, but when you lose ground on even the lightest days, you've got to wonder what sort of estimated work hours they're using in their calculations. This is usually the lightest time of year, so what happens when things get really busy?
Not to mention that we still have the same number of people total doing the work, so this new method is demonstrably less effective than what we were doing before. How is this better?
So keeping my mental balance is more important than ever before. My meditation practice was slacking for a while under the pressure, as I was having trouble sleeping due to the stress and needed the sleep more than the meditation. I had to learn to let go of the anger and remember to play the long game here. My mental fortitude has to outlast Big Cheese's willingness to put up with bad results. I've done well enough for the last week after losing my balance for a while.
One of my books nailed it, reminding me to do my best and forget about results. I'd predicted before any of this started that the true crash wouldn't come until April or May, so this is going to take time.
One of the arguments we've heard a lot lately from management is that this isn't necessarily a 40 hour/week job. I see the point, and have no problem with having to work some extra time to get over a temporary overload, but when you lose ground on even the lightest days, you've got to wonder what sort of estimated work hours they're using in their calculations. This is usually the lightest time of year, so what happens when things get really busy?
Not to mention that we still have the same number of people total doing the work, so this new method is demonstrably less effective than what we were doing before. How is this better?
So keeping my mental balance is more important than ever before. My meditation practice was slacking for a while under the pressure, as I was having trouble sleeping due to the stress and needed the sleep more than the meditation. I had to learn to let go of the anger and remember to play the long game here. My mental fortitude has to outlast Big Cheese's willingness to put up with bad results. I've done well enough for the last week after losing my balance for a while.
One of my books nailed it, reminding me to do my best and forget about results. I'd predicted before any of this started that the true crash wouldn't come until April or May, so this is going to take time.
Monday, January 07, 2013
End of 2012
Definitely a change from last year, musically, moving from Splunge to Jefferson Wheelchair. From solid leader to new guy. But a big gain in terms of challenge level, and back out in front of audiences again. Good guys and good musicians, though of course no situation is perfect.
With Nick taking up bass and all of the lead vocal load, Splunge has managed to stay together without replacing me. And since JW regularly takes the week off after a show, I may be able to guest more frequently than I did this past year, giving me the opportunity to sing lead and play other instruments with a band outside of JW. That could work out to be beneficial all around.
Work took a big slide downhill toward year's end, as a new Big Cheese's unholy methods came into play. I've effectively (if not technically) been demoted, in spite of achieving more than expected of me, because of his radical redesign of our work processes. Not good, and I'm not enjoying the crazy increase in my workload, either. My agenda for the coming year of work is no more ambitious than to hold onto my job, and that will honestly be a challenge, since it was everything I could do to not walk out this past week.
An interesting by product of the added pressure and my continuing spiritual practice is my relative calm in the face of the madness at work. I have to admit that I've had more than a few bad days, but overall I'm coping as well as anyone else, and better than some. This is important in that I think the work situation is going to get a good deal worse before it gets better, and I'd rather not be one of the casualties of that process.
Took up playing mandolin as of December 2012, so that'll be something different, and I'm getting back to playing guitar again finally, now that I'm caught up with JW's material. Continuing to expand my musical skills is definitely in my plans for 2012.
Didn't succeed in getting back to writing of any kind. It's still on the agenda for the upcoming year.
I'd like to get some things done around the house again. That slipped a bit in 2012 after a particularly productive 2011 that way.
With Nick taking up bass and all of the lead vocal load, Splunge has managed to stay together without replacing me. And since JW regularly takes the week off after a show, I may be able to guest more frequently than I did this past year, giving me the opportunity to sing lead and play other instruments with a band outside of JW. That could work out to be beneficial all around.
Work took a big slide downhill toward year's end, as a new Big Cheese's unholy methods came into play. I've effectively (if not technically) been demoted, in spite of achieving more than expected of me, because of his radical redesign of our work processes. Not good, and I'm not enjoying the crazy increase in my workload, either. My agenda for the coming year of work is no more ambitious than to hold onto my job, and that will honestly be a challenge, since it was everything I could do to not walk out this past week.
An interesting by product of the added pressure and my continuing spiritual practice is my relative calm in the face of the madness at work. I have to admit that I've had more than a few bad days, but overall I'm coping as well as anyone else, and better than some. This is important in that I think the work situation is going to get a good deal worse before it gets better, and I'd rather not be one of the casualties of that process.
Took up playing mandolin as of December 2012, so that'll be something different, and I'm getting back to playing guitar again finally, now that I'm caught up with JW's material. Continuing to expand my musical skills is definitely in my plans for 2012.
Didn't succeed in getting back to writing of any kind. It's still on the agenda for the upcoming year.
I'd like to get some things done around the house again. That slipped a bit in 2012 after a particularly productive 2011 that way.
Saturday, January 05, 2013
JW - 1/5/2013
It's been about a month since we've played together, and everybody made it. The first couple of songs were predictably rough around the edges, but then we got it together. We focused on the songs that sounded the worst at the last show, and sounded better today than we did then.
We hadn't successfully agreed on any new songs to work on via e-mail, so we talked it out in person during this session. It didn't surprise me when it turned out to be a fairly large list, but the composition of that list did surprise me. New songs included: "Birthday" and "Let It Be" by the Beatles, "867-5309" by Tommy Tutone, "Movin' On" by Bad Company, "No Matter What" by Badfinger, and "Surrender" by Cheap Trick. "I'm a Man" remains on the list, but semi-sidelined. "Jesse's Girl" and "Some Kind of Wonderful" weren't mentioned. There seemed to be solid consensus on the new choices, with no more than one band member seeming to dissent in each case.
Andy has been playing "Let It Be" from time to time while testing keyboard sounds, so no surprise there, though we hadn't really discussed it as an actual band choice before. "Movin' On" was a spur of the moment thing originating with Keith, and since it worked well enough on the fly, we'll refine it a bit and keep it. I'm looking forward to "Surrender", as it's been years since I played it on a regular basis. The vocal parts are Big Fun and I think they'll sound amazing.
I'm going to be sonically experimental again for a while. I'm not going to replace my wireless rig (at least for now), so I'll be putting my pedal board back in place to buy myself some distance from my amplifier and to provide some options to modify my sound that I haven't used since before I upgraded to a more powerful amp. I'd like to experiment with using the harmonizer on the string break songs to fill out the band sound when we're down one guitarist. I'll also almost certainly return to using a chorus effect here and there for emphasis. And I'll explore some other options as I come up with them.
I stuck with my Ibanez 5 string throughout today's session (though I'd brought the Rick as well), and changed my sound there as well. I kept my amp settings the same, but backed off the treble and overall volume coming from the bass itself, so the active electronics weren't as hot as I've been using. I plan to experiment heavily in the coming weeks to see if I can still have a quality sound and lessen the difference in volume I've had between my two workhorse basses.
We hadn't successfully agreed on any new songs to work on via e-mail, so we talked it out in person during this session. It didn't surprise me when it turned out to be a fairly large list, but the composition of that list did surprise me. New songs included: "Birthday" and "Let It Be" by the Beatles, "867-5309" by Tommy Tutone, "Movin' On" by Bad Company, "No Matter What" by Badfinger, and "Surrender" by Cheap Trick. "I'm a Man" remains on the list, but semi-sidelined. "Jesse's Girl" and "Some Kind of Wonderful" weren't mentioned. There seemed to be solid consensus on the new choices, with no more than one band member seeming to dissent in each case.
Andy has been playing "Let It Be" from time to time while testing keyboard sounds, so no surprise there, though we hadn't really discussed it as an actual band choice before. "Movin' On" was a spur of the moment thing originating with Keith, and since it worked well enough on the fly, we'll refine it a bit and keep it. I'm looking forward to "Surrender", as it's been years since I played it on a regular basis. The vocal parts are Big Fun and I think they'll sound amazing.
I'm going to be sonically experimental again for a while. I'm not going to replace my wireless rig (at least for now), so I'll be putting my pedal board back in place to buy myself some distance from my amplifier and to provide some options to modify my sound that I haven't used since before I upgraded to a more powerful amp. I'd like to experiment with using the harmonizer on the string break songs to fill out the band sound when we're down one guitarist. I'll also almost certainly return to using a chorus effect here and there for emphasis. And I'll explore some other options as I come up with them.
I stuck with my Ibanez 5 string throughout today's session (though I'd brought the Rick as well), and changed my sound there as well. I kept my amp settings the same, but backed off the treble and overall volume coming from the bass itself, so the active electronics weren't as hot as I've been using. I plan to experiment heavily in the coming weeks to see if I can still have a quality sound and lessen the difference in volume I've had between my two workhorse basses.
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