New audio demo; hopefully a jam session happening tonight!

Monday wasn't a good day for jamming. The Patriots are always first priority when they are playing, no matter what. We ran out of time to jam Monday night, and we're all usually tired by the end of the day anyway on Monday. Hopefully tonight Justin and/or James will agree to have a session, because my new footswitch arrived in the mail today! Now I can change my guitar tone in the middle of playing, something that is very important for a lot of songs.

I have a demo of a new song I've written available here (please let me know in the comments if it doesn't work; it's uploaded to Northeastern's MyNEU server so you might need authorization). It's a pretty basic rock n' roll song when it comes down to it, but there is a bit more complexity in it then the genres I'm covering. The first minute and a half builds to the heavy, fun part, and I'm very happy with the solo I put in at the end. It's not a completed song just yet, which is why at the end, it just ends, and there aren't any vocals (or lyrics) yet.

Enjoy the audio sample, and hopefully I'll be posting about our latest jam session very soon!

Busy weekend capped with my 21st birthday!

Sorry for the recent lack of pictures, I've just been forgetting to take it out. I had another busy weekend, including the big 2-1 on Saturday! Friday morning I felt very sick (which will explain why I didn't make class Friday morning, sorry!), but I was able to get home in the afternoon. I drove up to Foxwoods with a friend from home Friday night, and midnight Saturday rolled around right when we got there. I walked into their World Poker Room with $160 and left with $500, so it was a very successful night at the cash game table overall. Winning money made the 2 hour drive home feel a little better. Last night was pretty fun, I bought my first six-pack, a very exciting moment in my life!

Before we went out to a couple parties, I had a pretty fun jam session with Justin and James. The lineup was a little unorthodox: Justin on guitar, James on bass, and myself on DRUMS! It became more of a karaoke session, as we played plenty of easy-to-play covers off the cuff for our friends to sing along to. I had a lot of fun playing drums; I'm nothing special but I can hold a beat.

So all in all it was a very good weekend for me, and I'm hoping to make some real progress music-wise this coming week. I'm hoping for a legit jam session tonight, but since I'm at home right now, I might not be able to make it back in time to play at a decent hour. I'll finally get some videos rolling once we jam again. Until next time...

It's been a while!

Well, it hasn't really been that long, but when you fire out posts at a fast rate like I did last week, six days can feel like an eternity. I had a pretty busy weekend, which was taken up mostly by my cousin's wedding Saturday. Typical ceremony, it went without any problems, and the reception was really fun. I actually danced at a wedding for the first time; my mom was quite excited about that. I don't normally dance, it's just not me, but I figured I'd loosen up once CCR's "Down on the Corner" came on from the live band. The band did a great job with their song selections, and it seemed like everyone there had a great time.

I made it back Sunday afternoon for the Patriots game, and before I had another jam session we watched the Pats stomp all over yet another opponent. I already see the Lombardi trophy in my sights...

It was after the game when we decided not to jam because it was getting too late for a Sunday. It was last night when we finally got together for the first jam, but it ended up just myself, Justin and Mike. Justin jumped on drums, which he's been playing a lot more lately. He's "sick of guitar." At this point, this would leave me to shoulder the load on guitar, but I seriously doubt James' spot as drummer is in jeopardy. We could plan in the future on doing something in the style of the defunct indie band Dispatch, where we would switch instruments in between songs. I am by far best on guitar, but I can play a little bass and/or drums from time to time if others wanted to play guitar. I feel like I'd be great at bongos, because I have a tendency to tap beats with my hands incessantly. We might get a set to incorporate them into our original material, but for now it's just an idea.

The jam was pretty simple for the most part, and it only lasted about 30 minutes because of how late it was (we were playing very loudly past 10:30 pm), but it was fun nonetheless. I got to try out some new stuff I was working on with percussion accompaniment, so now I have an idea of what it could sound like. James and Tyler were at the movies while we jammed, so a full band session will happen again very soon.

Next time: an audio sample of the prototype of my next original song. Once I find out how to upload audio to this site...

Making some progress

The latest jam session happened last night. That's me in my favorite shirt (Pink Floyd's The Wall) playing my own guitar for a change. It's an ESP Viper-301 with EMG HZ pickups and 24 frets. Pretty good for soloing and heavy music, but it cost me less than $500, so I plan on upgrading as soon as I'm not a poor college student anymore. That's Tyler playing bass on the right. He should be joining us every time from here on out.

We're still in the intermediate stages of "Crystal Baller" by Third Eye Blind, but the problem for me lies more in my equipment than my learning of the song. I have a nice amp, but it lacks a footswitch, which, for those who are unfamiliar, allows me to change tones by simply stepping on one of four buttons on the floor. I'll have to pick one up very soon.


Another song we began working on is "Lightninig Crashes" from the band Live. They achieved big success with this song in 1995, and never reached that kind of popularity again, but this tune is quite catchy and should be pretty recognizable for fans of 1990s music. There's not much of a challenge in learning this song; it's a three-chord progression that lasts almost the entire song, save for a short bridge part. This song is simply a matter of bringing all the elements together and having it mix well together. We got Steve to hop on vocals for the first time, and he didn't do a bad job for someone who came in knowing half the lyrics.

We started having fun by playing our version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama", the lyrics of which Steve didn't mess up once. We will probably end up pursuing that song as a cover, since it has piano parts we can get my friend Mike T. to play with us. But before that happens, we're going to focus on Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", which could take several sessions before we get it right.

Next post, I'll find a way to get an audio sample of one of my first original songs with Justin. It's still untitled, so I guess it will remain that way for the time being. Until next time......