Couldn't Stay Away

Ha! Yesterday I wrote that I would take a couple of days off from playing, but I couldn't keep away from my beloved Gibson Hummingbird. Pulled it out tonight and played around on it for an hour. Too bad, my left middle finger's knuckle was starting to get a little better, but it's sore again. I'll eventually work through the pain, I've noticed as I get older that aches and pains are now part of the game.

I went to Guitar Trader today and picked up a new acoustic guitar strap and some more strings. The strings I use are D'Addario EJ-16 Phospher Bronze lights (.012). The acoustic guitar strap I bought was a Planet Waves strap. It has a retractable end on it, so I can attach it to the headstock of my 'Bird and just detach the strap. No drilling for a strap pin required, nor do I have to take the trouble to tie the strap to the headstock. Just attach and play. Pretty convenient, huh?

Real compelling blog tonight for sure, but hey, nobody's reading this anyway.

Later!

The Day After Christmas

Hello, it's been awhile. Couple of brief updates

First off, hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Santa brought my kids lots of neat presents. Now onto music-related stuff:

Harry Brandon - CenterAisle Lead Guitarist:

Had lunch recently with my ex-bandmate Harry Brandon. Harry was the lead guitarist of CenterAisle, the band I had been in prior to With Intent. Good fellow and great guitarist. We caught up, he's been busy with the job (as we all have) and hasn't been jamming too much. Harry and I are fellow gear-heads, and he recently angled (via trade, he traded a Line 6 to get this, which in my estimation was a great trade) to get the new version of the Fender Cyber-Twin amp. Good acquisition Harry.

Ed De Caro - With Intent:

Ed De Caro has been keeping busy playing drums in a band called "Arroyo" (I think I got the spelling right). An all original band hailing from Clairemont (ironically, where I live, now he has to travel to my neck of the woods to practice, how's that for irony?), they've been keeping Ed busy. Ed is also trying to keep With Intent together, they practice sporadically. He has acquired a bass player to take my place. Additionally, Tony Vigo (lead guitar) and Jason Borisoff (drums), both guys who played in my last gig in With Intent, are now permanent members. I hope to see them playing real soon, they're a really good band and have lots of potential to make the local scene.

MikeLewisMusic Update:

As far as myself, I've been working on my acoustic guitar skills, as well as perfecting some arrangements on some of my tunes. I have completely reworked two of my songs, "Halfway Home" and "Headin' North". "Halfway Home" has been changed pretty drastically, I have changed the key to it, a few chords, and have added a modulation. All of these improve the song in my opinion. I've also played with the melody a bit and I believe the changes have improved the song overall. With "Headin' North", I changed the key to it so I sing it in a higher (tenor) register, and it matches my voice much better. My left middle knuckle finger has been sore lately, so I did not play today and I don't plan to play tomorrow. Hopefully a couple of days off will help my finger heal. I've been playing pretty much every day since before I quit With Intent, so that's been almost three months of intensive guitar playing.

I plan on plugging away. I have about 20 songs written, and they all need to be worked on in fine detail just as I have been working "Halfway Home" and "Headin' North". I have lots of work to do. A huge labor of love. If I can find some time, I want to start recording some demos, nothing fancy, just an opportunity to work with my ZOOM PS-04 4-track recorder to get familiar with it. I will probably try "Halfway Home" first.

Well, that's it for now.