Next, a phone call with the mother of a prospective student. We seemed to be on the same page, and so I booked the gig. A few more of those and I can be a little less tense. Also responded to an email from a young guitarist who is moving to Seattle in a month or two, and is interested in getting back to lessons after some time away. Told him “It sounds to me as though you've hit that place that we all do at certain points in our lives, where you need to pause, retool, and probably take a step or two back in order to make the necessary leap forward.” If that assessment resonates for him, we can probably do some good work.
Took Melvin to the vet for his annual checkup and rabies booster. The only thing she was not happy about was that he continues to lose weight. The trend has gone on long enough that she wanted to do some blood work. This makes me a little nervous, but I guess I’ll get the results tomorrow. He came home, walked straight to his bowl and emptied it, and then pretty much crashed for several hours. Nervous exhaustion I think. He generally does okay with the checkups, but getting taken in back and held down while they drew blood was a new experience, and I couldn’t be with him. I got to have the experience of sitting in the waiting room hearing him howl. I don’t know how people with children do it.
The weather cleared, so we headed out back. Me to read. Him to eat grass and puke.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Came back one more time to Wang Dang Doodle, the non-UBB arrangement. Something about it has been not quite satisfying. Just on the edge. Not wrong, just not hitting on all cylinders. On a whim/intuition I changed the key, which changed the fingering of the figure that I’m playing through it, and something kind of clicked. I worked it for a while with the metronome keeping me honest, because I’m going to need to be able to keep this guitar part cooking while I sing, and that is a major division of attention exercise.
Another Guitar Craft aphorism:
When stuck, increase the complexity.
So I’ve got the metronome clicking (on the backbeat, because this is a heavily swung arrangement) and I’ve got the guitar part cooking, and I begin working on singing the lyrics. Actually I speak the lyrics in time to begin with, as the most difficult part of the whole challenge is maintaining a natural cadence, without my vocals either pulling the guitar part off track or lining up unnaturally with the guitar part. It is tough, but I saw it begin to settle in and there were moments when I knew I was really inside the lyrics, but connected with the guitar part as well, so there is hope.
The funny side effect was that after 30 minutes or so I found that I was no longer having difficulty remembering the lyrics. I’ve been singing this thing for years. Decades. And this endless stream of bizarre character names always trips me up.
Automatic Slim, Razor Totin’ Jim, Butcher Knife Totin’ Annie,
Fast Talking Fanny, Kudu-Crawlin’ Red, Abyssinian Ned, ol’ Pistol Pete, Fats, Washboard Sam,
Shaky, Boxcar Joe, and Peg and Caroline Dye.
But for some reason, this afternoon for at least half an hour, that was the least of my problems.
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