Gotta have your priorities in order.
We just had a bad storm roll through the Nashville area. Going to pour rain all day. I’m spending the day behind the guitar.
What are y'all up to?
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Hey there! Good reading you Jesse!
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Got my new 6 string banjo yesterday and have converted it to a 5 string. Yup… broke the low E. The end loop didn’t hold while tuning. It plays very well, even with a string missing. I’ll try to get some audio for your discretion. I needed new strings for both guitars, so I’ve ordered enough strings for all of them.
Spending a good part of today playing with my converted banjo.
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Well we had tornado warnings and bad storms all day yesterday so I spent most of the day pickin’.
I’ve “jammed” over this YouTube video https://youtu.be/YCofnOrnVIQ just noodlin’ n doodlin’ around a few times while practicing jamming. I had kind of the basis of a melody (or at least stuff I liked) and decided to somehow put it all together in an original melody.
I spent this morning cleaning it up a bit.
I like working out original melodies. I just zone out like a zombie, let spittle drip from the side of my mouth and try to “listen to the song and what melody I hear in my head”. Then I’ll spend some time piecing it together. At the end of the day “It’s all mine and original”. It’s a piece of music that came from me and somewhat makes sense.
Here’s a vid of me playing over that backing track with what I came up with. Horrible quality quick recording with cell. Jam track was simply being played through my TV and I clicked “record”.
Tell me what you think.
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I like that kinda carryin’ on!
Great happy little melody…very sticky in the ears!
Nice tempo to work things up at.
I’m gonna have a blast working with this in my 8 track. (perfect for working out harmony parts on different instruments)…thanks for sharing it Jesse!
Guess I know what I’m up to now for a while…
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Have at it Dave!
Make sure you share the results. If others want to work up a “jam” or toss up parts for the melody then maybe we should lay it down. If interest in one of our old “jams” then I’ll break out the recording mic and work up a better take. Have not recorded myself with the mic in 3 years…would have to re learn it all but it’s something that’s on my radar again so I need to.
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I’ve been getting more into recording daily again since I have all my instruments playable and the cold weather has hit.
My Winter is pretty well scheduled for picking projects. Working up 12-13 tunes on three instruments presently, but am definitely making a project out of your recording…I’ve already got it half “deranged” in my head…haha
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I just got done successfully recording a few songs with a friend and injuring my left wrist playing mando. I’ll get the videos posted tomorrow. BTW, my friend said she might join the form soon. 
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Dave there’s nothing wrong with “deranged”. I guess it comes with the territory of pickin’ fiddle tunes and bluegrass. We’re def the odd balls in the music world.
It’s a pretty easy tune really. I work a lot in my jamming of chasing chords around. Sometimes something with some potential sneaks through every once in awhile and I just start rolling with it…all the while tossing crap ideas/parts/runs/licks in the trash and adding new that sound better. At some point something half way decent comes out and I tweek it a bit. I don’t think one has to come with blazing speed but instead I focus on those important notes and somehow try to work myself to the next important note that’s gonna be rolling by in a few beats.
Chaos is what it is…but you find something that sticks and just start playing with it. You know the deal.
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I like the simplicity of this one. It’s like one of those old country tunes that can only be done “that way”, because the melody is so definite. That style of sparse playing is always a big challenge for me.
It makes for a great break from the long strings of 16th notes I’ve been running through recently…
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Harrison, Great about the recording, too bad about the collateral damage., hope it bounces back quick.
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I think it fantastic!
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Oh you are so right about that melody.
I started with with first part. That would be what I think is the mandolin part. Well it took me awhile to figure out where the heck I was going to take it from there. It’s hard to get out of that melody unless you simply play the same things somewhere else (starting with that F Sharp hammer on into the G). Just playing the same thing somewhere else didn’t cut it, so I said “well since we are in G I guess I need to play the same thing but start with a D but come into it from the hammer on C”. That worked out just fine. Then I said “Ok you need another part”, Was logical on the 3rd part to complete the triad and come into B from Bb. That 3rd part I was thinking about a horn section turning it all around. That horn section would be found marching in a parade during Mardi Gras down Bourbon Street. That’s the only way I could get back home…to add in a horn section.
Oh I’ve got a bunch more where that one came from.
I don’t necessarily keep things deep in the “grass”. I strive to be a “jammer” that can get on a melody really quickly. With that said I listed to a ton of different styles of backing tracks. I like all music and let it all influence me but “Folk” or “Ol Tyme” music is what I enjoy. Toss in some Americana and some late 60s rock and that’s me.
I simply try to speak on the guitar the lines I hear in my head from the backing track.
I’m a work in progress. Kind of hope I live to be 105 if only to be able to spend 55 more years playing this old wooden noise making box… I enjoy it immensely.
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Sounds good Jesse!
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Hannah and I are headed to Jackson Hole, WY, on Wednesday to do some skiing for our 14th wedding anniversary! We’ll ski on Thurs/Fri then do an all-day snowmobile trek to Old Faithful and back on Saturday. Can’t wait to see them mountains!
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Have fun Ben. I haven’t been to Jackson Hole, but it looks good!
Sounds like great trip Ben, Enjoy!!!
Hey did you send me a text a couple months back? I trashed my phone a year or so ago and when I got a new one all my contacts didn’t transfer and you are one that didn’t transfer.
Was something to the tune of “Give me a call buddy”.
I had about 20 guys from the golf course add me to a group chat around the same time and just thought it might be one of them.
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Ha ha. I am kind of rude from time to time.
I have an android and for some reason when I was added to the list of “scratch golfers” at Old Fort Golf Club I started getting individual texts wanting to play and all kinds of texts from the golf group. I bet I got 200 texts in a week from numbers I didn’t even know right around the time you sent the text. Once I finally got the names of the guys associated w/ the numbers (about 40 days later) your number was one without a contact. About 2 weeks ago I thought “that just might be Ben”. Took me awhile narrowing down guys I know that use “buddy”.
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