It’s been more than a month since the last update but it feels much less… let’s see what happened since.
30 April, 2022: I bought my coveted Epiphone Casino. I had it set up last week for free; I was going to buy an EC Coupe, as it turned out, from the store by the luthier, but it had some aesthetic issues, so it came to the “real” Casino from another dealer but the free setup that would have been part of the deal remained. It was quite interesting to see a professional do it and the mechanism of the tailpiece isn’t a mystery to me anymore, either.
So I’ve had a few new guitar weeks already. I really like it so far, and despite its size it’s quite comfortable to play.
On 30 May it will be my Epiphone LP’s turn at the luthier for a check-up.
In the past month I managed to decipher the bassline of Herbie Hancock’s “Ostinato (Suite for Angela)”. It’s not as difficult as it seemed at first, though I started out a semitone higher than the original, for some reason. It’s a pity I can’t make my guitar sound as sneaky and furtive as the bass clarinet, though.
When I was a teen I used to listen to King Crimson somewhat regularly, but later on I kind of forgot about them save for their debut. Last week I rediscovered their 1972-74 period (call it nostalgia) and managed to sort of jam along to the main riff of “The Night Watch” and “Starless”. The middle section in the latter is something I want to explore further. I also managed to pin down those weepy string Mellotron chords based on G and A# but I’m not yet sure if they are minor or extended chords. In the near future I’ll tackle the bassline as well.
And this week during a practice session I got the idea of trying to play the riff of “Stay” by David Bowie. Granted, it’s still quite choppy and less than funky under my fingers, but at least I found the notes quite easily. Not a bad start, I think.
Today I did the Grade 4 music theory exam and made only 1 mistake on the 1st attempt, so I’m pretty satisfied with my theoretical progress. I’ll stop and consolidate for a bit, and then continue with Grade 5.
Lately, I’ve had to work quite a lot and haven’t felt very good so I didn’t have a lot of time for practicing or playing. For almost a month, the tiny muscles around my eyes which cannot be moved voluntarily kind of cramp or vibrate. It’s not painful but quite annoying after a time. Tomorrow I’ll have an MRI scan done on me which I think is more of a safety measure on the doctor’s part, so I hope nothing will be out of the ordinary and that the whole things is “just” a symptom of stress and tiredness.