Set Lists and Studio Times

8 hours of rehearsing for the gig in July. Our set list is simple and perfectly planned.
It looks something like this.......
Terraplane Blues-Robert Johnson
Thrill Is Gone-BB King
Knockin’ On Heavens Door-Bob Dylan
Goin’ Mad Blues-John Lee Hooker
Hoochie Coochie Man-Muddy Waters
Drunk-Tommy Tucker
Harpoon Man-The Paul Delay Band

Here is a flyer for the gig itself.

In further news my own compositions have taken a positive turn and I am going to be in the studio next week recording 3 tracks, all different instrumentals with a live band set up who have all learnt what I have written.
Kind of ironic really, I want to make it as a session player yet I have people being session guys for me to get started.....

Here is a shot of some of the music from the tracks:

The first one, a metal inspired piece called ‘999’.

The second one has yet to be christened however I am using the working title ‘Acoustic Gold’.

And the third one has been aptly named ‘Groove Ladder’.

The studio session is booked for 5 hours on Tuesday and 3 hours on Wednesday and then by the weekend I will have a rough mix of the songs to listen to and outline any tweaks to make.
I am rather excited for next week.

Last Friday the 22^nd April, I was involved in an open mic night down at the new Welfare Club where I am working.
I played a 4 song set to finish the night off.
The first two songs were:
Knockin on Heavens door
Pretty Vacant.
The line up consisted of guitar, bass, drums and shared vocals.
Next we played:
Rockin In The Free World
For this we had a harmonica player come up and join us to jam.
The final song of the night was:
Mustang Sally
For this we had lead vocals, backing vocalists, guitar, bass, harmonica and drums and a very extended ending to keep people wanting more.
My friend was kind enough to fllm some of the set for me and I have posted the video of ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ to Youtube for all to feast their eyes and ears on.

I have also been looking at my practice routine that I do daily on the guitar. Today I timed it and it is exactly 2 hours and I started it just 5 weeks ago and I am already seeing improvement.
This works out a 2 hours a day, 5 days a week for 5 weeks.
So the Match wud be 2x5= 10, 10x5=50, which means I have improved my technique and playing ability in 50 hours, I think as I can really see the benefits I will be keeping this up from now on and I encourage all musicians to do the same, practice makes perfect after all.

Night All
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Cool.

Filling In Some Blanks

Due to technical errors beyond my control the website has not allowed me to post updates for a week, I have reported the problem and it seems to be sorted and hopefully will not affect me again.
Last week I was hired by a singer/guitarist I know to come and gig with him.
The gig is to open a night of music on the 1^st of July in South Wing-field for a Biker’s rally weekend.
We have spent 8 solid hours rehearsing so far and have comprised a set of acoustic blues music lasting us half an hour to entertain people with.
I have found this to be a fun and yet challenging experience so far as I am used to simply jamming out blues numbers on my electric or with a live band but with just two acoustic guitars and sharing vocals the sound scope is a different one to play with.
We have combined covers of numbers by the like of BB King with the original Mississippi delta songs of the likes of Robert Johnson and Sonny Boy Williamson utilising chordal patterns with simple melodies and slide guitar solos, we are even going to do a nice bluesy cover of ‘Knockin On Heavens Door’ By Bob Dylan and I am putting a Harmonica part into it.
After we have practiced tonight I will load up the final set list.

The week before last I began embarking on a new expedition to exploit myself musically.
I am going to make simple videos of me performing my own songs or covers of songs I have learnt which can express my technicality and feel levels and will upload them to the internet and post them to people who are looking for guitarists for hire.
My first two videos to go up tomorrow will be covers of:
‘Hey Joe’ - Jimi Hendrix
‘Surfing With The Alien’ – Joe Satriani
The both cover wide aspects of feel playing and technicality and are two of the songs that heavily accelerated my playing ability and increased the pleasure of playing guitar for me and they are both by two of my guitar idols.



Jimi Hendrix



Joe Satriani

I will update this more tomorrow with hopefully some more positive inputs.
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