I know. Preposterous thread title, isn't it?
And yet, it was indeed - for me - National Les Day today!
As originally planned, my team was supposed to start work on a new ad track. In fact we have a couple of projects in the wings, but as sometimes happens, the ad folks were still working on picture. We didn't get the rough cut we expected.
This happens from time to time. Usually I spend such days working on business stuff - networking, doing paperwork, making calls to clients to remind them that we exist (otherwise known as "sales"), etc. But not today. Today I wanted to be purely a musician. So I declared it National Les Day, and got busy with some of the musical stuff I wanted to do.
First, I practiced for several hours. Guitar and keys. Usually I squeeze practice in here and there, but not on National Les Day. Instead, I blocked out a few hours, and just got down to it. I have a weird way of practicing that kills two birds with one stone, and I say it's weird because it's probably the reason my playing sucks. But what I do is come up with a chord structure, and improvise over it, the rule being that the improvisation has to be something I haven't done before, and that it has to get more and more difficult. Afterward, I move on to another chord structure. I do this in several keys, on both instruments. The theory I have is that this helps me to come up with ideas for my work, while at the same time keeping my hands somewhat limber.
If truth be told, however, I do it this way because I like doing it this way.
Unfortunately, it isn't making me a faster player the way repetition and its resultant muscle memory can. But my ad clients really don't want speed licks, they want a well-chosen melodic line and not what they call "screaming guitar." So this helps me both play and write.
Then I experimented a bit with amp placement in the room, microphones, and changing it up a little with the controls on the pedalboard. I suppose that's part of practicing, practicing being a recording engineer, but I don't really consider myself an engineer, so I'll chalk that up to a practice side-venture.
From practicing, I moved on to working with a new studio plugin that has me intrigued, and learned how to use it. Not a bad way to relax, actually. And in the process, I learned something. It's going to be very useful!
After dinner, I got a text from Guitarist Magazine. The new issue, featuring the 30th Anniversary of PRS with a very fact-filled review of the 30th Anniversary CU24, and a couple of very good articles about PRS and its history, was available for download. By coincidence, I have a 30th Anniversary CU24 coming as soon as the weather warms up a little. So I pored over the issue. Very nice, and complete with an explanation of the 58/15 and 85/15 pickups, which it turns out are the very same, one covered, one uncovered, with an explanation of why the covered ones sound a little different from the uncovered ones.
Oh sure, I had a conference with my partner, but it was mostly a matter of "when the heck are we getting picture?" and "have we heard from client X yet?" So it was that kind of day. National Les Day, 2015.
I hope your National Les Day was as much fun as mine was.
And yet, it was indeed - for me - National Les Day today!
As originally planned, my team was supposed to start work on a new ad track. In fact we have a couple of projects in the wings, but as sometimes happens, the ad folks were still working on picture. We didn't get the rough cut we expected.
This happens from time to time. Usually I spend such days working on business stuff - networking, doing paperwork, making calls to clients to remind them that we exist (otherwise known as "sales"), etc. But not today. Today I wanted to be purely a musician. So I declared it National Les Day, and got busy with some of the musical stuff I wanted to do.
First, I practiced for several hours. Guitar and keys. Usually I squeeze practice in here and there, but not on National Les Day. Instead, I blocked out a few hours, and just got down to it. I have a weird way of practicing that kills two birds with one stone, and I say it's weird because it's probably the reason my playing sucks. But what I do is come up with a chord structure, and improvise over it, the rule being that the improvisation has to be something I haven't done before, and that it has to get more and more difficult. Afterward, I move on to another chord structure. I do this in several keys, on both instruments. The theory I have is that this helps me to come up with ideas for my work, while at the same time keeping my hands somewhat limber.
If truth be told, however, I do it this way because I like doing it this way.
Unfortunately, it isn't making me a faster player the way repetition and its resultant muscle memory can. But my ad clients really don't want speed licks, they want a well-chosen melodic line and not what they call "screaming guitar." So this helps me both play and write.
Then I experimented a bit with amp placement in the room, microphones, and changing it up a little with the controls on the pedalboard. I suppose that's part of practicing, practicing being a recording engineer, but I don't really consider myself an engineer, so I'll chalk that up to a practice side-venture.
From practicing, I moved on to working with a new studio plugin that has me intrigued, and learned how to use it. Not a bad way to relax, actually. And in the process, I learned something. It's going to be very useful!
After dinner, I got a text from Guitarist Magazine. The new issue, featuring the 30th Anniversary of PRS with a very fact-filled review of the 30th Anniversary CU24, and a couple of very good articles about PRS and its history, was available for download. By coincidence, I have a 30th Anniversary CU24 coming as soon as the weather warms up a little. So I pored over the issue. Very nice, and complete with an explanation of the 58/15 and 85/15 pickups, which it turns out are the very same, one covered, one uncovered, with an explanation of why the covered ones sound a little different from the uncovered ones.
Oh sure, I had a conference with my partner, but it was mostly a matter of "when the heck are we getting picture?" and "have we heard from client X yet?" So it was that kind of day. National Les Day, 2015.
I hope your National Les Day was as much fun as mine was.
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