The first jam of 2019 is in the books. It was really good to get back to playing. And as always I found some interesting lessons for myself.
I have already reviewed the video of the two sets I played and was pleased to find that I wasn’t quite as rusty as I was afraid I was. Not that there was no rust. It just wasn’t the plague or handicap I was afraid it would be.
In a situation where you take a little time off from something it can be easy to fall back in at a level you were many months, or perhaps years prior to the break. As an example, I could have reverted to playing like I did a year ago when I was just getting started. It would have been easy to not take chances and not play up to the level I can now. I could have chosen to do songs with easy rhythms and a lot of strum and not taken any leads. I am very please that I didn’t.
Truthfully, it really never occurred to me to actually do that.
Sure I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be up to snuff so to speak. I knew I hadn’t been practicing as much as I had the couple of months leading up to the break so I wasn’t sure how well things would go.
They went quite well all things considered. I know, what’s that mean? Well. It wasn’t perfect. I flubbed some lyrics. My voice cracked more that once and I kicked off a song much faster than I intended. All, minor things to be sure.
I had been having a little trouble getting my vocal control back. This I was finding was due to not staying well hydrated and not practicing. I had also lost the habit of proper breathing. All of this I was aware of and had been working on. Still, I was a bit unsure as to my status. Now I know. I’ll be working on that.
It was interesting to me to find how much not practicing with the Wah pedal meant. I think I mentioned that I had borrowed my friend’s pedal to learn how to use it and to see if I would want one. I liked it a lot. It’s fun. It has a lot of possibilities and I decided to use it for Voodoo Woman. Then I gave the pedal back to my friend. With the intent to get my own. Which I had not done by the time of the jam. So, I didn’t practice with it that whole time. To me, and probably many others, it showed.
I’ve learned my lesson on that one and found a nice sounding, easy to use Wah pedal from Electro Harmonix that fit in my budget. Hey, after picking up the Telecaster and Stratocaster, a budget for music gear is needed. Anyway. It sounded great from the video and I even liked the pedal combination they put together later in the demo. It was nice. The Wah, with the Soul Food, also an EHx (Electro Harmonix) pedal, and another EHx pedal called Crayon that is another overdrive. So I looked at my budget and went to get the Wah pedal, hoping they would also have a Crayon in stock. Jackpot! They did.
It seems a little redundant to have two overdrive pedals. However, I noticed that doing this gets a really thick sound that’s not too distorted and not too heavy. The Soul Food offers a great boost and some beef and then the Crayon on top fills that out with some tonal control and adds the crunch. It’s nice. And by having the two pedals I can easily change it up and use just one or the other. And add that Wah in, and… oh my.
During the break the things that took the biggest hit, as far as staying in shape were my wah pedal skills and my vocal control. My general guitar playing seems, at least to me, to have gotten a bit better. Which is good. I did practice it more. I did a bit more noodling and experimenting and playing around. Which I thinks helps, and I didn’t do that before. Also, I had all that that Kevin and mentioned and shared to think about. Then I added the Master Class that I watched with Carlos Santana, and, I had that to think about. Those all did much to improve my playing. At least I, think. I’m looking forward to more of that. Learning to take all of that and internalize it so that I can transform it into something cool to listen to.
I know I’m late getting this post out. A whole week even. I am trying to get back to a regular routine. It’s proving a challenge. The good news is that even though I didn’t get the post written to go up last week, I did get the jam video edited so I should be able to get those posted soon. I managed to work on some more art before the jam came up and I’ll share some bits. I didn’t get any more art worked on last week either so it wasn’t just the post that suffered. I imagine there are a few of you whose routines are still a little off after the end of year holidays and what not. Not to worry. We’ll all settle back in soon and things will hum along in a regular fashion for a bit. At least until the mid-year breaks hit.
Enjoy the pictures. Look for video soon.