Haven't played much lately... it had to stop, practcing those late nights. Too hard elsewise during the day and even evening. I can take a great deal of children and household needs coming to me or at me, but not during practice. I'm sure something can be worked out, including going to a park or something w/ the good weather.

Tonight was nice. As usual, the time escaped. No metronome and no scales. Instead I worked on a few passages. When I'm away from playing a couple/few days, or if I get a good break like I did earlier this eve, that's so nice. It's then I begin to hear something else in my head re: the song.

So I found two little riffs to add. A miniscule amt, really: they're only 1/2 measure each, two differrent scales things, at the plunk end of a song whose beg,mid and end need the work! But it made me so happy to think them up and work it in, in rough draft sitting outside by the garden. _____ clipped the hedge and m. (we have 2 M's, the lower case m. is younger than the uppercase M.) playing with her new tiny plastic reptiles, talking to them and so on just a few feet away.

Ah! It was also victorious to simplify something which was not working (the barre chord song). Two things, in fact. The bridge where I was trying to pick, is now strummed. 2nd thing, this is a bright tempo'd little song...I gave the notes to Lazz, it was on the thread "What Key Am I In?" somewhere.

Anyway, the last verse note, holds over and changes into the chorus, no pause whatsoever. Whatever the original last verse note is, it goes up I think a b5th interval and lastly straight into a bang more than an octave from start...like a b9th or something. The intervals weren't killing me as much as the timing of it. So I chucked completely chorus' first note and word, holding the b5th over. Works! Live anyway , ok there's for the live version.

I like the bar chord song, one of the few "I like you" lyrics.

You know what? That song is all major chords, I think . And there's 4 separate musical sections! It's quite a ride. I wrote most of it in the 90's...did a unision falsetto, with oberheim keys and an 88 beat per measure, dance thing. It had a weird phrygian or kinda east indian scale riff...a bell-like sound on intro and verse. And a bizarre bass line kinda copped from counterpoint writing principles...IIRC, that'd be, your 2nd line (bass or whatever) moves in the opposite direction from your melody. Generally. But even that approach can start sounding predictable.

Anyhow, awhile back I said what the heck chords did I ever do on that song? thinking of the original version. The demo was no help. My prize possesion, the notebook with all them 3rd inversion chords to songs, been long gone. I'd usually do inversions and sustained notes in the same chord, or who knows what else. Or I did, before I lost both beloved CERTAIN notebook and my memory.

But I did finally figure it out on guitar. Sped it up presto. And percussative'd it and chucka chucka like. Scrapped the smooth go-on-forever chorus vox, 3 part harmony, and got real! As in, now yer 43, ain't working out areobically, smoking all the time real.

I always had this thing about hating minor chords - but I guess I must've been hungover or something, because now 150 years later, I'm "consciously" beginning to use them. They can be quite bright.

There is an anthem of sorts...about the baby I lost. Anthem is the wrong word, maybe "piece" or "work" is better. It's taking time, mostly because one section of fingering is past the 9th fret and it's that Dm position, pretty unfamiliar yet. Every song I write I say, "It's so hard to sing this!" This one, too. I'm trying on the bridge to pretend I'm in the choir loft, smoothly hitting everything, no laziness or pop inflection. There's I think 4 sperate sections to that song, too. To do it right, I'd want an actual piano player.

But tonight as I worked a bit on it, I thought of Mon Capitaine saying way back when, the drums should be done on 2 tracks, in stereo (I've a 4 track analogue)....then thought, if I did that, then a bass line on track three and mix em down to two tracks, whic'd leave 2 empty tracks...that'd probably be best order or plan. It'd be good for morale, I thought, to hear this piece in toto, recorded just bass, guitar, drums, voice. Or maybe no drums.

I have never heard the song fully, tho it's fully completed.

When I record, if I have enough tracks like I did with Last Train, I can do guitar alone. I can also punch in if something's proving impossible. Altho...there was no guitar punching in for Last Train. Scratch that, I cannot punch in for guitar! But at least I can look away from the mic to the fretboard.

It's doing guitar and singing lead or even harmony at the same time which is, simply, still new for me. That's why I cannot get thru certain songs yet.