#bandpractice — Public Fediverse posts

Practice: Complete

Just got home from band practice. Lucy did not pull the football away from Charlie Brown.

My finger tips ARE KILLING ME. The last two songs we did I could barely play. My fingers just said, “yeah we’re done for the day” and that was it. Outside of that, things went pretty well. There probably won’t be a practice next week as our drummer is traveling, but after that I hope we can get onto something like a regular schedule.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54477861465/in/datetaken/

#BandPractice #bandRehearsal #CoverBand #dadRockCoverBand #Guitar #iphoneography #lizardfish #photography #rockCoverBand

Line Check: Complete

Band practice is supposed to start in 43 minutes. As of this moment we’ve all chimed in that we’re good to go for today. Fingers emphatically crossed that nothing changes.

I did a line check with all of the gear I want to bring today. I am massively downsizing the pedals and massively upscaling the amp situation. Also… I’m going to play the SG. I don’t know why. I am just feeling like today should be an SG day.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54477136501/in/datetaken/

Everything is working. The new reverb pedal sounds cool. Here’s hoping nothing falls apart over the next 41 minutes and we actually have a practice today. It’s going to be painful. I have no calluses on my left hand finger tips. I’ve only played for about five minutes and already I am hurting, big time.

Bring it on, kids!

#BandPractice #Guitar #GuitarGear #iphoneography #lineCheck #lizardfish #photography

Practice Tomorrow

Band practice is on for 10:00am tomorrow. Morning practice is weird, but it will work. Hopefully the bass player’s family will all be awake before all the noise starts (eek!).

I told the other guys that I put it on my Google Calendar so there’s no backing out now. We’ll see. Lucy still has about 26 hours to pull the football away from Charlie Brown (me).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54475303693/in/datetaken/

I’m rewatching the three new episodes of Andor right now. I’m up to the third episode with that scene with Bix. It is fucking disturbing and really hard to watch. Star Wars for adults is a pretty accurate description of this show.

What else… I don’t know. One work day to survive before the weekend arrives. It’s going to be a long day, I fear. I haven’t taken any pictures of cats yet. I’m sure the opportunity will arise eventually.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54474189332/in/datetaken/

I also haven’t looked at the news yet today. I’m always afraid to do so. I’m always in a borderline state of panic to learn about what fresh nazi hell was unleashed overnight. I’m so tired of living in “interesting times.” Fuck this. I want my country back. Failing that, I want my state to just leave and start over. 249 years was a good run, I guess.

What else… I don’t know. Here’s hoping for a nice easy work day followed by a nice and calm weekend… that includes my cousin’s husbands wake… fuck. The universe is just piling on. Hopefully there are brighter, less depressing, less fascist days ahead. Now, where did I put those two cats?

#BandPractice #Family #Fascism #friday #funeral #iphoneography #lizardfish #nazis #photography #Politics #wake #weekend

Are We On

Sundays are supposed to be band practice day. Are we on today or not?

As of yesterday, we are on but we don’t know when yet. Late afternoon? I hope so.

Change of subject, we’re going to Disney World again in June. In the interest of finding the silver lining, is it possible that with the nazis in washington trying to ass fuck all of our allies that enough countries will put travel warnings in place for citizens visiting the usa that we’ll have small crowds in the Disney parks? Bad for Disney, bad for america, bad for the economy…. good for our vacation? Look at me being all positive and shit.

Change of subject again, the Red Sox have now lost two in a row after winning their season opener. They play Texas again today. Opening the season with a four game series… yeah, I am ready to move on. As for the Bruins… they lost their fifth straight last night. They’ve lost eight of their last 10. Are they actively tanking? Sure feels like it. Suffice to say, it has not been a good stretch for Boston sports fans.

Yeah… I need a band practice to straighten my head out a little. Yeah.

#BandPractice #Baseball #Boston #BostonBruins #BostonRedSox #Bruins #DisneyWorld #Hockey #lizardfish #Music #RedSox #Travel #Vacation

Two Weeks in a Row

We did it. We have had two band practices in a row. Oh thanks be to the gods of bad middle aged cover bands, we pulled off two Sunday practices in a row!

I fought with my gear through the whole thing. I have something in my signal chain that is adding a weird whistling noise and when it reaches my overdrive pedals it gets LOUD. I ended up bypassing half of the board and it seemed like it fixed the problem for a while, but eventually it came back and kept getting worse. If I had to guess I would say it’s probably my power supply. I don’t know. I think I might bring my stay at home pedal board next time and see if it had any similar issues.

I also just wasn’t vibing with my amp. The Vox AC15 is fun and I like using it when I record at home, but when the band was playing I was missing my Deluxe Reverb. I might swap them next time. Or maybe I’ll swap the pedal board next time and then swap the amp the time after that.

Look at me, making plans for the next two practices, as if I wasn’t just worried about ever having two practices in a row again. Why don’t we focus on the next practice actually happening before we start looking beyond that, m’kay?

As for me personally, my playing was awful. Probably worse than last week. That’s okay though, I will get back up to speed soon enough, assuming we get ourselves on a regular schedule, of course.

How about a couple of gear pics?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54375792734/in/datetaken/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54374714587/in/datetaken/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54375590571/in/datetaken/

#BandPractice #CoverBand #dadRockCoverBand #Guitar #iphoneography #lizardfish #Music #photography

Two Weeks in a Row?

I didn’t get my hopes up last week and everything worked out. Now we’re shooting for two weeks in a row. Should I be excited?

Last week we had our first band practice in months after more false alarms than I care to remember. After all the fails I refused to get excited about it until we were all actually in the room together. Once we were though… rock and roll bro.

Now we’re talking about practicing again tomorrow. One week later. Is it going to happen? Is it going to fall through? Are we on or are we dealing with another false alarm? I don’t want to get too excited. I don’t want to get my hopes too high… but we’re practicing at noon tomorrow and my stuff is already packed up.

Rock and roll, bro.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54372980192/in/datetaken/

#BandPractice #bandRehearsal #CoverBand #dadRock #dadRockCoverBand #Guitar #iphoneography #lizardfish #Music #photography

We’re Going to Fail Again, Aren’t We

The band practice is on the books for 4:00pm tomorrow. I should be super psyched.

I’m not.

We’re going to get slammed with a snowstorm tomorrow afternoon. Practice is going to get snowed out.

MUTHA PUSS BUCKET!

I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but I swear that mother nature hates my guts. What a bitch!

#BandPractice #CoverBand #dadRockCoverBand #lizardfish #Music #Rehearsal #Snow #Weather #winter

Still Looks Good

It still looks like Sunday will have a band practice. The first one in ages.

I need to put new strings on my Les Paul Standard. I also need to not get too excited because statistically speaking it’s probably safe to assume something will take the plans and cock them up.

Ugh. I want to be in a band again! AARRGGHH!!!

#BandPractice #bandRehearsal #CoverBand #dadRockCoverBand #Guitar #lizardfish #Music #Rehearsal

Fingers Crossed

4:00pm on Sunday?

We’re trying to setup a time for the band to get together this weekend. I think everyone is in. At least we’re all in as of this moment. I need this. I so need this. I don’t even know when the last time all four of us got together to play was. It’s been way too long. So long that I was pretty convinced it would never happen again. Pessimistically I am still pretty convinced that it is never going to happen again but I am choosing to look on the bright side right now, like the ray of fucking sunshine that I am.

My fingers are crossed. Band practice on Sunday. Make it so.

#BandPractice #CoverBand #dadRockCoverBand #Guitar #lizardfish #Music #reeharsal

I Want to Go Home

I want to go home. I’m in the office, 44 miles away. Tonight I want to cook dinner for my beautiful bride and then move some furniture around to make room for a new couch. I got seven hours of sleep last night so I am not terribly tired right now (and it feels weird) so I know I will have the energy to pull it all off. I just wish I were at home so I could just punch out of work and do it all without having the long drive home wedged into the middle of everything. Blah.

Here’s another cat photo that I took this morning before I left for work just because Robin the cat is adorable and she was very willing to pose for the camera today.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54250578335/in/dateposted/

Unrelated question… the band Facebook chat left off with hoping we could all get together at some point after the first weekend in January. The first weekend in January is now over. How long should I wait before I start the discussion up again? How soon is too soon? Should I wait three days as if it were a kind of first date thing? Do the same stupid rules apply? I don’t want to sound too eager even though I am SUPER eager to get the band moving again. I want to play. I want to gig. I want, want, want.

#Band #BandPractice #Cat #commute #CoverBand #Family #homeImprovement #homeOwner #iphoneography #Kitty #lizardfish #Music #photography #robin #work

I have two things going on today besides work. First, I had to visit my father to help out with that thing that he needs help with that I am not going into details on. I usually do it after work, but tonight there is the second thing going on. Tonight is the first band practice in about a month or so.

I just got home from my father’s place. All went well. He’s good for the day. Nice. When I got home I logged back in to work and sent off a facebook messenger message to the band. Are we still on? As of right now we are, but one band member may have traffic issues. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

I also just ordered a capo from amazon. I know I have one somewhere, but I just can’t find it. I’ll have to go with the alternate tuning solution tonight if we play that one new song. I’ll have a capo for the next practice, I promise.

I’m not sure how dinner is going to work tonight. We still need to figure that out. I expect it’s going to be protein supplements for ol’ Robbie, but I want my beloved bride to have something nice.

Okay, back to work with you, Mr. Robert.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/08/08/stuff-going-on-2/

#BandPractice #capo #CoverBand #coverSong #Family #Guitar #GuitarGear #health #lizardfish #Music

I feel better about my place in the universe now.

I got up, did my exercise for the day, ate breakfast, and played the guitar. I learned two songs for tonight’s band practice. One of them requires a capo! What the hell, bro? I own a capo but I haven’t a clue where it is. I tuned the guitar up a full step to F# and learned the song that way. I’ll have to get a capo this weekend and re-learn the song for next time. There was a third song on our to do list but I seem to recall our singer saying to drop it. I hope so because there is a keyboard part that will tie my hands in an a knot if I have to play it.

After working on the new songs for the band, I recorded rhythm guitar parts for one song and lead parts for another! We had band progress and 50/90 challenge progress. Epic!

And even with all that music, I was not late for work! WOOHOO!

https://flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/53910407790/in/datetaken/

https://flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/53909068862/in/datetaken/

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/08/08/morning-music-9/

#20245090Challenge #365 #365Challenge #5090 #5090Challenge #Band #BandPractice #CoverBand #coverSongs #Guitar #lizardfish #Music #Nikon #nikonZ5 #photoADay #photoADayChallenge #photography #Recording #Songwriting #z5

The band’s facebook messenger chat page is exploding right now. We’re trying to get all four of us into a room together and it’s proving to be more difficult than ever before. Our traditional 6pm on Sunday rehearsal time is not doable. We’re waffling back and forth between earlier on Sundays and after work on Thursdays. Thursdays appear to be in the lead at the moment.

Scheduling things is difficult. Was it this hard to do when we were kids? Is this an adult thing? Is it a middle aged adult thing? It’s tough to say. Sometimes acting like a grown up sucks, but what can you do? The alternative (not being a grown up) is probably worse.

Okay. We’re booked for Thursday. I put it on my Google Calendar. It is officially set in stone now. Or something like that.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/08/02/scheduling-things-is-difficult/

#adult #adulthood #adulting #BandPractice #beingAGrownUp #calendar #CoverBand #grownUp #lizardfish #makingPlans #Music #plans #schedule #time

The band’s facebook messenger chat page is exploding right now. We’re trying to get all four of us into a room together and it’s proving to be more difficult than ever before. Our traditional 6pm on Sunday rehearsal time is not doable. We’re waffling back and forth between earlier on Sundays and after work on Thursdays. Thursdays appear to be in the lead at the moment.

Scheduling things is difficult. Was it this hard to do when we were kids? Is this an adult thing? Is it a middle aged adult thing? It’s tough to say. Sometimes acting like a grown up sucks, but what can you do? The alternative (not being a grown up) is probably worse.

Okay. We’re booked for Thursday. I put it on my Google Calendar. It is officially set in stone now. Or something like that.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/08/02/scheduling-things-is-difficult/

#adult #adulthood #adulting #BandPractice #beingAGrownUp #calendar #CoverBand #grownUp #lizardfish #makingPlans #Music #plans #schedule #time

Communication Breakdown. (One of the other bands in the practice space tonight was a very loud Del Nileppez cover band, Lenny Gonzalez and I are fine.)

#BandPractice #Oakland #PGAndE #Substation #PlayMusic