Sunday Funk

I was feeling groovy over the weekend and was in the mood for some funk. I came up with a little piece that captured what I was playing around with. I took a groove and modified it for the drum track. Then I recorded a few guitar layers on top. The result:

[sundayfunk16.mp3]

comment slacker

I'm such a comment slacker. In my FeedDemon app I have a few hundred blogs that I read yet I rarely comment. Maybe it's part of my nature...I tend to be quiet in conversation unless I'm on a caffine high.

Anyways, it's time for a change. I going to make a honest attempt to give feed back to the authors of the blogs I enjoy reading.

Pelco Impressions

Had my first day at Pelco today. What a great a place! I feel it already bringing out the dead, old, and tired coder in me. I feel the flame reigniting. It feels good to engage into code again. Today I got a pretty juicy assignment and am looking forward to tomorrow. Yeah!

Blues, Brew, BBQ Concert

The concert last night turned out great! About 250 people showed up in downtown Hanford to enjoy a great evening. The weather was perfect. As a group we felt really good about the performance. Lots of on the fly dynamics and changes made for a fun gig.

Tyler came out at the start of the show and helped out with sound. He does a really good job with that stuff so we asked him to come help out.

We had a couple of technical problems. Tom, our harmonica player, blew out his amp. Half way through the gig the amp just quit. He was able to play through the vocal mic to get by.

Later in the show I started to hear a cracking sound coming from my speaker cabinet. Later I found that I blew out one of my 10" speakers. I was running about 50% through the amp head so I'm not sure what caused it to blow.

Later on that night we headed over to Club Fred to check out MoFo Party band. They had their CD release party there last night. The place was packed and the band was rocking! Lots of fun!

Blues, Brew, BBQ

We're playing the Blues, Brew, and BBQ in front of the Hanford court house this Friday night. Show time is 6-10 with free admission. There will be beer vendors along with BBQ...should be a blast!! Come on out and say hi!

Saturday, I purchased a new Fender American Jazz Bass. After some research I settled on the Jazz bass because of its warm tones. However, the new American models have a new S-1 switch that gives it a punchy P-Bass like tone. The bass sounds great and the action is awesome. I can't wait until Friday's gig to rip it open!

Friday's going to be a lot of fun. The band original drummer will be sitting in with us. We practiced for 5 hours last night and the group sounds really tight. James, the drummer, does a really awesome job with the material we play. His fills are very tasty!

New Week

With my last day at Paramount Farms Friday, I'm taking this week off before starting the new job. I'm going to catch up on a few things around the house and garden. Later in the week I'm heading up to Santa Cruz to meet with my new bass teacher, Dan Robbins.

A week or two back I met Dan while he was playing bass for Bruce Forman in Paso. I liked his style and ended up chatting with him after the show. He showed me a couple things on the upright which was pretty cool. I'm hoping to pick up some jazz bass styles from him.

Speaking of Bruce Forman in Paso, I attended his jazz workshop the day after. It was really enlightening. Pretty much everything he taught came down to one thing - learn the details. At the end of the workshop he played with each of the students, whom were of varying skill levels. I sensed he was able to provide each one of us with exactly what we needed.

My notes from the workshop:

- Learn the chords over the neck, wiggle around and learn the notes around the chords
- in jazz use half steps to solo through the chords rather on top of the chords
- learn to play the scales at different volume levels, play them ascending/descending in volume
- KNOW the form of the song, use it as home base if you get lost
- learn the jazz phrasing...Continually build your jazz vocabulary
- master the details!

Happy Airlines

For my last 3 days at work I've been flying in. It's been good practice for the upcoming practical test. I'm still a little bummed that I had to relearn another airplane for the test but I could always use the experience. I feel much more confident than I did before.

Here's a quote from MyFlightBlog:

"As a result when I would get out once every month and it would take me a while to feel perfectly comfortable in the plane again. It is not to say I ever felt unsafe because that is not the case but instead I felt like I needed to concentrate twice as hard and rely on checklists much more that when I was flying more regularly."

I've noticed the same thing. When weeks have passed between flights I feel that the workload in the plane starts to pile up. It's almost as if I'm becoming reactive to flying rather than proactive. Usually it only takes a trip and some ground time to pass for me to realize the mindset I need to have in the air.

Anyways, the new runway at the plant is awesome...5000ft of runway and usually with a right crosswind. It's made great practice for take off's and landings. The other benefit is the commute is now 25 mins with about 15 mins ground time rather than 1 hour and 20 mins driving. It is my last day here at work...so we'll see what lies ahead. The new job is also next to a runway!

Tulare Lake

Yesterday I flew out to Oceano airport. Along the way I flew right over the Tulare Lake. A hundred years ago there used to be a very large lake located in the western side of central California. Since then we've redirected the water for irrigation and for the population in LA. Now days every 8 years or so when we get large amount of rain fall like we did this season the lake pops back up. Here's a photo of it from the air:

Be a Beginner!

"I'll admit it. I have historically been terrible at being a beginner. I'm impatient and want to jump at least to intermediate, if not expert. My ego doesn't want to see itself at the beginning, clueless stage of anything." [Occupational Adventrue]

This is great advise. I wish I would have followed it with flight training. Right now I'm just a signature away from the check ride but I'm finding holes is my knowledge. I want to know the details now that I see the bigger picture. I think relaxing as a beginner would have gone a long way. It's okay to be a newbie! Let the curiosity flow!

Nothing Else

I was tinkering with a few notes over the last couple of days. Working in the key of C I laid out a really simple chord progression: C, Am/G/F. I recorded a bass track and a few licks for the solo track. Here's the rough sketch so far:

Download "Nothing Else"

A new chapter starts

A couple months back my good bud RobF emails me about an open position where he works. My mouth dropped! Just prior to that email Rob got on board with the COOLEST company in California, Pelco.

Last thursday I signed the offer and today I got medical clearance to start work. I will be leaving Paramount Farms and some great folks that I will miss working with. As things are shaping up June 10th will be my last day working in Lost Hills and June 20th will be the first in Fresno. I'm hoping to enjoy the week of in between!

Oh, and for those of you who remember...this is the "thing on the horizon"!