Tag: bass

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Youtube has become a major timesuck for me. There are a couple channels I enjoy, but evening hours spent clicking on random, recommended videos doesn’t leave me feeling fulfilled. I’ve blocked it on my home computer, we’ll see what happens over the next 30 days.

What will I do with all this free time? Practicing bass will be at the top of the list. My skills have plateaued, and not at a level I’m proud of. In past years, I practiced more in the winter months, but this season, our weekly jam sessions were the only regular playing time I had.

I’m hoping that I’ll see a bit of progress in the coming weeks if I can stay motivated to do meaningful practice on a more regular basis. Wish me luck!

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Managed to get out for a sail on Sunday. I was single-handing, lazy and didn’t bother with a headsail–could have used it against the current though. I spent the better part of an hour trying to round a buoy (it’s good to have goals), then gave up when Rockaway Point YC’s race was bearing down on me.

Another good jam Friday. I left Sunday Papers off the list this week, but the band insisted we play it. So, it was the encore. It may forever occupy the last slot on the set list. Ziggy Stardust is coming into the rotation next week, so I spent some time on a rainy Saturday messing around with it. I’ve heard it a million times, and used to be able to stumble though it on a 6-string, but never appreciated Trevor Bolder’s, nice bass line. I hope to do it some justice come Friday.

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I am behind on my weeknotes. Partially due to travel, partially to lazyness. I’ll publish this abbreviated edition a week late and catch up next week.

Black and white photo of three men in a garage with guitars.
Meet the monotones (working name, not to be confused with The Monotones). Photo: Angela Lin

The highlight of the week was a visit to the country–if you can call destinations reachable by Metro North “the country”. On the agenda: Play some music, chill by the pool and sail. The weather wasn’t conducive to sailing, but we played a lot of music and really enjoyed the pool.

This was a rare, live jam of the regular Jamulus crew. It’s wonderful that we can play together online, I doubt we’d play much at all if we couldn’t; however, being in the same room is so much better. We worked on tightening up a couple of the songs on our regular playlist and started working on a couple new ones.

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A small, bass pedalboard with preamp, chorus and Beat Buddy pedals on a wood floor with a hand written set list.

On the jam this week, we decided to get somewhat more organized: I put together a playlist ahead of time. Not surprisingly, the jam was smoother without the usual “what are we playing next” routine where I suggest a song and the other guys suggest alternatives. We also added a new (for us) song that sounded shockingly good the first time through. Our set list is somewhat eclectic, but I can see us heading in a slightly more rockabilly direction. If that’s the case, I might need an upright bass.

A friend had some BBQ sauces delivered from Alabama this week. We tried them out on some chicken, the verdict: The Dreamland BBQ sauce is delicious and the Big Bob Gibson White Sauce is, perhaps, and acquired taste. I’ll give the white sauce a couple more chances, but it may prove too mayonnaisey for my tastes.

The 3D printed boat part I designed came back from the printer this week. While the print quality on this one isn’t as good the as the first, it should work. I’ll drop a full write-up in the Projects section after I’ve installed it on the boat.

Finally, I noticed some weirdness on the site this week. No, jpreardon.com is not (intentionally) hawking prescription drugs. Someone managed to inject spam into a few of the pages and posts recently. I think I’ve removed all of it now, and security has been tightened to prevent it from happening in the future.

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