To compliment my reading & technical exercise, I’m also working on some modal improvisation concepts. Modes have been something I’ve misunderstood for several years now. I did well in theory class at Berklee, but somehow couldn’t get modes together in my playing (other than through “So What” or other vamping tunes). Tim has been educating me on some modern jazz applications of modes and encouraging me to beef up my ears. I’m working on scale positions, chord voicings, and transcriptions (a little Metheny & a little Wolfgang).

These two categories fit nice together. Frequently, I’ll get bored, tired or frustrated with one and move on to the other. Progress is slow, but that’s the way progress works.

I ordered Ralph’s second transcription book, and received in the mail today. I’m currently in love with his composition “If.” What a great guy. Thanks Ralph, for brightening my day.

As I mentioned earlier, the whole idea of this Walbum project has invigorated my creatitivy and musical satisfaction. I’m really enjoying the idea of this deadline, and the excitement that will come as this project gets completed. I’m just brainstorming right now, but I’m thinking of locations to debut or showcase this work live in early ’07. It could give me a little more creative juice to ride in the new year, or at least something to do through another cold New England Winter.

I’ve also been working on good old fashioned rock studies for the guitar. I’ve been reviewing some old exercises for arpeggios, sweep picking & tapping (of all things). It’s been great fun. I’ve been listening to a lot of Pat Metheny on Rhapsody lately, and his rock chops are so pristine and fantastic, that it’s given me a good reason to go back & work on this stuff myself. Plus, rock is an important part of my musical upbringing. So much so, that I’m conjuring up some of my teenage youthfulness when I play. Yet now, I have a little more musical wisdom than I did back then.

The work that I’ve been doing over the past 18 months is really beginning to show in the speed and accuracy of my playing. Not only am I processing information faster and in bigger “gulps,” but I can actually play my ideas faster. And everyone knows fast=cool.

Finally, the whole idea of the Walbum is making this work more meaningful. When I’m practicing for something that is going to have a creative output to it, work becomes very satisfying.

“I didn’t know it, but I was literally writing a dime novel. In the spring of 1950 it cost me nine dollars and eighty cents in dimes to write and finish the first draft of The Fire Man which later became Fahrenheit 451.

In all the years from 1941 to that time, I had done most of my typing in the family garages, either in Venice, California, (where we lived because we were poor, not because it was the “in” place to be) or behind the tract house where my wife, Marguerite, and I raised our family. I was driven out of my garage by my loving children, who insisted on coming around to the rear window and singing and tapping on the panes. Father had to choose between finishing a story or playing with the girls. I chose to play, of course, which endangered the family income. An office had to be found. We couldn’t afford one.

Finally, I located just the place, the typing room in the basement of the library at the University of California at Los Angeles. There, in neat rows, were a score of more of old Remington or Underwood typewriters which rented out at a dime a half hour. You thrust your dime in, the clock ticked madly , and you typed wildly, to finish before the half hour ran out. Thus I was twice driven; by children to leave home, and by a typewriter timing device to be a maniac at the keys. Time was indeed money. I finished the first draft in roughly nine days. At 25,000 words, it was half the novel it eventually would become.”

Isn’t that great? Deadlines can be an artist’s best friend. It’s partly why I started the Walbum project. Being a creative person and an employed person doesn’t always go hand in hand. And don’t get me wrong, I am greatly satisfied and blessed by my Teaching & Solo Guitar practices, but when it comes to composing music, I don’t have an outlet. Nobody is asking me to write music, and if I don’t write music, nobody cares. I need to create and make music. This is where the Walbum helps. This project sets me up with a deadline and the blog aspect keeps me accountable & honest with myself.

As I trek through the first week of the Walbum project, I have less ideas that I thought I would. This is my track listing so far:

1. head – vamp – solo – head
2. click – vamp – head – solo – fade or head
3. an Arrangement of another tune (cover)
4. Solo Acoustic Guitar
5. Country Tune
6. Acoustic Percussive Piece
7. Spread Triad Tune

It looks like I’ve got some work ahead of me, doesn’t it?