Summertime is going by fast. We had wanted to go the the beach this weekend, but Saturday when we woke up Jeannie and were both really tired from the work week, and decided to bag it. I ended up doing a ton a yardwork on Saturday, trimming hedges and my neighbor’s willow tree that hangs into my yard. Then Sunday we woke up and we were all ready but it was cold and rainy. Last night we had a fairly epic torrential downpour. So yesterday I had some found time, and I decided to get on my skates for the first time this season. My street used to be really bumpy and then one day the paved it and it was really smooth, perfect for rollerblading. But that was many years ago now it’s all bumpy again, as are many streets in the ‘hood. Plus there are alot of hills, and the busy streets with traffic lights all tend to be at the bottom of the hills. So the quest has been on for some time to find better skating territory nearby.
Last summer I found a local street, a dead-end behind the fire station and local playground, which is nice and smooth. It’s only a block a way, but to get there you have to cross a busy street with traffic, a pretty good downward slope, and some rough pavement, all in all not great for skating. This time I decided just to walk down to the playground and put on my skates there. Turned out to be a great move. The street itself is a good long block, about a half a kilometer long, smooth pavement and a gentle grade down the way out and up on the way back. You can go as slow or fast as you want in the downward direction and stay in control, and back up is not too steep but long enough to make it a good climb. I did four round trips, which is just about four kilometers. Next time I’ll see if I can go five.
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One of my little projects during the pandemic was to organize the lead sheets for hundreds of songs I’ve printed out to learn, mainly to play in rock bands, over the last few years. I compiled them all into a tree-ring binder and began working my thru them around Xmastime, practicing three to five every time I played piano. Mostly these are songs I can sing and accompany myself on piano, and they sound good like that. The idea is to work up a large repertoire, and keep the songs in rotation enough to get to know them, kinda like your knowledge of jazz standards builds up over years of playing out of the real book.
Of course the songbook is somewhat idiosyncratic to my taste, but hopefully with broad appeal. Some songs were more interesting to play and I got into it a little deeper, working on voicings and arrangements, coming back to them for several practices. Others I played once and moved on, or skipped entirely, and some I ripped out of the book because if I never play them again it will still be too soon. And, some it turns out, are better suited for guitar. And along the way I noted a bunch of songs I know and want to add to the book.
So I just hit then end of the book and started again at the top. It took a little over six months. This time thru I’ll be pulling out the guitar songs and put them in a different notebook, and add in the missing songs as I get to them (alphabetically by group, although maybe I should alphabetically by song to break up big blocks of songs by groups like The Beatles or Steely Dan.) Hopefully the thing will evolve of time to be better and better.
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I had a fun little side project at work this week. My company makes a little electric musical instrument called the Orba, and we’re putting together a “vinyl” (apparently that’s what the kids these are calling a record album) featuring songs played on the Orba and using tones from the Orba. One side is music from fans and customers, and the other is form people at the company. So they asked anyone who wanted to to contribute a piece, with a focus on an ambient vibe. I must it was fun and interesting. The Orba is a flexible and powerful instrument, with drum, bass, lead, chord and looping capability, but it’s pretty different from anything else you might have played. I’ve fooled around with mine a bunch but never really got deep in trying to express anything specific or master much technique. So this was a good opportunity for that. I came up with something called Orba Jam Five, mainly because it’s in 5/8 time and made up of five-bar phrases. I copped this idea from a song I’m currently recording called Bluezebub (The Devil You Don’t Know). But other than sharing a click track the Orba Jam is completely different. Anyway, here it is, enjoy!