I really miss the days I had nothing to do but play & practice for 8 to 12 hours solid. Those days are long gone. I used to spend an hour sight reading standard notation. I would play and record rhythm changes to jazz tunes then practice playing the melody and improvising to the changes I recorded. I would also learn new scales and practice them against the chords related to it. I’d play my arpeggio’s, etc…
Now days time is short and very valuable. I now work at specific area’s. This is my current daily (have to do) practice regiment:
No#1… I’m always spending time to become a better sight reader. I like reading new jazz melodies and solo’s, classical music and Vicente Amigo’s music. I don’t read the tab, only the standard notation. (most guitarist don’t read and from experience all I can tell you is that reading is a Must!!! if you really want to excel as a great and versitle player).
No#2… Currently to build my right hand strength and picado speed. I practice playing 1/16th note scales using only m,a alternating. (always with a metronome) Then I’ll play the scales alternating i,a,m. (which is the way I play all my picado runs. Working on the m,a alternation has drastically improved my strength and speed. (I very rarely practice with a pick)
No#3… I’m always learning new music to play at cassual and corporate performances. Currently I’m adding Vicente Amigos “Limon de Nata” & “Bolero del Amigo” I’m also chipping away at Vicente’s “Mensaje”
It’s kind of funny what happens when your kids grow up.
Both my boys decided to have pets. At first it was fish. They both bought 70gal. tanks and away they went. I’m not sure what happened but the the kids moved out and we began the next chapter of our lives raising fish!
So were do the min pins fit in? My youngest boy always wanted a dog so he purchased a beautiful, black & tan miniature pincher we call Coco.
Just as we managed to move out one of the fish tanks, Coco moved in and we fell in love with her.
One day, I think my son may had been upset with us for getting after him for a concern we had so he decided to take Coco hostage. Day’s turn to weeks and we really missed her so we decided to get our own.
We found a very good breeder a purchased Roxxi, a wonderful red min pin puppy. As you could guess, a week or so later… The kids were still on there own and we’re now proud parents to Coco, Roxxi and a 70 gallon tank full of fish.
The Bose T-1 is a very small digital mixer. It’s pretty good. (the big issue I have with it is that I can’t assign the reverb to the monitor bus) I mic my guitar to channel #1. My nylon string guitar mic is an AKG C535 EB which I love!! I can use a little compression to keep the string balance even while close mic’ing the guitar. The compression also helps to keep me out in front of the mix without relying on a sound tech to properly ride the fader all night. I can also add reverb. The T-1 have a very decent reverb and is loaded with a lot of other great effects. I also run a line out of my guitar channel that goes to the input of my RC50 loopstation to record live guitar loops. BTW, the T1 has a 3 band eq and a parametric eq for each channel. These days I keep the eq on the T-1 flat.
Currently my guitar mic goes into a DBX 376 tube preamp. It’s great! It’s used for: – warming and fattening up my guitar – eq is great. I cut the low end, a little high end and carve out a little 1k – I’ll bypass the T1 compression and use the DBX compressor (overeasy @ about a 4:1 comp)
Channel #2 of the T-1 is the input for my loopstation’s output. I’ll add reveb to this channel as the channel #1 line output I assigned pre-effects.
I use the sub-output a from my loopstation to send a click into Channel #3 of the Bose T-1.
The T-1 has one aux send for each channel that I use to send a mix to the monitor output to my in-ear monitors. (I use live wire in-ear monitors) My monitor mix consists of my guitar, looped guitar & click. The mix is dry because of Bose’s reluctance to create a global reverb send to the monitor bus! (maybe if enough people complain Bose will fix this for us with an update) BTW, I only put my in-ear monitor in my right ear. I keep to other out to hear the room sound. I’ll only put both monitors in if I’m playing a corporate event were the room volume (people talking) is so loud that I can’t think. (300 to 600 people packed into a small venue all talking can really grind you down after a couple of hours) check out my Behind the scenes posts to see what I mean.
The main out of the T-1 is my channel #1 guitar and my loops created live to channel #2.
Now if you what to hear your guitar with reverb in the in-ear monitors hears what I do these days. I do not send Ch1 & Ch2 guitars to the aux. I use a splitter out of the T-1′s main output. One split goes to the PA system and the other goes into Channel #4 of the T-1 (now channel 4 is a guitar mix (my guitar and the loops) with reverb. I assign Channel #4 to the aux monitor mix.
My monitor mix now contains the ch3 click and the ch1 & ch2 guitar mix with reverb. It took a long time for me to sort this one all out but it works GREAT!
Live with the band I’ll use this system (only if I decide to perform w/loops) and each band member has an in-ear monitor with me and the click. This has also worked great when we’ve done multi-media shows with video, laser & lighting sync.
If I’m not playing with loops I only use my DBX 376 tube pre-amp and I take a direct line out for my in-ear monitor. (bought an inline $7 volume control from Radio Shack / The Source to control the in-ear volume) The beauty of this is I don’t have to rely on the FOH (Front Of House) sound tech to give me a good monitor mix. My guitar always sounds amazing to me on stage! And that is so very important to a great, relaxed performance!
One more note… I also have a TC Electronic reverb in my DBX pre-amp rack. I sometimes use the effects loop on the DBX to add a nice reverb to my guitar if I don’t feel the FOH sound tech doesn’t have one or I’m worried he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Ok, this is my first blog & post! I’m going to use this blog to tell everyone what it is like being a guitarist. What! You can actually make a living doing that! Yep…
I hope to post my behind the scenes experiences… public performances, private gigs, what’s new today, what I’m practicing, new projects, etc…
Here’s what’s currently going on… I’m working around the clock to get this blog together. My first Categories will be… what I’m practicing these days, what it’s like to have laser eye surgery, (can’t wait I’m schedule for the end of April) My days as a pilot, My current guitar set up.
Wow! It’s 1:30 am and it’s burning me out just posting the outline.
Ok, time for a little sleep and I’ll be back at it tomorrow. Cheers