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- Jan 20, 2013
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Update : November 14th 2024
As some of you may recall from my ketamine infusion therapy thread, or my shoulder surgery thread, my shoulder is a mangled mess. I had surgery #11 in August 2023 and #12 Jan 2024, which were to remove and replace shoulder replacement #2 with shoulder replacement #3... and during the removal, my humerus snapped in half when they took the metal out .
Well, it seems it broke again. Stress fracture. Doc says it is hard to 100% tell whether it is a new fracture because the break healed kind of fucked up, but the pain level tells me it is a fracture (or a tear but thus far nothing has come up on CT scans)
Anyway- that sort of fucked my plan to do the solo ukulele thing. Fucked it right in the face.
But the fun doesn't stop there. Even before that level of my shoulder falling apart, I tried to get back to teaching drums and you will not be shocked that my shoulder failed that task.
So... I can't
- play ukulele for more than a few minutes right now. I am hoping maybe I get that back one day.
- Can't play/teach drums
*guitar was already out.
Bass is out too now
But the real kick in the balls: I can't play piano with my right hand. Keys has always been my main instrument. That sucks. Not gonna lie, this has been a really fucking crippling blow to my attempt at a positive outlook.
Right before my shoulder feel apart, I auditioned for a wedding band too. Pays $200-500/gig and I am broke due to extended time out of work.
And I got the gig... though, they hired me as a 2 handed keyboard player, which ... yeah
we will come back to this
So, what CAN I do?
I can play harmonica.
I can play keys with my left hand.
i can sing.
(Low register though. Natural bass/baritone)
So I have been learning how to play harmonica and keys, attempting to do these together, at a performance level.
the challenge is I have to figure out how to use the harmonica to cover the melodic work I now can't do on keys.
I can so chords on organ, ep, piano, synth with my left hand. I am working out how to play everything with the correct inversions at all time that make it so that the melody has the chord under it, all in the left hand. I could do this with my right hand before but that is sort of a natural function of the right hand, it is a bit foreign for the left. But a welcome challenge and so far seems to be within my realm of capability with sufficient practice.
Side bar- the wedding band hired a guitarist too, and since they didn't want to bring both guitar and keys (essentially all of the chords and foundation of the song structures) at the same time, they brought guitar on first, giving me time to figure this out.
I need to be ready for a rehearsal in December, for which I can pick the (20) songs from their repertoire. (150-200ish)
This is good. I can set myself up for success. I also feel like I am getting a handle on the learning curve of this whole keys + harp (and backing vocals) thing.
So the songs I am learning now.. SHOULD prep my skill level for a few of the more difficult tracks I'll have to take on later . For example September by Earth Wind & Fire. Pretty slick chords with FAST horn parts all cranking st the same time.
Tonight I learned " Come on on Eileen" and by learned, I mean, learned to do it keys and harp, I knew the song already on keys.
I was going to break out the chromatic harp for this one, as it starts in F major, then goes to C Major then D major. But I didn't like my tone on the slide harp (not my thing, maybe a tool I will add eventually) and after learning all the notes and writing all the string parts out, I decided to attempt it all on the C harmonica. If by really really long shot anyone plays harmonica, that puts me in
12th position (F major on C harp)
1st position (C major, C harp, easy) and then
3rd position (D major on C harp)
While playing the piano. Which isn't Rachmoninoff, but it is cranking along at times with a bit of a rhythm and a riff to it, and like I said, 2 key changes.
So yeah, that's what I'm doing.
I'm playing in a rock band, doing bars and private events, I am prepping to work with the wedding band, they know the deal with harmonica and they are down as long as I can pull it off, which I will. It is gonna be a hell of lot of work but I will make it happen. And the result is going to catapult my harmonica playing to the stratosphere..
That is how I cope with having my best and most hard earned talent taken from me. I force myself to become ELITE level on harmonica... and I max out what I can do with my left hand on keys.
Playing these string and sax and synth parts on harmonica is FORCING me to step my game up to an elite level. I am now playing in 1st 2nd 3rd 4th and 12th positions on harmonica, since the various songs I am covering have necessitated it. My single notes notes, bends and scale runs are getting clean, fast and accurate and my tone is getting more and more consistent, and I am learning and rapidly improving with using the amp and at the proper times, playing harmonica thru my vocal mic. Sky is the limit and I have the time and the drive to do the work.
And maybe I get lucky and eventually I can build strength back up and heal my right arm, in which case that ability comes back on top of the new skils I am acquiring. Cool. I am doing a peripheral nerve stimulator (trial first then if it works surgery) which is supposed to block pain.
We will see.
I would still LOVE to do the solo acoustic thing.
But life threw me a little side mission here.
And I'm rolling with the punches as they come.
_____
original post
_________
This will be a "dear diary" type of post, feel free to burn and roast me as you see fit.
I have been practicing the art of speaking my plans into existence, specifically stating my plans publicly to create accountability for me to be bound to hold up my word. I did this in Mayberry with my shoulder replacement surgery 6 month update thread and stating my plans to get my body back to a relatively jacked muscular state like I was in prior to my most recent shoulder injury, so here goes...
I am going to pursue a solo cover band project, doing a mix of Grateful Dead, some Phish and probably a decent amount of the covers from my last band, as I already know all that material and have charts, lyrics & arrangements done already.
This will be my first time as "front man" which is something I am excited about. I plan on doing so with ukulele and vocals, ukulele being a new instrument to me but I am picking it up very quickly. I have been playing every day since the beginning of July and I have got around 30 songs which I can sing and play at this point, so far it seems like any song that I know on keys I can transfer to ukulele pretty quickly, many I can read it right off the chart and play in real time, especially as i now understand multiple barre chord shapes for major and minor triads.
So that's the plan. I hope to be gigging by winter.
I have several venues which I should be able to book gigs at, as know me from my last band where i handled most of the bookings.
After 20 years of gigging as a keyboard player and generally music director, trying to keep 4-8 other musicians and singers on the same page and splitting the check a bunch of different ways, I look forward to the challenge of a new instrument and of stepping out from behind the keys and taking center stage. I think I am ready. I need to train my voice to have the endurance to sing all night, but I have a lot of musician friends whom I can invite to shows for guest spots which will function as a vocal break as well as help with promotion (which traditionally has not been my strong suit).
I have already started creating youtube playlists to sing along/ play along with, and I sometimes put them in as background music for my workouts to give me more repetitions of hearing the songs to help memorize the lyrics and arrangements.
____________________________________________________
I need to figure out
A) a gameplan for how to deal with guitar solos.
B) gameplan for songs which are too high for my register
Options:
Harmonica. But I hate playing harmonica with the rack holder thing. I would need to have something to hold the harmonica up to a mic, probably on a gooseneck stand. I have seen something on Ebay which is a leather pouch which olds the harmonica directly to the microphone.
I'll have to work on playing the guitar solos correctly while playing uke, which will take a lot of work, (playing guitar solos "note for note" on harmonica is hard enough just playing harmonica!!) ... but i think that is within my reach.
I could start with songs like Soulshine where I already know the song, it has a recognizable solo that I think it all major pentatonic scale, and grind that out until I am consistently hitting both the strumming and the solo melody clean.
Off the top of my head, Ripple, Casey Jones, Going Down The Road Feeling Bad and Friend of the Devil, all have signature melody parts i could work out and practice on harp. And i think i am already familiar enough with these tunes to get the rhythm part on "autopilot" pretty quickly.
Loop pedal:
I have never used one before and have some concerns about getting clean timing on the loop, but i already see how I could capture the strumming of the verse and chorus prior to the solo while I am singing, then let the loop play the rhythm part while I play the solo on ukulele.
This is probably the ideal way to do it but it is expensive and requires me to master the loop pedal.
I guess theoretically I could also use the loop pedal to add harmonies to choruses that repeat, so that could be cool.
As i type this out I am realizing, this is the way to go, i just need to save up the money and put in the work of learning to operate the loop device.
Backing track- I really don't want to deal with that. I do know my way around pro tools and logic but I think this would just be too much of a pain in the ass.
Kazoo: so I could just sing the melody of the guitar solo into a mounted kazoo. I'm thinking maybe I run the kazoo thru a few pedals, maybe distortion, slap delay or reverb, possibly chorus. This I think would be the easiest solution.
Skip the solo. I see a lot of singer/rhythm guitarists do this. I'll call this a last resort. Or maybe a temporary bandaid as I build up the skills and gear to execute the solos effectively.
Keyboard. This would be the easiest in terms of practice because keys are my primary instrument, but I kind of don't want to have to drag big ass keyboards out for a solo show... though I guess then I'd have the option of using piano for accompaniment on some songs. And I guess this would give me some useful options in terms of sonic textures.
________
B) (vocal register)
I am thinking I will keep a 2nd uke on hand tuned down a whole step for songs which are a little too high for my natural baritone vocal range.
- this goes against a core principle of mine of NEVER switching keys from the original because I could always play the bass lines on keys so it didn't matter if a song was in Eb or D, keyboards have all the notes, this avoided issues for situations like a fill in musician, or having people practice a song in the oringal key with the record and then have to either detune (yuck) bring a 2nd guitar, etc... in a BAND that type of shit is annoying, solo all of the sudden these things are no big deal.
and in some cases i think i will just sing it down an octave. Particularly if i do any songs sung by female artists or 1980s male singers who are entirely out of the stratosphere of my annoyingly low vocal range.
_____________________________________
Oh yeah... and I want to finish the original funk album I started.
_________________
Anyway, I just wanted to put this out there and have it be a tool to hold myself accountable to and follow thru with my plan.
As some of you may recall from my ketamine infusion therapy thread, or my shoulder surgery thread, my shoulder is a mangled mess. I had surgery #11 in August 2023 and #12 Jan 2024, which were to remove and replace shoulder replacement #2 with shoulder replacement #3... and during the removal, my humerus snapped in half when they took the metal out .
Well, it seems it broke again. Stress fracture. Doc says it is hard to 100% tell whether it is a new fracture because the break healed kind of fucked up, but the pain level tells me it is a fracture (or a tear but thus far nothing has come up on CT scans)
Anyway- that sort of fucked my plan to do the solo ukulele thing. Fucked it right in the face.
But the fun doesn't stop there. Even before that level of my shoulder falling apart, I tried to get back to teaching drums and you will not be shocked that my shoulder failed that task.
So... I can't
- play ukulele for more than a few minutes right now. I am hoping maybe I get that back one day.
- Can't play/teach drums
*guitar was already out.
Bass is out too now
But the real kick in the balls: I can't play piano with my right hand. Keys has always been my main instrument. That sucks. Not gonna lie, this has been a really fucking crippling blow to my attempt at a positive outlook.
Right before my shoulder feel apart, I auditioned for a wedding band too. Pays $200-500/gig and I am broke due to extended time out of work.
And I got the gig... though, they hired me as a 2 handed keyboard player, which ... yeah
we will come back to this
So, what CAN I do?
I can play harmonica.
I can play keys with my left hand.
i can sing.
(Low register though. Natural bass/baritone)
So I have been learning how to play harmonica and keys, attempting to do these together, at a performance level.
the challenge is I have to figure out how to use the harmonica to cover the melodic work I now can't do on keys.
I can so chords on organ, ep, piano, synth with my left hand. I am working out how to play everything with the correct inversions at all time that make it so that the melody has the chord under it, all in the left hand. I could do this with my right hand before but that is sort of a natural function of the right hand, it is a bit foreign for the left. But a welcome challenge and so far seems to be within my realm of capability with sufficient practice.
Side bar- the wedding band hired a guitarist too, and since they didn't want to bring both guitar and keys (essentially all of the chords and foundation of the song structures) at the same time, they brought guitar on first, giving me time to figure this out.
I need to be ready for a rehearsal in December, for which I can pick the (20) songs from their repertoire. (150-200ish)
This is good. I can set myself up for success. I also feel like I am getting a handle on the learning curve of this whole keys + harp (and backing vocals) thing.
So the songs I am learning now.. SHOULD prep my skill level for a few of the more difficult tracks I'll have to take on later . For example September by Earth Wind & Fire. Pretty slick chords with FAST horn parts all cranking st the same time.
Tonight I learned " Come on on Eileen" and by learned, I mean, learned to do it keys and harp, I knew the song already on keys.
I was going to break out the chromatic harp for this one, as it starts in F major, then goes to C Major then D major. But I didn't like my tone on the slide harp (not my thing, maybe a tool I will add eventually) and after learning all the notes and writing all the string parts out, I decided to attempt it all on the C harmonica. If by really really long shot anyone plays harmonica, that puts me in
12th position (F major on C harp)
1st position (C major, C harp, easy) and then
3rd position (D major on C harp)
While playing the piano. Which isn't Rachmoninoff, but it is cranking along at times with a bit of a rhythm and a riff to it, and like I said, 2 key changes.
So yeah, that's what I'm doing.
I'm playing in a rock band, doing bars and private events, I am prepping to work with the wedding band, they know the deal with harmonica and they are down as long as I can pull it off, which I will. It is gonna be a hell of lot of work but I will make it happen. And the result is going to catapult my harmonica playing to the stratosphere..
That is how I cope with having my best and most hard earned talent taken from me. I force myself to become ELITE level on harmonica... and I max out what I can do with my left hand on keys.
Playing these string and sax and synth parts on harmonica is FORCING me to step my game up to an elite level. I am now playing in 1st 2nd 3rd 4th and 12th positions on harmonica, since the various songs I am covering have necessitated it. My single notes notes, bends and scale runs are getting clean, fast and accurate and my tone is getting more and more consistent, and I am learning and rapidly improving with using the amp and at the proper times, playing harmonica thru my vocal mic. Sky is the limit and I have the time and the drive to do the work.
And maybe I get lucky and eventually I can build strength back up and heal my right arm, in which case that ability comes back on top of the new skils I am acquiring. Cool. I am doing a peripheral nerve stimulator (trial first then if it works surgery) which is supposed to block pain.
We will see.
I would still LOVE to do the solo acoustic thing.
But life threw me a little side mission here.
And I'm rolling with the punches as they come.
_____
original post
_________
This will be a "dear diary" type of post, feel free to burn and roast me as you see fit.
I have been practicing the art of speaking my plans into existence, specifically stating my plans publicly to create accountability for me to be bound to hold up my word. I did this in Mayberry with my shoulder replacement surgery 6 month update thread and stating my plans to get my body back to a relatively jacked muscular state like I was in prior to my most recent shoulder injury, so here goes...
I am going to pursue a solo cover band project, doing a mix of Grateful Dead, some Phish and probably a decent amount of the covers from my last band, as I already know all that material and have charts, lyrics & arrangements done already.
This will be my first time as "front man" which is something I am excited about. I plan on doing so with ukulele and vocals, ukulele being a new instrument to me but I am picking it up very quickly. I have been playing every day since the beginning of July and I have got around 30 songs which I can sing and play at this point, so far it seems like any song that I know on keys I can transfer to ukulele pretty quickly, many I can read it right off the chart and play in real time, especially as i now understand multiple barre chord shapes for major and minor triads.
So that's the plan. I hope to be gigging by winter.
I have several venues which I should be able to book gigs at, as know me from my last band where i handled most of the bookings.
After 20 years of gigging as a keyboard player and generally music director, trying to keep 4-8 other musicians and singers on the same page and splitting the check a bunch of different ways, I look forward to the challenge of a new instrument and of stepping out from behind the keys and taking center stage. I think I am ready. I need to train my voice to have the endurance to sing all night, but I have a lot of musician friends whom I can invite to shows for guest spots which will function as a vocal break as well as help with promotion (which traditionally has not been my strong suit).
I have already started creating youtube playlists to sing along/ play along with, and I sometimes put them in as background music for my workouts to give me more repetitions of hearing the songs to help memorize the lyrics and arrangements.
____________________________________________________
I need to figure out
A) a gameplan for how to deal with guitar solos.
B) gameplan for songs which are too high for my register
Options:
Harmonica. But I hate playing harmonica with the rack holder thing. I would need to have something to hold the harmonica up to a mic, probably on a gooseneck stand. I have seen something on Ebay which is a leather pouch which olds the harmonica directly to the microphone.
I'll have to work on playing the guitar solos correctly while playing uke, which will take a lot of work, (playing guitar solos "note for note" on harmonica is hard enough just playing harmonica!!) ... but i think that is within my reach.
I could start with songs like Soulshine where I already know the song, it has a recognizable solo that I think it all major pentatonic scale, and grind that out until I am consistently hitting both the strumming and the solo melody clean.
Off the top of my head, Ripple, Casey Jones, Going Down The Road Feeling Bad and Friend of the Devil, all have signature melody parts i could work out and practice on harp. And i think i am already familiar enough with these tunes to get the rhythm part on "autopilot" pretty quickly.
Loop pedal:
I have never used one before and have some concerns about getting clean timing on the loop, but i already see how I could capture the strumming of the verse and chorus prior to the solo while I am singing, then let the loop play the rhythm part while I play the solo on ukulele.
This is probably the ideal way to do it but it is expensive and requires me to master the loop pedal.
I guess theoretically I could also use the loop pedal to add harmonies to choruses that repeat, so that could be cool.
As i type this out I am realizing, this is the way to go, i just need to save up the money and put in the work of learning to operate the loop device.
Backing track- I really don't want to deal with that. I do know my way around pro tools and logic but I think this would just be too much of a pain in the ass.
Kazoo: so I could just sing the melody of the guitar solo into a mounted kazoo. I'm thinking maybe I run the kazoo thru a few pedals, maybe distortion, slap delay or reverb, possibly chorus. This I think would be the easiest solution.
Skip the solo. I see a lot of singer/rhythm guitarists do this. I'll call this a last resort. Or maybe a temporary bandaid as I build up the skills and gear to execute the solos effectively.
Keyboard. This would be the easiest in terms of practice because keys are my primary instrument, but I kind of don't want to have to drag big ass keyboards out for a solo show... though I guess then I'd have the option of using piano for accompaniment on some songs. And I guess this would give me some useful options in terms of sonic textures.
________
B) (vocal register)
I am thinking I will keep a 2nd uke on hand tuned down a whole step for songs which are a little too high for my natural baritone vocal range.
- this goes against a core principle of mine of NEVER switching keys from the original because I could always play the bass lines on keys so it didn't matter if a song was in Eb or D, keyboards have all the notes, this avoided issues for situations like a fill in musician, or having people practice a song in the oringal key with the record and then have to either detune (yuck) bring a 2nd guitar, etc... in a BAND that type of shit is annoying, solo all of the sudden these things are no big deal.
and in some cases i think i will just sing it down an octave. Particularly if i do any songs sung by female artists or 1980s male singers who are entirely out of the stratosphere of my annoyingly low vocal range.
_____________________________________
Oh yeah... and I want to finish the original funk album I started.
_________________
Anyway, I just wanted to put this out there and have it be a tool to hold myself accountable to and follow thru with my plan.
Last edited:
