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Four years ago today
Saturday, 15 May 2004
20.00: Spent a couple hours doing one last jam with the old DiC gang. We did sort of a tour of historically important songs for DiC: Everybody Knows (DiC’s first song performed in public), the first song the band wrote after I left, Go to Bar (my first original with the band), No Original Thought (our first band collaboration), and Caffeine Dreams (the first DiC original). I had some electronics issues with my Gibson, so I played the whole jam on the Stingray. It was a little tough to get myself able to make it through Everybody Knows on fretless, but I eventually adapted (actually it was the fifth string that represented the bigger obstacle for me than the lack of frets).
Five years ago today
Thursday, 15 May 2003
GS rehearsal with Riccardo. I don’t feel that prepared for Sunday’s mass, so I’ve brought my music home to get some extra practice time in, although I’m not sure when that will happen.
Seven years ago today
Here’s a bit of orphaned composition in MIDI format from the SQ project which was a favorite of the almost non-existent visitors to the work in progress page. It’s most effective with headphones on.
17.49: Greg’s gotten his appraisal back on his bass: $7500. That’s about what I’m willing to pay, but I don’t really have money to spend on it now. Oh dear.
Tuesday, 15 May 2001
13.43: I decided to move a few ancient diary entries into the database for this diary, from my old work in progress page (now offline). Of course their reappearance here are at the discretion of the random number generator that selects each day’s blast from the past. And eventually there will also be “on this day” reappearances as well, just like at DGM.
Random blast from the past
We’re staying with some of Nalleli’s aunt and her family. Her aunt’s husband is an Iraqi just returned from Bagdad. It’s quite interesting to get a first-hand perspective on what’s happening in Iraq. He believes that most of the insurgents are foreign fighters, that the Americans did a good thing in deposing Saddan, but have otherwise scewed things up in Iraq. On his first day out in Iraq he and his brother were nearly caught in the crossfire of an attack by insurgents on US troops. After that he decided that staying in was a good idea.
Took a look at Nalleli’s grandmother’s piano. It’s in pretty good shape. It was once a player piano, but the player piano mechanism is long-since removed. There are a few hammers that need adjustment and the whole thing needs tuning, but it’s otherwise in good shape.
Saturday, 25 December 2004
San Luis Potosí. The tradition in Nalleli’s family is a dinner near midnight to celebrate Christmas. Which of course means that we wake up late.
Sunday, 11 May 2008.
Ugh, my playing was awful this week, I couldn’t hit a correct note to save my life. I do think that I would like to revisit “Ang Katawan Ni Kristo” again: It’s a really nice piece of music.
Sunday, 4 May 2008.
The 10a mass people didn’t do a long rehearsal in the 11:00 hour, so we had more prep time this week. Alas, the Ascension psalm ended up a bit iffy in the mass even with the preparation time. We also could have stood to have spent some time on some of the simpler pieces that we did without much preparation. Perhaps next week.
Sunday, 27 April 2008.
I noticed before posting this that my current diary entries have been exclusively during the time that I’ve been playing at Mary Magdalen. Mass today was pretty good, although some of my improv attempts during the songs didn’t work out so well. Additional practice time is definitely called for. I’ve also made a stronger commitment to record new songs for Carlyn so that she’ll have an easier time learning them.
Next week may be a solo week also, so I need to make sure that I work on playing and singing the material for next week. I did find this week that I had an easier time than I expected playing and singing the Sanctus from the Mass of Glory.
Sunday, 20 April 2008.
Another two-mass day. At the St Mary Magdalen mass, things went ok, although my piano was a bit sloppy on the Mass of Glory parts. I need to spend more time on those. Plus I was singing a bit flat on the verses of “Taste and See.”
Pax Christi mass went reasonably well although there were the usual complications about incorrect chords in Kit’s song sheets. Kit won’t be around for next month’s mass, so I’ll bring either a keyboard or a guitar to cover the chordal role. Looking at what I’ve got in the schedule for the 18th, it looks like keys is the better choice.
Sunday, 13 April 2008.
The new sound system has been installed at the church. Now instead of having a single XLR input to the main sound system, there’s a 20-channel snake. This simplifies matters for me greatly. I can have a mic and my guitar both plugged in.
My piano playing is significantly improved. I was able to do some nice ad libbing on the Glory to God, although I consistently went for the wrong bass note on the Dm7/G chord in “Our Blessing Cup.”
Tuesday, 8 April 2008.
My OCP piano binders arrived today. Fifteen pounds of music in two thick binders. I’m running low on cabinet space for music now.
The best news, the Veni Sancte Spiritu that I was looking for is in the binder. I can use it for Pentecost. Now, I only need to do oodles of practicing.
Sunday, 6 April 2008.
Mass went reasonably well this week, even though I was on my own. The 10a mass choir was doing a post-mass rehearsal which was a bit inconvenient for my getting used to playing while singing into the mic. I’m not sure that I’ve ever played and sung with a music stand before and it’s a bit of a challenge. Next time, I’ll have to memorize more of the music so that I don’t have to worry about being able to read the music, especially with the mic stand and cord blocking my view of the pages. I did feel I did a pretty good job on “Taste and See.”
Thursday, 3 April 2008.
A quick practice session this evening to make sure that I can do a respectable job of playing the music for Sunday’s mass while singing. I find that I can do a better job accompanying myself than accompanying Carlyn since I can play simpler accompaniments for myself. Interesting. I will likely spend some time working on learning the proper piano part for the psalm while I’m at it. I’ve also put in my order for the OCP piano binders so I’ll have those for my own use.
Sunday, 30 March 2008.
Tried bringing the MDB-1 to mass so I could plug the guitar into the sound system. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good sound check opportunity so I ended up with no amplification but a nice buzz in the house sound system. After mass, we worked out what needed to be done and got everything fixed. Next week it will be better. With a smaller congregation this week, we didn’t need the second communion hymn so I’ve noted that in the spreadsheet where I’m keeping the log of what we’ve played and are planning to play. Next week I’ll be solo so I’ll need to practice singing and playing for all the songs for mass.
Sunday, 23 March 2008.
Pretty good mass today. My piano playing was sloppier than I intended it to be, but Carlyn’s singing was generally pretty good. I feel like we’re beginning to build some repertoire.