put me in, coach

I've had this band-related post sitting as a draft for a month now, whoops. As you recall, I joined my dad's jam band back in July! It didn't really seem to be a band at the time, but it has since really started to feel like one. We recently got a drummer (!!!) and it has added so much energy.

First off: I love, love, love playing with these guys. They are so incredibly kind and nice, and the atmosphere of each jam sesh is so positive and encouraging! Even a shy person such as me can play and sing along and contribute to a song, even if I'm just slamming my foot on a tambourine. Perfection is not expected. We mess up, we start over. We forget to sing when we're supposed to. Whatever!! We're just having "a ball," as one guy regularly puts it.

However: Twice now I've discussed with my therapist that I am still trying to figure out how to balance my time/energy, because I've been dedicating a lot of it to jam band stuff. I am sure there's a happy medium, and I'm sure that my own personal equilibrium will balance out again. But for me, there's a lot of learning and prep work involved! I think to an extent that is true of all the members of the band. I know that the other guys also practice solo to learn new material. But I only have familiarity with about two songs for every ten or twelve we do! The rest I either learn there on the spot during practice, or try to study in advance. And those new-to-me songs can kind of pile up, because we're putting together new ones every week.

I hand-write the lyrics and chords for everything, because this way, I can organize everything so it's easy for me to read and play. I can make notes to remind me of how to play or sing a certain part. I use a lot of markers and highlighters to denote choruses, pre-choruses, bridges, and outros -- all that! Just reading chords off a tablet screen that I have to constantly scroll doesn't work well for me. So I lay everything out exactly as I want it on a page or two, no fiddling with page-turning necessary!

(At this point I have four disparate guitar chord notebooks going: my main notebook, which is huge and heavy, with all my songs I like to play; a "family sing-along" notebook with more folk/60s stuff that my grandma and other family members know, which I can use to accompany them when we get together and sing; a notebook dedicated entirely to Christmas music; and pictured above, my band notebook.)

Whew, babey. The pre-pro and rehearsal aspects are both a lot of work for me. Even if we just meet once a week, I am doing that preparatory work several days a week right now: prepping the chords and lyrics in advance, all by hand, listening to a playlist of songs that the guys wanna do so I can learn the tunes, practicing playing on my own, and sometimes rehearsing with my dad.

And:

I've started recording big chunks of our practices, just using my phone on a tripod. These videos are for my own personal posterity and enjoyment. I like catching moments I missed, seeing my dad get really into a riff or seeing the bass player grin when a song is hitting him right. They're also a learning aid for me. Listening back helps me learn the way we're doing a song. But I've also been sectioning out some songs and uploading them to YouTube for the guys to enjoy too. I was just posting them unlisted to a channel where I dump all kinds of spare stuff -- concert footage, personal videos made for friends, past guitar covers I've recorded. But one of the guys said, "Hey! Wouldn't it be great to have our own YouTube channel?"

And of course, it was well within my power to make that happen. So I have created our band's YouTube channel and have started funneling the videos there. (I'd link it here, but I dunno, it's very real lifey.)

This is another way I am dedicating time and energy to this endeavor. Even if I'm just editing the video on my phone to clip out a song and uploading it right from there to YouTube, it takes some time to scrub through hours-long chunks of rehearsal footage and do that locating, that cropping. I prefer transferring the footage onto my computer to do more targeted cropping in Premiere. And if I do that, I can also do some more advanced editing. Adding zooms, fade-ins/fade-outs, or the occasional text note or other little details. I can create videos for audio-only recordings one of the other guys often takes, using stock footage or whatever. Just zhuzhing things a tad, when it strikes me as better to do so.

Again!!! Whew, babey.

I hope it doesn't sound like I'm complaining. I love playing music with these gents, and I love video editing. But I am still struggling with an overly-full plate. Hopefully I will settle into a groove or better schedule for band stuff, because I haven't had the spoons to do much else. No crocheting, no sewing, no dolly stuff, no drawing, no writing. I'm usually a big-time journaler but have abandoned my pen. There are zero photos or videos on my phone of things other than the band. NOT EVEN NEPHEW PHOTOS!!!

Can't ever just have a little hobby. Always gotta do the most. What's that about??

I think things having their "season" makes sense, and I tend to go through mental crop rotation in terms of hobbies anyway. So it's okay if this is "band season" for me. It's okay to concentrate on just one thing and not do 354 things all the time. But I'm just a "do 354 things all the time" kind of person!! I miss feeling involved with my doll hobby stuff. I miss having those spare spoons and using them to craft something impromptu. My therapist has stressed self-care right now to try and combat what feels like endless pouring from my not-so-full bucket, so I've been trying to carve out time to play my own preferred music on my guitar by myself, without turning it into a "let's do this with the band" thing. I've been trying to play Tetris while I listen to the songs I need to learn.

Anyway, who knows how long this experience will last as a whole? How long can all of us join together? How long will we all be available and capable? How long will we have a dedicated rehearsal space? I do want to appreciate this group and this experience while it is happening.

I'll end with a few undeniable positives:

• spending time with my dad, doing something we both enjoy, increasing our commonalities and touchstones
• expanding my musical palate with songs I've never heard and would never normally hear
• playing music with others leads to improvement in musical skill all-around, and I welcome any and all practice and fun on the guitar
• I have always loved to sing and it is just nice to be able to do it in any capacity
• getting to play instruments I've never played before: the djembe, the harmonica
• socializing with kind people is such a treat
• putting my video editing experience to use is satisfying
• just such a cool thing to get to do, be in a band!

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ripple throw progress report(s)

Blanket drive ripple: dunzo! It's been finished for more than a month now, but I was dealing with some meds side effects at about the time I finished it and could barely sit upright there for a while, so I only just now got some pictures taken.

I like this blanket a lot. Choosing each color spontaneously as I made it definitely made the process more interesting -- not that I at all mind repetitive tasks. I kind of thrive doing repetitive tasks. But something about juggling colors I had a lot of versus colors I was running low on and getting to make color choices every time I worked on it was fun. The loosey-goosey approach -- whilst still sticking to a "palette" -- was something I hadn't done since my very first ripple throw.

Because I finished this, I have since picked up another ripple WIP that I may or may not donate to that same blanket drive, depending on a) the progress I make with it, and b) how ugly it turns out.

I've been calling this the "ugly ripple." As in, I started making it intending for it to be ugly, using dingy colors. Browns, beiges, mustards. Note the swath of gray. I have sort of mentally updated to calling it the "spices ripple," because it puts me in the mind of cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, basil leaves! It sort of reminds me of a certain soup I like to make with a Mexican flavor profile, which has a lot of vegetables in it. Makes me hungry just looking at it, to be honest...

We'll just see how this comes along in the coming weeks -- whether it stays ugly or becomes more of a cohesive vintage cabin vibe. I'd really prefer to use only yarn I already have to progress on this, but I will probably end up depleting myself of the required palette and buying more yarn anyway. Many of the yarns are Big Twist, a Jo-Ann brand, and I'm not sure about whether I can replace the precise colors. Hopefully that won't matter too much.

Another ripple WIP in my near future is making one in shades of purple for my bestie K! She asked for one and I need to confer with her about what sort of style to go for. Color block? Random? Some particular repeating pattern of stripes? It will be really fun to work on something for someone specific again.

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small projects: flowery mini amp handle

I don't believe I've ever posted about my mini amp here, except for the Christmas where it was on my wish list! (Wow, did I really get this thing in 2014??) As you can see, I ended up getting it, and I have had it since! For almost eleven years!

As I've mentioned before, I haven't used it much, although I like it. One reason is that dealing with the thick, lengthy, tangly, heavy black guitar cable is a pain, especially for such a little teensy amp. Another reason is that I had a different electric guitar for a long time -- this one -- and I didn't enjoy playing it to the same extent as I enjoy my current electric guitar. But I've been trying to use the amp more lately, since I want to become more accustomed to hearing myself play electric. I'm still getting used to being plugged in and on mic.

As though Karma is working her magic, one of my new guitar buddies has recently changed my game by giving me a little wireless system! It basically removes the need for that thick cord. Pop one dongle in the guitar and one dongle in the amp, and there you go! It transmits what you play wirelessly to the amp!

What a gift, I know!!! He said he got static interference with it and didn't like it, and if I wanted to use it, I could have it. It's actually perfect for me. I have limited space, and removing the guitar cable from the situation is a huge advantage for me. And it sounds really great on my teensy amp, imo. I recorded this little clip on my phone for the guy who gave me the wireless system so I could show him it worked, and so I could thank him for it:

As you can see, I was on the verge of watching Drawfee.

Also as you can see, the wireless dongle is there on the corner of it, where the jack is.

And also also as you can see, in this video, the little black handle that ought to be on the top of the amp is missing. Said handle recently broke into several pieces. I guess it was brittle from age? Again, "pleather" is the worst. But I soon decided, "I bet I can crochet myself a handle." And thus I arrive at the actual reason for this post.

I wanted to crochet around something that would provide the handle with some shape and resilience, and landed on a pipe cleaner. I bent the pipe cleaner in two so it would be doubled up, inserted each end into the metal tabs where the old handle had been attached, and crocheted around the whole biz. Worked perfectly.

And OF COURSE I put some matching icy blue-green flowers onto the handle!

It's actually very secure and sturdy-feeling, but not to the extent where it would be difficult for me to snip the handle right off again, if desired. The amp is very small and light -- I tend to plug it in rather than use batteries, so I'm not worried at all about toting it with this handle. I think it'd be fun to make a variety of handles, perhaps beaded or braided or embroidered ones. But for now I'm really pleased with its new flowery handle, and really pleased I have been using the amp more in general the last month.

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