Friday 9/22 open jam recordings

So these are from the 9/22 jam session last week. I thought everything went fairly well sound-wise and guitar-playing wise. Some tracks here are actually from a few weeks earlier.. I really like the Too Rock and Roll for You tune, that woman had a good voice for that kinda thing. Check it out, enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/blues-jam-supreme
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/sunshine-of-your-love-2
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/cannon-too-rock-roll-for-you
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/move-over
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/smoke-on-the-water-2

Open jam recording, fusion set

So I've been going to the open jams and I got some more recordings. These turned out quite nicely. I ended up playing with a young drummer, a blues bass player, and the percussionist that shows up every week. I called out two chord vamps for both of the jams and it ended up being kind of a heavy jazz fusion sort of set. I thought my guitar tone was trying to do too much at times but it ended up sounding really progressive and fusion-y. I really liked that I was the only guitarist on the set, it hasn't been that way since like when I first started going. Great stuff. You can hear both of the tracks here. 

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/two-chord-vamp-amin7-d7 

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/two-chord-vamp-fmaj7-cmin7

Enjoy! 

September Update

Hey so its been a while since I've posted and I figured I should do a September update. Everything has been going really well. I'm talking to more girls and I actually have a date next week. I'm feeling more confident, going to the open jam every week, jamming with more musicians, hanging out with friends, working, gaming, and just enjoying life. I think I've actually got a good drummer for a band right now. He has a guitarist that drives and I'm hopefully going to meet up with them at a small studio at some point soon. So many good things going on!

Work has kind of simmered down since the initial hardcore 40 hour weeks. This week and last week I only got 23 hours which is a good thing right now. It will give me more free time to relax, game, and most importantly practice guitar and music. I just ordered my 7-string Jackson guitar last week Thursday so it will be in time for my birthday on the 25th. I'm extremely excited for the 7-string! I'm already imagining different ways I'll play it from typical metal players. I want to learn jazz chord voicings using the extra string and stuff. It's gonna be neat. 

The jam at Peties has been going good. Last week there was hardly anyone in the audience but the actual guitar players that showed up were bloody amazing. This one guy did a great Jimi Hendrix Little Wing cover as well as Voodoo Chile (Slight Return). It was off the hook. I've never really seen a guitarist as good as that guy was ever there before. Also, I have more friends that are willing to meet me at the open jam now. This skater friend showed up and brought a friend and then also this drummer showed up. The drummers' name is Martin and we're hopefully going to be starting a band together. His bag is metal particularly death metal and black metal but I'm hoping he can expand his chops even more and get more technical than stereotypical death metal chugging.

So yeah everything's going great. My birthday is coming up so that's exciting. I plan on going out to eat with friends or family whoever is available first really. I've already got what I wanted which is the 7-string Jackson (seen in picture) so I'm not really expecting anything too wild from my friends, but maybe I'll get a cool band shirt or something. My dad was talking about maybe going out to Chicago for the last 5 days of October. That would be great because I can study music a bit with my dad's composer friend Frank. He's been teaching and talking to me a lot though email but if I was to actually hang out with him it would be a lot cooler. Hopefully that goes through and we end up going because I haven't been back in the Midwest since 2013. That's a long time to not see your mother and childhood friends.

That's a wrap for now, thanks for reading!

8/31 jam from Peties

So I got my last jam from Petie's Place recorded. This was more of a two guitar blues, jazz, and rock kind of night. The first tune we played was Stormy Monday but I totally improvised everything I played and went for a more round hollow body jazz sound, really jazzing up the changes. I think I did a really great job with the blues leads in this one. Then we did a simple rock riff instrumental that I created that's based off of Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin. Its a bit faster and has more metal style riffing in it than say pure Led Zep. Then for the last piece we played Hey Joe. I actually ended up doing the solo like how it actually goes in the recording, which was pretty cool because I usually prefer to improvise most of my solos. The singer on Stormy Monday and Hey Joe is this guy named Shane that I've been working with since these jams. Tonight we played Smoke on the Water together. He's a cool guy. Anyways, enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/stormy-monday-shane-vocals
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/rock-riff
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/hey-joe-shane-vocals

Kel'Thuzad is available on the ptr

This guy seems like he was worth the wait. Not only does he look cool but he's one of the coolest Warcraft characters ever. He's an important character in classic Warcraft lore. He has two raids in World of Warcraft and set Arthas on the path to become the Lich King. In addition, he was one of the original Undead units from Warcraft 3. Here I'd like to go over his abilities which mostly seem like skillshots. You can test him out on the ptr right now if you have the gold to purchase him (15k) but he will probably be released sometime soon on the live servers. He's already been on the ptr for a while at this point. I'm just going to cover the abilities for simplicity's sake.

His trait is Master of the Cold Dark
Quest: Gain 1 Blight every time a Hero is Rooted by Frost Nova or hit by Chains of Kel'Thuzad. 
Reward: After gaining 15 Blight, the cooldown of all Basic Abilities is reduced by 2 seconds. 
Reward: After gaining 30 Blight, gain 75% Spell Power. 

This looks like a great trait mainly because of the 75% spell power. I bet once you get that you can insta-kill many heroes in the game easily. The cooldown reduction isn't all that great to me but the spell power is something that is really powerful. 

Death and Decay (Q)
After 0.5 seconds, launch an orb that explodes upon hitting an enemy, dealing 150 damage to enemies in the area. The explosion leaves behind a pool of decay that lasts 2 seconds, dealing 70 damage every 0.5 seconds to enemies.

So this appears to be a skillshot that does good damage. A good bread and butter attack for general use, wear and tear, and finishing blows.

Frost Nova (W)
Create a nova that explodes after 1 second, dealing 212 damage to enemies inside and Slowing them by 35% for 2.5 seconds. Enemies in the center are Rooted for 1 second.

This is an attack that you'll probably want to use a lot once you get close to enemies. It helps a lot with your trait so I'm guessing you're suppose to use this a lot of heroes, probably combo-ing it with q and e abilities. You could frost nova someone thus rooting them, then death and decay shot them, and possibly throwing out the chains of kel'thuzad attack too. A basic combo seems like frost nova then death and decay. 

Chains of Kel'Thuzad (E)
Launch a chain, dealing 97 damage to the first enemy Hero or Structure hit. For 4 seconds after hitting an enemy, Chains can be reactivated to launch to an additional enemy, pulling both enemies together and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds.

I'm not sure if it works the same way but this kind of reminds me of Roadhog's hook from Overwatch. Actually reading it again I know it doesn't work the same way, as this attack stuns multiple enemies if they are both chained. Interesting attack but it seems very situational, ie team fights mostly.

And his Heroic abilities aka ultimates
Frost Blast (R1)
Launch a meteor of ice at an enemy Hero. Upon impact, the meteor deals 100 damage to its target and 275 damage to enemies in the area. All enemies hit by Frozen Tomb are Rooted for 1.5 seconds.

This seems like the ultimate I would go for every time with this dude. It's got a lot of dps and it roots people too! Too good to pass up, that's for sure.

Shadow Fissure (R2)
Create a fissure anywhere on the Battleground that explodes after 1.5 seconds, dealing 440 damage to enemy Heroes in its area.

This also looks like a good choice but the fact that its probably only going to hit a certain particular area means I wouldn't go for it too often unless the enemy team was bad at positioning and I noticed in particular that it was so. But a fissure does sound awesome!

Alright so that's gonna do it for Kel'Thuzad's abilities. He seems great! I've seen gameplay and it seems like you have to hit pretty much most of the time to get the most use out of his trait and just in general to play like really well. If you can't land skillshots the majority of the time then its going to be difficult playing him. At least it seems that way. We will have to wait and see what he's really going to be like once he hits the live servers.

For the Lich King! 

Holding out for a 7-string

 

Hey, how's it going? I haven't been writing too much lately because the new job position (cheese department clerk) has got me super tired after my shifts. I've been able to keep up with my guitar playing, even attending this week's open jam night at Peties Place, and I'm going to jam with a bass player and another guitarist tomorrow afternoon at my place before work. Wowzah! I haven't been able to keep up with my gaming too much, which does make me a little sad. I was playing Heroes of the Storm today and I was definitely noticing that my playing was much worse than it usually is-because I haven't been playing too often. *Sigh*, disappointment intensifies. 

I did manage to play like two games of Heroes and two matches of World of Warcraft battlegrounds. It was pretty fun. I wish I played more but I had to let my brother sleep, he probably has an early shift tomorrow. I hope my job doesn't stop me from doing everything I usually do. I don't want to stop gaming as much just because of work. At the same time though I don't want to lose out on precious guitar practice and jamming time because of it either. It all comes down to using my time wisely and to the best of my abilities. Being tired sure makes it hard though!

Right now I'm holding out for a 7-string guitar. My birthday is coming up on September 25 so I'm hoping to get the guitar on the same week as my bday. I've been shopping around online and there's some pretty cheap models. I don't want to go too cheap. I was thinking about spending about $200-$250 at max. I don't need a super nice guitar, I just want a cool looking 7-string to practice new jazz chord voicings and bring to jam sessions.

My guitar playing has really improved. I can't wait until after Labor Day so the tambourine/hand percussionist can email me the tracks of my jam from this week. It was really fucking good. I think its the best jam I've ever done there. It was a three song set and we played a jazzed up version of Stormy Monday, a rock and roll jam based on the rock and roll riff by Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix's Hey Joe. It turned out to be great even though the other guitarist wasn't so hot on any of it. However, the drummer was a total rock and roller and he played great, especially on the rock and roll jam and Hey Joe. It was pretty sweet. It was a really busy jam night, and I didn't get to play until about 12:30 am but hey that's alright. I rocked the fucking house. Now that I know that most people there can't play jazz really I'm going to stick to more straight up rock and roll there. Maybe even start singing some classic rock tunes. I was thinking stuff like Knocking on Heaven's Door, Fire, and Hare Krishna. Simple tunes that have the same chords over and over so its easy for me to sing and solo over. Great idea, amiright?

Back to the 7-string guitar. The brands I'm looking at the most right now is Jackson and Schecter. I can get a great Jackson for $200 but the Schecters run for about $250. Both are within my budget but I'm thinking about going with the Schecter just because I already own a Jackson. However, brand loyalty is totally something I'm capable of haha. I love Jackson, they're a great company and I've played the $200 model loads of times and it was great every time. So we will see.

More articles to come in the next couple days and weeks. I want to get back into writing about games but just haven't gotten around to it. I'm definitely going to do an article about Kel'Thuzad from Heroes of the Storm. He seems bad ass and he hasn't even been released yet on the live servers, he's only on the ptr (public test servers).

Watch this space