Never been one to let the carrier drop

So, the other day I had some extra time at John Wayne airport, which turns out to have a piano between terminals two and three which is public access. I started out just playing a few christmas carols, but then I started to get into it and played a short set including my modified version of Puff The Magic Dragon, Don’t Stop Believing, Southern Cross, Dust In The Wind, Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Joy To The World (3 dog night), Silent Night Blues (my reworking of Silent Night into 12 bar blues), Cats In The Cradle, and probably a few others I can’t remember. I got $25 set on the piano even though I hadn’t set out a hat. This is the most I have made from a solo live performance ever, and it did feel like another milestone in my quest for musical greatness. 😉

I also have ordered, and gotten the impressions for, a set of my own IEMs – I’ve tried using COTS IEMs but they always fall out of my ears. These will be the most expensive earphones I have ever owned, by far, but hopefully they will stay in my ears.

This is somewhat less of a celebration than most because it’s the first second hundred hour increment since my dad died, and he was a large part of my interest in music and desire to achieve some sort of facility with it. But, life goes on. I’m still trying for 2000..

Edit: Apparently the first was right after he died.. I just forgot about it somehow.

So, while I’m getting warmed up to write a new album, I’ve been doing some multitrack composing just to get my head in the right place. I thought this piece was kind of fun so I decided o share it with the class

12 Bar Sheer –

Towards The Dark

I’ve been trying to spend more time multitracking instead of woodshedding for the last few days.. we’ll see how long I keep it up, and how long it takes before I have a album worth of coherent, usable together recorded material. This isn’t ever likely to make it to a album unless I decide to publish a “best of movie soundtrack” thing at some point, but it is fun.

Well – sadly I was hoping to get to 2000 hours and maybe get to a level of skill where I’d impress my dad – not easy 😉 However, he’s no longer with us. My project to become truly great at this remains though.

So, I’m coming up on 1500 hours. I had hoped that I’d make it to 2000 and actually manage to impress my dad with my musical skills, but alas, I ran out of time on that one. But, I’m still working on my skills, and I’m still enjoying the process. I’m trying to get a bit more experimental, take some more risks, in the hopes of finding more of whatever it is I’m looking for in the process of exploring solos.

I was pondering trying to use some AI tools to create a index of the 1500 hours of recordings of my practice. There will, of course, be many more hours by the time I’m done. It seems like automating the process of creating indexes and enabling people to find the songs they wanted – maybe even having the ability to rate different versions and to listen to your favorite version – might at some point be worth doing. I still have hopes that someday I’ll put together a patreon account. I wonder if I’ll ever actually find time to do it. And soemtimes I wonder if there’s any audience out there that wants, or will want, what I’m putting together.

I also need to do some more tracking. I’m aware of the fact that I’m putting it off, although I don’t exactly know why.

If anyone out there would like to receive emails whenever I do a radio broadcast on WSHR with a link for the most current show, shoot me a email at jonathanpullen@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to add you.

This may get another coat of paint and/or mix job at some point, but for now, here it is

Sheer-DarkeningOfTheLight.mp3