Never been one to let the carrier drop

I’ve now completed 1800 hours of practice since I installed the hour meter (early in COVID).

I put this here because

1) I want this played at my funeral
2) I want to cover it and I’m concerned there may be no copies of the lyrics left on the internet

When my time comes and you put me in the ground
Well don’t you have your heads hanging down
Now don’t you worry don’t you cry
I lived while I was still alive

So take me to my grave with pride
Used up and worn out from the ride
Sliding sideways skidmarks worldwide
Take me to my grave with pride

I lived while I was still alive
I lived while I was still alive
I lived while I was still alive

You liked my Jeckyll, Oh you loved my Hyde
The devil couldn’t catch me if he tried
Now it’s one last road trip, one more big surprise
I lived while I was still alive

So take me to my grave with pride
Used up and worn out from the ride
Sliding sideways skidmarks worldwide
Take me to my grave with pride

I lived while I was still alive
I lived while I was still alive
I lived while I was still alive

See the sun in your eyes
This is only goodbye

I lived while I was still alive.. alive.. alive.. alive

I lived while I was still alive
I lived while I was still alive
I lived while I was still alive
(Take me to my grave with pride)

I lived while I was still alive
I lived while I was still alive
I lived while I was still alive
(And the bell keeps ringing)

I lived while I was still alive
I lived while I was still alive
I lived while I was still alive

For those of you who like listening to me practicing, recording, etc – or those of you who *would* like to listen to those things, there is now a new WSHR tool that provides a searchable archive at https://archive.sheer.us/wshr/. The AI that is indexing it is slowly chewing through six years of recordings, so there should be progressively more and more material available over time.

You can also now self-service to subscribe and unsubscribe from both the real-time live announcement of broadcasting and the weekly digest.

Mom 80 – Happy Revolution Day

(With thanks to How Kuff for the concept of birthdays as revolution days)

God knows you weren’t the perfect parent
God knows I wasn’t the perfect child
You were a bit too bound by your tribe
I was maybe a bit too wild

But we’ve found our way through the years
And ended up as friends
You were there at the place where my road started
I’ll be there at the place yours ends

Happy revolution day
One more time around
Where the falling angel meets the rising ape
Standing on holy ground

You’ve been there through bad times and good
I’ll been there through dark and light
We’ve found many things to talk about
In this shadow play of wrong and right

You’ve made it through 80 journeys around the sun
With the laughter and the tears
And I feel certain that you find wisdom
In the exposure to the years

Happy revolution day
One more time around
I hope the laughter has outweighed the tears
I hope whatever you looked for you found

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.