carox

... main reason being that I have given up smoking.   You may think there's no connection, but my office where I keep my computer has always been my smoking room.  It was difficult for a while coming in here without being able to light up !   It worked the other way round too - if I came in here specifically for a cigarette then I'd log on for something to do while I smoked it.

 

S'OK now though - it's been 4 or 5 weeks and I'm pretty much over that.   (Plus the smell in this room is almost gone now which is nice)

 

Other news - my new band played its maiden "gig" at a party last Saturday.   First time ever I've played in public without being eaten up by nerves.  It was OK, meh.  Just an hour or so, and 50 or so people sitting/standing around, some possibly tapping their feet but no other animation that I could detect!

 

This band is really not very good!!  The lead guitarist is still very much a beginner.  He doesn't hit the right notes, he speeds up, and doesn't appear to have any groove or musicality - although perhaps it will come through when he learns the notes better.  He doesn't listen to me - in fact none of them listen to me, they all just do their own thing and occasionally they all come together !    Oh OK, not quite that bad perhaps.  I did mention to hubby that the guitarist got a round of applause after his solo in one of the numbers and hubby said "It was relief.  They could breathe again".   The bass player is OK, could be good, but again no groove really, just the right notes in the right order and tending to be slightly ahead of me all the time.  That all said, I really like playing with them, they are nice people, so enthusiastic, no dramas.   And I like not being eaten up by nerves, it gives me some head space to try to improve what I'm doing.

 

And final news - we're off tomorrow for 4 or 5 weeks, travelling "oop north"  in our campervan.  It's been a 3 year rebuild, but we've finally done it -  it's taxed, insured, mot'd, fully packed and campsite in North Wales is booked for our first stop.  (Ditto the motorbike on the back - we haven't used that for a couple of years either).   It's been hard work the last few weeks.  Stopping in N Wales for a few days to see an old friend then off to Liverpool (always wanted to go there) then up the west coast a bit, across to Newcastle taking in Hadrian's Wall on the way, then Scarborough (spent 6 weeks there in 1967 - wonder if it's changed ? ha ha) down to the the Norfolk coast, then ... dunno.

 

So, thank you if you've stayed with me to the end of this massive post.   We'll have the lap top with us,  and with more time on our hands I hope I'll actually be able to be around a bit more than I have recently.

 

 

I just had an "audition" - which consisted of two blokes round my gaff, chatting for an hour, accompanying them to a few bars of Knights in White Satin, and then  "Yeah, that's fine, I can tell you know what you're doing".  Really? 

 

First practice Saturday week.  At proper rehearsal studios, yippee.  I'm sick of church halls.   All old geezers, very experienced (apparently, but I'm beginning to not believe everything I hear these days).  The music sounds like a mixed bag, classic rock, old blues (the type you cut your wrists to) - and some country, which I'm hoping I'll learn to Iove     Must put in some time on my (very basic) train beat.  I've started playing again (very quietly) now the new neighbours have been here a couple of weeks.  On the plus side, I've been getting in a lot of time on my pad with Stick Control, and loving it.

 

Still keeping the other band going as well.  And they've just recruited a singer so that might improve.

 

AND ... I just got a Protection Racket fleece lined case for my bass drum on ebay - bargain price !!  My old bag was pretty thin - perhaps now if someone offers to get it out of the car for me I might actually let them.  So fed up with people banging it all over the lip of the boot (trunk) and trying to stop them with "No, no, don't worry, I'll get that one" without sounding ungrateful. 

 

It's been almost a year since I had the plaster cast off my hand - they say it can take up to 18 months to fully settle down.  It feels great.  In the last couple of months I've actually acquired some flesh around the scar.  Before that it was all paper thin and the slightest knock resulted in a big ugly bruise - now, you wouldn't know I'd had anything done to it.

 

So generally, feeling pretty positive.   Although I might be back in a few weeks, bemoaning my bad luck at joining up with yet another load of flakes/losers

Some of you may remember that last summer-ish I played a couple of times with a mainly-but-not-solely-Beatles band. I don't like Beatles stuff. At least, some is OK but not the stuff they were doing which was mainly the done to death numbers. Also, their singer was absolutely awful. I only discovered as I was packing up to leave after saying "no thanks" that he wasn't actually their singer, he was just filling in as they were still looking for a singer.

Since then, I've had no joy finding anything. I played for about 2 months with a new band put together by a singer/guitarist/songwriter. Great tunes, but the guy was a flake and he pulled the plug on it all over something really stupid.

I've answered ads and not even had a response. People have said they'd phone, and then didn't.

I'm sixtybloodythree this year and beginning to think I'll never play with anyone ever again. The Beatles band seems to be still looking for a drummer and singer - their ad is still up and they were active on the site within two weeks. They were really nice people. We parted company on good terms. I thought at the time I'd find something better but now I'm getting desperate and wishing (with hindsight of course) I'd stuck with them. I'd rather play Beatles once a week for a few hours, than nothing.

Would it be weird to approach them again? Should I? I'm also thinking if they're still looking for a drummer after all this time they might be prepared to modify their Beatles choices a little ?

Otherwise, all I have is the prospect of playing a bit at a monthly blues jam. And I learned last year that unless I have something to practice for, I can't be bothered. I hardly touched my kit last year. My resolution for 2013 to play/practice an hour a day has held good so far, but I'm pretty demoralised.

This thread is for posting vids only.  For ALL other queries and chat please use the existing "Sign up" thread



ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW TO RECORD AND UPLOAD YOUR VIDEO IS IN THIS POST (copied from "Sign Up" thread)


The song is Rocking Around the Christmas Tree sung by Miley Ray Cyrus.



Assigned measures:


1-4  0:00 - 0:07  E   (Carox) submitted
5-8  0:07 - 0:13  M (Barry P)
9-12 0:13 - 0:20  E (Top Cat) submitted
13-16 0:20 - 0:26 E (Patch) submitted
17-20 0:26 - 0:32 E (Metal Marvin)
21-24 0:32 - 0:38 E ( smallbutdeadly) submitted
25-28 0:38 - 0:44 M (Rudi B - submitted
29-32 0:44 - 0:50 E (Pain Killer)   Submitted
33-36 0:50 - 0:57 M (Nate)
37-40 0:57 - 1:03 H (Yellow Toad) submitted
41-44 1:03 - 1:09 E (Top Cat) submitted
45-48 1:09 - 1:15 E (smallbutdeadly) submitted
49-52 1:15 - 1:21 E (israbitista) submitted
53-56 1:21 - 1:28 M+(caulkie) submitted
57-60 1:28 - 1:34 M (Pain Killer)  Submitted
61-65 1:34 - 1:42 H  (MegaDrums) submitted
66-69 1:42 - 1:48 E (israbatista) submitted
70-73 1:48 - 1:54 M+ (Mega Drums) submitted
74-77 1:54 - 2:00 E (Rudi B - submitted
78-81 2:00 - 2:06 E (Nate)
82-85 2:06 - 2:13 E (Mega Drums) submitted
86-89 2:13 - End  M+ (BarryP)


Sheet music and tab

You can download the sheet music here:

http://thr33swords.c...istmas tree.pdf

or if you prefer tab, you can download that, here:
http://thr33swords.c...istmas tree.txt

BPM is 155


BarryP's Instructions for making your video

1)  record a video of your section and have a version that does not include the audio.  Please edit the video so that it includes exactly one beat before your section and one beat after it.  This way I won't have to do any guess work about exactly where beat 1 is.  If you cannot do this, please keep track of exactly where your section begins and post it in this thread.  i.e. "My section begins at the :06 mark in the video.

2)  Remember, be festive and/or creative if you can.  Right now I'm thinking the due date for the vids should be around December 1st.  I should be able to get the editing done in short order.  It usually only takes me a couple of hours.


Example video from BarryP

1)  Give me a video with NO MP3 audio in it.  I will put that in myself.

2)  Give me one beat before and one beat after your section.  I will need that so that I can trim.  

3)  Please do not give me several minutes worth of playing that I have to sort through!

Check out the clip:



Where to send your video

Upload it on wetransfer.com  and send it to your own email address (put your email in the from and to fields).   Youwill receive two emails from WeTransfer. The first enables you to download the video, the second is headed "Thanks for using WeTransfer ..." - at the bottom left of that email there's a link which starts "http/wtrns. ..."

Final date for your video  is 1st December

For those kind enough to sympathise with my disappointment that my son wouldn't be here for Christmas ....

We had paid for him and his girlfriend to come over (from Australia, no less!) at the end of November and stay for a month.  They've been together 2 1/2 years and we met her when we went over two years ago.

I hadn't heard from my son for weeks until a couple of days ago.  He hadn't wanted to tell me he and his girlfriend haven't been getting on recently.  He believes it's over but she wants to try and work it out.   He didn't want to bring her over because they're not getting on, but he didn't want to be so cruel as to come on his own and leave her behind, not at this stage.

So I agreed to them delaying their visit until March, and see how things pan out - but turns out that there are restrictions on changing the dates of the flights. None of the available dates suits them anyway (they're both in Oz on study visas and the available dates were in term time).

So I told him yesterday he'll have to either bring her, or come on his own.  I'm not cancelling both tickets, throwing away a heap of money, and at the same time disappoint the entire family by not having him here at Christmas.

So   ...   he told me today he's coming, and she's not.  

We all feel terrible now.  She's a sweety, we've spoken a lot on Skype, and we were all looking forward to having her here.  I hate the thought of her spending Christmas there on her own.

I can't blame my son, these things happen, it's just really bad timing.