Let's have some fun now....

I'd just like to tell you one thing before I move on. The previous two posts had been on my mind for years. I kept trying to find the time to write them and finally I just made myself sit down and do it. I stayed in Chattanooga Friday night after Chris' football game and finished part 2 in the hotel room Saturday morning. After I posted it, it was like a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I've never experienced anything like that before.

Anyway, I bought a new toy last week, I don't know how to use it completely yet, but what I do know about it is pretty cool.

As many of you know, I've started studying music again. What I'm studying is not written music, it is more music theory and improvisation. The lesson last week flew by, it seemed like I sat down to the piano and then suddenly the teacher was looking at his watch saying it was time to go. What we are doing is basically taking a simple song (specifically Amazing Grace) and applying chord substitution techniques and things like that to make it different and more interesting, its pretty cool.

Anyway, the teacher sat down to play for a second and he played something that was really cool, it went by so fast that I didn't catch specifically what he did, and by the time I had a chance to ask him, I couldn't remember what it sounded like and he couldn't remember what he did. (Improvisation is like that)

Anyway, I decided that I needed to find someway to record the lesson. I went to Best Buy to buy a pocket recorder (like a digital dictation machine) Best Buy has begun selling music equipment at some locations, so obviously I had to go see what they had. I found my new toy...It is a Boss Micro BR Digital Recorder. This is an amazing device. Is is a four track digital recorder, it has a built in microphone, line in and guitar inputs. It has built in drum patterns and effects. It will play MP3 files at any speed. (This is valuable if a musician is studying a piece of music and wants to slow it down to learn passages that are played too fast to learn at full speed.)

It can mix down recordings to an MP3 or WAV file that can be downloaded to a computer to be placed on a web site or put on a music player. It can run on batteries or AC power (it goes through batteries pretty quickly). But it is about the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. Perfect for songwriters or musicians that want to use it for capturing ideas, learning songs or practice.

When I get a chance (and have some time to get my chops back) I may post some music from it. This is going to be fun.