I saw that Pomplamoose video explaining that they've moved, etc.

And, yeah, the music isn't as elaborate as it was, but still better.

If you follow Nataly, though, she's doing stuff other than Pomplamoose, and it's pretty good.

I think I am about to go down a very weird road.

A month or so ago, I retained the services of a vocal trainer to help me strengthen my voice. I felt it had grown weak from a combination of my weight loss and chicken pox.

I can't practice this training in my condominium. Often, Melvin sleeps when I get home, and I can't really work on loudly singing stuff in a condominium anyway or I risk pissing off neighbors. Because, frankly, I don't always sound all that great while I'm practicing.

And, of course, the point is to improve my volume, so I'm going to sing loudly.

Without anywhere else to go, I looked at the washroom at work.

It has a full mirror, where I can watch myself (to see that I'm using good technique). It has reverb, which might be a mild problem, but I can deal with that. Otherwise, it's not a bad space... but... it's where I work.

However, I can get into the room a ridiculously early times of the morning. I could go to the gym, head home for a bit to relax from that, then go to work about an hour earlier than usual, and practice for an hour in the washroom. I asked the office manager if it'd be a problem, and he didn't think so. That is, it wouldn't conflict with anyone else's work schedule.

So... I think I'm going to give that a shot.

It just feels weird.

Vox has a modeling Amp, let me see if I can find a link.

https://reverb.com/p/vox-vt20x-20w-1x8-digital-modeling-guitar-combo

so, for Lena's 10th birthday, Mama took her to ACL Festival for 3 days. Sprained my ankle day one, so day two was short because we knew day 3 was going to be long. Saw some amazing shows, Alice Merton, Mt. Joy, and like 15 other bands, but those were my two favorites.

One would think that at an ACL festival you would sprain your knee, not your ankle.

Vox has a modeling Amp, let me see if I can find a link.

That does look pretty cool. I see they have some of the same effects built in to multi-pedals, which might be better for me since I rarely play through an on-stage amplifier. Hmm ... looks like Guitar Center carries Vox, so perhaps I can go there and try one out.

I'll have to practice the first couple of bars of "Smoke on the Water" to maximize the guitar store effect.

And, of course, the point is to improve my volume, so I'm going to
sing loudly.

Go find some place where the noise floor is already high ... sportsball game, angry mob protest, etc. and just sing over them.

Nic picked up one of the Vox Amps(pretty sure the exact model I linked to) when he picked up a cheap electric guitar. My BF at the time who's been playing for decades suggested it.

Go find some place where the noise floor is already high ...
sportsball game, angry mob protest, etc. and just sing over them.

Heh... tricky...

I hate sports.

Actually, this singing in the restroom thing seems to be working pretty well.
I've isolated a problem to what feels like a break from D to E that just kills me when I have notes floating around that area (as in the Beatles' Fool On The Hill tune, at about where they sing '...and he never gives and *answer*' (at 'answer' I struggle to not sound like I'm yodelling or generally cracking).

Once sprained my ACDC and couldn't rock hard for weeks.

I got to see the Phil Collins "Not Dead Yet" tour in NYC yesterday. He's not dead yet, but he's missing about half an octave off the top of his vocal range. And he had to do the whole show sitting down because he just had back surgery.

It was still a great show, though. Nice mix of songs from various eras, and an awesome (except for the asshole bass player) 18-piece band complete with a really tight horn section and Phil's 17 year old son as the lead drummer.
He's *really* good.

He was finished a few years ago. He changed his mind ... quite simply, he said he missed it. As a musician I can totally understand that. There's absolutely nothing in the world quite like doing a live performance.

I can't help but wonder, though, whether part of the motivation for doing one more tour was to showcase Nic (the afforementioned 17 year old drummer) in a big way. He's good. The whole band was good (again, except for the asshole bass player) but Nic Collins really shows a lot of talent for his age and I'm definitely going to look to see what he does next.

Question of the day:

What exactly did Neil Young do to get himself kicked out of Crosby Stills & Nash?

I think Stills was kicked out, not Young.

His alcoholism and cocaine use caused a lot of the problems, I think. He was outright kicked out of the group while it was on tour in 1970.

*rimshot*

I thought cocaine was mandatory back then. Cocaine is very entertaining if you put it in the right vessel (such as Robin Williams).