This was last week.
We have been working in pieces. Robert and I worked on the bass-lead parts. Sue and I worked on the rhythm-lead parts.
Glenn returned from Colorado Springs. So the time came to stitch the pieces together. In reality, as the July Sunday Surf Party approached, we needed to run through the entire set as a band in one session. Keep in mind that Sue and Robert still had not played all of the songs in the set with Glenn.
Actually, we were not looking just to stitch pieces together. Robert told me that our goal was to lock Glenn, Sue, and him in together tightly. With them synchronized, any faux pax by me -- and you can count on some -- will be less memorable or even may appear to be my interpretation of whatever we are playing. Then again, a faux pax might stand out like the proverbial sore thumb!
Doghouse time. Beer, coffee, and water time. Stitching -- or locking -- time. Turn up the amps, turn on the PA, put in ear plugs, and settle in for the whole megillah. It was let it rip time!
Not so fast, buddy . . . .
We hit a couple of snags almost immediately. We certainly are not a well-oiled machine. Robert texted that he was running late. Glenn announced that he had to leave early. We plowed ahead anyway and started without Robert. After he arrived, we played whatever we could before Glenn left.
But we still were ironing out the arrangements and the tempos. Annotations from earlier practices suddenly did not make sense. At times, it was like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Too fast. Too slow. Just right. Glenn left; Robert, Sue, and I worked for another hour.
By the end of the night, some pieces fit together nicely. But some were off. What did you expect? Perfection?
The bottom line was that we needed to practice some more. And -- believe it or not -- we still had not played all of the songs in the set as a band. Work lie ahead to get us ready for July 22.
Surprisingly, that nagging little voice has remained unusually silent. Instead, Mr. Optimist kept saying, “This is not that far from being right. It only needs a couple of tweaks.”
We have been working in pieces. Robert and I worked on the bass-lead parts. Sue and I worked on the rhythm-lead parts.
Glenn returned from Colorado Springs. So the time came to stitch the pieces together. In reality, as the July Sunday Surf Party approached, we needed to run through the entire set as a band in one session. Keep in mind that Sue and Robert still had not played all of the songs in the set with Glenn.
Actually, we were not looking just to stitch pieces together. Robert told me that our goal was to lock Glenn, Sue, and him in together tightly. With them synchronized, any faux pax by me -- and you can count on some -- will be less memorable or even may appear to be my interpretation of whatever we are playing. Then again, a faux pax might stand out like the proverbial sore thumb!
Doghouse time. Beer, coffee, and water time. Stitching -- or locking -- time. Turn up the amps, turn on the PA, put in ear plugs, and settle in for the whole megillah. It was let it rip time!
Not so fast, buddy . . . .
We hit a couple of snags almost immediately. We certainly are not a well-oiled machine. Robert texted that he was running late. Glenn announced that he had to leave early. We plowed ahead anyway and started without Robert. After he arrived, we played whatever we could before Glenn left.
But we still were ironing out the arrangements and the tempos. Annotations from earlier practices suddenly did not make sense. At times, it was like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Too fast. Too slow. Just right. Glenn left; Robert, Sue, and I worked for another hour.
By the end of the night, some pieces fit together nicely. But some were off. What did you expect? Perfection?
The bottom line was that we needed to practice some more. And -- believe it or not -- we still had not played all of the songs in the set as a band. Work lie ahead to get us ready for July 22.
Surprisingly, that nagging little voice has remained unusually silent. Instead, Mr. Optimist kept saying, “This is not that far from being right. It only needs a couple of tweaks.”