The Fifth Course

What would you all like to read in a mandolin blog?

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I'm looking for inspiration. I can ...

This is a little rainy day blogging...

Whether I'm playing my iPod in the Chiropractor's office, using the CD player in the car, or listening at home, all of these albums (collections of songs) remain in heavy rotation.

Interestingly, to me at least, these are not at all mando-centric. In fact, only Butch B gets a nod as recording artist. Looks like I'll need to examine these albums against the context of my mandolin playing and see where that takes me. Maybe this ...

Went into the studio for most of the day on October 9. In retrospect it feels like a waste of $150.00. But Things improved a little more than a week later...

I arrived at the studio on Friday hopeful of getting at least two songs in the can under the watchful eye of a professional engineer using some good mics. But I ended up with two lousy tracks I don't feel I can use.

The problems stemmed from lack of preparation and equipment failure. I figured I could walk ...

Over on the guitar discussion board I moderate, http://santacruzguitarplayers.com, I started a group project. I supplied the basic tracks of a song (percussion, guitar, voice) I had written and demo'd with GarageBand on my Mac. I asked the folks on the board if they might contribute some lead instrument ideas.

I was having difficulty getting a lead instrument track down on a demo for a song I had written, called "Big Valley." The idea arose from realizing I could ask ...

The Strawberry Music Festival held at Camp Mather, near Yosemite National Park in California, runs for 4 days around both Memorial Day and Labor Day. Thursday (9/4/09) marks the beginning of the Strawberry's fall festival.

This fall festival line up is an exciting one for me. It's heavy, as usual, on roots music featuring a lot of folks I've never heard --or even heard of! So I'll be soaking up new (to me) music almost all weekend.

But the mandolin players, as far ...

Farmer's Market (Oakdale CA) gig in July. I was playing through my new Marshall G15R CD amp (15w solid state, 8" speaker). I would have taken the Ampeg J12T (15w, 2 EL84s, 12" speaker) but I was told the gig was "acoustic." I did not want to bring too much firepower to the gig and scare the organizers off, so the Marshall ended up in the back of the Prius.

The gig went really well, and the city of Oakdale hired us back for a late August date. The Marshall, ...

Some of you mandophiles are probably aware of the Healdsburg Guitar Festival. Every two years Luthiers Merchantile International of Healdsburg CA puts on a convention and exhibition for guitar luthiers. A few hundred one-man (or very small shop) builders bring examples of their work hoping to sell or take orders from custom instruments. LMI also hosts discussion panels and luthiery lectures for builders. For players, they offer instrument demonstrations of the exhibiting builders' work, a cabaret ...

I am thinking a stripped down approach is a good one for this installment. So much went on during this long weekend that writing it all down here in prose is impractical and will make for less than riveting reading. With that in mind I’ve decided to share the Studio Log I created. But to add some interest I have included notations where and when interesting parts occurred or insights were gained.

➢ Personnel
o Tim Lechuga, AKA Señor: Bandleader, producer, acoustic guitar, ...

[This past weekend, I was working in the studio (Blue Dragon Studio) with Señor Circus and kept a log. I wrote down a bunch of thoughts and will share them with you as I get them together. As a bit of a warm up –writing is a process as much as music is—I thought I would share my thoughts about playing electric in an “acoustic” setting.]

Studio work this past weekend was punctuated pleasantly by a pair of two set gigs. The first was on Friday evening at Billy Goats Tavern, the second ...

Bandleader, Tim, of Señor Circus has booked time at a recording studio way up north near Mount Shasta CA. Both Tim and the engineer want me to bring "everything." "Everything?" says I. "Everything" says Tim.

The engineer is apparently excited to see how I got such a convincing Santanaesque tone without a guitar. He also wants to see the mandocaster. Plus we'll be doing a couple of acoustic gigs in the area. So...

Two amps, two emandos, ...