Haven’t been to a single music show since February… but I’m getting back on track again and hope to soon be back on the blues jam scene and performing solo, duo, and otherwise.

On the guitar playing front, I’ve been working hard on my alternating picking, trying to get more precise and improve my articulation. Also been getting more and more comfortable with diminished and altered dominant sounds and hopefully they’ll start surfacing in my playing soon. Learning lots of lines and always learning to play them in at least two fingerings/sets of strings, facilitating finding notes and intervals in multiple places along the neck. All somewhat dry and academic but I can feel my fluidity gradually improving. Working with some books: Robben Ford‘s Blues and Beyond, Pat Martino‘s Linear Expressions… also a CD-ROM set from Larry Carlton, 335 Blues.

Listening-wise, I’ve found several things that Wayne Krantz did in years past: a Jay Anderson CD, Next Exit, from 1992; Victor Bailey‘s Low Blow, from 1999; and Jasper van’t Hof‘s Blue Corner from 1993. Great guitar playing… I was also impressed with John McLaughlin‘s latest, Floating Point.