We’re still living under the shadow of COVID-19 here in early October. There’s not many signs of things getting back to normal, although some places have started having some form of live music. Mostly outside, acoustic, distanced and masked, with smaller audiences, spread out and masked.

No Static has now had three rehearsals between the end of August and the end of September, and we are considering playing to a small audience in the back yard of bass player Tom’s home on Halloween.

The shelter-in-place project guys played a couple of sets in drummer Tom’s back yard on September 19th, and we’re going to do another in mid-October.

A month ago I posted a link to a recording from my pandemic shelter-in-place project #2 with Tom DeFiglio and Pat T. Recently, Tom’s friend John Casolary added an organ track to the mix, and I think it really adds to the song. I’m talking about “Boogie Stupid” from John Scofield’s 2013 album Überjam Deux. Joe-Bob sez check it out!

https://alanoehler.com/recordings/alan_and_tom/

This past weekend No Static had a socially-distanced rehearsal for the first time since March 1. Meanwhile, my other erstwhile group of playing buddies have decided to do something similar by scheduling a performance of sorts as an excuse for an afternoon socially-distanced backyard get-together for us and some of our family. We’ll be spread out in a large back yard and we’ll play some of the stuff we’ve recently recorded remotely, plus some of the other stuff we typically play. Like most musicians all of us are starving for the opportunity to be able to play together again. So we’ll stand far apart, no handshakes or hugs, masks on, and have a blast for a couple of hours. It’s set for Saturday, September 12.

The four of us decided to get together and run through some of our repertoire. Dennis has a big garage, so we left the garage door partially open, opened the back door to allow air to flow, wore masks and kept 10 feet or so way from each. We played for around two hours or so and it was not too shabby, considering we hadn’t played together since March 1. It was good for the heart and soul.

While we’re hacking away at the next couple of remote projects, our drummer Tom DeFiglio was going through some of the recordings we made at our music sessions over the last couple of years, and he found this one of us trying out Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.” I really like my guitar tone and the vibe we had going, so I decided to put it out there. There’s a nice solo from the other guitarist, Jeffrey Kamil. No solo from me – I just play the melody (somewhat loosely and freely) and accompany Jeff, but I thought it was worth putting out there. Hope you enjoy it!

https://alanoehler.com/recordings/artists-in-residence/

Here’s another recording from my pandemic shelter-in-place project #2 with Tom DeFiglio and Pat T. This time it’s “Boogie Stupid” from John Scofield’s 2013 album Überjam Deux. Joe-Bob sez check it out!

https://alanoehler.com/recordings/alan_and_tom/

Five weeks into summer and still sheltering in place. Over the last month or so many places started to relax restrictions, only to find that the number of COVID-19 cases started to surge. On this past Thursday, Major League Baseball started a limited season of 60 games, with no fans in attendance… and today two games have been postponed because 14 members of the Florida Marlins team and staff tested positive. I’d hoped maybe No Static would be back to playing some outdoor gigs by now, but that’s clearly not going to happen for quite some time yet.

I’ve been continuing my remote recording projects. The first of them has four songs now posted, which can be found here. We’ve got several more in the works and I’ll add them as they come to fruition.

An offshoot of that project now has two completed tunes, which can be found here. Several more are in the pipeline.

I one more unfinished recording that I started in the summer 2012 with my son David playing drums, which soon will be complete. What’s done so far you can hear here (hear hear!), and the remaining one will follow soon.

Meanwhile, in between recording and trying to learn how to become better at mixing, I’ve been juggling some music educational pursuits – taking an online ear training course from Rick Beato, a guitar class from the terrific Mark Lettieri of Snarky Puppy fame, and a series of video lessons from another great guitarist, Chuck D’Aloia. I’m also working through some books I’ve only scratched the surface of in the past, notably Mick Goodrick’s The Advancing Guitarist and Ted Greene’s Chord Chemistry.

Here we are, approaching summer and still sheltering in place.

The first of my remote recording projects has three songs now posted. They can be found here.

I also finished off a couple of recordings I started in 2012 with my son David playing drums, which you can hear here. (Hear hear!)

More to come!

Sheltered in place, sitting here on a rare rainy day, listening to the raindrops and working on my various music projects.

I’ve got a remote recording project going with a couple of friends I play with periodically. I put together a few reference recordings with some rough guitar parts and a click, and sent them off to my collaborators. They will record their parts and send them back to me to assemble and mix. I’ve also broached the same concept to my band partners in No Static, as a way of learning and practicing some new numbers to add to our repertoire.

Meanwhile I have a batch of old snippets of musical ideas that I’m sifting through in hopes of kick-starting some composing, and I’m also deconstructing a recording a friend made of an improvisation which contains a few moments I felt are worthy of learning and extending into a collaborative composition. I am also working on my guitar playing, working through a couple of books and video courses, revisiting fundamentals and pushing my boundaries.

It’s unclear as yet how long this COVID-19 pandemic will last but the current directives are to remain sheltered in place until the beginning of May. Even if things loosen up a bit then, no doubt many people will continue to distance themselves as much as possible until it becomes clear that the crisis is truly behind us. I expect all of us musicians will not be able to perform live for some time, possibly for the rest of this year.

The new year is here!

I’ve never been too big on New Year’s Resolutions, but on some level I resonate with the opportunity presenting itself to make some. Of course there’s no need to confine oneself to the beginning of a year , but there is certainly something to it that brings a slightly sharper focus.

So what do I resolve? In a nutshell, I plan to be more diligent in my various musical pursuits, particularly learning and creating.

Learning always goes on to some degree, but I mean to actively work at it more than I have recently. I have a large amount of materials bursting with information that I want to absorb and have inform my playing. In addition to making my way through that, I intend to spend some time transcribing well-loved solos and to be more diligent practicing ideas in musical context (with backing tracks, or playing with friends).

Creating has been the toughest nut to crack for me. I have had great difficulty in the past trying to direct myself to write pieces of music. I’ve always felt it is something I should be doing – there’s something inside me that wants to come out – but years go by with nothing, or very little, emerging, because I just don’t do it. I don’t find much time, I don’t take the time when I do find it, and when I do my focus is very fragile and easily broken. I intend to find some simple structure to put around it, and to set myself the modest goal of composing just a couple of pieces within the year.