On Sunday (Dec. 10th), we will get together for our second jam session. We missed our opportunities in November. Partly that was my fault. I just didn't organize anything early enough. Partly it was the other guys' faults, they couldn't make the day I finally settled on. Bill emailed me and suggested Dec 10th, and so here we go.

Bill has gotten together with Terry and the 80's band one time, while two other sessions were cancelled. Since he's the one who suggested this date, when I called him last night, he said he'd cancel the practice with the other band.

Steve can't make it to this session. He's got a church choir thing going on. It IS a rough month for getting together, lots of social and family stuff happening. This will be our only opportunity this month, so I didn't want to pass it up.

A new bass player will be joining us. He's actually my supply representative from one of the big dental supply houses, but it sounds like he's a pro. He's been playing a lot all along. So there will be four of us, and I'll be covering a lot of second guitar, and all of the vocals.

We'll see how it goes. I'm actually fairly excited about the get together. If things go well this weekend, then a January session with the full band might be in the cards.

I also got a new toy, but am going to delay gratification (in other words, wait till Christmas to get it, so I'll have something to open that morning) before trying it out. It's a Digital Research guitar effects processor/foot controller. It looks really cool; I'm sure I will have lots of fun trying to learn how to use it. I'm not great with the techie stuff; I usually find the presets and sounds and effects I like, memorize where they are, and stick to them. I don't edit the settings, I don't create new ones, I don't experiment too much. I was like that with my keyboards, too. My most frequently used keyboard is a (relatively) cheap Roland JX-1, which has about 20 or 30 presets, a few simple sliders for quick editing (make the sound brighter, change the attack or the decay, etc), and some stuff I never have even messed with. I have an old Ensoniq Mirage sampling keyboard, with which I never created a single sample of my own. I just used the discs that came with it and the ones I copied from the sound library at the store when I bought it. And I have a Roland digital piano, very nice, but I rarely use anything but the piano and electric piano sounds. What's the point of having that beautiful action if you're not using it on piano sounds? (I also have a very old Roland Juno 6, which was an analog synth where you had to edit and create every sound. It's still fun to use once in a while. And I have a Roland MT32 midi module which is a sound bank of hundreds of tones, which I have midi'ed into the sampler and can use that keyboard as a controller for the module.) Looking forward to checking out the sounds I can get with the new toy after the 25th.

Also, John Schramm told me about a tune (and sent it to me) that Alan Jackson did as a remembrance of 9/11. I never posted anything about it, but I should have. I'm not the biggest fan of country music, but this song is heartfelt and beautiful. It captures the mood and tone of that day beautifully. Thanks, John...

That's all for today. Have a great December!!!