Category: Guitar

Me and My MX-5

Timothy Price74 Comments

Sometimes when a good deal comes along, you just can’t pass it up. And when the deal happens to be your dream car, you really don’t pass it up. I’ve been looking at the Mazda Miata MX-5 RF (retractible fast-back), but I figured it would be awhile before I bought one. I saw a gray MX-5 RF for sale in a lot on my way home Thursday, stopped, photographed the vin, and sent it to Tristan to get the history of the car for me. Tristan works at Garcia Honda in Albuquerque, and, as it turned out, they got an MX-5 trade-in that was a much better deal. I went up and drove it, and that was it, Tristan sold me the car Friday afternoon, and I picked up the car and drove it home this afternoon after the inspections were completed.  Now I’m the proud owner of a 2017 Mazda Miata MX-5 RF with 7,700 miles on it.  It’s like brand new.

After I got it home and got it insured, Laurie and I went out for a drive about 4:00 PM. We stopped at her parent’s house to show them the car, did a few photos (below), and then drove around with the Bose stereo blasting out tunes from my phone (bluetooth connection). After we got home about 6:00 PM, I decided I needed to write a song about the car. I scribbled down the lyrics, went into my darkroom/music studio, came up with the music, and recorded the song “Me and My MX-5” (above).

 

Me and My MX-5

Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price
TimothyPrice: vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, bass and electronic percussion

Me and my MX 5
Oh how we like to drive
Don a hat, hide the top
Drive and drive, we never stop

1st gear roars off the line
2, 3, 4, 5 takes no time
6th gear gets me in the jive
cruising along at 95

Driving my MX-5
Makes me feel like I’m alive
In Soul Red, black racing stripe
The really cool, sporty type

Badgers in the Bosque

Timothy Price19 Comments

Leslie, one of our bosque buddies, walked towards me on the ditch bank holding her camera in such a way I knew she got something special. “I got a first for the bosque!” she called out. “A badger” as she showed me a photo of a badger looking over a pile of sand on her camera’s screen. I said “Wow! I didn’t know we had badgers in the bosque.” On Friday afternoon I walked through the bosque and found the badger’s burrow, but the sun was still fairly high, and I didn’t see any badgers.

Last night I went out at sunset, and found a mama badger and two large badger cubs playing and foraging around the entrance to their den. I started shooting video with a 320mm lens. I was about 50 to 75 feet from the badgers.  One cub at the entrance of the den saw me and watched me while its sibling romped and tugged at it. I moved to a better position, because the camera kept trying to focus on the foliage in the foreground. While one cub watched me, its sibling hadn’t noticed I was there, and started foraging on the edge of the sandhill. Likewise, mama badger was oblivious while I filmed her and her cubs. The cub playing on the edge of the mound suddenly noticed me, stopped, stared at me for an instance, and then ran to the den and dived in the hole. The mama ran up the the entrance of the den at the cub’s sudden activity, and acting slightly confused, she put her head down toward the hole. All of a sudden she shifted her position and looked at me as if the cubs said “Mama! There’s a paparazzo filming us.” She looked at me for a second, and then dove in the hole herself.

I started calling them and I believe the cub that was looking at me from the beginning, popped its head up and stared at me. I talked to it, told it I was okay. It ducked back into the hole, only to pop it’s head up again a few seconds later. It seemed fascinated by the paparazzo in black talking to it. It started getting dark, so I said my goodbyes and the cub stared at me halfway in the entrance to the den as I walked away.

I wrote and recorded the music accompanying the video this afternoon. The Badgers seemed worthy of their own song.

Dead of Night

Timothy Price15 Comments

After posting Lovelorn Wasp performed by Coughing Cooties last Sunday, there were requests to hear something by Violent Phlegm, another virtual group that collaborated with AWB to form Coughing Cooties. Dead of Night is Violent Phlegm’s first single.

Dead of Night
Words and Music by Timothy Price
Performed by Violent Phlegm

Still standing I’m bleeding in the dead of night
Battling daemons ’til dawn’s early morning light
Reaching for the future, tried shaking off the past
Following ambitions holding dreams were fading fast
Wading against the current, I stood against the wave
Control-alt-delete, I refuse to be a slave

Tumbling through the ether in the cold and dark
Social media’s shadow leaves its ugly mark
Cyberspace warriors fight by fiber’s light
Daemons call me out in the dead of night

Control-alt-delete, I refuse to be a slave
Wading against the current, I stood against the wave
Following ambitions holding dreams were fading fast
Reaching for the future, tried shaking off the past
Battling daemons ’til dawn’s early morning light
Still standing I’m bleeding in the dead of night

Tumbling through the ether in the cold and dark
Social media’s shadow leaves its ugly mark
Cyberspace warriors fight by fiber’s light
Daemons call me out in the dead of night

Freaking On The Food Chain

Timothy Price22 Comments

Resa, who has Graffiti Lux Art & More and Art Gowns, commented on my post Now For The Rest Of The Story earlier this afternoon with “Well, that’s something I’ve never seen. The food chain ……. is freaky.” I replied “Freaking On The Food Chain. I might have to make a song out of that phrase.” Resa, not missing a step, said “You go for it! Waiting to hear it.” After I got all my outdoors work done in the late afternoon, I came in and created Freaking On The Food Chain. It’s pretty much an improv on all tracks. Below is a photo of a couple of beavers on the opposite bank of the Rio Grande after sunset you can ponder while listening to Freaking On The Food Chain.

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The Capsaicin Club (Red or Green?)

Timothy Price27 Comments

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What is that paparazzo doing to that “poor innocent guitar”, as Laurie likes to say? Listen to the The Capsaicin Club for clues.

Stay tuned for the video.

The Capsaicin Club
Music and lyrics by Timothy Price

Timothy Price: vocals, rhythm and lead guitars, digital percussion, recording, final mix.
Ron Blood: bass guitar, recording, post processing, final mix.

 

Raw From Off Center

Timothy Price38 Comments

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Loki

This week’s improvisation is called Saturday’s Improv (not a very creative title I know). I find playing lead guitar solo improvisations are very difficult. Coming up with fresh melodies is most frustrating. So I’ve started laying down base tracks: percussion, rhythm guitar and bass, and them playing improv solos all the way through the song, and taking them however they come out. I laid down all the tracks and the solo work today between watering, doing chores around the house, and taking a couple of walks in the bosque. There are two different guitar solo improvs that are very raw as the song goes back and forth between modes. I’m having lots of fun, and thought I might as well share the fun. I’ve include photos of Loki, Spunk and Marble, a photo of pear blossoms, and a photo of my darkroom/music studio showing the 10 tracks that make up Saturday’s Improve on the computer screen.

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My music studio in my darkroom.

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Spunk

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Pear blossoms

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Marble

OSB Strat

Timothy Price31 Comments

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Oriented strand board (OSB) is made using heat-cured adhesives to press together irregular shaped wood strands, oriented in crisscrossed layers into sheets of engineered boards. While OSB is used heavily in building construction as an alternative to plywood, it works well for most woodworking projects that require sheets of wood.  OSB is not as pretty as plywood (plywood is made from sheets of veneer glued and hot pressed together in cross laminated layers), however, OSB has the advantage of being very consistent with little or no gaps or voids in the finished sheets of engineered wood (plywood often has gaps, voids and soft spots).

Not many people would consider OSB a suitable material for a guitar; however, Jimmy Smith of the StratAcademy thought otherwise. Jimmy built a Stratocaster style electric guitar that is 100% OSB except for the hardware, e.g., tension rod in the neck (used to adjust the neck), frets, bridge, nut, string guides, machine heads, pickups, volume and tone controls, switch, jack, strap buttons, and strings. Jimmy’s OSB Strat is beautiful and it sounds great.

Jimmy said that he’s not the first luthier to build a guitar using OSB, but in videos he had seen of OSB guitars, the builders did not play them, so he had no idea of how they sounded or played. Since Jimmy didn’t want people having to ask “Well? What does it sound like? How does it play?”, he made a video of himself playing his OSB Strat; therefore, not only do you get to see my photos of it, you can watch the video to hear how it sounds and see how it plays.

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Still Small Voice

Timothy Price28 Comments

Today’s video is original music I wrote using a prayer by fellow blogger Michelle Marie for the lyrics. On December 7, 2018, Michelle Marie posted Still… Small… Voice on Tell Me About It at https://tellmeaboutit.co/2018/12/07/still-small-voice/, and I had a feeling there was an issue with her daughter, Alex, who has serious health problems. I commented that her prayer was beautiful, but sad, and asked how Alex was. Michelle Marie responded that she had been very sick and in ICU the week before. Michelle Marie mentioned that Alex just wants to lead a normal life. I could certainly relate to that having had a lot of health issues myself over the years. I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation until Michelle Marie emailed me with details. Alex almost died.

After getting the full story, I was inspired to write a song using Michelle Marie’s prayer for the lyrics. I was trying to imagine what is was like for Alex to be in ICU clinging to life, and started working on creating an etherial lullaby. I finished recording the song on December 15, 2018, and sent it to Michelle Marie. When I learned that she plays piano, I transcribed a short version of the flamenco guitar into piano and sent her the sheet music. She sent me images to use in a video, but I had to think for a long time how to do a video to go with the music. I finally came up with what I believe is a suitable video.  Here’s my version of Michelle Marie’s Still… Small… Voice.