I did some playing around earlier. I heard a song and it was evidently in G (technically it was the relative minor, E minor) but my ear hears things in the major. So, using the Aiolian picking pattern it was simple as pie to re-create the melody--except for one note. That led to some improv. I used my tenor guitar for this and for the ensuing burst of strumming.
The thing that was interesting was the strumming pattern left on my fingers by the steel strings. I could see little grey lines where the strings habitually contacted my fingers. It is interesting because the hand just does what it does and I don't have any way to articulate it. Here's what I found: on the downstroke I strum with my middle and ring fingers (specifically at the juncture between the middle and distal phalanges) and on the upstroke, I use my thumb (around the knuckle). That's just my natural tendency. Of course, I do have the ability to alter that when the need arises. For example, if I am doing something like a stop-time blues where I need to transition from chords to notes, I can strum with an unaccustomed configuration so that my picking fingers are ready.
Just looking ahead to my playing tonight, I think I will change things up a bit. I have been playing a fusion of things around the 11th fret. I think I will shift my attention down to the 5th fret or thereabout. The cool thing about the 5th fret is that I can mirror those efforts on the 17th fret. I am not going to waste any ratiocinations on it right now, but I will try to remember what I come up with with the inspiration of the moment.
I will say before I go outside that I have a rather acute case of PTSD from NAMM. I of course haven't read the thread here because...well, because who cares what festoon or fluff Kala is using to gussy up its crap. But I am still being assailed on other fronts. Merchants with whom I have had some intercourse in the past are trying to tempt me and I cannot even go to youtube without being assailed with a bunch of videos recorded by non-entities with handheld devices (never have lives been lived less well with so much documentation, as I heard someone recently say). It is quite a cluster and rather repugnant. It feels like going to a third-world country and being swarmed with dirty children hawking scarves and gew-gaws.
I had a nice breakfast of two burritos. They consisted each of a fried egg, little bit of sharp cheddar and a mixture (carne adovada, beans, green chili, red chili sauce, and Mad Dog [a blend of Scorpion, Reaper, and Ghost peppers with an unnatural extract which makes this more like battery acid than anything else]). Many people add potatoes to their burritos, but that is rather bourgeois. Potatoes are just cheap filler, like iceberg lettuce. After the burritos and three, I think, IPA's I sat down to plan my evening's music. If I base my improv around the fifth fret, a few possibilities suggest themselves since I will be using my linear Yorkie.
1. @ the 4th fret of G string, there's the B Phrygian Dominant and, @ the 5th fret, the C Lydian #2.
2. If I play it re-entrantly (using the upper three strings), I have the D# super lokrian bb7 @ 3rd fret, the E aiolian #7 @ 4th fret, and the F# Lokrian 13 @ 6th fret.
3. Pentatonically speaking the subdominant and dominant shapes are right there for the picking. Or, if I restrict myself to re-entrant strings, there is the leading tone and tonic shape.
I don't even have to think about chords because in this area all the rudimentary first position chords are available.
When and if I move all this up an octave to fret 15 and following, I might have to get creative with my chords. Up there, some of the chord shapes don't work with the confined space. Also, some really open chords, spanning two octaves, are possible and shouldn't be overlooked. Lastly, I think I will try some different chord qualities. Some minor 6's or minor add9's or sus chords may shake things up.
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Today was food prep day. I pressure cooked some habichuelas rojas (Dominican red beans). I added some garlic because I was experimenting with an old garlic press that my wife inherited from her mother. It didn't really work. I took the half-mangled garlic from the press and finely chopped it with a cleaver (which would have been my first inclination anyway). I have received uxorial approval for a variation (for this week) not including rice. I don't really like rice because it is bland and it has no nutrients. However, in the great compromise which is marriage, I use Basmati rice because my wife likes rice. But this week, I was allowed to let my fancy run wild...well, kind of wild; amaranth would have been too wild. So, millet was my grain of choice.
I toasted some millet in butter.
{I once was asked by a younger person who didn't really understand the alchemy of cooking about why I toasted millet. One toasts millet to get a toasty flavor. Confer the difference between bread and toast. It is similar with other (unprocessed) grains. }
Anyway, I toasted some millet in butter and when it had browned, I deglazed the millet and poured the millet into a little bowl which I then put in my pressure cooker.
I wonder if people understand how to pressure cook delicate things, things such as rice, lentils, quinoa, millet, buckwheat, amaranth, triticale, et cetera? In case you don't know, if you place delicate things in a pressure cooker with the appropriate amount of water, those things will stick to the bottom of the pot and burn like a Christmas tree in February.
The solution is the pot in a pot technique. You place a little bit of water in the pressure cooker, place a trivet in the water and atop the trivet place a small bowl containing the delicate thing and its water. Lest the contents jump out, cover the bowl with something: tin foil if you don't mind heavy metal poisoning or, in my case, I use a small stoneware plate.
But I digress. I toasted some millet, put it in the pressure cooker, covered it and put three potatoes on top. I always add potatoes atop my grains because I don't want to waste an opportunity to soften up some potatoes for some future use.
I combined the millet with the habichuelas. I added sabzi dolmeh, a traditional middle eastern mixture of greens (all the usual suspects: mint, cilantro, parley, etc.). I had already put some garlic in the beans. I added some ground umami (mushroom-based which I received as a gift) and black salt which I had ground in my mortar.
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As far as music is concerned, I didn't make as much progress as I had hoped. There is a small learning curve. Conceptually the shapes aren't innovative, but it takes a while to get it down. The C Lydian #2 is, as the name implies, is just a variation on the normal Lydian which we all know. I really wish I had some software which would plot chords or scale shapes. For my personal use, I employ graph paper cut into 4X6 grids. Then I just insert the dots where my fingers go. It would be nice to upload those charts. Maybe some day I'll find something like that.