I did manage to squeeze in a bit of practice here and there over the last few days.

For one thing, when I am on long lonely drives I have a CD with the instrumental parts for all the Collision songs–actually, I have several of these, with the songs in different orders–so I can practice my vocal parts while driving.  Sometimes this is not such a good idea, particularly in those cases where I also want to practice my instrumental parts and I find the fingers of one hand playing air guitar, or air bass, or air keyboards, and my concentration divided a bit; but when the road is empty I don’t really need that much concentration for my driving anyway, as long as I don’t miss my exits.  Thus the time spent driving everywhere yesterday was not entirely wasted, although it was not entirely productive, either.  I don’t really need that much work on the vocals, except in those cases in which the work is needed to mesh the vocals and the instrumental work, a division of concentration which can be tricky if you don’t know both cold.

I also had a brief opportunity to do a bit of playing with Baxter.  He had taken off with some of my sons for some barbecue somewhere, and when he returned he had left his guitar and amp here and we went over a couple of things including the song on which I need the most guitar work–largely because I’ve agreed to pick up what were going to be bass riffs, and I’ve got to integrate playing the lead riffs (some of them Allman Brothers-style double leads) with the singing.  Then last night, when I found myself alone for a bit with laundry to push, I did a few songs on the keyboard.  I left it set up in the living room, but this has not garnered the usual complaints because at least two of my sons tinker on it quite impressively every day, so it is being used.

I should mention that I am anticipating traveling north Saturday night.  One of my sons will be attending school this summer and staying with family in the area.  I anticipate having dinner with said family while I am up there, and hopefully meeting with a friend on the way back, depending on how schedules mesh.  My mother is an early person and my friend works late, so it’s not certain that this plan won’t have me sitting on my hands fruitlessly for an extended time.  However, we will see what develops.

–M. J. Young