As the World Turns

...or "Soap Opera-type Happenings Playing in Bands"

Life is never dull. There have been a number of band-related ups and downs this week.

The electric band has been going great since we added a good lead guitarist late last year. We have hours of tight material, had great fun recording some demo tracks, and have been actively looking for little bar gigs (we had one scheduled for a Saturday night in July, but we got bumped for reasons unknown and were trying to reschedule.)

Note the past-tense "we *were* trying to reschedule." Tuesday morning, we got an e-mail from the lead guitarist, saying he had too many other commitments and had to quit the band. Okay, no hard feelings - he's a good guy, and we'll stay in touch, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if we play together again somewhere down the road. But we're sad about it, and have to decide how to move forward. We'll put an ad for a lead guitarist on Craigslist and see what we find. Or we could look for a bass player, and I'll move back to guitar (which is where I started with this band.) Stay tuned for next week's episode and find out what happens.

Then there's the acoustic trio. We play our second gig at the bakery tonight, and I'm very excited. But it was touch and go right up to the last minute. We practiced Wednesday night, and our vocalist came in with a cold and a sore throat and could hardly sing a note. We worked through some songs, telling her to please not do anything to strain her voice, and we finally ended practice early with a discussion on whether or not we'd have to cancel the gig.

We agreed that canceling on the day of the gig was bad form, so she said she'd make a decision yesterday. Thankfully, the text message I got yesterday said that she was improving, and could go if we could make some adjustments to the set list. She can't really hit the high notes, so a couple of songs have to be dropped, and a number of others have to be played in a slightly lower key. That's not a problem, and we rehearsed last night and figured out the new keys we'd be playing in.

So we're good to go, and I'm looking very forward to a fun evening. Though I will admit to a little nervousness. Changing the key of so many songs the night before a gig isn't ideal. It's not a *problem* - the guitar players just adjust the capo and play the exact same thing. I learn songs by patterns, and the patterns don't change - there's just a different "home" point. But there's a greater chance that I'll just play something by habit that used to be right, but is now wrong.

Stay tuned for a full report.