9456 A Lunchtime Bass session

Today I played for 26 minutes taking my total logged time to 612:01. All together, I have played 9456 songs, mainly on the Rocksmith games although some have been either solo practice or with friends.

Songs attempted were:

• Six AM Salvation by VsThem
• Burnished by White Denim
• California Brain by RapScallions
• Go With the Flow by Queens of the Stone Age
• Gobbledigook by Sigur Ros
• Good Enough by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• Higher Ground by Red Hot Chilli Peppers

9400 A second session of the day

Today I played for 53 minutes taking my total logged time to 611 and 35 minutes. All together, I have played 9400 songs, mainly on the Rocksmith games although some have been either solo practice or with friends.

Songs attempted were:

• All I Wanna Do by Splash
• American Idiot by Green Day
• Angela by Jarvis Cocker
• Black Magic by Magic Wands
• Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones
• Boys Don't Cry by The Cure
• Brand New Kind of Blue by Gold Motel
• California Brain by RapScallions
• California Dreaming by The Mamas and the Papas
• Drops of Jupiter by Train
• For A Fool by The Shins
• High and Dry by Radiohead
• (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones
• I Can't Hear You by The Dead Weather
• I Got Mine by The Black Keys

9434 Monday.

I survived the wedding, and made it to the band's gig just in time to get the sound check done.

Today I played for 28 minutes taking my total logged time to 610 hours and 41 minutes. All together, I have played 9434 songs, mainly on the Rocksmith games although some have been either solo practice or with friends.

Songs attempted were:

• Where is My Mind? by Pixies
• R U Mine by Arctic Monkeys
• Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand
• Use Somebody by Kings of Leon
• Behind Blue Eyes by The Who
• Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana
• Paint It, Black by The Rolling Stones

9427 Thursday

The panto last night went well, we got compliments that the sound was better this time than last year. The main difference is that we'd set up the main speakers at the back of the hall instead of on the stage.

Today I played for 22 minutes taking my total logged time to 610:14. All together, I have played 9427 songs, mainly on the Rocksmith games although some have been either solo practice or with friends.

Songs attempted were:

• Rebel Rebel by David Bowie
• The Spider and the Fly by The Rolling Stones
• When I'm with You by Best Coast
• Burnished by White Denim
• Higher Ground by Red Hot Chilli Peppers
• Under Cover of Darkness by The Strokes

Depression seems to have got a hold of me again, there is a family (in-laws) event coming up to that I'm really not looking forward to, and it means I mess a charity gig with the band on Saturday and some, if not all, of the gig on Saturday night.

C'est la vie.

9421 and counting on a Wednesday lunchtime

Tonight I am driving a sound desk for a pantomime. I'll admit to feeling fairly stressed out about it, as there are three stage mikes, four radio mikes and the effects tracks to control. Thankfully I don't have to cue the effects tracks and follow the script to play them in the right order.

Today I played for 31 minutes taking my total logged time to 609 hours and 51 minutes. All together, I have played 9421 songs, mainly on the Rocksmith games although some have been either solo practice or with friends.

Songs attempted were:

• American Idiot by Green Day
• Do You Remember by The Horrors
• Paint It, Black by The Rolling Stones
• Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand
• Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones
• Me and the Bean by Spoon
• Use Somebody by Kings of Leon
• Who Are You by The Who

609 And a catch up entry from Yesterday

This is a catch up entry from yesterday, when I played for 27 minutes taking my total logged time to 609:20. All together, I have played 9371 songs, mainly on the Rocksmith games although some have been either solo practice or with friends.

Songs attempted were:

• American Idiot by Green Day
• Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones
• Boys Don't Cry by The Cure
• California Dreaming by The Mamas and the Papas
• Drops of Jupiter by Train
• Go With the Flow by Queens of the Stone Age
• High and Dry by Radiohead
• Higher Ground by Red Hot Chilli Peppers

608 Tuesday

Today I played for 27 minutes taking my total logged time to 608:53. All together, I have played 9405 songs, mainly on the Rocksmith games although some have been either solo practice or with friends.

Songs attempted were:

• Surf Hell by Little Barrie
• I Got Mine by The Black Keys
• Number Thirteen by Red Fang
• Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand
• Unnatural Selection by Muse
• Me and the Bean by Spoon

608 A Pre-cub session

No lunchtime practice today, the call of Haggis and Chips and an office Quiz were too loud.

I did get twenty two minutes practice in before the start of Cubs , so the day not totally wasted.

One of my objectives was to see if I could get a USB socket to micro-usb plug to work with my tablet, but it didn't recognise the connection. Further investigation is needed, and the desire to play was strong.

I am now up to 608 hours and twenty three minutes logged practising using the various Rocksmith applications I use (and some 'real' rehearsal too).

Today's songs were:

• American Idiot by Green Day
• Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones
• California Dreaming by The Mamas and the Papas
• Drops of Jupiter by Train
• My Generation by The Who
• R U Mine by Arctic Monkeys
• Three Little Birds by Bob Marley

608 Survived Cub Soup

Cub Soup

Last night the cub pack I help look after were making soup.

I sampled three of the varieties that they made and survived the night with no ill-effects.

This session lasted for twenty six minutes, and took my total logged time to 608 hours exactly.

Songs attempted today were:

• American Idiot by Green Day
• Losing My Religion by REM
• Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley
• Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones
• Walk This Way by Aerosmith
• My Generation by The Who
• Paint It, Black by The Rolling Stones

607 Raining in Newcastle

Almost twenty nine minutes added to my log for songs played, taking my total to 607 hours and thirty four minutes in total logged.

This session on the Rocksmith 2014 Remastered, although I hope to get some time tonight, I was fairly late into work and so won't be able to finish as early as I normally do.

Songs practiced were:

American Idiot by Green Day

Boys Don't Cry by The Cure

Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd

We Are The Champions by Queen

Walk This Way by Aerosmith

My Generation by The Who

Pinball Wizard by The Who

Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard

I don't directly choose the songs to practice, I keep track of the number of days since I last played a song, and apply a modifier to give some songs a higher priority.

The current modifier list is:

• Learning
• Almost all sessions
• Gig
• Exclude (this one is for songs I really don't like and reduces how often I play the song)

At the moment I am using a spreadsheet, but when I have time I will have build a Ruby on Rails application that will help me to track the songs. After that I have a fancy for building an Android application that will talk to the database.

607 We can see the sky today

Today's effort involved eight songs played on the Steam version of Rocksmith 2014 (Remastered edition) and lasted for just over 27 minutes. Total time logged on the games is now 607 hours and five minutes.

Songs played were:

Walk This Way by Aerosmith

My Generation by The Who

Paint It, Black by The Rolling Stones

Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard

R U Mine by Arctic Monkeys

You Really Got Me by The Kinks

American Idiot by Green Day

California Dreaming by The Mamas and the Papas

606 There's a Storm brewing in the West

I'm so glad that Hurricane Ophelia doesn't look like it's going to visit Northumberland over the next few days.

A short lunchtime session today, lasting for 19 minutes. Two re-tunes of the guitar (into A161 and back to E Standard) today.

Total logged time now at 606 hours and thirty eight minutes.

Songs attempted were:

• You Really Got Me by The Kinks
• American Idiot by Green Day
• Boys Don't Cry by The Cure
• House of the Rising Sun by The Animals
• (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones
• Song 2 by Blur

606 A very short session before cubs

It took 40 minutes for my laptop to get to the point where Rocksmith would start. Mainly due to downloading an update to the steam application. Sigh

I did get two runs through of Chasing Cars following a you tube video, and one attempt at American Idiot before people started arriving.

Total time now at 606 hours and 18 minutes, after nearly 12 minutes playing.

606 Friday. Eventually

It's been a long and difficult week for me. Too many personal issues to properly enjoy the week.

Thank goodness that I can attempt to play a song or three from time to time.

This session covered six songs and lasted for 22 minutes. Some odd tuning's today, Eb Drop D, Eb, and E standard (A447) as well as a normal E standard tuning.

The songs were:

Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana

Round and Round by Ratt

Behind Blue Eyes by The Who

American Idiot by Green Day

Boys Don't Cry by The Cure

Paint It, Black by The Rolling Stones

605 Thursday evening

I didn't have anything better to do this evening, so I spent another 51 minutes playing on the guitar. Total practice time logged is now 605 hours and 44 minutes.

Songs played tonight were:

• Sweet Mountain River by Monster Truck
• Bat Country by Avenged Sevenfod
• Now by Paramore
• In Bloom by Nirvana
• On Top of the World by Matt Mongomery
• Panic Switch by Silversun Pickups
• Sea to Swallow by Dinosaur
• Self Trap by Playground Kings
• Slow Hands by Interpol
• Sore Tummy by Paws
• Step Out of the Car by The Boxer Rebellion
• Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand
• Three Little Birds by Bob Marley

604 Thursday. That's the best I can say about today.

I managed nine songs today, taking just over 33 minutes playing time. Total time recorded is now 604 hours and fifty two minutes. I am 6% of the way towards practicing for 10,000 hours.

Songs attempted were:

• American Idiot by Green Day
• Boys Don't Cry by The Cure
• Breed by Nirvana
• Losing My Religion by REM
• Me and the Bean by Spoon
• Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley
• We Share the Same Skies by The Cribs
• X-Kid by Green Day
• You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told) by The White Stripes

And that's all I have to say for this session.

Oh, a final thought: how many real people actually follow this? I'm starting to see 5-10 page views per entry, but I suspect they are all spiders.

604 And a rainy Wednesday lunchtime

My total logged time playing on the Rocksmith games (with the occasional 'real' session) is now at 604 hours and nineteen minutes. This session lasted for just over 32 minutes.

Songs attempted were:

American Idiot by Green Day

Boys Don't Cry by The Cure

My Generation by The Who

Pinball Wizard by The Who

Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard

R U Mine by Arctic Monkeys

Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand

Use Somebody by Kings of Leon

Where is My Mind? by Pixies

603 Feeling a little more lively this Tuesday.

Practiced for 23 minutes today, taking my total logged time to 603 hours and 46 minutes.

Songs attempted were:

Ricochet by Brian Adam McCune

American Idiot by Green Day

Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones

Boys Don't Cry by The Cure

The Trooper by Iron Maiden

When I'm with You by Best Coast

Stone by Alice in Chains

603 on a unwell Monday evening

Still not feeling well, so only played a bakers dozen songs. The session did last for nearly 43 minutes, so played longer than I thought I could.

Total time logged playing in now 603 hours and 23 minutes.

Songs done this evening were:

• American Idiot
• Blitzkrieg Bop
• Boys Don't Cry
• California Dreaming
• Drops of Jupiter
• Go With the Flow
• I Want You Back
• Next Girl
• Paint It, Black
• R U Mine
• Take Me Out

602 Monday lunchtime again

I have still ran out of ideas for titles for the blog. So, more morning ones.

This session lasted for just under 25 minutes, taking my total time to 602 hours and forty minutes.

Songs attempted (in the main fairly well) were:

• Between the Lines by Stone Temple Pilots
• American Idiot by Green Day
• Boys Don't Cry by The Cure
• Hey Ya by OutKast
• I Want You Back by Jackson 5
• The Spirit Of Radio by Rush
• Walk This Way by Aerosmith

602 A pre-cub session

I managed a 25 minute session before cubs tonight, taking my logged total to 602 hours and 15 minutes.

Songs attempted were:

American Idiot by Green Day

Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones

California Dreaming by The Mamas and the Papas

Now by Paramore

Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

I Want You Back by Jackson 5

Drops of Jupiter by Train

601 Friday and just might be getting closer to overcoming the snot daemon

I still have the cold, and it's still badly affecting my concentration.

Today's session lasted for 27 minutes, taking my total to 601 hours and 49 minutes.

Songs attempted today were:

• Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd
• We Are The Champions by Queen
• American Idiot by Green Day
• Boys Don't Cry by The Cure
• My Own Summer (Shove It) by Deftones
• I Want Some More by Dan Auerbach
• Desolate Motion by Karawan

601 A Snot filled Thursday

I've got a touch of cold at the moment, my playing and concentration is even worse than usual.

I hadn't brought my guitar yesterday, so not as much practice as I'd have liked.

Songs attempted were:

• House of the Rising Sun by The Animals
• Paint It, Black by The Rolling Stones
• Song 2 by Blur
• American Idiot by Green Day
• Boys Don't Cry by The Cure
• Behind Blue Eyes by The Who
• You Really Got Me by The Kinks
• Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana

The session lasted for 27 minutes, taking my total time logged to 601 hours and 22 minutes.

Feeling very tired now, and ready to sleep.

600 hours and still messing up

I've now passed six hundred hours mainly using the Rocksmith games to learn to play guitar and am still messing up big style. This isn't helped by flipping the fret board away from the Rocksmith default (with Low E at the top) to the tab standard (with low E at the bottom).

Never mind, another 24 minutes logged, with a total logged time of 600:55 hours.

Today's songs were:

• Use Somebody by Kings of Leon
• Islands by The xx
• Behind Blue Eyes by The Who
• No More Mr Nice Guy by Alice Cooper
• You Really Got Me by The Kinks
• Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana
• American Idiot by Green Day