My musical influence:

There are several bands that have influenced my writing and playing style. The Dave Matthews Band is probably the greatest contributor, but Caedmon’s Call, Bebo Norman, Matt Jones, Harrod & Funck, Simon & Garfunkel and several other groups have also bled into me and now are beginning to drip out. Although it’s nice to have different influences, it can be very frustrating. For instance, I just wrote a neat little lick that I’d like to turn into a song someday, but the more I played it and sang melodies over it, the more I realized that it sounds like a rift lifted straight off of a Dave Matthews Band album. I mean, I wrote it, but I’d never have written anything even close to that if I hadn’t been so heavily influenced by the Dave Matthews Band. And now, if I play it for anyone else to hear, they’ll just say, “That sounds like something Dave Matthews might write.” and, although they may think they’re giving me a compliment, what I’ll hear them say is, “That’s gotta’ be the most unoriginal thing I’ve heard since this century began.”

I’m not sure what my point is, so I’ll just leave it at that.

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Show from 03/23/2002 posted on my FTP server

I’ve put my show with Chris Case up on my FTP server. You can still follow the link on the left side to the server. As a disclaimer, I don’t think that either Chris or myself is satisfied with the result. The recording is decent, but neither of us performed as well as we thought we should have. Chris was a little under the weather and I couldn’t hear myself (because we decided not to use monitors) for most of the show. Anyway, the end result was that Chris wasn’t functioning at 100% and I was playing “deaf”, meaning I was sort of guessing and using my head-knowledge of the guitar as a crutch. Unfortunately, I’m a “feel and hear” player, meaning I feel the vibrations of the guitar and hear what I’m playing to decide what I’m playing next. That didn’t work so well in a loud environment where I couldn’t hear my guitar. Oh well, live and learn, I guess.

I’ll leave the show up for a few days and then I’ll have to take everything down before I leave for Dallas.

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…and over on the left, you’ll see a link I just added to a couple of songs I’ve recorded recently. One, called Jazz Lick, is pretty simple–acoustic guitar only–and repetitive–redundant–but I like it nonetheless. One thing of note regarding Jazz Lick is that it’s not “jazz” at all. If anything, it’s a bluesy progression, so maybe a more appropriate name would be “Repetitive Blues Progression”. “Jazz Lick” was just the first thing that came to mind as I played it for the first time. The other, called It’s Not What I Need, is an acoustic guitar and vocals track that I wrote about an hour ago. It’s nothing to write home about, but the lyrics speak clearly about where I am right now. I’ll write more on where they came from later.

For now, just click the FTP link if you wanna’ have a listen. If you’re not familiar with FTP, you just have to click the link, right click on whichever file you want to download, click “copy” and then right click on your desktop (or whatever folder you want to put it in) and then click paste. You should get a little meter telling you how much time is remaining for the download. Both files are in .mp3 format.

The link won’t be up forever because it’s not a permanent link. I’ll probably leave it up until I leave for Texas and then it’ll go away, just like I will. I guess this is really just my way of saying, “See, I don’t just play Dave Matthews Band tunes… Not always at least.”

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I just put new strings on my guitar and made some adjustments to the action. It feels much better now than it did about 2 hours ago. One of my favorite things is to play brand new guitar strings, especially when the guitar is all cleaned up, too. I polished it, cleaned the fretboard and tweaked it out.

Action is essentially how easy the strings are to push down to the fretboard to make a sound. If the action is “too high”, then it’s difficult to press the strings hard enough to get a good, clean tone. If the action is “too low”, then it’s easy to press the strings to the fretboard to produce a tone, but the strings will tend to buzz because they’re too close to the fretboard and, when they vibrate, they make contact in places other than where you want them to. The trick is to find a setting that feels good to play, but also doesn’t buzz or hurt my hand (from pressing too hard). I’ve been actively trying to find this perfect setting for my guitar since I got it a little over two years ago. There are so many things that can contribute to the feel and sound of the guitar that it’s hard to prescribe a way to simply set everything up so it’s perfect.

There are just too many variables that are dependant on each other. Some of those variables are: String gauge (how heavy the strings are), neck pitch (how much the neck is bowed, if at all), saddle shape and height (the saddle is the little piece of bone or plastic that is right next to the sound hole where the strings rest). I’ve been messing with these three variables for a while now. I adjusted the neck about a year ago and haven’t messed with it since (it seems to be setup about right for what I need), I shaped a saddle about a year and a half ago that I’m pretty happy with, although I’ve also tried using the original saddle too as I’m not convinced that either is better, and I’ve recently decided that I’m going to use “Custom light” gauge strings. This setup seems almost ideal, but I’m considering trying to bring the high strings (e and b) closer to the fretboard because they seem just a little too difficult to press, play the note and get off of quickly enough to do any fast improving.

That’s the scoop on my guitar. Oh yeah, and my guitar is a Takamine FD-360 SC (2000 model) and I’m very happy with it, especially considering what it costs to get a comparable Taylor or Martin.

Worst post ever…

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Tonight was Oscar night and it was relatively boring. I remember, in years past, really enjoying the show and the personalities, but this year was basically a bore. My one strong feeling is a negative one: Sean Penn was robbed. Having seen Training Day, A Beautiful Mind and I Am Sam, I can say that I feel Sean Penn did a far better job in I Am Sam than Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe did in their respective movies. Not to say that the latter two guys did a bad job, they just didn’t do as phenomenal job as Sean Penn did. I spent two hours fully believing that he was disabled and really wanted custody of his daughter again. That’s enough about The Academy.

I’ve been informed that the first half of last night’s set is already on CD, so I am now only awaiting the second half to be completed. Once I have it, I hope to rip it to MP3 and post it on the web somewhere, so people can download it and say “How could I allow myself to miss such an incredible show?” or “Man, that recording brings back some great memories…” or “Eh.” Anyway, hopefully it’ll be up soon. I have a copy of my “performance” of Trippin’ Billies and I think the recorded sound quality is great, but as for my ability to cover the song, I could’ve done better, but it’s too late for that now. I’m just glad I had such a good time. And I, as is Chris, am grateful for all of the encouragement I received after the show; that made it all worthwhile.

I have a guitar lesson at eleven this morning, so I should get some sleep. Three days till the lot of us goes to see E.T. on the silver screen. That will be a truly memorable experience for me as E.T. was the first movie I ever saw in the theatre. I can’t wait.

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Wow, what an action-packed day. I was out till five o�clock last night, first playing basketball, then watching a movie. We played ball till about three, then a friend and I watched the movie Pi till about five. Basketball was fun, very evenly matched and an all around good time. There was little bickering and much camaraderie, and that made it enjoyable (and also competitive, which is a necessity).

Pi was pretty interesting, to say the least. First off, it�s an independent film, so it�s difficult to know what to expect. It turns out that the storyline revolves around a mathematical genius trying to find a number that can be used to describe seemingly random occurrences in the universe. His focus was the stock market. Essentially, he was looking for a constant that could be used, presumably in conjunction with an equation, to predict market activity. Of course, people knew about his research and he was therefore being bombarded by offers of sponsorship, bribery and trickery.

Ultimately, though, I think the movie was more about the man than about what he was researching. He eventually went insane because he was obsessed with discovering (or perhaps describing) this number that could be used to explain the universe. The director did a phenomenal job of relaying the torture that he went through because of physical ailments and self-inflicted, stress-induced illnesses. Holistically, I�d say it was a good movie. Not much fun to watch though.

Tonight was �the night� and everything pretty much went off as planned with our show. Here is a list of things I learned throughout the ordeal:

1) Practice makes perfect. Lots of practice makes for a good show.
2) It�s difficult to improvise on the guitar when you can�t actually hear the guitar.
3) It�s good to wait and practice in private before going public with an alleged talent.
4) Murphy�s Law is real, especially when I wish it wasn�t.
5) I�m not an awful musician.
6) Sometimes, having fun is more important than getting everything to be perfect.
7) No one cares about my screw-ups as much as I do. Good friends are good to have.
9) The pentatonic and major scales are a life-saver in times of ignorance.
10) Sound equipment can be heavy.
11) I need to take my own bottle of water to my next show (assumptions pending).

I had a great time performing and I�d love to do it again sometime. I think this was the push I needed to convince myself that writing my own material isn�t totally unrealistic. I�ve written stuff in the past, but I scrapped it or abandoned it because I just didn�t think it was good enough. Because of tonight, I feel that I do have the ability to write and perform my own stuff and, what�s more, I�d like to give it a shot. A friend of mine ran sound and recorded the whole show for us, so I�ll hopefully have a copy soon. I got a chance to listen to one of the two songs I performed and I was actually pretty impressed. I honestly didn�t think I could pull it off. Sometimes it�s all right to prove myself wrong.

12) Occasionally, it�s necessary to prove oneself wrong.

So, I guess it�s time to get out the pen, paper and patience and begin slopping some creativity around. Who knows, maybe I�ll end up writing something that I and others will like. It�s time for me to continue developing my own style. I don�t want to be a Dave Matthews clone, nor do I want to be a Caedmon�s Call or Bebo Norman rip-off. I want to be Josh Doody�I want my own style, my own sound and my own music. This summer will be the time when I find out if it�s possible. I�ve already begun planning a musical renaissance, and it will begin with the taped guitar lessons I have. I�ve been taking lessons for a few months now and my instructor insists that I tape each lesson. Turns out that�s a great idea. I�ll probably have a lot of free time this summer and it seems realistic to set a goal of being a much better guitarist by the time I make the trip home from Dallas. Hopefully, I�ll stick to it and I�ll show up in Gainesville, ready to knock some socks off.

Man, I feel like I just spit some of the most boring, monotonous, self-righteous garbage on paper, but it felt good. I needed to recap for myself, so I can look back a few months down the road and decidedly say that this was the night when I resolved to take the next step, musically. This is my time capsule.

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Less than two days till my buddy, Chris Case, and I play our first (and probably last) show at the Oxford Coffee House. At first, I was sort of nervous, then I found out that the place will probably be packed out and I got even more nervous. But tonight, I realized that my best bet is to just try and have fun. We’re playing a pretty fun set and I think the crowd will probably be pretty upbeat, so as long as we play fun songs and goof off a bit, everything should be alright. I’ve decided I’m only going to cover two songs: Tripping Billies and Ants Marching, both by The Dave Matthews Band. Both are pretty upbeat and I’ve played them enough times that I shouldn’t have any problems with the temporary amnesia from which I tend to suffer when playing guitar in front of people. We’ll see, though.

I feel as though I’ve been neglecting my blog recently. My posts seem shallow and boring, and I’m aware of it, I just tend to update it at night and, recently, my nights have been spent hanging out and doing nothing. I suppose that’s pretty typical for Spring Semester after Spring Break, but I was hoping it wouldn’t be that way this year. Anyway, I’m going to try and pour a little more substance into my posts from now on, hopefully beginning this weekend. I want to be able to look back on more than “My day was alright.” and “That test was tough.” For now, though, I’m going to get some sleep. I have to get up at 11:30 tomorrow morning and that’ll be here in just under 8 hours.

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March Madness has begun. There are a lot of great ideas out there, but the whole �bracket� idea is one of the best ever. There are sixty-four teams in the tournament each year (I guess maybe some would argue there are 65 now with the wild-card spot) and if it weren�t for the brackets, I�d probably not give a rip for any except Florida. But, thanks to the bracket idea, I�m suddenly either rooting for or against each of the sixty-four teams. I was pretty excited today because UNC-Wilmington won. Did I even know that there was such a school as UNC-Wilmington a week ago? Nope. But all of a sudden, I�m rooting for them and I get a point for a first-round upset. And to think I didn�t care a lick about college hoops till I got to college.

Some say that each day brings something new. Today brought a pretty cool new thing for me�I was MC tonight at our Crusade meeting. I�ve always sort of wondered if it would be as fun as it looks or if I could pull it off and I�ve decided that the answer to each is �yes�: It is definitely as fun as it looks and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it (which qualifies as me �pulling it off� in my mind). I think one thing I enjoyed tonight was the pressure. It isn�t often that I�m actually in a pressure situation and, as long as I don�t have a guitar in my hands, I totally thrive on pressure. I can almost physically feel my brain kicking into a different gear, backup power supplies firing up, little mice-reserves being brought in, the whole deal. I sort of remembered back to last year when I was leading the Weekly Meeting Planning Team�for about an hour before each meeting, I was constantly being bombarded with last-minute requests, ideas, lack of punctuality, almost any hitch that could be thrown into the system was at some point or another. I loved every minute of it.

Anyway, I have another guitar lesson bright and early tomorrow morning (that translates to 10 am in slacker time), so I need to get some rest. Eight hours is out of the question now, so I�ll have to salvage what I can tonight and make up for missed time via napping tomorrow. I love naps.

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Nimble up, fingers, it�s time to get to tappin�. If my life were a pie-chart, it would be an apple pie. Besides that, one of the biggest slices would be electric-blue and labeled �Music�. I often forget how big a part of my life music actually is. I�ve been thinking lately about having an eclectic musical taste and how allowing myself to try and enjoy different kinds of music may have opened my mind to aspects of the world I couldn�t see before. Woah, backup a sec. This guy sounds like he�s talking about some kind of �mind-enhancing” drugs. Maybe I am. Maybe music is a mind-enhancing drug. I�m certainly addicted to it; it changes the way I think about things; I have and do pay for it; I encourage other people to try it; I�d sell it if I had my own; I sometimes brew small batches of it; I know the good stuff when I hear it; the bad stuff doesn�t do much for me. �maybe I�ve had a little too much of it tonight.

Regardless, that actually had nothing to do with my point. My point is that people smile for different reasons; I often smile because of music. People cry for different reasons; music has brought to tears on several occasions in the past. I smiled the other day as I drove around aimlessly listening to my new speakers, just because of how happy it made me to be able to tell the difference between a kick-drum and a tom. I drove around for about a year with blown, green speakers hanging out of my front doors, experiencing the flattest rendition of �music� ever known to man. I remember one day in eighth grade, I sat in out television production studio at school, alone, listening to Pachelbel�s Cannon in D, and bawling like a baby. I love movies, but I�ve never cried during one. I love basketball, but I rarely start smiling and feel an overwhelming sense of happiness as I play it (although, I do occasionally feel somewhat giddy after a particularly solid play).

To further exhaust a tired clich�, �there�s just something about music�. There really is. Maybe that something stems from the fact that God Himself created it, so that He could be glorified by and worshiped with it. Sometimes, I wonder if maybe Romans 1:20 & 21 isn�t alluding to music, at least partially:

For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead�

Currently downloading the music of: Sonny Rollins, George Clinton (Parliament), Eric Clapton, Boyz II Men, Az Yet and Dizzy Gillespie.

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Today’s exam wasn’t all that bad. I’m not sure if that was due to my level of preparation, or if the test was easy. That’ll all be in the numbers: average grade, standard deviation and whatnot. I’m thinking I did pretty well, which is unusual. Generally, after I’ve finished an exam in my typical Electrical Engineering (EE) courses, I feel like I bombed it and I’m hoping that there’s a chance I got the average score or so.

I had a guitar lesson this morning and it was a bit different: my instructor gave me a “work tape”, which is basically a tape with 90 minutes of stuff crammed onto it that I’m supposed to work on for the next two weeks. I don’t know if I’m becoming a better guitarist, or a smarter guitarist, or if there’s even a difference, but I’m definately getting a much deeper understanding of the intrument. Only time will tell if I’m able to work my newfound knowledge into some sort of musical manifestation.

Nap time…

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