Two sessions & some music adventures

02 july 2020

Accesory work

Romanian deadlifts (technically not deadlifts)

50 - 4 set of 10

One legged deadlifts

50*10 for each leg was quite awkward, I had to keep my other foot on the floor

20 - 2 sets of 10 - better

30 - 2 sets of 10 - even better

Felt good, I need to incorporate this exercize more.

04 july 2020

Felt like a long day. Had 50 something beans, once again boiled them for a second time for a third cup. I should stop doing that and instead brew my coffee differently (i.e. not hold it on the stove after I poured hot water in it).

"Tiny bench" press

Some warmup

112 - 5 sets of 8 - it's a volume PR. In june I was doing 100 - 5*8, so, you could say, I increased my result by 12 kilos. But it's obvisouly just my pecs catching up to my arms after a year of not benching.

Tried doing some JM presses with 60 kgs, but my time ran out and my right elbow didn't feel completely right on them. I remembered watching his recent interview with Dave Tate where he discussed how it's so easy to progress on it to a point of getting injured. Decided to be more careful with it.

Now, for more amateur music experience.

Changed strings on a guitar for the first time. My new strings - 

    Took me a while to figure everything out. They do sound different from default chinese strings. Really had to screw around a lot (literally) before I could get the action right. And I tried to get intonation right as well, did it somewhat ok. These new strings, even after I changed the action, are way more sensitive. After recording with them I figured they sounded a lot like a human voice, or a pipe. Perhaps it's in the settings, and in the fact that I sometimes press too hard on them.

    Did a jam with a really nice drum beat that I came up with (not invented obviously), kind of sounds like a carriage (i.e. like slower "galloping"). In fact, I enjoyed my playing so much I probably would've looked like I'm orgasming if anyone saw me. Recorded some rather basic rhythm guitar and played with distortion settings. Kind of liked it, but didn't have time to tweak it even more. Added a lead guitar - only used deafult TH3 amp simulator (with an overdive pedal) and Boogex amp sim. Check it out, I know it sucks a bit, but I liked it, and, most importantly, I did it all in about 20 minutes

google drive link

I called it "conga jam" because I used a conga in one of the beats, but it turned out a little too quiet. I really love the lead tone in it, it's kinda goofy and comedic.

Today, after my session, I tried recording more vocals for my song. 7/10 effort, 4/10 result. Rewriting lyrics means they don't fit with the melody as well. Some of them turned out ok. I did manage to hype myself up quite a lot. I think if I train hard my vocals can get close to the ones of Lars-Goran Petrov of Entombed. I think I have a similar tembre to his.

    There's another part in my song, which I initially wrote as a guitar solo, but it turned out too fast, because, basically, it's 6 bars of 8 triplets in each bar, even though the tempo is like 78. Today I tried recording a piano with my very cheap dynamic mic, didn't like it too much. Plugged a synth into my "guitar link" device (I should really buy a normal soundcard lol). Tried playing it, turned out to be about 1/10 quality. It's been ages since I played a piano and I hated it as a kid. Didn't like being forced, didn't like the teacher (she was saying a lot of nonsence that didn't really relate to music, but, tbh, I was a little prick back then, very annoying). Basically, don't force your kids to have hobbies. One thing I learned over the years is that kids do listen to you better if you at least try to explain something to them, cause I'm treating them like an equal instead of shutting them down and telling them to obey orders. I liek to keep things simple and straightforward, and concentrate at the task at hand.

    Played keyboards for a couple minutes, recorded a couple chords in g pentatonic, maybe I'll jam over them later.