Of course there were challenges during all this but I notice that when I choose to only focus on and talk about the advantages, I start to see more and more advantages and the challenges become much more navigable. There’s so much more but you get the picture. Through the lockdown I had the precious months necessary to review and tweak all the scores and prepare for these recordings. I should have about 4 albums of diverse orchestra music when I’m done with it all.
In May of 22 I will be going to Holland to record about 4 hours of my orchestra music with the Metropole Orchestra, and in August I will be in Finland recording with their symphony. I spent months preparing content for Patreon and launched a presence on the platform where exclusive content is uploaded, and where I do some exclusive Q&A’s.ġ0. I launched the “Alien Guitar Secrets” and “Under It All” series, and that was nice.ĩ. I had a lot less interruptions at the Harmony Hut. As the designer of the JEM and PIA, I receive a royalty and that was helpful when all tours were out and the royalties that artists receive for music these days has declined quite a bit.ħ. Through lockdowns guitar sales were way up, especially the new black ONYX PIA. These artists secured their dazzling artistry on Inviolate and I could not be happier with what they contributed.Ħ. I’m usually hovering over every musician and policing whatever they play, but in this case I ended up sending tracks to my band to put their parts and also some other outstanding musicians who contributed such as Dave Rosenthal, Vinny Colaiuta, Terry Bozzio, Henrik Linder, and Bryan Beller. Like many other musicians during lockdown, I started sharing files with others so they can put their parts down and send them back. Us musicians are a very resilient bunch of people and through this pandemic, we found ways to continue to co-create. Unfortunately I tore another tendon in my shoulder but I’m still able to play and this one might heal on its own. The surgery was last December (2020) and all is well with those issues.
The lockdown was perfect timing to get some much needed surgical work done on my shoulder and finger. I had to shelve it to complete Inviolate so I could get on tour, but I hope to finish it and have it out in 2022.Ĥ. The response was very encouraging, thank you. I was inspired to finally do this after I uploaded the solo acoustic/vocal version of “The Moon and I”. I used the time to record, and almost finish, a solo acoustic guitar/vocal record. I don’t believe I would have gotten to these tracks without the time lockdown provided.ģ. Check out “Candle Power”, “Knappsack” and most challenging “Teeth of the Hydra”. I used the downtime to work on some pretty challenging guitar techniques. Through the lockdown we spent more time together as a family and still do.
So I decided to write a list of 10 things that I have come to appreciate about this challenge.ġ. What I do to help myself get through the Covid challenges is to reflect on all the ways the pandemic has actually helped myself and my family. I hope you have all found some silver linings over this last year. I want to wish you all the happiest of holiday seasons and a prosperous 2022 and beyond beyond.