Much progress was made over the past two days on the new tune. Here is a rough idea of the song so far (without melody.) It is pretty much the 4/3/4/2 idea that I had before, but the bridge is in 4, not 6. I am working on a melody, but it is not there yet. I have just one note in mind. Kinda trying to build around that idea.

The other progress was made with the MIDI synth thing that I have been working on.

The first part of this was to create a *preamp* that could boost the signal of my bass so that the Arduino can process it. I have managed to create such a preamp. Here is a video of the preamp. (Note the nice little LED action!) The next part of this will be to take the voltage that is currently driving the speaker and try and sample the frequency and use that to trigger a midi signal. It should be doable. I have several examples of triggering MIDI. The real trick is going to be getting a little Arduino to sense the frequency (quickly). I have seen a video (see my last post) that seems to indicate that this is something that can be done. I guess we will see.

In other news, I did hear back from back from the folks that run the clinic, and it appears that there will be 3 other bassists there so far. That is just about the ratio that I was hoping for. I do hope that some drummers show up. Otherwise, it will be kinda lame. They are sending out tunes from the Pat Metheny Song Book for us to review before the clinic. In my case, it will be my second copy of the Pat Metheny Song Book, but hopefully I will get a signature on this one!

I noticed in a post from a bass player acquaintance of mine from way back that he was traveling with his bass. I asked him if he was carrying on his bass for his trips, and he said that "it's not even doable post-9/11". I was hoping to carry on my fender jazz on my trip to CT, but it now looks like it might be more likely that I will be shipping my Modulus to the resort instead. Kind of a bummer, but It should make the trip a bit more comfortable anyway.

At any rate, that is the update for now.

Happy Mothers Day!