Stringbender Music Studio

As my retirement date approaches, I have pretty much finished the work on my music studio.  This is where I plan on giving lessons for guitar, bass, dobro, banjo and pedal steel guitar.  Thanks to my son, Kevin,  the room is insulated very well and will maintain a comfortable temperature in both the winter and summer.  Here's a photo of the interior.

 

The room is equipped with instruments, amplifiers, chairs/stools, tablature, computerized rhythm tracks and accessories such as cords, music stands, picks, tuners, etc, etc.  Another important item for any teacher is the dry-erase white board!  One wall is complete with this amenity as shown below.

What is that above the whiteboards you ask?  Well, being an old school engineer, I worked my way through a college degree using a slide rule for quick calculations.  As my teacher, Bennie Tschoerner, used to say, "A slide rule is highly reliable. It doesn't need batteries; it doesn't break if you drop it and it's faster than an electronic calculator." (And don't make any irrational bets about this with Tschoerner!) I've seen him win the bet with several calculator wielding freshmen!  Now I won't be using this slide rule in music classes, but it might be helpful in explaining the ratio between semitones in the twelve note scale of western music!

Holiday CD Project

Another holiday season has rolled around and I'm at it again. I guess the banjo instrumental CD will have to wait.
As I was looking over my music collection a couple of weeks ago, I realized that I've done a fair amount of studio recording in my 55 years. (Yes, I turned 55 this month.) I didn't start playing an instrument until I was around seven or eight, but I saw my first recording studio when I was twenty. I played steel and high-strung guitar on Bois d'Arc Bottom Band's first 45 RPM record in 1977. In 1980 I got to record in the famous Nashville studio, Bradley's Barn, as part of Jeff Newman's E9th steel guitar class.
So, I decided to take some cuts from various sessions and put them on a CD. Why? Because I have first hand experience at being a grandson who treasures the few recordings left behind by his grandfather. Maybe someday my descendents will be interested in playing music and possibly be inspired by this small amount of audio I've left behind.
As you can see from the preliminary CD cover design, there are twelve different sessions indicated. I've picked from one to three songs from each session for this CD. There were other recording sessions over the years, but most of those were Gospel music and I wanted to first document the Country music sessions. The quality of the recordings range from...well...what you would expect from ripping from 45RPMs and cassette tapes to modern CD quality. Debbie helped me produce this work and we both enjoyed listening to these cuts and reminiscing. I had only recorded in maybe three studios before we married, so she's been right there supporting me since then. We both hope you enjoy it!
Boyd and Debbie