An uncomfortable night of gastric disturbances; twitches, cramps. Thankfully no stomach agony as my stomach was empty.
It took a while to get started but I've finalised the guitar solo for The Exploratory Farmer. The song is now relatively simple in structure, a 'sound scene', a verse with piano, then a sort of chorus but it's more of a louder verse, then a proper chorus in new chords, then a guitar solo like the piano solo at first, during which the second verse is sung.
The solo took many takes due to technical problems and learning to use the new amp. I played this one at sunset in a somewhat melancholy mood; perhaps, as with photography, there is a golden hour for music. I find playing piano or guitar at sunset has a unique feeling, perhaps this mood is what is considered sublime.
I'm still singing simple exercises each day. There is probably some progress, my throat feels like it has had a workout of sorts (but not my voice, which remains clear, so this is a positive sign), but it's hard to measure and I'm limiting myself to humming scales which is a bit tedious. I might try these simpler hums, trills, straw phonation on the more difficult high notes, and for warming up and down, while trying more general exercises and vowels on lower notes, so a new regime next week.
Monday is a good day for filming so tomorrow I'll plan for this.
There are new Covid restrictions as a new strain spreads across the south-east. These don't affect Christmas plans here as we were already more cautious than the official advice. I hear that about 350,000 people have had a first dose of the vaccine.
