The Creative Wonderlab in Auburn has an open house jam every last Sunday of the month. I’ve been attending for the past few, and I will continue to. It’s improvisational, it’s comfortable, it’s fun!

There’s a feeling that comes with mindfulness in sound and participating in its movement. There is contentment, and there’s some kind of bliss as extraneous thought vanishes. This past weekend I felt more than that though, I felt euphoria. It started while I was playing at home, making a demo. As I layered pieces together, using a workflow that I’ve been developing for 2 years, I started having a high! I actually checked myself, trying remember if I had taken anything earlier to do that. No, it was just feeling really really good.

Rolling on from that, I went to a little rehearsal at my accomplice’s place for a bit. We have a little backyard party gig next weekend that we are organizing for. He’s been pumping out original songs, and I’m learning the parts for them. He learns my songs too, and we play mostly our originals. We are recruiting other writers, players, and we’re just having some fun while we are at it. I’m picking the bass up again, and singing, with harmonica. I need practice! Later, I went up the hill to the Auburn jam, carrying my little high along with me.

Electric guitar is awesome. It’s obvious when you experience great players using it. When I went to a Jimi Hendrix based concert years ago, this was imprinted on me. I started a search for that goodness so that I could distribute it for myself. I feel like I have a hand on that now. A eureka moment hit me when improvising with my musical friends, Jenres, that helped me grasp it. TURN IT UP!

There’s a thing called gain on guitar amps, and volume, those two are pretty related. Anyway, with those turned up, the electric guitar has so much energy, it feels kind of alive. It is sensitive, it even gives feedback. It’s a delicate ride when you are holding such a thing. You have to be gentle, intentional, responsive, aware…

So I took this up to Auburn and had a great time exploring with it. I even tried a new trick where I switch out the guitar signal to my rig with a harmonica microphone. Oh boy does that feedback! But it sounds awesome when it’s balanced. I had the pleasure of sharing this harp setup with an experienced player who came and asked to play with it. She knew what she was doing and she made it sing!

Near when it was time for me to pack it in, a new player arrived and asked that I stay for one more jam to play with them. I had some time, so I obliged and got the guitar ready. Well, I’m glad I stayed! I turned it up, and the four or five or six of us played some jams that had such natural flows. I even stepped up for long guitar solos, and it was the best playing that I’ve ever done on electric.

It was euphoric.