The Beat Laboratory

I'm sorry for the bad video, but Step Brothers is one of my favorite comedy movies ever.  And this clip is very appropriate (and the only version I could find), for we now have an official Office & Beat Laboratory.  That's right, Paul & I have converted our plain ol' boring extra bedroom / office into a state-of-the-art music studio! 

No, we haven't lost our minds (completely), so don't call the guys with the rubber truck yet.  Here's how it went down. 

Paul has always liked music that features the bass guitar.  Not just "turn up the bass" hard rock stuff.  He particularly likes eletronic genres called Chill and Trip Hop.  So, he decided he wanted to learn to play the bass.  It's something he's always wanted to do.  Why not, right?  I thought it was genius.  I told him I couldn't teach him anything about guitar, but I would teach him to read music & what I could about music theory.  He also has a friend who teaches guitar, so he could most likely fill in the blanks. 

All this talk of playing instruments started to make me jones for piano.  My dad used to teach piano and taught me to play as a kid, but it's been years since I played.  My piano still sits in my parents' basement, sad & dusty, storage boxes taking up the bench.  That thing is a monster.  Huge & enormously heavy.  The logistics of getting it out of there would make my head spin, and there is really no room for it in our house.  I decided an electronic keyboard might be in order.  We started doing some research, and one day I came home to this...

Paul had gone crazy at the local Guitar Center & bought me all of this...

And set it up in our office.  He added in his new bass guitar...

And amplifier...  (our neighbors must love us)

And we had the beginnings of what has become the Beat Lab...

Come on in!  Now those of you who know Paul know that he doesn't do anything half-assed.  He puts his soul (and pocketbook... haha) into his endeavors.  It's all or nothing.  So, we couldn't just have the instruments.  We had to get all the fixins too. 

So another evening, I came home to this awesomeness:

A mega multi-media computer setup so that we could search for music & such online during our jam sessions & Paul could play his instructional DVDs.  We also have movies & MP3s on it, so we can play along with tracks & try to figure out chords or timing for some of our favorite songs.  He even hid a wireless computer keyboard in the desk drawer (essentially making it a like a keyboard tray) since my musical keyboard was taking up the entire desk.  Clever.

Aside from the series of instructional videos for the bass, we now have lots of music, some of it new and some of it from my old days, accessories (for a sampling, see below), and fun!  We have lessons, practice, attempts at working out songs we like, some sort of playing almost every day.  I feel my piano is still rough, so we might not be great yet, but we enjoy ourselves.  And it is coming back to me a bit more each day.  And Paul is learning the bass really well.  I'm even picking up some bass instruction myself.  We'll be playing cheesy 80's weddings before you know it.  Like a SNL skit! 

In all seriousness, we're not aspiring to be professional musicians here.  We have careers.  It is simply very therapeutic after a long day to sit down & make a bit of music - together or alone, good or bad, rock or classical.  I have always firmly believed that music is good for the soul & the world in so many ways.  This experience is just renewing that belief.

 Subwoofer, of course...

This last item is a recording device.  It allows you to connect your computer to your instrument or microphone (God help us) and record your music.  It's awesome.  We haven't done much with it yet, but theoretically we can record multiple tracks & do some mixin'.  That's right, we're also becoming music producers!  Look out world, this could get crazazy!!!!

I have lots more to tell, so I'll have to continue to blog more about our new hobby in the near future.  Wish us luck.