Tools of Tone

Okay, here we are. My first blog on my first website. Pretty exciting stuff. That's not to say this is my first blog. I have a couple others, if you care to take a look. My first blog,

http://writereflections.blogspot.com/2011/01/year-of-guitar.html follows me as I take a year of guitar lessons. I learned a lot but I haven't kept it up. My guitars surround me as I write, and I think about picking one up every day, but like so many other things I should do, I allow life to get in the way.

The other one is http://may2014ridingthemusic.blogspot.com. In that one, I have posted chapters of my book, The Guitarist. At this point those chapters are drafts. They resemble the book as it exists today, but many changes have occurred, and many more will follow. Check it out.

I want to start by thanking my young guitarist friend, Sean Ashe of the Chicago area, for the name of my contemporary fiction series, Tools of Tone. He used the term in a Facebook post and I totally stole it, as I told him I would. He's not yet widely known, but he will be. Trust me. Below, I've posted his first single, Hemisphere. His second single, Luminescence is also excellent, and he should have his first album out later this year. Don't worry, I'll keep you aprised.

My taste in music has evolved along with the times. There are very few styles of music that I don't like, but certainly, like anyone, I have a few. I won't dwell on those here as I love so much other music from old-school funk (Ohio Players, George Clinton, Average White Band), rock and classic rock (Foreigner, Sammy Hagar, Def Leppard) and lively jazz (David Sanborn, Brian Culbertson, Fatburger) to instrumental shredders (Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Steve Morse) and what I like to call "lyrical hard rock." I don't know if anyone else calls it that, but I'm talking about my main obsessions at the moment in terms of Mark Tremonti, (Alter Bridge, Tremonti), Myles Kennedy, (Alter Bridge, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators) Slash (of course) and Shinedown. There are so many more. A Foreigner song inspired The Guitarist with lyrics from other artists and bands informing many parts of the story.

I hope you'll help me along the way in this adventure of mine. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a song from Shinedown that specifically speaks to me.

As I figure out how this all works, I hope to have a link to playlists I listen to as I write. YouTube, Pandora, whatever new music I dig along the way. I'll admit to being addicted. I listen while I mow grass, clean the house, mess around on the computer, work on the computer.

Does music inspire you? What type inspires you? And what does it inspire you to do? Let me know at this address: maryo@writedogsrock. If that doesn't work, check out my Facebook page at Mary Ogden Fersner, Author. Like it, if you will, and leave me a comment. I look forward to hearing what you think of the blog, the site, and the music. Till next time, rock on!