So I'm starting to feel blindsided by our gig coming up on Friday. Hard to Handle has turned into the bane of my existence. We did this song over the winter and I never was 100% comfortable with the solo. There's something strange where I feel like it's too many notes. I went through it painstakenly at the time and I wasn't throwing in any extra notes. Since I'm taking all of the solos now, I had to learn the second solo. I have the pieces down and link them together with my own phrases, but it's still not something I can nail consistently. The speed is right at the point of where I can play cleanly. Of course Mike O. makes it all look so easy :-).

Then, as I'm packing up my gear for the night, I realized I need to get some solo ideas for Honky Tonk Women since I'll be doing that one too!! Crap!! There I figured out a framework to improvise in, so it should be OK. I did that for Long Train Running and it worked out OK.

Ugh, I wish I had another week!

To keep myself calm, the way I'm looking at it is like a figure skating competition (not a huge fan, but I've seen enough :-), you know, where they will have a triple jump in their routine, but they play it safe and make it a double or a single or skip it all together. I just need to come up with what a single or double jump would be for my solo.

I don't like feeling unprepared...

I still have time, but not as much as I'd like. I may surprise myself tonight at rehearsal...it could happen. I'm doubtful though because everything with this song has been a struggle for me.