Wild Thing revisited, and other stuff

So, a lot's gone on since my last post.  I've been BUSY.  Let's see - my practice schedule is erratic, but I seem to be getting a fair bit out of it.  Recently I've focussed on power chords - I first took that course for it like 3 months ago, and promptly failed to use any of it, so didn't learn.  So, I'm back to struggling with Wild Thing - because it's a song I know and can do, so now I'm just doing it with different chords.  In some ways it feels like a step backwards, but it also feels like a huge step forwards.

So that's coming along, and is kind of cool.  What's REALLY cool, though, is I bought a telecaster kit guitar, and have started work on it.  Not very far yet, but I've cut the headstock and done a TON of sanding.  I had to wait like a month for the stain for it to come in the mail, but it finally got here this week - though I don't know when I'm going to get a chance to use it now.  So, I've been busy with that.  I've also started a community of guitar builders online - we're up to about 130 people or so, which is awesome.  We're pretty much all amateurs, like me, just trying to do builds, fixes, and upgrades on our own.

The community is the luthiers community on reddit

Here's my pictoral log of the build - there's not much here yet, but it will get bigger as I get further in the project

so yes - very exciting.  And a lot of fun!  But it's eaten up a lot of my spare time, and I have been thinking of my poor neglected blog, and wanting to get here, but finding myself too busy.  And now I have two blogs, plus a community to look out for.

Where does the time go?

So, here's me, barely practicing.  And not blogging.  I guess since this is supposed to be about my experiences learning guitar, and I'm barely practicing, there isn't much to write.

So, I barely touched my guitar for about a week.  A couple of days ago, I picked it up and played for about 10 minutes, got frustrated, and put it back down.  Since then, I've been forcing myself to pick it up and play, but it's a struggle.  Probably the real reason I'm blogging now is so I don't have to play.

I want to play.  Really.  I just don't want to suck.  My gal says I'm good - or did when she saw me play last.  But I listen to it, and my tempo's off, and my fingers don't do what I want them to, and there are muted strings, buzzing, and general grossness.

*sigh*

Well, I have to keep at it.  I really, really wish I'd started playing when I was, like, 15.  But, you know - if wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak.  Or something.

FYI, the new amp is awesome, I love it.  Just wish I could make cool sounds and songs come out of it.

Plugged back in

After my brief stint without an amp, I've gone ahead and replaced it with the Orange Crush PIX 20 LDX that I was looking at.  I kind of love the thing.  It's not too loud, it's got a boatload of effects, it's really nice. It's a very proper, british sounding amp.  Next time, I'll probably get something a little more bluesie, but right now, I couldn't be happier.

I'm getting back on track with Justin Guitar, which I'm pretty happy about.  I did the Power Chords lesson, and got a lot out of it - based on that, I'm learning the fretboard and lots of theory.  It's good stuff.  To me, that one little thing is the most important lesson I can walk away with - which frets are which notes, etc.  The power chords themselves are dead simple - it's one shape, and it can do ALL of them - there's, like, 11 of them.  And, I've been doing exercises - the finger gym and the picking exercise.

I've also picked up a few new songs I'm learning.  Not doing overly well with them, but learning.  Mr Jones by Counting Crows, and an old celtic song, Johnny Jump Up.

Still not getting as much chance to practice as I used to, but I'm at least sticking to daily practice, and doing as much as I can.

Unplugged

Well, hello, everyone reading my poor, neglected blog.  It's been a long time, but I'm still here, still learning, and still getting better.  Sort of.

There's lots of news in my world these days.  I gave my wife's brother his amp back - my intention was to go down to Steve's and pick up either an Orange Crush Pix 20 LDX, or a VOX DA-5.  However, both were out of stock, and I wanted to play some and pick the one that I liked best.  They have an Orange Crush in now, but no VOX.  I'm tempted to just go and buy the Orange, as I don't think it's a decision I'll regret, but it's a bit more money than I have saved at the moment.  It's also a bit more amp than I really need, but at the same time, it'll last me until they pry the guitar out of my cold, dead hands.

So, I'm without an amp, and back on the acoustic.  And honestly, I think it's a good thing, this switching back & forth.  I have a bit more fun on the electric, but the acoustic DOES make me a better player - I can't cheat to get something to sound right.  If I play it right, it sounds good, if I play it poorly, it sounds like sheer hell.

I'm also on (as of today) to songs that feature F in a major way - specifically, Counting Crows Mr Jones. Awesome song, but F is everywhere in it.  Which is good - I need the practice in transitioning to/from F in a song - it's much harder in a song than it is doing an exercise like the 1 minute changes.

Also, I'm trying to get back on course with doing proper exercises.  Not so much with the 1 minute changes - after I managed to make F work with 1 minute changes in a decent way, I kind of abandoned it.  But, I've replaced it with something Justin calls the "finger gym", and also, a picking exercise for picking individual strings.  The picking one is a little boring, but I know it's necessary, but the finger gym - oooh, that one hurts.  I can't even get through the whole thing before my hand starts to hurt.  At that point, I stop so I don't injure myself.  It's a pretty hurtie exercise, but is good for getting your fingers to work independently.  Also for finger strength.  Hopefully it's worth it.

Anyway, I've not been improving with the break-neck speed of when I first started - but that's to be expected.  I guess most people plateau, and get discouraged.  I'm not discouraged, however I AM having trouble finding the time to get in a practice.  I'm trying to do things to inspire myself, though - we just recently got a guitar rack for the electric - one of the wall hanging ones.  So my electric's out for all the world to see now, and I can't sit on the couch without my eye being drawn to it.  It makes me want to practice, which is awesome - but it's also making me want to practice on IT, and, without an amp, it's not going to happen.

So, that's the state of my world.  Things are good, still learning and improving, though more slowly now.  Added more exercises to my routine, but ignoring some older ones which I shouldn't.  I'll probably get back to those once I learn some new chords, and really need the one-minute-changes.

Also, I'm really chomping at the bit to learn scales - I haven't learned any yet, but the minor pentatonic scale is up soon.  It's the Blues scale, so I'm very excited.  Hopefully one day soon, I'll start to learn how music...  works...  the theory, which I know absolutely nothing about.  I think that's it for now - but I'm going to try to update here more often (though I'm not sure if that will actually happen).

Still working on F

F is slowly killing me.  But I'm getting it.  I can do a fairly decent change now from C to F, finally, so there's progress.  I'm working on some new songs, and trying to work on the hardest ones I can.  That C-F change?  My latest song does that change, like, 5 times in a row, then switches it up a bit, and back to C-F for a bit.

My practice schedule - I briefly got it back on track, and then dropped it to do nothing but changes from C to F, and back.  I'll do just that change for, like, 20 minutes or so, then switch up to a couple of exercises.  So I'm still practicing, and working it out.  And it seems to be progress - slow, agonizing progress.  But moving forward, slowly though it may be.

I think I'm working towards cresting the F hurdle, though.  Apparently it's a rite of passage - it's also a work in progress, for me.

F... I'm getting it.

So, I have a bunch of random stuff to report.

F sucks.  Starting to do the 1 minute changes.  Yes, just starting - the last few weeks have been completely insane.  Starting to calm down now - those two really stressful things?  One is behind me, the other I'm in the process of.  Hopefully I'll be able to get back on track shortly.

So, I'm way behind in practice.  I have been just playing (not doing any exercises, just playing "music", for certain values of music) for about 20 minutes, and that's generally all I can manage.  I need to get back on track with a practice routing that includes EXERCISES.  The problem is they are no fun.

I did a full practice today - including my exercises (the finger exercises, as well as the 1 minute changes and basic chord practice), so, that's good, I guess.


I *finally* figured out what I've been doing wrong with F - I needed to choke-up on it a bit, so my barre is starting at my first knuckle, instead of ending with my fingertip.  With my fingertip, the B string falls in a crack of a knuckle, and ends up muted, but this way, everything sounds great.  And I'm starting to be able to do it semi-quickly.  I've noticed improvement even since last night.

So, going better than it was, and seeing improvement again, instead of just hanging on.

Back from the dead

So, it's been a few weeks.  I've been stressed and running around like an idiot.

Of the 5 most stressful things a person can do, I'm currently in the middle of two of them, so my free time has taken a bit of a dive.  But I digress...

I've been working on F, trying to make a decent one I can just hit.  Not making much progress on that front - mostly because my practice routine has gone in the toilet.  I'm practicing once per day, if I'm lucky.  I would like to get it back to twice per day, but I don't know at what point that will happen.  So, I can pull an F, but I can't switch to/from it - I need to start doing 1 minute changes that are F based, but haven't had time to really get into it.

On another front, though, I found that I can do the finger-picking Robyn left me with at our last jam session, and miraculously, I have made progress on that front.  Don't know how - without practice - but I'll take it.

Anyways, the rest of my day awaits - I'll try to say more next week.  And hopefully things will start to calm down in the next week or so, though it's entirely possible that the opposite will happen.

Jammin... and I saw my Holy Grail of a guitar

So, my friend Robyn came over on Saturday, and we talked music and had a bit of a jam session.  It was fun!  And I learned a lot.  My fingers still hurt, though - we played for a long time.  It was on the electric this time, so it wasn't so bad, but man - still hurts.

She left me some notes on some blues progressions - there's the same chord progressions that Justin is teaching, which she had something similar/identical to, but, more interestingly, she also had the lead guitar part to it as well.  I was looking at that yesterday, and going through it, and actually doing pretty well.  My first swing I got confused - it's the same exact pattern, for a very, very long time, but at certain points it goes up or down a string.  I didn't notice this at first, and was thinking "man, it doesn't sound as cool when I do it - I wonder why....".  Then I had a eureka moment and figured it out, and everything made sense.  That was really cool.

Apparently my swing/shuffle is just about right, too.  The twangie problem seems to be a few things - the new strings, the acoustic itself (it sounds much cooler on the electric), and not a problem with my technique, as such.  And Robyn seemed to think my rhythm had improved tremendously, which is good - that seems to be something I was struggling with.  She also talked a lot about theory, which made my head spin - she knows a lot, and I had a pretty terrible experience with a music teacher in the dim distant past, so didn't care about or remember anything, so I think my eyes may have glazed over as she talked waaaaay above my level.  Anyways, it was really good, and I learned a lot.  I'm looking forward to life-type things slowing down a bit so I can schedule something like that on a regular basis.

So, Friday...  I found myself in downtown Toronto, and ended up dropping by Steve's Music Store.  Mostly, I was looking at amps - my guitar is great, and my amp is great, but the guitar is mine, and with the amp, I'm living on borrowed time.  My gal's brother may want it back at any time - though I suspect I've got it for at least another 6 months.  Anyways, I was looking.  And, since I was there, I couldn't help but look at guitars, as well.

Gibson 1959 Les Paul Reissue with '59 Burstbuckers in the Iced Tea finish.  Actually, they didn't have the 59, they had the 58, but close enough.  I was in awe at it's sheer awesome.  Of course, I don't deserve anything remotely approaching that quality of guitar, and won't for probably another 10 years, but it was nice to look at.  Besides, I love my guitar, and it will be quite some time until I outgrow it - if I ever do.  Still, it was nice to look & drool.

Note:  Why the '59 Les Paul?  Lots of reasons.  Les Paul himself was pretty awesome.  Inventor / musician, he did a lot of cool stuff.  Musically he was less interesting to me - Country/Jazz, but he was really cool, and the story behind the Les Paul guitar is pretty funny.  Why the 59?  Two reasons - many, many people call the 59 Les Paul the pinnacle of the Les Paul style guitar, for looks, playability, and sound.  Secondly, it is what Jimmy Page used as his signature guitar, and the man is musically my hero.

Overall, I'm continuing to improve, and still having boat-loads of fun at it.  It's fantastic stress relief, too, which is a good thing.

12 Bar Blues\b\b\b\b\bCountry?

....the hell?

So, Justin's course - I'm at the Rhythm Guitar stage where I'm learning about the Blues Shuffle.  Awesome.  Basic 12 bar blues progressions.  Awesome.  Got three of them down - A, G & E (E has the B chord in it a couple of times - I don't know B yet, so I'm substituting D, and it sounds all right, but that's the only thing I'm fudging).

The problem is, it doesn't sound really bluesey...  It sownds laak aye play BOWTH kands a musac - Country AND Western.

DO NOT WANT

Hopefully it will sound better through the electric - it just sounds so...  so...  TWANGIE through the acoustic.  It is very much lacking in the awesome.  It could also be that I just replaced the strings - da gunk makes da funk, as I've been told, and these strings have zero gunk right now.

Anyways, I don't know what the problem there is, other than hearing it and thinking - wow, country.

In other news, Robyn and I are getting together and having a jam session this weekend.  Don't know where yet, but probably at my place, since we have AC and apparently hers is currently located underneath pigeon nesting facilities.  I guess she transcribed that finger picking stuff that we were doing last time, which is awesome - it sounds wicked awesome and cool.  Can't wait.

Inspiration comes from the damnedest places

I had started a big posting about how all of a sudden I can play stuff I couldn't 2 weeks ago - Knocking on Heaven's door, some Bob Marley (without butchering him), and make all this stuff sound good.  Then I made a discovery.  A shocking one.

I've had this vision in my head of wanting to go out on my fire escape, with an electric guitar, and play something...  haunting.  And beautiful  Something like, oh, I dunno - While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Then I saw this:



Now, I have a lot of opinions of popular music today.  Strong ones.  And while I would have said for years that a band made up entirely of felt puppets was packed with WAY more awesome-per-cubic-millimeter than a dozen Hanna Montana's, or Britteny Spears'...  To actually see this as part of my inspiration is a little shocking.  Especially since lots of my inspiration comes from Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker, to see that much of the rest of my inspiration comes from these guys (below, courtesy of icanhascheezburger.com) is a little bit of a jolt.

Another thing that happened was that I finally re-strung my acoustic.  And I made a merry mess of it.  It's a passable job, for the most part, with the exception of the low-E string.  That one, I won't be surprised if it comes loose & tries to take my eye out.  It was the first one I tried, and, well, I got it on...  but barely.  It's only wound about 1 1/2 times around the tuner - apparently you want it to go around the tuning peg at least twice.  It's a crappy job, but it will do...  Hopefully.

So, aside from this weirdo revelation, and re-stringing the guitar, things are going quite well.  I had the afore-mentioned revelation that I can play a lot more songs than I thought I could - I just needed to give them a try.

That said, it's not like I'm some kind of virtuoso or anything - I just found a few songs I can do now that I couldn't a couple of weeks ago.

Oh - and back to acoustic - and back to mutating fingers.  The strings on the acoustic are much harder to push around, and are already hurting my fingers again.  Give it a week and they will look all scalie and gross again.  Also, I'm finding that it's an interesting switch from acoustic to electric & back - I believe I have a wider neck in the acoustic, so, now that I'm all used to using the electric, I'm missing strings trying to hit some of my chords.  But the transition isn't that bad, other than the horror show my fingers are soon to become.

Footloose and fancy free

A lot has happened since my last post.  Let's see:

• Went to Long & MacQuade and picked up a guitar strap and gig bag for the electric, as well as some strings for the acoustic
• Picked up a restringing tool for the acoustic, which I forgot to get at L&M
• Started working on "Sitting at the dock of the bay" by Otis Redding - it's bar/change/bar/change/bar/change between chords I have trouble with (C and B7 specifically)

I haven't restrung my acoustic yet, I've just been too busy with life stuff.  So, I'm still with the electric.  I need to get to that soon, though.  But, that won't be tonight, or tomorrow morning - though may be tomorrow night.  I'm getting crazy busy at the moment, we will see.

I've been avoiding the 1 minute changes lately, which isn't a good thing.  I will be at my current stage for a few more weeks, I think, just getting quicker with changes and things.  I currently know about 15 chords - 

A, E, D, Am, Em, Dm, C, G, FM7, G7, C7, B7, A7, E7, D7

My main problem isn't necessarily keeping all those chords straight, or being able to do them, it's remembering them all, which ones I've practiced, and which ones I haven't.  And that's without even bothering to practice A, E, D, Am, Em, Dm - those ones I've got DOWN.  The rest of them are newish, and I'm getting them confused.  I think I'll be spending the next few weeks just on those ones.

There are some more Justin lessons that I can learn, like a few music theory courses, and other not-learning-new-chords-or-techniques lessons, or at least, no new chords until I get these down.  I think Rhythm lessons are ok, though.

Anyway, still pushing ahead, and doing well - though my practice schedule has taken a hit lately.  I missed a bunch on the weekend, but I'm planning on trying to get back on track again this week.

Wired For Sound

So, my gal's brother is awesome.  He used to play guitar, but hasn't for a few years, since he pranged his electric.  So, he had an amp lying around unused - until now.  He has given it to me as an extended loan - basically, it's mine until he buys a new guitar.

He gave me a Peavy Rage 158.  It's 15 Watts, which is just about right for me - though maybe a little big & loud for my purposes at the moment.  I put it on the Clean channel and it was pretty nice - though I noticed a few things about it, when compared to Robyn's Vox Pathfinder 15R.

• The Vox is quieter when nothing is going on with it - rather, the Peavy has a constant hum, with some constant snap, crackle and pop.  The Vox, by comparison, is dead silent until you strum - you wouldn't even know it's on.
• I notice the difference between my pickups a lot more on the Peavy - does this mean it's more sensitive?  The Rhythm pickup sounds a lot nicer and beefier.  I didn't notice so much on the Vox.
• The Peavy is a lot freaking louder - or seems to be.  Granted, I only had the one experience with the Vox, and I didn't fiddle with the volume, but with the Peavy, I turned it down to about 2 or 3 when I first turned it on, and then down again to between 1 & 2.  It seems to have a lot more muscle than the Vox.

I used it and my electric for practice today - and it was fun.  I think that's what I'll be doing until Thursday night.  I would rather stick with my acoustic, but the strings are deader than Elvis, so I'll stick with the electric until then - and then I'll go out to Long & McQuade and get a bunch of stuff.  Currently, I need:

• Strings for the acoustic (probably 2 sets)
• String replacement tool thing
• Guitar strap for the electric
• Gig bag for the electric

I don't think I'll need strings for the electric for quite some time, at this point.  But, since Robyn is all about the electric, I need a gig bag & strap for it for next time we jam.

As for play - I've started to learn "Sitting At The Dock Of The Bay".  It's a good one for me to learn - it's got a bunch of really hard chord changes, and some chords I can barely play, and it never stops making you change - it's "play-one-bar-then-change-then-play-one-bar-then-change-repeat".  So, it's like doing my 1 minute chord change exercise, but making music at the same time.  Plus, awesome song.

I...  was thinking a few weeks ago that I was starting to plateau.  I don't think that's the case any more.  I just think the stuff I'm learning is an order of magnitude harder now, and it takes me longer to assimilate a lesson and be able to use it effectively.  At least, that's what seems to be going on.  The chord changes are a lot harder, many involve all 4 fingers, and there are less "anchor fingers" at this point.  So, I don't think my progress is actually slowing down, although it does take me longer to complete a stage of Justin's course.  That, and I'm at a really weird place with his stuff - I'm mostly in stage 4, though I can do some stage 6 stuff (like the F chord).

Big Bad F: Who's laughing now?

So, I finally learned the last of the 7th chords - G7, C7, and B7 - I know there are others, but that was all for the one monster insane lesson on Justin's site.  1 lesson, 3 days.  But, I've got them, and can do them all - slowly.

F, on the other hand - I said a few weeks ago that I've been trying to do Bar-F.  It's a monster.  I was trying it every day for a week or so, and not getting very far - at least 3 of the strings would go PLUNK.  I stopped doing it for a week or two, and kind of ignored it.  I decided to give it a shot today, using some advice I read earlier on reddit (When doing bar chords, put down the non-bar fingers first, get them in place, then drop the bar), and strummed it, not expecting much.  It rang out beautifully.  Not a single string went plunk.  It was awesome.

Justin calls F a rite of passage - have I passed that hurdle?  That's unclear right now - I may try again tomorrow and hear PLUNK again.  But, it's a good sign - I tried it, and it sounded great & clear.  After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I tried again, and got it again - not quite as well, but close.  The second time I had a little fret buzz, so I wasn't holding the strings as tightly, but, it was still a recognizable chord.

TL;DR: I hit F so hard it gave me it's lunch money.  I feel awesome.

Wow - that's a hell of a thing

So, my friend Robyn came over on Saturday with her electric guitar & amp, and we hung out, talked music, and played.  I was all nervous about it, 'cause of the suckage.  Turns out, I had nothing to worry about.  Sure, she's way ahead of me, but that was to be expected - she's been playing for three times as long as me (so, not long enough to make me feel like an ass, but long enough to know a LOT more than I do, and show me lots of new things).  In case it's not clear yet, I got a whole lot out of it.  Let's see:

1. The strumming patterns I've been avoiding because they are an added complication when I'm just learning something complicated - I can totally do them.  My big problem was the up-strums sounding like a dying cat - fixed, with one of her picks (she uses soft picks, which makes it much, much easier)
2. We went through a basic blues progression.  Rather, she did, and took me along for the ride.  This introduced me to finger picking, scales, and blues progressions.  She's going to either transcribe them to tab to send me, or maybe just photocopy the page and give it to me next time I see her, which is awesome.
3. It taught me that I can teach her things, too - which I am totally stunned by.  Granted, what she learned from me was the song I learned last thursday, Wild Thing, which is totally dead simple, but the point is that I have things I can teach her...
4. My plan for Wild Thing is deeply flawed.  The reason I couldn't do the "wild thing, I think I love you" part is because The Troggs use things I don't know yet - bar chords - to switch between G & C so quickly.  Basically, they make a shape, strum a C, slide down the fretboard a bit with the exact same shape, and strum a G, then back again.  What I take from this:  Ignore that part until I learn bar chords.

Anyways, yesterday I was practicing Hey Ya with the more complicated up-strumming, and it sounded very different and totally awesome.  Sure, I won't be getting up on stage any time soon, but it sounded great, and I'm really happy - and I feel like I'm way ahead of where I was on Saturday morning.

A+++ would buy again.  I believe I see a regularly scheduled little jam session at some point in the not so distant future.

On a separate note, Justin is trying to kill me.  I decided to was time to move forward from C, so I checked out the first lesson of stage 4, and he teaches 3 chords in one lesson.  What the hell!  Every other chord lesson has been one chord per lesson.  I'm going to take 3 days to assimilate it, one chord at a time - today was G7, which is like a stretchy C (my most hated chord) - will this one be my new most hated?  Possibly.

Anyway, things are going REALLY well.  Just need to keep at it - but it' easy to now - I want to e practicing all the time, 'cause I can actually make something close to music now, for a few limited songs, at least.

Wild Thing, I think I love you

Not a whole lot new to report.  Decided to try a new song today - Wild Thing.  I can play it just fine, surprisingly - it sounds like music!

Yesterday, I had trouble with playing.  There was a perfect storm of crap - first, I had a few beers on Tuesday, so I wasn't really in the mood in the morning to play.  I did my exercises, but skipped songs/rhythm in the morning.  In the evening, I tried to play, but apparently had a I-can't-play-music-today day.  So, last night I was like "why am I doing this?  I'm getting worse....".  It was disheartening, and frustrating.

So, this morning, I did my exercises, and then decided "To HELL with these crappy songs that only kinda sorta sound like they are supposed to - I'm learning something new".  So, I watched Justin's Easy Songs For Stage 3 posting, and decided to learn Wild Thing.  And I said nay to the metronome, as well - I wanted to just play, and not be worried about details, as long as I got the broad strokes right.  And...  I did!  The verses, at least, I can do pretty easily.  They are dead simple, but awesome:

A-A--DD-E-E--DD   <==  Repeat this

Then, of course, there is the "Wild thing, I think I love you....  BUT I GOTTA KNOW FOR SURE!" bit - that's different.  Justin tells you what the correct way is, and but teaches you how to fake it.  I'm going to learn the real way, though it may take me a while to get it right.  It's pretty simple, but with a really hard chord change that needs to be done 4 times really, really fast.  It's:

GAGA

If it were G-A-G-A I might be ok, after a little practice, but it's not - it's GAGA.  My fingers don't move that fast...  yet.  I'm going to practice it this way, and take as much time as I need to get it right.  Sadly, G-A is not one of the 1 minute changes I've been practicing (though from today forward it will be).  I can do it, but there is currently too much of a pause between for it to work in the song.  I'll get there, but it may be a few days.

The real upshot here is that last night I was really disheartened, and thinking I was getting worse, and questioning myself.  Now, that's mostly gone away.  I played for a lot longer today than I had been (after the exercises), and really just enjoyed it.

As for my fingers, the mutations have... changed.  The weird scalie callous things have fallen off, which is good, (strings were getting caught under them, so I'd go to change chords and accidentally pluck a string - which was comical, but gross, and counter-productive) and my fingertips are becoming more tough and leather-like.  Have to update my character sheet with an armor class of 2 applied to my fingertips.

One of my friends wants to jam.  I think I mentioned it before - and how I'm skittish about it, since I suck so hard right now - I wanted to get better first.  Well, I'm doing it this weekend.  It'll be embarrassing, but I think it will help me.

Stupid C

My most hated chord of the week is C.  I have no problems making it, but going from something else to it, and back again, is a total pain in the butt.  Stretchiness doesn't bother me at all, it's just moving my fingers to the correct positions, and finding the strings.  *sigh*

I'm getting better all the time, though - I can kind-of-sort-of play Hey Ya now - but sllllooooowwww.....  My basic practice routine is:

• Finger exercises, going up the fret-board as far as I can - ~5 min
• Random chords - just pick a chord, make it, if I screw it up then fix it and do the strum-pluck-each-string-strum-again thing, but if I get it right, just move to the next - 5 min (sometimes 10, if I feel like it)
• 1 minute changes - ~6-7 minutes
• Play Hey-Ya at 80 bpm - 5 min
• Play Peggy Sue at 180 bpm - yes, that's right, at 2.5 times the tempo of Hey Ya - note that it does not contain the C chord - 5  min

All in all, it works out to about a half hour.

My fingers continue to mutate in weird ways - I had a hangie bit today that has been catching underneath strings for the past few days, so I cut it off.  Ungh.  Pretty gross.

And my strings - my poor, pitiful strings.  Yep, I suddenly realized yesterday that the guitar is sounding like crap - and it's the strings, not me.  I once heard someone say "the gunk makes the funk" in regards to strings - this appears to be a viscous pack of lies.  The gunk makes the instrument sound like crap.  I'll keep playing them for a week or two, then look at getting them replaced.

All in all, doing ok, but still hating C.  And I hate it enough that I'm not watching any new lessons, just going to wait until I can do C relatively easily, then move on.

Also, I feel like my progress is slowing down - I'm still moving forward, but starting to wonder if I'm going to plateau soon.

Busy week

My past week has been completely mental.  Haven't had time to blog, and I'm down to practicing only once per day, though I *have* made a point to keep up at that level, at least.  And, I'm hoping to get back to twice per day after today.

Stuff that's happened recently:  Friday, the electric guitar came.  It's awesome.  I just got it hooked up to my computer today to actually hear it for the first time, (I didn't have cables until last night, and didn't get a chance to check it) and everything seems to work.  The action was a little high, so I adjusted it a few times (at first I adjusted it way too low, and was getting fret buzz, and I've been fine tuning ever since).  So, that's a slice of fried gold.

Because my practice schedule has been pranged for the past week, I haven't really progressed that much.  Not struggling with C or G chords, but not doing changes between them very well, for a couple of reasons:

1. my fingers need training
2. I have to think before I make the chord - "hmmm...  G....  index finger there, middle finger there, and ring finger..  ungh...  there"

So, it may be a week or two until I can just do it, like I can with A, E, D, and the minor chords.  Shame, that, since my new song needs both of those chords.  I tried it today, at 60 bpm, and couldn't handle it.  :(  The new song is Hey Ya by Outkast.  G, C, D, A.  Has some weird strumming and some quick changes (D-A-G is 2-4 time instead of 4-4 time).  Anyways, I tried it without the weird strumming pattern, just trying to get the chord changes right, and it was less than pathetic.  But, it was my first swing at it - I'll try again in a couple of days, and hopefully I'll have improved somewhat in chord changes for G and C.

So, not much progress to report.  Working on the new song, getting better all the time at the ones I have, but can't seem to change between G, C, and other chords.  I can do a perfect G chord - no problem.  I can do a perfect C chord - no problem.  Change from one to any other chord and back - problem.  Just need practice, I guess.

Lots to report today

So, I had planned to wait until my electric guitar came in to make any report, but too much has happened.

Let's see...

My fingers have continued to mutate.  I'm starting to think guitar strings are radioactive, ala Peter Parker's spider.

Added the G chord today.  Didn't have any problems with it, but haven't really changed from it to anything else yet, just done it on it's own.

Also, my dirty little secret - I've been trying F.  Not a crappy half-ass F, mind you, but the big, bad, bar-chord F.  I know it, but can't play it yet.  Sure, if zombie nazis busted into our place and said I needed to play it or they would eat our brains, I could probably get out a strangled version of it, given enough time, but I can't play it yet.  It's not on the list for another couple of weeks, so I plan to try it a couple of times a day, every day, just to try to get used to making that shape, and hopefully make learning to actually play it easier.  And less frustrating, considering I won't be spending a week doing it and nothing but with no other progress.

Electric guitar in transit - it had a "exception" on Monday.  I have heard that "Exception" is FedEx code for "We dropped it and ran over it with a golf cart, and want to delay it for a bit until we can make it look less mangled".  I have no idea if that is true, but will find out tomorrow.  It was apparently only delayed by about an hour, so hopefully it's nothing.  The description said it was about paperwork, but if it were me, and I wanted to delay for a while to make it look less pranged, that's probably what I would say - "paperwork needed to be looked at(fix fix fix)".

And, the big news - I made music today.  I was getting sick of butchering Bob Marley, so I did a bunch of things - I switched songs to "Peggy Sue", watched Justin's video that details the strum pattern and wrote it down, and ramped up the metronome to 120 BPM - 30 BPM faster than I've ever played before.  Or, if you prefer, a 33% speed increase since last night.

The result was a slow, but easily recognizable, version of Peggy Sue.  Was it perfect?  No.  Would it get me booed off stage?  Probably, but not right away.  It was musical, and not terrible.  It was an awesome breakthrough.  I didn't think I could do it at that tempo, but lo and behold...

Again, there were some flubbed chord transitions, but for the most part it was pretty good.  I'm chalking this up in the "win" column.

Weekends, I am doing less than during the week

I still practice every day, but weekends I am only doing one session per day.  It looks like it may stay like that, too.  But perhaps that's not a bad thing - just what my practice schedule is.

Well, I've finally broken the 60 chord change per minute barrier - E-D.  Yay!  And D-min is coming along - I still flub it a fair bit, but I'm getting better at finding the strings.

Now for the weird - since I started, my fingertips have felt... weird.  Like I'm growing callouses beneath a layer of healthy skin.  I was happy about this, because I need the callouses to play, and having some nice healthy skin growing over top means it doesn't really affect my life in any other way.  It was like a hidden superpower - go-go-gadget GUITAR-FINGERS!  This was the case until this morning.  Callouses broke the surface, and my fingertips are flaky and weird looking now.  I'm a little shocked that this change occurred overnight - it's freaky to think that your body can change like that in 24 hours.

I'm also making friends with the Metronome.  He basically tells me that my sense of rhythm really sucks.  :(  I'll start playing, and be fine for the first few bars, do some chord changes, then suddenly notice that, while I'm on the right chord, my timing is waaaay off.  Like, by a whole tick of the metronome.  My gal was helping me stay on track over the weekend - it was really great.  She'd touch my arm when I needed to strum - which was really helpful.  And this morning, I went through it myself, and was a lot more aware of the metronome, and keeping in better time with it.  Had to correct myself a few times, but didn't get totally out of sync with it like I was on Saturday.

So, progress.  My playing is getting better, though it still sounds pretty far from "music".  I am slowly approaching that point, though.  I made it through 3 little birds 3 times (so, I guess, the entire song) this morning without any glaring stupidity.  Flubbed the first strum of some of the chords a few times, but that's as bad as it got.  That was at 90 strums per minute.  Hope to get up to 120/minute at some point in the next month.  I think I'm gonna just start adding 5 bpm per day, and see how I do.

Back on schedule, and doing well

Getting better with my chord changes, and quicker at... well...  everything.  Still at 6 chords, which I think is what I had last time, but I'm doing much better at them and changing between them.  Except D minor.  D minor is currently my nemesis.  It's not the stretching across 3 frets - that's really, really not the problem.  It's hitting the right strings with the right fingers.

Again, it comes down to muscle memory.  All the other chords, I use my index finger to anchor on the third string, and maybe adjust somewhat - A, E, and D I just leave it there, Amin and Emin I use it to anchor my other fingers, and adjust after my other fingers are in place (Emin, I anchor, put the other fingers in place, and lift the index finger, where Amin I do an E chord, then move my entire hand down one string).  This doesn't work with Dmin, where my index finger needs to be on the first string.  It totally screws me up.  But I'm getting better - I can switch from Emin to Dmin 25 times in a minute, which isn't so bad.  Not as good as my D-E, though - which I can do almost once per second - 59 times per minute.  I was freaking MAD when I missed it by one freaking chord.  But there's always later tonight, or tomorrow - I'll get there.

I can probably move on to more chords (next set include G and C), but I think I'm going to hold off for a week, so I can improve with the ones I have.  Especially Dmin.  I did this last time, and found that, while it slows me down in immediate progress, I seem to just be able to DO stuff better.  The first 3 chords I learned, I don't really need to think about now - I can just do them.  I want these last 3 to be the same before I move on - at least somewhat like that.  Again, I don't expect to be awesome immediately, I don't care how quickly I progress, as long as I progress.  Besides - I know 6 chords now, which is at least 2 more than the Ramones, and they've been playing for upwards of 3 decades!  I've only been learning for 3 weeks!  Better watch out, Clapton - I'm coming for you!

And, I just bought my first electric guitar.  Should probably be waiting for it, but the dollar is at par, and I bought it from the states through rondo music.  It should be interesting.  Got a bottom-of-the-line Agile AL 2000.  People quite like them, and compare them to high end Epiphone.  The better ones typically get compared to Gibson, and usually quite favorably.  Should be here in a week or two.  I expect that when it comes, I'll probably check it out, make sure nothing is wrong with it, then stick it in a corner, at least until I have conquered the F chord.  I want to continue learning on the acoustic, as that will make me a better player.

Learning, learning, learning

So, there's good news & bad news:

Good news is that I have 6 chords I know now.  A, E, D, Amin, Emin, Dmin.  One of the exercises Jusin says to do is to switch between chords as many times as you can per minute - so far, I haven't done any of that with the minor chords, though that starts tomorrow.

My speed between A, E, and D hasn't increased at all since last time, but they seem to be getting smoother - a little less PLUNKing.  And on 3 little birds, it's quicker and with less of a Herculean effort.  I'm finding myself watching my strumming hand more than my fret hand, to make sure I hit/miss the correct strings with each chord.  I think that means my fret hand is mostly doing the right thing - ish.

No new songs - I tried out Peggy Sue yesterday, and it was a disaster.  It has a really quick tempo, and totally screwed me up.  I'll try it again in a few days, and hopefully I can get it sorted.

The bad news is that I have missed a few practice sessions - last night's and the night before.  Feel bad about that - I'm really trying, and am practicing every day, and I feel guilty when I miss a practice session.  I'm probably going to be missing another one tonight, too, since we're leaving town for the afternoon to visit my family.  I shouldn't kick myself for that too hard, since I *am* still practicing every day.

Almost bought my electric guitar yesterday - the site I'm going to buy it from had a B-stock item with a minor finish flaw.  Wasn't the guitar I wanted, it was, like, 4 steps up from the one I wanted.  Same price as the one I was looking at.  I probably should have just bought it, but I let it slide.  I think I'm going to keep watch for B-stock items, and if something like that one comes up in the next few weeks, I'll get it, and if not, if I start worrying about the dollar dropping, I'll get the one I've had my eye on.

Improvement & Frustration

So, I've done the first course with this Justin guy, and I'm starting on his second .  I've learned 3 chords, A, E, and D, and how to transition between them.  I'm even making something approaching music.  It's far from a wonderful, beautiful, sound...  I generally hear a  PLUNK sound about 1 time in 4 when I go to strum, but I absolutely see improvement every day.

I guess at this point, I should start talking about me - that's what this whole blogging thing is about, no?  IT'S ALL ABOUT ME!

Anyways, if you're reading this, the big thing people are probably wondering about is why.  35 years old and just picking up the guitar for the first time?  Why in god's name would you do that to yourself?  Well, I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.  Actually, I've always wanted to be able to play - when I was a kid, there was this guy I used to hang out with, and he could play.  Not well, mind you - at least, not at first (he was learning) - but well enough to sit around a campfire with a bunch of guys, having some beers, and make pleasing enough music.  Always kind of envied him for that.  Richard Spearin - if you read this, you're part of the reason I'm taking up guitar.

Another thing I find appealing is that I think it's something I'll never stop learning.  There will always be new songs, and new techniques.

Finally, my gal.  When I told her I wanted to learn guitar, she said that was a great idea.  Before we put money into it, she asked me something very reasonable - would this birthday gift end up like the last one she gave me, at the bottom of a drawer, unused for a year...  To which, I gave her the only answer I could:  I didn't want it to, but couldn't guarantee that.  That question out of the way, she's been really supportive from minute one.  I practice twice a day:  Once in the morning after she goes to work, and once in the evening.  She sits and hears the terrible noises that come from the damn thing, and tells me that I'm improving, and encourages me - like she always does.

So, back to progress:
A, E, D - got 'em, can transition between them reasonably well.  Can do >30 transitions each, and from E - D I can get >40.

Songs: 3 Little Birds by Bob Marley.  Not well, mind you, but I can sorta kinda play it.

Fingers: Don't really hurt any more, though they feel...  DIFFERENT.  More sensitive?  They don't look much different, except maybe my index finger  - the fingerprint seems to be getting worn off.

Strings: Still in reasonably good shape.  Should be fine for another couple of weeks - maybe longer.  Yes, I find chunks of DNA on them.  Ick.  I'm reminded of the movie "Gataca".

Just learned the A Minor chord today.  Seems simple enough, except I have to move my index finger to a different string to do it.  That will make transitioning to different chords interesting.  So far, with the fingering I've learned, my index finger stays put (or slides up & down a chord), and the others all move.  This makes things a might more interesting.

Getting better.  Long way to go yet.  Keep looking at the electric guitar I want - and will be buying from the states eventually.  The Canadian dollar is at par with the US, and the site I'm buying from is in the states, so I'm watching our dollar like a hawk at the moment.  Part of me thinks I'm being stupid and jumping the gun by being so into this, especially at this early stage, but I can save a ton of money if I buy now, as opposed to 3 months from now, when the dollar could be back at $0.75.  That would add, like, $80 to the price of the guitar I want.  Then the whole "you've been doing this for 2 weeks now - what's your hurry??!?" thinking kicks in.

1 week in...

So, 1 week ago today, I got my very first Guitar.  At age 35 (well, 34 and 11/12, but who's counting?).

I'm starting with the free course available on JustinGuitar.com - I have no idea if his stuff is any good, but I'm certainly learning a fair bit from it.  And, if anyone out there in the blogosphere has a better free course I could be looking at, I'd love to hear about it.  I've got 3 chords down, (D, A, and E for those who care) and can transition between them in a semi-reasonable way.  I have to think about it, but I can do it.

I watch a course a day, and do the exercises in the morning before work, then again after I get home at night - it seems to be working for me at this point.  Probably spending an hour or so a day doing it - enough that my fingers are tender, but not hurting, all the time now.

"Easy songs for stage 1" is tomorrow - so, apparently, I've learned juuust enough of the fundamentals to be able to make something approaching "music".  That's good.  I think the cat is afraid when I play - it sounds somewhat like I'm beating one of her cousins with the instrument, rather than practicing.

One problem I'm having is that I'm right handed - and you have to do all the complicated stuff (at least, at this level) with your left.  I keep looking at my hand and telling it to be smarter - I'm seeing some progress, but not as much as I'd like.  And at some point, I will need to be able to do this stuff without looking down - just let my hand do it without being bent over like a crab.  Hopefully, this won't be a problem.

Tuner:  First I downloaded the Gibson L&M Guitar app for the iPhone - but it was kind of a pain in the ass.  I then found a really good one - TyroTuner.  Visual, simple, clear, concise - it's pretty awesome.  Highly recommended.

Fingers:  Tender.  They don't hurt, exactly, but I certainly know SOMETHING is going on with them.

Strings:  1 week in, so they're still in pretty good shape.  Although I did see a hunk of my skin on the e string today.  Ick.  Kleenex cleaned the string, but it's still got a bit of a squick factor.

Songs I can play:  None.  :(  Although apparently I have the chords for Johnny B Goode (with the exception of the opening solo - yeah, that's right, I can't do the cool part), so that's good.

Overall:  Pretty damn good.  I have a loooong way to go before I can sit around a fire and play a few songs for friends, but that will come in time.