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.