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.