Clapton Need Not Worry

Guess what?  John says my rhythm isn't as bad as I think--I just need to practice the one-TWO-three-FOUR count a little more.  I pointed out that not all songs go like that and he agreed but said it was handy when playing with someone else.  Okay.  I'll go with that.

I took the electric guitar with me this week and it was a lot of fun.  After he listened to me play Smoke on the Water, Iron Man and the "hip" chords with hammer-ons (from which the rhythm discussion ensued), I asked him which kind of chords to use with Hotel California and he told me what I had already figured out.  The musician needs to know how to make each chord in all its different forms in order for the song to flow.  Makes sense to me.  Fortunately, I'm not starting from scratch.  Unfortunately, it'll be a while before I master it.

This week's lesson is Cream's Sunshine of Your Love.  It doesn't seem too hard so far, but I'll admit I've only practiced a couple of nights.

Wednesday night I went to writers group at the Barnes & Noble in West Ashley.  Man, what a fun group that is.  Most of the time.  One of the great things about it is the leader, David Moulton, is a singer/songwriter and sometimes he brings his guitar to sing us one his songs.  Lately, a musician friend of his has been coming and bringing his guitar and that's what happened this week.  He sang us two of his songs and along with the lyrics, I was interested in his guitar playing technique.  He finger-picked, which is something I want to learn, and he wore three (or four?) finger picks on his right hand. 

I was not in the right seat to see very well, but it's cool to watch someone do this.  I still don't get it though.  I think I need to study my theory more in order to figure out which strings to pick to make it sound good.  Oh!  And then I have to remember what I just did, when I do make something sound decent, eh?  Hahaha!!

Anyway, I'm making progress.  I hope to get together with my nephew, Conner, sometime and see what I can learn from him.  Just having more than a half hour at a time to play with someone would be helpful. 

In the meantime, Eric Clapton's job and reputation are safe.  Hahaha!!

Old fingers, new tricks

Just when frustration takes over and I think, there's no way I can do this, my fingers surprise me and stretch--or stay put--or whatever I ask them to do in practice.  This week it's bar (or barre) chords.

On Monday, I was excited to show off my "hip chord" skills to John so, of course, he added a "hammer-on" to the mix.  Oh, and my rhythm still stinks, by the way, so instead of his being able to play along with me (or the other way around) he's just going to have to listen to what I came up with.  Thank goodness he's got a great sense of humor and is not a stickler for perfection.  He even comes up with spontaneous riffs for me to work on.  The least I can do is practice diligently.

Which is what I've been doing.  We're working on the E based bar chord this week and he pulled out the Proud Mary riff for me.  Hahaha!!  And how come I can do it in his studio, but when I get home, it sounds like a four-year old banging on the strings?  (Still laughing at myself.)

I posted my frustration on Facebook and pleaded for advice from all those musician "friends" I have out there.  The one response I got was from Mike C., a Marshall friend who was one of my original inspirations to play guitar in the first place.  He recommended that I switch from the acoustic to the electric, and bar chords might get easier.  I did, and they have.  Thanks, Mike!    

So anyway, the first problem I had was keeping my E fingers in the E formation as I worked my way up the neck.  'Course the major problem was keeping my #1 finger across the strings.  Very little in life comes easily.  Ta-a-a-ke a deep breath.  Try again. 

I worked out some drills for myself--do some scales using just the bar with #1, and then do them with the chord.  Put them together and I'm getting better. Not nearly perfect, or even good, but better.  Now my complaint is there's not enough room for both the 3 and 4 fingers inside the 12th fret.  And I don't have fat little fingers.  In fact, my fingers are about the only non-chubby parts of me.  Whatever.  I'll keep working on it. 

Yesterday I found a book I bought at Barnes & Noble . . . God only knows when . . . called Total Guitar by Terry Burrows (1998, Carlton Books Limited) whose author notes on the dust jacket flap include the following:  "He is an eclectic musician responsible for over 40 commercial releases since the mid-1980's, in a bewildering variety of styles and guises."  I looked it over when I brought it home, but there was so much I didn't understand.  I checked it out yesterday and it was like a light bulb went off over my head.  Oh-h-h, now I get it. 

And I'm looking forward to my lesson next week when I walk in with my electric guitar.  I mean, John teaches me on his electric.  My favorite music to listen to comes from electric guitars.  Why haven't I taken it before now?  Eh, (shrug) who knows?

Look out, John, here I come!

A Big Oops and "Hip" Chords

No wonder my rhythm is so bad.  Apparently I can't count.  Even though my last post was titled "Lesson Number Three," it was actually lesson number two.  It was post number three.  I'll try to keep better count of which is which from now on.  Oy.

It normally takes me a day or two to digest my lesson before I blog about it and this week is no exception.  I am late however, because of the Super Bowl.  Well . . . a Super Bowl party and the way I felt on Monday morning--d'oh!  I would not have been the optimum student on Monday and John was gracious enough to reschedule me for Wednesday.  Thanks, dude.

I got a little frustrated during practice last week, which is not the point of taking these lessons.  My fingers stretched out nicely but I started stressing about little things like not resting my fingers on the pick guard while strumming the two-string songs and trying to control my fingers better on Smoke on the Water.  When I voiced my concerns, John settled me down and didn't make a big deal of either issue. 

I also needed to work on my chord changes.  Now, keep in mind I learned these chords back in the Dark Ages (i.e. before Van Halen) and the popular music in Huntington, West Virginia during that time was what one would call "Country Rock" or "Southern Rock."  Some of the bands I'm talking about were Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, early Eagles, 38 Special, Charlie Daniels--you get the picture.  I learned to make basic chords with traditional fingering.  So when John said he would show me the "hip" way to make C, G and E minor, I was all for it!

A self-taught guitarist learns to make chord changes the fastest way they can, and I'm sure there are others who have done a better job of it than I ever did.  I was already making a G, in certain circumstances, using my 2, 3 and 4 fingers, so I guess John figured I could handle what he was getting ready to show me.  Starting with the G in that configuration, move finger 2 to the 5th string for C, and use finger 1 on the same string in the fret above for E minor.

What a revelation!  This has made all the difference, especially the change between C and G.  I mean, I finally got the fluidity I've needed between the intro and the verses of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.  Wheeeeee . . . ! E minor has never been a big deal to me, but even that's easier in songs like Violent Femmes' Blister in the Sun and Green Day's Good Riddance.

For this week's neck work I have Black Sabbath's Iron Man riff, which I'm doing all right with, though I still have to work on that visual problem I had last week.  John also gave me chords for the Eagles' Hotel California, for which (so far) I'm finding traditional fingering might be the best.  We'll see about that.  My brother-in-law is supposed to be working on this song too, but I just may be able to pass him up if I work hard enough.

I'm psyched again--no more stress!  This is supposed to be fun and that's what it's gonna be. 

Last Friday the North Mississippi All Stars opened up for Robert Plant and his Band of Joy at the Performing Arts Center.  Man, the NMAS rock the blues and I'm not kiddin'!  For being just one guitar and a drummer onstage, their sound was amazing. 

I was prepared to hear the more folksy, country sound of Robert Plant and Band of Joy, so I wasn't as surprised as some people seemed to be.  Plant's signature voice hasn't lost a step. His  harmonies with Patty Griffin and the rest of the band were rich and full, and Buddy Miller's guitar work seemed effortless as he switched from rock to country, folk to bluegrass to gospel.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss more songs from Plant's solo career as well as Zeppelin, but this incarnation presented an opportunity I'm glad I didn't miss.

A Busy Week and Lesson Number Three

B-Dub

It's been a busy week which promises to stay that way, rain or no rain.  Monday is guitar lesson day and I got a late start for Mount Pleasant, but I made it on time.  More about that later.

Tuesday I cooked.  Yeah, I know that's generally Jeff's thing, but I like to cook sometimes and I'd been craving lasagna.  Being on Weight Watchers I wanted to make a healthy version and figure out the "points" so I could know what I was eating and how to count it.  I even made the lasagna noodles from scratch.  It was a lot of fun and it turned out great, but it pretty much took all day.

Wednesday, B-Dub had the first injection of his heartworm treatment and he was sick all morning.  So of course I had to worry all day.  By afternoon he was feeling better but I've been advised to keep him drugged and inactive.  That's not going over very well.  Yesterday the drugs did their job, but by this morning he's metabolizing them faster and he's looking at me like, "Okay.  Let's go.  What the heck?  Why aren't we out in the neighborhood by now?!  I've got scents to sniff, for crying out loud--let's go!!!"  I'm not sure I'm going to survive three weeks of this.

So today I'm finally getting a chance to write about my lesson.  I must've done okay on last week's practice 'cause we didn't linger over it.  John first showed me some blues and I was thrilled.  Wow!  I can really do this!  I mean, it's still only A, D and E, but it's definitely a basic blues riff.  Yeah, I'm grinnin'.

Next he started talking about music theory--half steps and whole steps--and when I told him I'd had some piano lessons as a kid, he was pleased.  Now I just need to translate the keyboard to the fretboard.  And I'm making progress.  The riff is the intro of Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water and I've seen little kids do it at a couple of Conner's recitals.  Gosh, I wish I could figure out a way to do a drawing here.  At this point, let's suffice it to say my old fingers don't want to go that way.  Hahaha!!

At first it was physically painful; wrist twisting, finger stretching, hand cramping pain.  But as with all stretching, eventually it happens.  Now, I'm not saying I'm all the way there yet, but I can tell I will get there if I don't give up.  I told Jeff I thought I was gonna have to split practice into two, thirty minute sessions, but I haven't had time for that, and it was probably a good thing I didn't.

Monday night I had a devil of a time.  My problem was I visually kept track of the wrong finger.  I should have been watching the position of my number one finger (the index finger) but instead tracked the number three finger (the ring finger) because that was the one being stretched to its limits and I had a hard time getting and keeping it on the correct string.  Oy!  That visual really threw me off, but being a technician instead of a musician my brain needed some way to make the connection.

Tuesday night, after spending all day in the kitchen, I was bone tired.  On the other hand, I was also exhilarated because Jeff loved the lasagna and it was fun making the noodles.  So instead of blowing off guitar practice, I ignored my back pain and did it.  I didn't feel like I made any progress, but I guess I did, even though it must have been incremental.

Last night, I could tell I was moving forward.  My fingers stretched out enough for me to realize I could pick them up to move them up and down the neck instead of sliding them, which wasn't working so well.  And I didn't have to press the strings so hard.  Definitely encouraging and I'm looking forward to today's practice.

I'm learning so much and I'm having a ball.  Sheesh!  What was I waiting for?  Thanks again to Conner and Joe for one of the greatest Christmas presents ever!  Not that I'm gonna stop at one month, but I just needed that push to get me started.

Oh!  One more thing, on Sunday night I changed the strings on the Fender, which I've been using for lessons.  Hahaha!!!  It's been a lot of years since I changed strings and I knew, at the very least, I'd wound one side incorrectly.  John, in his kindness, confirmed that error, and went on to show me the other mistakes I'd made.  Thankfully those mistakes haven't rendered the guitar unplayable, but I'll probably have a professional do it next time.

Stay tuned!