Horses and Harmonics

Souvenir guitar from
Virginia Beach

John introduced me to the pentatonic scale--Gm and A (or is it Am?) to be specific.  This takes a good deal of coordination just to play it as in "scale exercises," nevermind trying to improvise a lead phrase of my own.  So one night during practice, my husband asks, "What's  that you're playing?  It sounds like 'My Girl.'"  Yes, that's right.  The Temptations song from 1964.  I was like, "What?"  I couldn't think of anything I'd practiced that sounded like "My Girl."  I kept trying to hear it, but as far as I could tell, it wasn't there.  I asked John about it at my next lesson and he showed me the phrase I was listening for.  Okay, maybe I could see how they were related.  And now I can play it for my husband.  He's my biggest supporter.  (:grin:)

I continued (and continue) to practice "Funk 49" and scales.  Then John added in harmonics and the galloping horse sound, as in the beginning of Heart's "Barracuda."  Admit it, you can hear it in your head right now!  He was pleased that I even knew what he meant by "harmonics" and I think he's been pleased with my execution of them, but the galloping horse sound was a bit more difficult for me to master.

Now, I know all you real guitar players out there are probably laughing out loud at my clumsiness, and I felt like an idiot trying to get my small, heavy pick to do this.  I thought, Hmm . . . maybe I need a more flexible pick.  I looked through my pick dish and found a nice, medium Fender pick that I've had forever and  -- voila! -- there it was!  Yea!  John told me I'd have to use one pick or the other, though.  I couldn't be changing picks out to suit the song.  I'm back to a heavy pick, but it's larger than the original one.  Hahaha!!  You should've seen the look on his face when I reached into my pocket for the other pick. 

The next stop on the harmonics train was the first few bars of "Roundabout" by Yes.  It's mostly recognizable when I play it and I'm proud of the harmonics work but, as usual, my rhythm execution leaves much to be desired. (sigh)

We all know what the musician says when asked how to get to Carnegie Hall . . .

Next up:  New chords, "Purple Haze" and "Melissa."