OK, maybe I can. Point is, I may need 'em. My guitar teacher sent me an odd email this morning. He asked if I'd ever tried to sing "Can't Buy Me Love" by The Beatles. I replied that indeed I have sung along with that song, as I am a Beatles fan and enjoy that one. His reply? He's planning on recording it and wants to know if I want to do vocals.
Whoa...hold the train.
As you may have noticed in the link above, he has a tendency, when he says "record," to mean, "store digitally and upload to YouTube." (The piece he is playing, "Time Odyssey," is his original composition I saw him play live with a band - a rhythm guitarist, bassist and drummer. It is terrific.)
Now it's interesting enough that he wants my voice recorded for posterity. But video?! And he knows what I sound and look like. While neither is anything to write home about, of the two, my voice is definitely prettier than my looks. Let's just say I don't shop in the skinny side of the store, and it has been explained to me that due to my rather generous size, I don't have the same clothing options as most of the world.
So what's a body to do? I love to sing, but to be recorded? And maybe put out on YouTube? I won't even put my picture on any of my (numerous) blogs due to the ostracism I get from friend and foe for my looks.
So naturally I said yes.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Geekdom v2.0
I finally see some progress in guitar. I've learned a couple of really nice blues riffs that allow me to improvise, and I'm learning a song by George Harrison - one of my all-time favorite artists!
I've noticed some major differences between music (at least the amateur side of it) and my previous obsession: magic. First, there are canonical methods for learning music. With guitar, for example, you start by learning a few basic (open) chords, then you learn some scales - usually starting with pentatonic, but that probably varies by teacher. You then practice various scales, including chromatic scales just to learn how things sound up and down the neck of the guitar. Then you start putting things together, and learning how rhythm and melody fit into the mix.
In magic there really aren't any such methods, with a couple of exceptions. Mostly it's haphazard: learn a trick here, a couple more there, get a business card, turn pro. :-)
Other differences are in the attitudes of the people I've run across. Magicians seem to be a whole lot of broken social misfits. And yes, if you're asking, I include myself squarely in the "broken social misfit" camp, if no longer in the magical one. Musicians, on the other hand, seem to be mostly more easygoing, with fewer neuroses. I'm not sure if it's the whole "soothes the savage breast" thing, or if music just attracts a different sort of person. In other words, I'm not sure if it's a cause or an effect.
Then again, before taking any of this too seriously, please look at the very top of this page and keep the blog title in mind.
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P.S.
Welcome to new reader and old friend Eve. Our email exchanges have been fun.
******************************************
P.P.S.
To paraphrase Paul's mother in Dune, it's interesting that I hold up a general garment and some claim it's cut to their fit.
I've noticed some major differences between music (at least the amateur side of it) and my previous obsession: magic. First, there are canonical methods for learning music. With guitar, for example, you start by learning a few basic (open) chords, then you learn some scales - usually starting with pentatonic, but that probably varies by teacher. You then practice various scales, including chromatic scales just to learn how things sound up and down the neck of the guitar. Then you start putting things together, and learning how rhythm and melody fit into the mix.
In magic there really aren't any such methods, with a couple of exceptions. Mostly it's haphazard: learn a trick here, a couple more there, get a business card, turn pro. :-)
Other differences are in the attitudes of the people I've run across. Magicians seem to be a whole lot of broken social misfits. And yes, if you're asking, I include myself squarely in the "broken social misfit" camp, if no longer in the magical one. Musicians, on the other hand, seem to be mostly more easygoing, with fewer neuroses. I'm not sure if it's the whole "soothes the savage breast" thing, or if music just attracts a different sort of person. In other words, I'm not sure if it's a cause or an effect.
Then again, before taking any of this too seriously, please look at the very top of this page and keep the blog title in mind.
******************************************
P.S.
Welcome to new reader and old friend Eve. Our email exchanges have been fun.
******************************************
P.P.S.
To paraphrase Paul's mother in Dune, it's interesting that I hold up a general garment and some claim it's cut to their fit.