Guitar progress

I'm moving along on learning guitar. I've learned that the experts are right: playing an electric is easier than playing an acoustic. Also, if you set the distortion to "kill" then it's hard for anyone to tell if you've hit a wrong note. :)

I can play some of the dreaded barre chords now, and along with some pentatonic and ionian scales I'm actually learning a song.

My recommendation? Don't wait until you're forty-mumble to learn to play guitar.

For those of you who might need a laugh

As I had posted previously, one of my guitar teachers gave me an assignment to write a song. Because I'm a masochist at heart (and in various other organs) I've decided to post the lyrics.

The song was inspired by my niece. I had just returned from watching her graduate from high school.

So here, without further ado, is "Rebecca's Song":

[Verse]
I rem-em-ber you
When you were just two
And we got to-ge-ther at Grand-ma's pla-ce

I rem-em-ber when
You had just turned ten
And you smiled around that stick-y ice cream fa-ce

[Refrain]
Look at her she is all grown now
Ready to be out on her own now
No longer just a cute young girl now
A fine young woman here to take on the world

[Verse]
And then at fif-teen
Has it on-ly been
Thir-ty six short months since I saw you la-st?

How the time goes by
And some-times I cry
When I re-a-lize good-byes come so fa-st

[Bridge]
You were al-ways there
I was al-ways here
Kept a-part by miles
Swept a-part by years
But I don't have to be stand-ing near you
Be-cause my heart can al-ways he-ar you

[Refrain]
Look at her she is all grown now
Ready to be out on her own now
No longer just a cute young girl now
A fine young woman here to take on the world

Well, I did it...

...I wrote my song.














And in the tradition of most first songs, it sucks.

...or maybe I *will* be the next Boyce and/or Hart

So my next assignment, from one of my two guitar teachers, is to (you guessed it) write a song. I now know just enough musical theory to be thoroughly dangerous.

I'm going to get a little help. I plan on buying a program called Guitar Pro that will help me play my composition as it develops. I may even pen some lyrics. If I get brave and adventuresome I could possibly even post a midi where people could listen.

Oh, btw, the lesson is to make the verses sort of sad and the chorus "epic". I'm thinking "All By Myself" meets "Bohemian Rhapsody." With a bridge reminiscent of a portion of "Toccata and Fugue In D Minor." Except in C.

Katie Barre The Door

I have hit my first major guitar stumbling block: barre chords. I've got fairly small (and apparently fairly weak) hands, and they just don't want to stretch to those positions just yet.

My instructor gave me my first song to learn last week - Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone" - and one of the first chords in that sucker is an F#m, which is (you guessed it) a barre chord. It opens with an A, which was new but not too difficult, then an E, which I already knew, then our unpleasant little friend. I've twisted the guitar and my body and my hands, all so far to no avail.

So how to get past this dilemma? I'm thinking ukulele.

The Not Ready For Prime Time Player

The guitar practice is moving along nicely. I made a big jump last night, for no apparent reason. Suddenly I could transition between chords fairly well, when just the night before it was quite the chore.

On a completely different note, I took an ITIL certification class and test at work. I passed the test, which means that I'm officially ITIL v3 certified.

I can tell by the thunderous silence how much this means to everyone.

Proto-folkie?

I'm measuring my guitar ability by the number of chords I know compared to standard musical styles. When I knew three chords I was a punk. Now that I know five I'm pre-folk. I'm getting pretty close to knowing all the open chords. (Let's not be mistaken here: I'm using "knowing" in an academic sense. I don't "know" these chords in the sense of being able to reproduce them in anything resembling music.)

Next week I plan on tackling this song.

Me and David Gates

Those of you who read my blog with any regularity (both of you) know that I love music. You may even know that one of my regrets is that I never learned to play an instrument.

Well, my friends, I shall eliminate one item from my regret list. This past Sunday, at the urging of my wonderful wife, I bought an acoustic guitar. I've also signed up for lessons.

Given my age and that I've never played before, I know I won't be giving Jimmy Page or Bert Jansch a run for their money, but one hopes that, with some time and struggles, I'll soon be able to scratch out a couple of semi-recognizable tunes.