Darn snow!

Darn snow! Not only was practice yesterday canceled but the show tomorrow's been postponed. I can't get a car out and get there anyway, and we weren't really ready, but it would have been fun to play for people again. This is the first time I've missed a lesson anywhere since I started playing last January. And the only time I've missed anything with Rhythm Fire since i started there. I really miss it. Yeah, i could play at home, but the snow has me feeling restless and the kids and Spouse are here.

New Toy

I got a new toy! :-))
I didn't like the way the metal pedal sounded at all, i couldn't adjust it low enough for me. So I bought this, and i like it, it's just enough distortion for me right now.
Practice today was interesting, a lot of messing around. Three and a half hours of it. Some playing, some discussing stuff, some trying new things. No one really feels ready for this show but with some careful rearranging of the setlist we can probly pull it off. I still don't know if we'll play "Love Removal Machine" and we may very-well not play "Streets" so it may be a lot of the older stuff.
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Extra rehersal tomorrow

We have an extra rehearsal Saturday, A was asking the drummer if he was available and they were trying to figure out where they could practice, and The Rhythm Fire guys said we could use the school on Saturday and gave us a key. So we'll have free reign of the equipment for practice w/o instructors. Kinda cool. Last practice they were moving songs on and off the playlist that we hadn't done in weeks and saying they didn't think we were ready to play "Love Removal Machine" yet. I *want* that song. I can't believe it when I hear myself saying I'm ready for it.

I practiced this morning after the kids left with the headphones out and the amp turned up, trying to move around a bit while i play. Messed up Love Removal Machine doing that, i need to hold still and concentrate for that one. But it was nice and loud, and no one griped, and there's just something magical about hearing it and not being able to tell your guitar from the recording. :-))

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Not nervous

I'm not all nervous this time. Feeling so much more confidant. They did put Heartbreaker back on the setlist and I'm not thrilled, it still intimidates me. We're playing somewhere else this time and the kids can't come :-( But there might be more grownups that we don't know. I hear they have a really cool stage though. I talked to D the other day about the upcoming show and he was all "Do you hear yourself?...a year ago you thought you'd never learn how to play it, now hear yourself!".

Yes D I do, and i can hear you being proud of me clear through the phoneline. Just wait til you watch me do the fast part at the end of the Cult song...you'll really be proud.

I love learning like this!

It just works out well for me... we only had the three beginners and the teachers last night so we skipped the lesson-y part and just went straight downstairs to play. Two hours downstairs with the drumset and the big amps! It was fun :-)
Figured out different parts for each of us on Squeezebox and worked on Love Removal Machine quite a bit. Still not up to speed on So What, but it was fun slow too. We still need to work on the riff a bunch more, that was almost comical, but we've got 4 weeks till the next show.

This week:

I basically just played two songs that I don't know from a hole-in-the-wall! One we'd worked on just once and the other I was given the chords downstairs ("oh, it's easy") and the band just launched into it and we just went for it. I'd never even heard it before. We played it about halfway through and then it was decided we needed to make a better distinction between the verses and chorus so we changed the strumming pattern for the verses and launched it again. And it worked! D was majorly impressed when I told him about it.

I'm enjoying the crap out of learning this way, it's just so cool to learn a part and then toss it all together, modify your part, and roll with it. And we tried my idea for the main riff in the Pink song, it's played 6 times at the beginning and there's no way all of us are going to get it spot-on at the same time. So I suggested we try it with each of us playing it once, solo, and then passing it to the next person. Three guitars trading off the riff across the stage would be cool. I think we can make it work too, the timing's off still, but we're not all up to speed on it yet and it's a hard one to get the rhythm right.

And here's the print I made as a gift for the school (made one for my mom too for Christmas). I printed an 8x10 and framed it and gave it to them along with the DVD's mom sent. Told them I just really appreciate being able to do this, that it means a lot to me. I made some 4x6 prints too for anyone in the group who wanted one. They thought the DVDs were cool.

New songs...

... I'm wrecking the crap outa my fingers on The Who's "Squeezebox" at full speed at the moment.... doing Cadd9 instead of straight C, I can't get there fast enough. Cadd9 sounds ok but i can't find a way to modulate it, not sure i need to, it's a short chord. Having trouble keeping the modulation or whatever it's called consistent on the rest right now. If i could count a beat it might help, i'm just memorizing it.
Spouse just came in and giggled at me because I'm tangled in wires with the guitar, the laptop and the headphones and he says my headphones are too loud. LOL My 8yo just made me a cup of tea and i can tell when i stop my fingers are going to sting. Unfortunately i have to be careful of my arm because of the breast cancer surgeries, it gets pissed off sometimes and can be a real bitch if I don't watch it. My Dr knows better than to tell me to stop, but I'm also not wearing the compression sleeve i'm supposed to wear when i practice :-( Stubborn redhead :eye roll:

Dreary raining day today but band practice tomorrow.

Band practice tomorrow! Never thought I'd hear myself saying that! :-)

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That was cool

We're starting a new term at Rhythm Fire, so new songs... we all wrote down some we'd like to learn and when they loaded the mp3 players and brought them upstairs for us we started breaking them down into rhythm parts we could learn. And it was really cool to watch the process. We messed around with those a bit and then someone wanted to practice making up solo stuff so I started playing my cool chord progression... and they made up different stuff to go with it, messed around with scales over the chords and then playing the chords in a different order to try and make a verse and chorus distinction. It was cool because it almost sounded like a real *song*. Cool to hear it come from three different guitars and sound like it might be something some day.

I did it!

This is me playing lead on "Free Fallin" with Rhythm Fire on 10-30-2008



I got "Heartbreaker" figured out, played what I could, faked the rest and didn't mess up my solo on "Free Fallin" too badly at all (the drummer went into the ending part so i stopped, and then the singers started again). But we looked good and it was fun and D and several friends from work came. And my Spouse, kids and mom all came (most of the audience was mine). I wasn't even really too nervous before we went on, we had set-up and sound checky things to be busy with and I just wandered onstage and off as I felt like i needed to to stay calm. D was very impressed with what I'd learned just since September and it felt really neat to play in front of people and finally feel like I can say "I play guitar".

My name's Mommy... and I play guitar! :-)
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2 days! (eep!)

Our first show is in two days and i had learned one part of "Heartbreaker" wrong so now i need to re-learn it. I'm practicing like a mad-woman. I'm getting it pared down to the parts that i can do, it's not going to be the whole song but i think I'll be able to hold my own. Spouse got me hooked all up with a beater laptop into the amp w/my guitar in the second input and the headphones on. I think he's grown tired of hearing the same song over and over. :-) The kids sing along to annoy me and the little one's getting pissed that he never gets to sing the whole thing because i keep starting over again. He's a pretty good singer though!
I'm gaining on it but i stopped tonight after i started messing up the intro. My fingers have just had it with the two-fret stretch on the power chords. And I've had some problems with my arm from over-working it. A few weeks ago it was all swollen and red the night after practice. At least my Dr. knows better than to tell me to stop playing... he said i have to wear the sleeve when i do though.
I'm getting nervous about the show now, i invited too many friends and didn't realize they'd all come out to support me.

Decoding

I'm trying to learn that one last song for the show. I had TAB but spent Sunday at work decoding it into finger shapes and positions so it made a bit more sense to me. This is what the studio at work looked like while I was working on it. That's TAB all over the counter and I'm decoding it into a Word document on the computer. I've been practicing the shapes, and moving them from position to position and it's starting to sound a bit like the song, but the song is SO fast! I'm meeting the other beginner guy at school early this week to work on it, I hope we can make some headway.

This is what it looks like decoded:
1/3 4/6 1 /3
Your love is like a tidal wave, spinning over my head,
1/3 6/8 4/6 1/3 3/5
drowning me in your promises, that are left unsaid.

The blue numbers are first/second string positions (power chords), the red ones are second/third string.

Eeep! First show is sooner than I thought!

I thought it wasn't till early December... and now I have three weeks to be ready! Our first show is Oct 30th, Eeep! I know three of the four songs my group is doing well enough to pull them off (and I get to play lead on "Free Fallin") but if i can't figure out how to fake my way through "Heartbreaker" I'll have to put my guitar down and move offstage for that one ::sigh:: I wish I could sing, i could just drift back and sing backup for that song.... but i know i cant sing, aint gonna try. And I want video but that involves inviting someone i know! LOL. Yeah I can give the camera to my buddy D or the Spouse and kids. I hope the Spouse will come! Oddly I feel weirder playing in front of him than my buddy D who actually *plays* guitar. I haven't even told D why he's saving that date for me, just that i need him to be somewhere for me and it makes me smile that he'll do it w/o question. This last week we worked on song endings, and i worked with the drummer a bit on the beginning of "Free Fallin". I'm solo for two measures before he comes in with the high hat and it's hard for me to keep it even. Much easier once he starts, and then harder again when the vocals come in because they're still a bit unsure and they tend to slow down. Then the drummer and I compensate and it sounds bad, we need to keep going and ignore them but it's hard. I have to stay focused on the drummer and try not to hear the other guitars because B does a bit of solo stuff and distracts me and because I'm lead and my guitar is up front in the sound i need to not get distracted.

I'm playing.... with a *BAND*!! OMG!

Free Fallin

Since I was the one who requested we try "Free Fallin" I got to lead this week when we played it. That meant I got to start it and set the tempo and go solo for the first few measures until everyone else jumped in. I was nervous but I got it off the ground ok and it was fun to play the lead for a change. Especially since I mostly blew "Some Kind Of Wonderful" because I didn't have my chords sheet and couldn't hear the vocals. We did really rock on "Keep On Rockin in the Free World" though. We got the timing down a little better and the chord on the turn-around figured out.

Woo-hoo!

They agreed to a years worth of trade! So now I have to write a proposal and everything. Basically there's no money in it for my sales manager so I'm the Account Exec for it. I wonder if they *buy* ads later if I get the commission!

I could quit lessons with Tyler if i need to when/if Spouse does retraining/school and still be able to play. I'm still doing Tyler because I learn different stuff there.

It's a fun group to learn and play with. I'm having a marvelous time at the jams even if all I'm doing is rhythm and i still get a little lost at times :-) Last night we started with a Blues Jam and i picked it up the second time around and then we played "Rockin in the Free World" and i got most of it.

I think the fun thing about that guitar class (besides the jam at the end of the evening)! :-) is that there are other people who can help you figure out which fingers to use and where, to make the switch to the next chord easier and it's all laid back and people who play, helping other people who play. We have a guy who leads the beginner class but if we go off on a tangent working on something he just kind of steers us along and lets us go. We started in on "Free Falling" and i only know it with a capo so we did a quick chat on capos and what they do and the people who didn't have a capo figured out what the real chords were and one of the other guys helped me figure out the slightly tricky part that I couldn't figure out from the chords I had (It's actually just a simple pinkie finger move) and then we just kinda jammed on that main riff for a while and one of the other guys did the solo part and then the other guy made up some solo stuff (we're learning how easy it is to make up a solo within a rhythm part if you know the chords they're using) (basically any notes within that notes' scale sound ok) and i just kept going with the rhythm part, the teacher picked up a bass and made up a bass line and we just rolled with it.

It's cool to be able to play along because even though I only know the basic parts it sounds ok because the other people fill in the hard parts.. and my full open chords fill out the other guys (thinner sounding) barre chords. I'm learning who to watch for timing, and how to switch to someone else if they go off on a "solo" mode. And learning that in a blues shuffle I need to ignore the drummers on the turn-around because if I don't I *will* get lost.

Something new

So work and I are talking about maybe doing a trade with these guys... for some more guitar lessons for me. I went last week for a trial lesson and it was cool to be able to play with other people. I was obviously less experienced than the other guys in the beginner group but i managed to learn enough to play along. They spend an hour or more working on something and then go downstairs and everyone plays together. It's a good deal for the price (two hours a week for $120/mo) so I'm hoping we can do a trade so I can go back. I didn't stay for the jam session this time, partly because I didn't think i could do it well enough and partly because it was already after 9 and i needed to get home.

He,He,He (giggle of delight)

Last week when The Boy had pep band practice I decided to sit out in my van and practice guitar instead of listening to the practice (the sheer noise gets a bit overwhelming). What i was supposed to be practicing didn't hold my attention long at all and I got bored with what I was doing, so I texted D that i was bored with the chord progression i was doing and he texted me back "Am C D F Am C E". I said my F's sucked but for him I'd try.
It sounded like it might be something I'd heard before. I asked if when i could get the F on the first strum 75% of the time would he tell me what it was. And... I'm happy to report... i figured it out myself! :-) It's "House of the Rising Sun" which isn't usually strummed, it's fingerpicked, but I can work on that, it doesn't sound too bad strummed slowly with the pick either. So, for pictures sake, here's one of me with the acoustic I have access to at work.

Barre chords

2 words...

bloody ouch!

The good news is the Eagles song i'm trying to play, i just figured out that if i slide the F chord down two frets it's G and i don't have to flip my fingers back to the barre to do F again, i just slide back up.

:-) do i get a gold star?

And Tyler cant figure out how i can hold both the 5th & 4th strings with one finger, but he says what the hell... if i can get it to ring it's all good.

::shrug:: I can't figure out how *he* gets his pinkie up onto the 4th

Something that sounds cool - for a reason!

So I have this series of chords that i made up that sound good together that i kept playing all weekend. And i took it in to Tyler today to ask why they sounded good and he drew it out on the chart for me.

Basically i had G (gbdgbg) D (dad) A7 (aegc#e) and Em (ebegbe).

He rearranged it to the key of D and on the chord progression chart D is the 1, Em is the 2, G is the 4 and A7 is the 5th. Apparently 2, 5 & 1 are a very popular jazz progression :-)

So there, I'm happy that i made something that sounded good and apparently sounded good for a reason. :-))

So here it is, mixed with the distortion guitar in a sorta spokenword/poem thingy i made with it.

Goofing off at work

:-) I've been bringing the guitar with me to work on Sundays too since I'm usually alone. Usually just pretending to play along, although there are some songs at the station that i can mangle adequately and play along with. So this is me last weekend, running around the station, voicetracking, running my show, goofing off online and playing guitar off and on. Notice i don't put the guitar down unless i have to now that i have straplocks. It's probably safer to wear it than lean it against the wall and risk bumping into it anyway. I need another stand at work, the one we do have is in the other room with the studio's acoustic on it. This week I'm supposed to be practicing "Hotel California" but I've mostly been goofing off with some Tom Petty tunes and the newest Eagles song, I don't like "Hotel California" :-)

test

Wee! Back to Lessons!

Back to real lessons with Tyler, we were playing with harmonics and i learned that for any given fingering of a note you can go over a string and down 5 frets and get the same note in a sometimes easier to reach place. D never did teach me any BFS while Tyler was on vacation but we did have some fun goofing off at his place after work Sunday and he wants me to show him "Tears In Heaven". That's kinda cool. It was fun to just trade the guitar back and forth showing each other shit. I really want to learn some BFS but it can wait til he's in the mood. So it's back to "Wish Upon a Star" and i need to learn how to add in the chords as i go. Means I have to learn some new chords. Oh, and I finished the song i was writing, it's dorky, and short, but I even added in a bass part and some flanger effects and i think it turned out pretty good considering i don't really know what I'm doing. And the first time I cut it I couldn't play it all the way through so i was trying to cut and paste in Cool Edit but in reality it took less time to just learn it and redo it. And it was stupid to have written something i couldn't play through anyway. The bass part is cut and paste though, because the bass is still in hiding and I didn't have much time with it when i got it out that day. Sean tried to sing it for me, and that didn't turn out too bad either, but we're still messing with it.

Rolling slow-down

I'm stuck, stagnant again.

Tyler is on vacation so i don't have lessons and although D said he'd teach me some BFS songs it hasn't happened yet. I'm messing around with BuckCherry's "Sorry", Disney's "When You Wish Upon a Star" (last lesson from Tyler) and the intro to Puddle of Mudd's "She Hates Me" but it's just messing around, there's no real satisfaction in it. I keep turning back to "Tears in Heaven" for the satisfaction of being able to actually play something recognizable. I want to tackle Nickelbacks' "Rockstar" but i need to figure out drop D tuning first. I think I'm just chicken to de-tune that far after breaking a string on the little ones acoustic while trying to re-tune a really out-of-tune guitar (twice). Anyway, i feel stuck again and i know it's just temporary but it still don't like how it feels. I wrote a corny song last weekend at work and i should work on the music part but i just can't get started yet.

Whee!

I can do it!! I can play "Tears In Heaven" albeit slowly, but I can play it! And I played as much as I had memorized for D (on his Les Paul mind you) and he was impressed! And I just can't stop smiling, that someone I care about impressing thinks I'm doing a good job. Wow, I sure needed that!

Some days I come home from guitar lesson thinking I'm getting nowhere...

like chord structure today...i just don't get it. I understand you can move one finger to change between Major, Minor and 7 versions of the same chord... but I have no frikken clue which finger, and he can explain it over and over and I don't get it. So we spent half an hour futzing with it and I still don't get it, except to see that when I do get it, it will be easier.

And it's just so frustrating, SO much to learn that is so foreign to me and i know that at some point it will click, because I've watched with delight as other things have suddenly clicked but today I just feel so stupid and frustrated and over my head.

It's still going slow

I can fumble my way through (and mangle) a few songs, including Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" and Matchbox Twenty's "How Far We've Come" Mostly stuff from TAB that was easy to memorize. It's still going slow. I can make the chords but my strumming is still awkward and not usually right. And Tyler tries to explain the weird chords like Cadd9 and Dsus5 to me and I just don't really get it. I'm stuck with first position open chords because I just cant remember anything else. He gave me "Stairway to Heaven" this week and all I can remember is a few 3-note runs out of it. The only good thing lately was this amp that I saw at the ham radio swapmeet that I showed to the Spouse and he offered to buy for me. And the really cool part of that was getting to hear my Spouse say "My wife plays guitar". For $40 we got a Montgomery Ward SS amp of unknown wattage (the guy said he thought it was 30 watts) in really good shape. It's cool, although I still haven't gotten it clear to 10. I did find out the other day though, that at 7 it sets off the glass-break detector in the house :-) I put the kids on the bus for school and then rocked out for half an hour before i had to go to work.

I'm doing it!!

:-)))) bigass smiles. I'm pretty good at Bye Bye Love now, and can even play it along with the Everly Brothers recording most of the time :-) We even turned to the next piece in the book, and although it used strings I didn't have memorized I did ok. From sheet music! Did I mention that, I'm reading a bit of sheet music now? Quite proud of myself aint I? SO here's a picture of my goofing off the other day, no amp, just listening to the sounds the strings themselves make. And another of me practicing with the little amp on my lap in the living room. My little one was 'practicing' with his cheap acoustic along with me.

:-) I played a song!

My guitar teacher turned the page in the book and handed me a song i didn't know and i figured it out from the sheet music! :-) Timing was off, but it sounded almost right. He played the chords and i tried to watch him for the timing. But I played it from SHEET MUSIC!

Oh, and I can change my own strings now, I marched into Cap City Guitars Friday and told them i wanted to learn how and they showed me how and wouldn't let me pay them for their time. And my co-worker bought me a new set of strings too! I'm all set now :-)

1st Busted String!

Just broke my first string! stupid smile.
I have no idea how to replace it, nor do i have extras or know what's on the guitar at all. Do I just walk into one of the music stores with it? It's the skinny E string. I might be able to do it on a regular bridge, but no, mine has a whammy bar. Dang it! It scared me and sproinged clear across the room too!

"Skip To My Lou"

Know what's cool? The three easy songs I'm practicing for class are all first position, first two strings, and I can, for the most part, do it from TAB without looking at my fingers because, thanks to the Parks Dept class, they mostly know where they're going. Now I just need to start looking at the notes too.

Private Lessons

I signed up for private lessons at the music store. First one was yesterday after work. It went well, considering I'm probly twice the teachers age. I think the only embarrassing thing was having to ask him to move the music stand closer because I couldn't read the notes! (that and the 5yo waiting outside for the next lesson slot). I get to practice "Skip To My Lou" for next week. LOL. And we did do it from notes, although much slower than i could have from TAB. I'll TAB it out and put them side by side to practice. And now I have amp-envy because my guitar sounded so much better through his amp :-)