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.