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.