Improvement Over 9 Months

Today I recorded a cover I had already "tried" once before, Purple Haze. It's a simple song, but I kinda suck, so it's still a bit beyond me. Anyway, I was pretty happy to hear the improvements over the last time I recorded it, about nine months ago.

Here is the newest version:




Here is the same thing, about nine months ago:

Slide Guitar

I purchased a brass slide, tuned the resonator to open D, watched a youtube video and went to town. Man, playing slide is really soulful, though I doubt my attempt here demonstrates such.

Guitar Exercises

One of the things I've been doing on my quest to become a better guitar player is to spend more time playing scales and exercises. Here is one that I've put together from learning the major scale. What you do is play the major scale in one key in one position, but in three different fingers. Then, slide up a half note and repeat the process.

A couple of things to keep in mind. First, no legato...pick everything. Also, use alternate picking (up and down, not just down strokes). Also, pick each note cleanly, let it ring. Speed is not as important here as one might think. I know I didn't play this on a clean channel or play it flawlessly, but that's what's best.

One surprising benefit has been an increase in ability to hear the difference in notes that are close together! That's some sweet action right there!

Here is the tab for the three patterns in A. Play all three patterns simultaneously without pause. And remember, after playing all three you slide your hand up one fret, and repeat the whole thing.

Pattern 1:

--------------------------2-4-5--5-4-2----------------------------------------
----------------------3-5--------------5-3--------------------------------------
----------------2-4-6----------------------6-4-2------------------------------
----------2-4-6---------------------------------6-4-2-------------------------
----2-4-5--------------------------------------------5-4-2--------------------
--5----------------------------------------------------------5-------------------

Pattern 2:

----------------------------4-5-7--7-5-4-------------------------------------
------------------------5-3--------------5-3---------------------------------
------------------4-6-7----------------------7-6-4---------------------------
------------4-6-7----------------------------------7-6-4---------------------
------4-5-7----------------------------------------------7-5-4---------------
--5-7----------------------------------------------------------7-5-----------

Pattern 3:

--------------------------------7-8-10--10-8-7-------------------------------
-------------------------7-8-10----------------10-8-7------------------------
-------------------6-7-9------------------------------9-7-6------------------
-------------6-7-9------------------------------------------9-7-6------------
-------5-7-9------------------------------------------------------9-7-5------
-5-7-9------------------------------------------------------------------9-7-5

Here's the video:

Latency

I've been having some problems with recording. Turns out that the external sound card I was using caused some problems. Unbelievably frustrating, especially when I never suspected the recording as being wrong. I thought I played it that bad and just didn't hear it at the time of the recording!

Anyhow, this is a piece called Texas Swing and it's from Robert Calva's "Blues/Rock, Soloing for Guitar" book. It's the first song out of the book I've tried and I really like it. I think I'll continue to learn these songs.

Anyhow, below are two recordings on two days of the same song. The first recording is with the latency problem. The second is without.

Verbose Fortune Cookies...

In reflecting on my recent experiences I realized that to perfect some piece you have to be willing to fail over and over again, but never accept any failure as final. That's kinda how it work in life...you have to take risks knowing they may not work and you're going to have to try again.

The thing is, if you don't give it your best you WILL fail. That's pretty much the only guarantee you get.

This is the nature of learning math that really makes me feel pride in my students when they are successful. I know they had to struggle and fail.

For me learning something challenging helps me better relate to, and motivate, my students.

When I was hired a fortune cookie writer, it lasted about 2 hours. Too many words. They said I'd be better off having written, "Luck favors the prepared." Ugh. Too cliche!

Sources, influences: More More More

Youtube is your friend.

The library is your friend.

Both are free!

I subscribe to a lot of different channels on youtube. Just about every day there are new videos to watch. Sometimes it's just people playing, sometimes it's lessons. Sometimes I don't learn anything from either, but sometimes I stumble across something endlessly useful!

The library has lots and lots of books and dvds on guitar playing. They're free! Check 'em out. This week I checked out a DVD on Rock Guitar that was, surprisingly, a little below my playing level. However, I still picked up at least a dozen little things and a few chords I didn't know!

What do you know?

One of the surprising, though it shouldn't be, results of learning songs WITH the music, is the following realization: You don't really know the song unless you can play it with the music! You can memorize the notes and even play it in time and make it sound right in your head. However, you don't really know the song until you can play it with the music.

Another thing I've done is purposely skipped playing solos/leads for the past few weeks. Instead I've focused only on the rhythms. This week was the first time I focused on playing leads or solos. I was surprised by how I hear them differently than I did before. I hear how they maintain the rhythm of the song. That's kind of cool.

Anyhow, here's another song that I don't typically listen to, and would probably change the radio station if it came on. It's AC/DC's Back in Black. It was surprisingly fun to play. I never really learned the solo as I wanted to listen and try and play along (not note for note, just fit).