14 days is what I have to learn this months song. I didn't pick it out right away because I couldn't find one that I wanted to learn. Even though there are about a million good songs I struggled to find one. Finally picked it out Monday. Practiced Monday and Tuesday. If I count all the days that I have available this month, starting Monday, not including the trip to Vegas, and the time while my parents are down, it gives me 14 days. At half an hour a day that is roughly 7 hours. Not a whole lot of time. I might be able to get some practice in when my parents are down, but I am not sure. To bad I couldn't just take a day without interruptions, start at 8 in the morning and learn the complete song to mastery 7 hours later. That would be sweet, but it just doesn't work that way.
This will be the debut of the new guitar Erin bought me:
And I have to tell you it is pretty sweet. The quality of construction is much better than my other guitars, and when plugged into an amp it sounds a lot different. Whether this will translate into me being a better guitar player remains to be seen. But at least I will look cool doing it.
As far as this months song, I am not going to tell you what it is. But I will name the band that recorded it:
Well here it is. A month worth of labors wrapped up in about 4 minutes. The beginning was a little rough, I was playing faster than the music. Once I got that figured out it got a little better. I really appreciate the cat yawning at me at the 57 second mark. No food for her tomorrow. This was the first take, I tried redoing it 3 times but every time it got worse instead of better. Dogs barking, phones ringing, and fingers not cooperating. I just decided to go with the first one.
A couple things about this song. These are not excuses but notes, so that in 40 years when VH1 comes around interviewing me for "behind the music" I will be able to refresh my memory.
1. I really wanted to do the guitar solo. I didn't practice enough to be able to pull it off. This part gets quickity quick, and I probably should have been practicing it since the beginning of the month. I didn't start until the 20th.
2. I did not put in nearly enough practice time. We went camping and had friends come and visit. I don't know that I practiced for over a half hour in one session this month. And there was plenty of days that I didn't practice at all.
I also didn't blog this month. Don't know what the deal was as I had plenty of guitar related dealings to blow your mind with, but I guess I was just to lazy. Next month is going to be a challenge as well for a couple of reasons. Number 1 is VEGAS BABY! Number 2 is that towards the end of March I will celebrate blessing the earth with my presence for 35 years.
So here it is. You can listen to the music and watch me, or you can listen to me and watch the cat bathe herself....
Well, I am sure all you rabid fans have been wondering what I have been doing on the guitar front. So here is a list:
1.Procrastinating. I have my song picked out, my music in mp3 format, and my sheet music printed. For some reason I am putting off starting. Part of this has to do with the fact that I messed up my index finger last month. I think it was due to a couple of things. Repetitive motion is one, last months song was very repetitive with that certain riff, and I think I used a little too much force with that finger while playing it. Another problem, is that I seldomly warm up before I start playing. This I am sure has a lot to do with it as well. I need to start making a habit of warming up for at least 5 minutes before I start playing. The finger is pretty much back to normal, so I am hoping my rocking resumes tonight.
2. The guitar I wanted to use this month has been needing some work. I like the guitar, it is one of my favorites, but I haven't ever been able to get it to work right. I even brought it to a guitar shop and had it professionally setup. The fault was with the neck. None of the frets were seated correctly so every time the string was pressed down or played, it would vibrate against the frets and buzz like crazy. I think I fixed that this weekend, among other things. I will try to post pics of the other stuff I did in the next couple of days.
And that is about it. Here is the song I am going to try to learn this month. I don't think the song will be as difficult as convincing Erin I need a motorcycle and that I need to borrow some of her scarves...
Here it is, You can read the post while you are listening to my rockishness
So there it is. Again, not completely happy with it, and there was a fair share of screwups in there. That was also at 95% tempo, rather than 100%. I tried 100% and it was just too sloppy. I could have probably pulled off 100% sitting down(it is far easier to play guitar sitting down, the guitar is closer to you and you don't have to worry about falling down...) but playing guitar sitting down isn't quite as rockstarish and standing up.
If I was a real guitar player I would have done multiple takes to see if I could get it perfect, but the more and more I play, the more and more I realize that I am not, nor ever will be a real guitar player. I just do not have the obsessive compulsiveness to sit and perfect my playing. Nor do I have any need to. There are only 3 people and 2 animals that ever witness me playing guitar on a regular basis. Once a month I post to this blog, in which you the reader witness it(trust me, there isn't hundreds of you). Would it be nice to be perfect at guitar? yep. But I have neither the will nor the desire to get there. Mediocrity and I get along just fine.
Since I was out in the garage, I actually played through my amp. The other video I was playing through a different practice device. It is cool playing through an amp because it is loud, and loud is good. I wasn't entirely happy with the tone that was coming out of it. I am not sure if it was the guitar, the amp, the stompbox, or the music I was playing along with, but something just wasn't right. I will try to address this whole topic in another blog post in the future.
As for the wiping the sweat off my forehead, I always get sweaty when I snort an ounce of coke.
