I signed up for Rock Camp! This is the second time I’m doing this and it’s great fun in general (you’ll see).
Location: Guitars Etc
460 Main Street
Longmont CO
Basement Stage (go in the double doors, head back to the instructor/lesson rooms in the back left, and left down the stairs)
Date: May 21st 2016
Time: 6pm
Playlist:
When I Come Around – Green Day
Living After Midnight – Judas Priest
Simple Man – Lynyrd Skynyrd
It’s My Life – Bon Jovi
There may be a 12 bar blues jam as well; we did that last time
Cost: Free!!
Guitars Etc hosts and three instructors run a Rock Camp for adults (and for kids). We get a list of 4 songs and get together with other adults that we have never met before and Monday through Friday next week, we’ll learn how to play with the others. The songs themselves are moderately easy since the intention is to learn cues and when to start and stop, things like that and not so much complicated songs.
Last night was the first rehearsal. Mike, guitar player and Isaac, Bass player. Three instructors were there; Tim on Bass and Vocals, John the Lead Instructor, and the Drummer (can’t remember his name; update this later).
We spent two hours playing and mostly worked on Living After Midnight. I had the initial riff down pat but continuing on had a few confusing parts in trying to follow along. I was able to eventually get it going correctly although I was skipping a couple of notes. Plus I played the solo so I’ll want to work on that a tad; just a couple of bars.
Second song was Simple Man. I was arpeggiating, finger picking the chords. There are only three chords; C, G, and Am with a fourth Am7 chord just dropping the little finger on the third fret of the e string (that’s the lower, thinnest string; EADGBe where E is the thicker string at the top). I can change chords quickly enough but the coordination of picking the strings in sequence was losing me. I’d get two chords in and lose my place. It’s difficult but it is something I want to do better. I have a lesson tonight and I’ll ask Zack for some help on it.