Thursday I attended my second Guitar lesson. Like the first time I was a bit nervous but also knew what to expect. I picked up a set of new strings for my acoustic Fender and checked out a couple of play books. One of the requirements was to select three songs to be learned. It took some thought but while listening to tunes last week I came upon Jane by Barenaked Ladies. Then while searching the ‘net, I spotted a recommendation for Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver as an easy song to learn. The third one I selected was El Paso by Marty Robbins. A nice selection of tunes, eh?
The lesson went quick of course. He had me go over the things I was to practice in the past week. Chord changes and the practice scales. The Blues one he wanted me to practice went well too although I’d missed that he wanted me to practice with all four fingers vs jumping with my index up and down the frets.
Next he showed me some tips on improv tunings which is one of my interests. Just being able to jump in and throw some notes down. Zack showed that improv, at least the beginnings were just a few notes repeated and some scales. He had a couple of CDs from Guitar Center for me; Guitarmagedden and Guitarmageddon – King of the Blues. As he played some select tracks from the CD, I could see what he meant. Even the practice one I’d been doing sounded better when there was backing tracks to follow.
I did the Blues practice and again was complimented. He said that there are two types of adults that come in to learn. One that has a hard time keeping a beat and the second where it seems like second nature. The second type would have less trouble with the lessons and would have more fun playing in the future. He said I was the second type.
Now it sounded sincere in part because while I was playing the Blues practice the first time with the backing tracks, it took a second and I was playing along with the track. So while the cynical side of me says that one of his purposes for compliments is to get me to come back, the human side preens at the compliments 🙂 If nothing else, I’m certainly practicing a lot.
On the way out I snagged the BNL and John Denver play books. I checked out the picks but didn’t get any. I have a bag of them somewhere at home.