Motorcycle Touring

I just returned from my other Guitar class. This one is in the rec center here in Longmont and is a group of folks vs one on one lessons. Rita and I also take a similar Drumming class (or did, the last one was last week).

The class is an hour and there are, at least at the moment, 10 people including Mike the instructor. He tuned all the guitars prior to starting. Some of the guitars look somewhat scruffy. At least one of the ladies had bought it at a garage sale. Oh, there were two couples and four ladies as well as me and Mike. Anyway, Mike was using a different tuner, specific to an acoustic I guess. It clips on to the top end of the guitar. The two I have right now are for the electric and the cord plugs into it for tuning.

As I’ve been going to the electric guitar session for the past 6 weeks, I’m a bit ahead of where I was when Rita signed me up for the class. I was still fumbling a bit, playing in front of a crowd I guess. I have the same problem with Zack. He’ll want me to solo or play along so he can see my progress and where I was strong at home, I’m a bit more tentative in front of the teacher.

Mike went over tuning, how to tune to the E string, and of course the names of the strings. Next we went to the first song, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Each person played one measure of the song until we’d gone around about 1 1/2 times. Some folks got it right away and others really had to struggle to get their fingers in the right place. Mike was also emphasizing using the correct fingers vs just using the index finger.

Next we went to an Elvis song; Anna Lee(?) I’ll have to check the book later. It’s downstairs. Again the group went through the song measure by measure.

Next up was a chords page. We learned C, G, and D chords which were ones I already knew so was a little ahead of the class.

Finally we went through strumming. Really I wanted to get some strumming going correctly so this was the part I was looking forward to. We did the C and G chord strumming. First four down then four down and one up. The down strums I have pretty well but the up ones aren’t working for me yet. I suspect it’s the angle of my right hand. I have to angle it flatter to the strings I guess.

Anyway, the class seems to be ok and certainly is a beginners class. I’ll go through the practice tomorrow along with my electric guitar practice. We have intermediate drumming on Wednesday. Three classes a week. I’m going to be busy 🙂

So I’m here writing code for a project at work and listening to the music that’s randomly popping up and up comes ‘Playing With My Friends’ by BB King and Robert Cray. It’s a song I particularly like, of course I like a lot of songs but I’m listening and tapping my foot and really into the song and I go *ping*

Hey

And I grab the guitar, plug in, turn on, and I’m playing with BB King and Robert Cray.

Now it’s not fancy or anything. I’m just doing the basic stuff with a few bends (pushing the string to get a higher not) and slides but I used both the b3 (flat 3) and standard Blues box (A) and just jammed with my ‘friends’.

I’m all grins. Just a few weeks and I can improv along with the music. I’m psyched 😀

So it’s been a few weeks. I’ve been practicing 30 minutes to 60 minutes a day with other 30 minute sessions on the weekends.

I started with the regular practice session, running through the scales both down and up. Then hitting the A box (notes that start on the 5th fret on the upper E string) for a run through then a practice jam session against background tracks.

Last week Zack gave me the second box to learn, the C box. This starts at the 8th fret. I spent extra time running through the scale then practicing some improv to set the lesson.

Next up I’ve been working on getting better playing El Paso (the Marty Robbins one). I’m learning the chords. The first part of the song is D, Em, A7, A7, D, G, D played through several times. Then the next set is G, C, G, C, D7, A, A7 then back to the first set of chords. Since I’ve been practicing the G to D to G transition, hitting G isn’t too bad. Going to C and A and the speed of the song at this point has been a little harder. I’m getting there though.

Zack starts off with a jam session to warm up. He throws on backing tracks and we play together although he’s somewhat softer in his part.

Once done with that, we started talking about the next thing to learn which were hammer ons, pull offs, bends, and slides. We’d discussed it last week but now it’s time to get serious. His main thing was to do a jam with all bends and bend until the note sounds right. After some practice, I should be able to get the hang of it.

I mentioned that I’d learned the C box and he said that he was surprised as most of his adult students don’t get that in one week.

I hunted down El Paso so he could hear me play it (it’s one thing he does every session; a song check) and it went pretty well. I didn’t push it as hard as I do in practice at home because I get all finger tied (like tongue tied but with fingers). He wanted to go into the next part of El Paso so I played as he checked the tune for any place where interesting notes might be played. When done, he complimented me on my progress. Saying that I’d picked a harder, faster first song and was doing pretty well with it.

He said that in future sessions, he’ll snag my iPhone and scroll through the music list looking for a song to jam to and we’ll improvise. He said with the base chords I know, I should be able to pick up some songs pretty quickly. I said that my list was probably pretty broad and that I hoped he wasn’t too shocked by the music I like. He scrolled down and found Bill Withers, Ain’t No Sunshine and showed me the finger positions.

He said that with the guitar skills I already had when I got there, that I have a pretty good ear, and that I’m able to keep time with a song, we’ll move a bit quicker.

So bends next week.

And I’m aglow with praise tonight 🙂

Well it hasn’t been a week but I did get a bunch of practice in.

One of the items Zack gave me was a sheet with the notes listed for the frets. It is to help with doing the improv tuning. It took about 30 minutes to realize just what I was looking at though 🙂 The top bar (EADGBE) or all open strings and then just progress down the frets. A skip B C skip D skip E F skip G, simple as that.

So the top string (E 6) is E F skip G skip A skip B C skip D. I spent a good half hour jumping around the neck playing the notes. The “skips” indicate a flat or sharp. So it’s: E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C C#/Db down to the 12th fret.

I practiced Friday for an hour. Mostly the normal practice but at the end I used the Blues practice against the blues backing tracks Zack provided. They came out pretty well. It’s easier for me to get the beat going when I’m following along and it sounded good. Saturday no practice, it was Christmas although I wanted to. Sunday an hour and then Monday I got going and a few times seemed to tune right in with the right sequence of notes.

It sounded very good.

I picked up a bag of picks and a pick holder on Friday because I can’t find my bag (of course now I’ll find it). More practice and up for Thursday’s lesson.

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.