On the eve of my 51st birthday, in two days' time, my mind goes back to the day of my 49th birthday, and a present off my children, Owen and Molly. A voucher for two lessons with a guitar teacher in Leamington Spa. Had always loved guitar music - The Smiths, U2, Simple Minds as a Bridgnorth teenager. Then on to Oasis, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics. I even had an old guitar sat gathering dust on a stand in my front room, but I'd never played it. The vouchers gave me the kick I needed. Pretty much every week since the end of August 2018, I've been having lessons with Paul. I always looked forward to my mug of tea on a Monday night in Paul's teaching room - until Covid-19 intervened. Albeit with cheat chords, I started to play Wonderwall. I could just about find my way through Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. My personal nightmare was the D chord. But we got there, eventually. Big issues for me have always been finding time to practice, and getting to grips with a metronome. But the biggest challenge (ongoing) is to improve the speed between chord changes. I know the chords, can see the chords, but struggle sometimes to land the chords. But at least I've cracked the basic strum... I've always got time for my lesson, and always enjoy it. Then life gets in the way. I need to have a better plan. I also have a camp fire dream (not that I ever sit around a camp fire!). Someone passes me a guitar and says 'play us a song John'. One day I'll get there. Maybe this blog entry is a start...
Hotel California, without a metronome, and without a smile (until the very end)
Hotel California (with metronome set to 80). Felt I was waiting for the metronome during the strum. And I REALLY need to look like I'm enjoying myself...
Great stuff John ... your first public performance! Had a quick noodle along adding some melody over the top. It's all generally working ok ... the standout that will benefit from some extra ease is definitely chord change speed; it's of note that you're needing more than just the last off-beat of the bar to get the changes ready (the lift and aim of LIFT, AIM, FIRE!).
Elsewhere you're ready to start focusing on polishing the chord fingerings by muting unused strings. When the low E string rings on the A chord it's costing you some sound and more-so when it rings out on the bottom of your Fmaj7 chord (this is why things sound a bit weird when you hit the Fmaj7s in the chorus sequence). The thumb is the answer here, bringing it up just enough to touch and mute out the low E string. Further polish can be added to your Fmaj7 chord by using the tip of the 3rd finger to mute the A string (now you could strum all 6 with impunity and only the top 4 will ring!).
As ever, a new requirement like this will slow you down somewhat so it's for practice purposes only to begin until it becomes easy enough to do without thinking about it too much while playing! Will look forward to the next version!
Thanks Paul. Will work on that. Great to hear you playing along with me. Just like the old Monday nights. Look forward to returning to your guitar room for a cup of tea. 😀
Folk are beginning to creep back ... I issued instruction here to a masked man on Thursday!
If Wonderwall isn't my favourite song, then Dakota is. But it's probably Wonderwall. To pretty much be able to play a version of it, albeit with a basic strum and cheat chords, gives me such a thrill. So challenge this week was to play a couple of verses at varying speeds. Went for 50bpm, 80bpm and 100bpm with my trusty Drummers Pulse man for vocal company. Tried 120, but not polished enough. I could keep up with 120 but then found myself ahead of the count. The strumming and my left foot weren't a unit. So stopped recording at 120. Definitely something to work on - along with all the other things, like landing my fingers in unison rather than one finger fractionally ahead of the other two.
Had a run through with dirty fingers after finishing off a new garden path. A few timing issues to pick up on but nothing major as I can hear you comfortably pulling the train back onto the rails if it starts to tilt.
Those mild timing issues should be cured as the chord changes get easier. All that's needed is some focus on the mechanics. Try practising the G to itself (lifting and firing fingers 1 & 2 while 3 & 4 stay down) as well as all the other chords "to themselves". Here I've drawn out the G changing to itself. Strumming all 6 strings in both directions will allow you to hear fingers 1 & 2 lifting and firing.
The usual question: What speed can you do it that you *know* fingers 1 & 2 are moving fully together as a single unit? *That* is the speed we want to improve! Once the chords to themselves (in particular the G) are moving nicely it should be a *very* short jump to get the changes between chords tightened up too. The only other thing I'd pick up on is when watching the 50bpm playthrough it's notable that your arm isn't ticking in time with the count on the 2 strums where the strings aren't being hit (the "and" of beat 1 and beat 3). Remember that even though you're not "playing" on those parts, the movement of the arm shouldn't be overlooked ... we want you going up and down like a robot throughout! Spotting that (and strengthening it) should have a knock-on effect at the higher speeds and the practice required at the slow speeds to correct that issue could well be the catalyst to take you to the elusive higher top speed (120bpm) ... and beyond!
Thanks Paul, really appreciate the feedback. Plenty to work on. Enjoyed listening too. Speak to you on Tuesday. Cheers, John
When you're given a week to do your homework, and you just about slip under the wire in time. Yes, that.
No lack of desire to nail Wonderwall, just a lack of decent time to practice this week with work and trip to London. But found time today, enjoyed it, feel like there's progress and working hard at keeping my arm moving up and down in tandem with my foot, rather than hanging around doing nothing. Not used Drummers Pulse yet. Saving that particular delight for my next lesson ;-). And I filmed it with my professional camera!
Looking good! See you in 15 mins. ;)
It may only be a small step but this feels like big progress. Singing and strumming has always felt like mission impossible. How can my brain organise singing, left hand chord changing and right hand strumming? But breaking it down into small chunks with Paul is hopefully starting to pay dividends. 'I don't believe that anybody' is the next step. I don't believe that anybody believed I'd get this far...
And without worrying about the lyrics, I nearly got through the whole song. So close. Keep going, I'm getting there :-)
Congrats on your first live vocal and it holds up pretty well under camera pressure however I reckon you were doing it better on Tuesday (albeit a little slower). Time to nail it down using principles 1,2 & 3! Watch your version back (at half speed if easier) and you'll see that the syllables "is go-" are no longer where they're shown below (on the "and" of beat 4 and beat 1 of line 2). The same with "you should" in the next line. Instead they've been pulled forward half a beat to begin on beat 4 of line 1. My take is that this relates to beat 1 of line 2 being a ghost strum ("KNEE and"). How about recording a run-through of just the first two bars looping at the speed you know it's perfect? (and then maybe pushing the speed incrementally until it starts to fall apart, to stress-test it)
The same approach to the "I don't believe that anybody ..." line should also pay off handsomely.
Once all the building blocks are strong, so will the whole be!
Thanks Paul. I’m sure you’re right. Will do. Plenty of time today as the rain pours outside 👍
It's all closer than you probably think ... just got to keep it right! One fellow I met on a guitar teachers' forum some years back tried to compare my approach to this:
He'd missed the big point that 5 minutes of good investigation, analysis and problem-solving can beat 5 years of mindless marching!
Enjoyed watching that. The old problem I guess - I get a bit carried away.
Since March, I've missed two things massively. Wolves obviously, but also my weekly guitar sessions with Paul. For seven months we've been doing Skype lessons, meaning we can't play guitar together. Tonight, we got the old band back together. I had the best time... 🎸
Was good to have you back in the hot-seat again! Shame the recording engineer couldn't get his act together. 🤣🤣🤣 Listenable nonetheless!