Happy New Moon, everyone! I know I’m technically a couple nights late with that, but I needed to bide my time before posting. Either way. New starts, yay! 
I’m not really sure how often I’ll be updating this log, but I’ll be trying maybe for once a week. I’m terrible at remembering to do these things usually. Will probably be something simple most weeks like ‘here’s where I’m at’, though if there’s nothing to show I’m not sure I’ll post. I guess we’ll see what happens. /shrug
Right now I’m working on The Calling’s song “Wherever You Will Go”—I’ve got the riff down preeeetty well in general, though I am still working on the playing-without-looking-at-the-strings part because a couple of the cord changes are still slow thanks to my short fingers, which means I occasionally miss the string. Sometimes I have to remind myself to slow down because I can’t play those parts at the pace I can the rest of the riff. It’s…pretty aggravating sometimes, actually, but it is an issue I needed to work on with multiple things in life, so a lesson in patience is here as well, it seems. Plod along and gently build up as I can.
I’m also using this song to learn tabs and how to adapt songs to your play style, since transcribing’s something I want to do and I find it intriguing how others will change chords to suit what they feel sounds best or suits their play style more. Justin mentions in the video tutorial for “Wherever You Will Go” that he’s changed some of the chords to some he prefers the sound of for strumming, so I’m not sure I’ll follow his tutorial 100%—my plan right now is to use his lesson as a basis and go from there. There’s an acoustic performance of the song by Alex on YouTube that seems like it’ll be pretty good to study when I feel more comfortable moving on to what version I actually want in my repertoire.
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I’m gonna be updating my gear list here, too, when I actually acquire some new gear. xD; Right now it’s gonna remain pretty static (still jobless…), though maybe I’ll get into some more DIY stuff.
Gear:
- Yamaha Eterna EF-31 + case
- flimsy homemade cardboard guitar picks x2
- Taylor 1.21mm abalone guitar pick
- “Rusty” guitar pick that seems about the same mm as the Taylor, but its tip is more curved and it feels like there’s a concave bit on one side, which makes it incredibly comfortable to hold (I don’t remember where I got this from (@__@; ) Looks like a band one, maybe?)
- pencils and elastics (i.e. DIY capo stuff)
- Fender guitar strap I keep forgetting about (came with the guitar)
Related:
- Guitar Chords: 150 Essectial Guitar Chords by Ted Fuller & Julian Hayman (2019) (technically my partner’s, and 100% the reason I know more chords than I’ve learnt from Justin’s course yet)
- JustinGuitar (obviously
) - my collection of guitar picks from people like Al Pitrelli I may or may not use for strumming unless I have to (might use the dups, I don’t know)
Future gear (maybe):
- Kramer Focus VT-211S in Teal
- Kramer Nightswan in Jet Black Metallic
- '80s Kramer Pacer or Baretta, ideally in red
(will take a current Baretta in Jumper Red if I could get it, though) - '90s Ibanez (unsure of model)
- Ibanez Prestige (waaaay down the line xD unsure of model for this one as well, since I liked so many of them last I looked at them)
At some point I’d like to get a bass as well. But, I’m not gonna reach for the stars on that—I’d need to get my guitars first. At least one electric. The bass will be shelved for later. (And will probably also be red.)
I’m usually quite shy about these things, so this is a big step for me…
Need to get back up to speed again. Slowly. But up to speed. It’s been like my hands just haven’t worked properly recently… Well, other things in life have been going along decently, at least – barring a few annoying things – so I’m not going to complain too much. Silver linings, right? Keep on keepin’ on. 
At least we’re going into warmer weather, so I’ll be wearing shorts outside all the time anyway, but…they’re still my favourite jeans, and they were my last pair that fit well and didn’t need mending. I’ll mend these ones and hope it’s not too visible because of where it is, though I worry they’ll still be relegated to indoors-only depending on how well the darning holds. Had to be the upper inner-thigh area instead of somewhere easier to patch and be done with like a knee. Hopefully I’ll fit my other jeans I have by autumn (or, at least, October nights, depending on how cool it gets and when).
So now I’m jumping the gun on some of the courses I was wanting to do… Andy Timmons makes so much sense when he talks about intellectual vs. what he terms auralectual learning, or learning with your ears. Auditory learning is something I’ve always struggled with to some extent because I’m more of a visual learner in general. But, there’s a way he makes sense that resonates with me when it comes to my art and writing I enjoy doing, and how I draw my inspiration or how it just appears for me when I sit down to do it (or have to scramble to get it down because it just happens to occur to me). I’ve explained my inspiration to people before as being like fishing–sometimes I’ll throw out a single line and hook a single fish, other times I’ll throw a net and get heaps of fish, and other times still nothing will come up, and those aren’t counting the times the fish just jumps into my boat.
I should have gone with the other song I had thought of while typing it in…
)
I was gonna ask if anyone from the forums was going to go as well and didn’t get around to it…
