Yes there is, that’s “Brian” 
Greetings 
sounds good to me Andrea I am just starting finger style finding it a bit of a challenge but hope to get there one day like the sound of the guitar very clean no bum notes
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Lovely, Andrea! Just Lovely!
Beautiful tone, Beautiful guitar & overall wonderful performance! Just a touch of “polishing” & I’d say you should be extremely satisfied with your hard work, especially considering your health issues of late! Great job! You should be very proud!
Tod
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@Guitarman63 Thank you, John! If you like fingerstyle, you’ll have a lot of fun with it. Sometimes it’s harder than it seems, but it’s worth to push through frustration. For me, those picked chord melody arrangements need a lot of effort, but they teach me a lot.
@CATMAN62 Thanks for listening, Tod and for the nice comment. Indeed, I’ll use the remaining days for polishing the whole thing and hope I’ll not mess it up on Christmas day 
. I saw your beautiful stable of guitars in the other thread. Would be happy to hear them one day 
!
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Well I would like to learn that style have just found a great lesson on “Oh Christmas tree” with tabs and having a go, its not complicated but I need a lot of practice
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Hope? You don’t have to “hope”, Andrea! I just watched your video again & you’ve definitely “Got This”! You will be fine - just remember to breathe!!! I find myself holding my breath when I’m really concentrating often! Keep it light & fun - don’t worry!
Someday soon… I’ve been getting closer to being able to play when the camera 
is rolling… 
Tod
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That was lovely. The swirling mod sounds a bit like a chorus effect perhaps. It really makes it sound nice.
Thanks for posting.
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Late to the party 
well that sounded really great Andrea. You’ve clearly been practicing efficiently and have made a lot of good progress. Looking forward to seeing the progress you make in 2025. All the best for Christmas and New Year.
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Another five days till Christmas, so we’re early- not late 
Coming along nicely, Andrea, and good to see you getting it ‘right’ at a slower pace than wrong at speed 
Congratulations!
Remember to try to enjoy it while you’re playing for your family.
New Year’s resolution suggestion for Rogier-
“I’ll try not to be mean, even if I don’t tag the target of my teasing” 
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@Guitarman63 Wish you lots of fun! It’s definitely worth the time to learn those tunes.
Hi, hi, thanks for that, I’ll do my best!
Funny to read this, I’ve just seen a snippet of Justin, where he suggest exactly this. Taking a deeeeep breath before you start .
I’m happy to hear that! Always remember, there’s no pressure from this ciommunity - just encouragement. One day we will enjoy your first video and I’m sure it will be great 
!
@Ontime Thank you, Jason! When I first stumbled over this preset, I asked myself for what it should be suitable. But with a few tweaks it sounds just nice on this one 
!
@Socio James! Thanks for taking the time to listen. I guess, you are still busy with BLIM?
Thanks for the nice words, really appreciated! All the best for Christmas and the New Year! Looking forward to see you BLIMMERS back here !
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I knew, that this would come! The measuring unit for full stage presence is “1 Brian” then, I assume?
@brianlarsen I swaer, that I wouldn’t have picked this up from Rogier, but you couldn’t resist yourself 
! Isn’t it great that you are “das Maß aller Dinge” when it comes to stage presence ?
Thanks for listening - and I will definitely enjoy playing - we are a humorous family - they all can deal with me probably failing. Just another reason to laugh. And I know for sure, that my playing is better than their singing… 
!
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Hi Andrea, I hope you’re enjoying a nice Christmas day and that the Christmas vibes have been delivered joyfully through your guitar for your family! I much enjoyed reading your update. That must have been an incredibile experience at the concert you mentioned and I totally agree with anything you say about Orchestras!
I believe Music is human and such it’ll stay for all those that we’ll be able to stay human and connect.
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December 27th, 2024
Thinking about - Lost Moments
Do you know the feeling about a precious moment that somehow slipped through your hands, although you’ve done everything to save it in your heart? I guess we all know that feeling of having irretrievably lost a moment in the deep sea of life?
Lots of those moments or occasions in my life are connected with music or certain songs for me.
Especially at Christmas time, I remember those cozy hours together with my parents and my brother, when, during Advent season, we were listening to christmas stories and singing christmas songs, while my father was playing harmonica 
.
My parents, both in their eighties, visited us for Christmas (with one of those “maybe for the last time” thoughts in their luggage, as both feel too weak to travel anymore).
So I prepared everything in a way to celebrate this Christmas in an adequate manner.
I thought, it would be a good idea, to play some christmas songs for the whole family and maybe to get my father to play some harmonica too. Just to get some contemplative moments and to let live those old memories.
They never saw me playing guitar before and I didn’t tell them I would prepare some songs for them. I just wanted to surprise them as a part of a very personal present.
I only asked my father, if he could bring the harmonica (and heard, he was really practicing several times!), to give us support for singing…
Everything was well prepared, we got some fresh snow at the day before Christmas and the world changed into a postcard winter wonderland scenery. Everything was just - perfect!
I’ve spent a lot of my practice time within the last weeks on those Christmas songs, I even could polish my “Silent Night” in a way I was pretty happy with…
But then, at a point at Chrismas day (24th in Germany) everything started to slip…
A chain of unforeseable (funny and not so funny) incidents occured during the day and in the end we were late with everything. It was pretty close to one of those funny christmas movies , apart from a burning christmas tree maybe.
So plans got discussed how to get back on track for the evening - and the super simple idea of parts of the familiy was: to skip singing and playing to free up time… Uuuuuuups???
My father and I were postponed for the next day 
… with a simple “coup de main”
In the end, the next day was even worse, so we didn’t play AT ALL.
For the others, it was just skipping ahead in the “schedule”, for me, it was an inner slap in the face… a lost moment forever to hearing my father play again after so many years and maybe even for the last time and to add my few songs to maybe create some good memories for all 
.
So, I will be going back to my practice sessions very soon and put those christmas songs happily aside.
I’ve learnt my lesson well:
Play for yourself. Play what you like, not what others expect or what allows you to grow musically. Don’t learn for others! Sounds a bit stubborn or disillusioned, but I have to note this, because it’s the second time I got simply wiped away…
@Silvia80 Thanks for your post! Exactely this!
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Yeah … the chocolates are all gone and I wish they were still there ( to eat more chocolates of course !!! )
Sad story
I think we shouldnt try hard to create a moment , it must happen on its own
Learn christmas songs because you wanna learn them ( its always handy to know some )
and then if the moment is right , then it will happen
a good lesson in life is : It never happens the way we want it !
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Happy Christmas, Helen 
It’s a pity you did not get the chance to share your music with your family, but this was in no way a wasted exercise. You gave many of us in the Community joy in both listening to what you had prepared, but more importantly, in your story of preparation.
If you don’t prepare, it will never happen.
That doesn’t mean the opposite holds true.
I remember writing a ‘funny’ song for a school reunion (before I took up guitar) and waited the whole evening for the appropriate time to stand up and perform it.
It never arrived and I had that ‘lost moment’ feeling you describe. It was a useful experience though and I believe helped me as a ‘performer’ using my antennae for detecting opportune moments.
My mind boggles a bit with the idea that two days of Christmas can be so ‘organised’ that there’s time to eat, but not for a song or two… 
Happy New Year!
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@GrumpyMac Believer me, Deborah, that‘s a lesson I’ve learnt long ago !
@brianlarsen Hi Brian, I don’t see it as a wasted excercise .
I’m still no performer, so it wasn’t about getting the “chance to perform”, for me, rather the opposite! it was just about getting the chance to pause everything else for a little while, just to calm down and reflect a bit.
It was a wasted chance to hear my dad playing (memories) and to give something back 
!
This! Exactly what I tried to avoid !
Aber manchem ist der Magen näher als die "Kunst“ !
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Happy Christmas, Andrea, and all the best for 2025.
Until next year
I agree with Dr Larsen. Every song learned contributes to your development.
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Sometimes we put too much pressure on ourselves with respect to lost moments and those times make taint the present. I recently read Anthony Doer’s Cloud Cuckoo Land and this quote struck me. " what’s so beautiful about a fool is that a fool never knows when to give up" … so don’t spend too much time lamenting the moment lost and keep going like there is a next year to look forward to with your parents. I think that was the secret to how my step grandfather kept himself going. He did and planned things like he was going to live forever … like in his 80’s he started a black walnut forest in his fields… he lived to 105 and had the chance to see a strong large, healthy forest well on it’s way to maturity.
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That sucks Andrea but heck aint that the way it goes sometimes. Some folk just want to move on. But retribution can be sweet, if you are of a devious mind . . . . . . . . .
Invite everyone round for a “meal” in the New Year, tell dad to bring his little mouth organ but do it on the quiet.
When everyone sits down at the table, laid for effect only, announce with full gusto !!!
“We have no time for dinner, so we are going straight to tonight’s musical interlude as we missed it at Christmas!!” Put some lettuce on the table, as you grab your guitar, a reference to something being better served cold!!
I believe Aerosmith sang “Dont get sad, get even!”
Christmas greetings from over the border !
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Sorry to read this Andrea , I had a not so good Christmas myself with both my Father and brother with Covid and I feel unable to find some words of support if not that Music is meant to be shared and sharing gives a whole different meaning to it, I’m sure you’ll be able to find your chance for that…maybe not a Christmas song but something you love more.
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