Glad you were able to keep it tight, Craig 
Hope you have a smashing year
It’s a smart, fun piece of kit with magic inside, but you still have to learn how to say the spells properly. Happy to do a Zoom call if you run into problems or don’t want to reinvent the wheel from scratch 
Thanks Brian, hope the festive season brought you fun laughs and plenty of spirit 
Might take you up on that, I’m picking it up tomorrow, it’s a used unit from our music store. Happy to catch up and have a yarn on it anyway, I’ll make sure I have 
to toast the new year 
Well, 6th June so that really calls for a 6 month LL update 
This one will actually really be a short one, promise. 
So, back in my last update of Dec last year I said:
How is that going exactly 
Yes, 6 months later and this -
Still wakes me up at night in total bewilderment 
Look, don’t get me wrong, I have yet again been somewhat sidetracked on playing, singing, and some other techniques that we will mention shortly but every time I sit down and look at Triads I just fail to see where it’s leading and what it will add to my journey.
Meanwhile, I can say with hand on heart that I have truly enjoyed the last 6 months of guitar and music. I have been experimenting with the Trio+ since Jan, and this has opened a lot of playing/practicing options for me. It’s been great to have something that I feel holds me accountable for my timing and is adding a fun dimension to songs.
Yes, “some other techniques”, I have been working on more picking & some different aspects of palm muting, its going ok
I did post one full song that was fun to do and using the Trio+ here AVOYP But looking back it’s not a good effort. I seem to have compromised my music by messing around with video recording etc. In hindsight, when I did this there was quite a bit going on, with multiple camera angles, multiple tracks, Trio+ etc etc so it’s something to streamline.
I have added one or two to the Songbook but they have been added not only because they are lively songs, but they have great upbeat rhythm patterns that will help with more complex strumming patterns and hopefully help me stick to a set pattern occasionally instead of running off with my own ‘feel’ as I tend to do. I’ll keep these quiet until its AVOYP time.
A couple of months back I did have a sudden rush of blood to head and purchased an inexpensive Cort Earth Mini 3/4 size guitar with pickup to travel with. It’s a really great size to wander around with & sit anywhere. Plugged in it sounds great far better than I expected. Just Acoustic obviously it doesn’t have the sound of a full size but it’s still a great carry around guitar that I don’t have to treat with kid gloves the same.
I also bought an SKB soft/hard case to suit, and these are sensational, I first saw it spoken about on a video by Carl Wockner and they looked good, its definately a great case.
Of course, the big news for the last six months is coming up with my own song and producing it as a Collaboration with the exceptional AlyKat.
I wanted to have a go at this for some time but always doubted that I could offer enough to be worthwhile. However, sitting outside one afternoon staring at our view across the bush a whole page of words just fell out of me that were hurriedly scribbled down forming a story for our town.
AlyKat agreed to help me and together we came up with this Collaboration
It was a lot of fun to do, and honestly a huge eye opener for how different it is to be playing/singing with another and not just yourself 
The video was put together afterwards and a good exercise in using Resolve albeit fairly basic.
Summarising the last 6 months… I have a lot that I’m happy about. yes, there are always frustrations but in general I can see improvement in general playing and that’s what we want The rest is WIP.
Happy Guitaring, let’s see what the next 6 months brings. Stay safe everyone. 
Hey Craig, great you are still progressing and enjoying the journey.
I’m in the “just enough theory to know what I’m doing” camp. So, I think you’ll know when you want to learn more about triads and similar. You’ll run into songs that use them and want to know more.
I just went and had a listen to that, it sounded fine. Only thing I wasn’t so keen on is the doubled up vocals with lots of reverb. Perhaps you’re being a bit harsh on yourself saying it’s not a good effort.
That looks great. Did you try the mini matons at all? I tried one a couple of years back and they’re soooo good.
I can add a bit of my own experience here regarding triads. In short, they’re one of the best and most powerful rhythm guitar tools you have, but when you’re playing on your own it’s hard to see their whole potential.
I knew my major and minor shapes for a while, but wasn’t really using them much. Especially when you play alone big chords just sound fuller and better. But in the past several months I started regularly attending jam sessions and playing with others and triads turned out to be one of the most important bits of knowledge I have. Because when you have a bassist, a second guitarist and sometimes a pianist, you don’t need to take up all that sonic space and triads are just made for that more precise playing. And they’re much easier to play when you need to change positions and play your rhythm part higher up the neck or lower, depending on what the second guitar is doing.
I don’t know how relatable that experience can be for you, but I’m sure that one day you’ll reach a point where triads will be not just welcome, but almost necessary. So don’t worry about them too much for now, just keep it as some useful knowledge when that day comes.
Thanks for dropping in guys and adding some comments.
Thanks JK and Artem, both are very valid and may have just hit the mark. I play alone so maybe I just haven’t found the situation that makes them most useful, perhaps I’ll just stop sweatin’ it
Yes, thanks for that, it was Slapback Delay I find it quite tricky to get the level correct and of course then it’s a bit subjective to 
Did I ever the EM6 and the EMD6 are beauties. I would have one in a shot but this was specifically to carry around and try to get onboard flights as carry on and I couldn’t justify $1500 or $2000 knowing that I may not get it on anyway but looking ahead I may get one of these for home just because they are so damn good to play. 
I think the EMD6 has a better pickup than the EM6 if I remember correctly.
Yeah they are great little guitars. I’ve tried EM6 & EMD12 but haven’t seen an EMD6 in the flesh which would be the one to get. I didn’t realise the Cort was so much cheaper!
That was me 1 year ago when I paused the theory course. Then, I met my in-person teacher which use them a lot as a fretboard visualization tool. Like in improvisation, blues soloing, he can quickly find all the 1,3,5 on the neck and come up with some improvisation ideas and play them anywhere on the neck. So, I’m back at them
good luck Mathieu, I’m sure I too will get back to them
That’s the level of using triads I haven’t reached yet. For now just using them as chords is already good enough.
