Hi all. I’ve been on the forum for about a year now and I’ve shared some stuff on AVOYP and some originals, but I thought it was about tine I created a learning log.
I’m in my early 50s but started playing guitar when I was 16 and taught myself a few chords. In my early 20s, me and a mate pkayed at open stages a lot. I had a Takamine acoustic, a Gordon Smith electric, and a Marshall Valvestate 8080 amp. The Gordon Smith and amp were sold to fund a return to Uni to become a school teacher, and the acoustic went into its case as I got into long distance running quite seriously (i had no time for anything except working, runningand sleeping).
Then just over a year ago, I decided to get the Takamine out again and relearn guitar. I discovered Justin Guitar and got hooked again. Since then, I’ve treated myself to an Epiphone LP Custom, a Fender Strat and a Boss Katana amp.
I spend my time trying to improve my guitar technique (currently on Grade 5 Folk Fingerstyle), trying to play songs i like, and trying to write my own songs. On top of guitar, I’m also learning to play piano and trying to improve my singing (using an app called Musora). Oh, and I’m slowly working my way through the PMT course.
I’ll use this log to chart my progress (assuming there will be progress!).
So today i treated myself to my first ever guitar pedal - a Big Muff. Yes - i was totally influenced by Billy Corgan’s use of this pedal. I had a wee play about with it tonight and it sounds great.
Welcome into the LLs’ world Colin! I personally love LLs, I find having one really helps in our guitar journeys…and it’s a great opportunity to share and know a bit more about eachother. Which grade are you teaching? I’m a Kindergarten Teacher and I love it!
Wow, that must be wonderful! And not easy a task, I guess. I must confess I’m a bit ashamed of the all category nowadays…if you are on Instagram you will know how soo many teachers post about burning out, low salaries and how they dislike their job. The challenge is real, I don’t doubt that, but there’s great confusion among the young Teachers about what their role is.
I’m happy, through the challenges I love my job.
I feel I’ve been neglecting my guitars a bit recently! I’ve been doing a night class in Music Technology so I’ve been spending a lot of time playing with DAWs, samples, loops etc. Although the tutor has told me to bring a guitar along next week to record some stuff. It’s really good fun and is developing my knowledge of music production.
Guitar wise, I’ve still been trying to practice playing and singing at the same time. It’s not easy. Ive just recorded myself posting and singing 1979 by the Smashing Pumpkins. I might share the recording in AVOYP.
It’s a really interesting course - it’s got me creating songs using loops and samples (and also ‘found sounds’ - everyday noises, e.g a door closing, or a computer modem). I recorded one of my dogs whining and added it to a song! I’ve used samples and loops to make backing tracks and played guitar over the top. So the course has got me making music i’d never dream of making (and possibly wouldn’tever listen to!). It’s really good fun.
Guitar-wise, I’m focussing on many things (which can never be a good thing!). I love writing songs, so I’ve been finishing off a song about my 9 year old daughter called “Catch a Wave”, as she needs a wee bit of luck in her life. I’ve also been playing and singing “Find the River” by REM as it’s a lovely song (there’s still plenty of room for improvement in the singing!). On top of that, I’m slowly progressing through the fingerstyle stuff on Level 5. It takes me a LOT of time to get fingerstyle stuff correct.
On Tuesday, I’ll be off to my Music Tech Academy night class again. I’ll take my guitar along with me this week so that I can record some guitar tracks over the electronic music I’m creating.
Hi Colin, that’s what I’m working on now too! Did you find any songs that use the first four patterns? I’ve been trying Girl From the north country, but it seems to be one pattern plus hammer-ons…
Hi Colin @C_McG and Ashu @Beatup6String do you want some tips for the folk fingerstyle picking? I can share a few things, more than I will now and here. E.g. I can deconstruct a fingerpicked song for you and the steps for learning it. Let me know. Not quite sure where on the community, might add it to my own LL.
Girl from the north country is 95% or so just one pattern throughout, but the speed is a challenge, it can take a while to build that up, so maybe start with a slower song? As for searching songs by patterns used: I would not get hung up too much on that, 80% of the time the exact pattern played is not actually relevant, so you can change things around (as in “simplify” to your skill level ) without most people noticing. Then build up things gradually. Start with a simple pattern and use that throughout a whole song, then move on to using a different pattern. Daisy-chaining two patterns can be surprisingly hard to get into your fingers (i.e. alternating the patterns throughout a song) so don’t be too hard on yourselves and just take one small step at a time.
OK Colin @C_McG and Ashu @Beatup6String , I show you a few things on Gillian Welsh’s version of Make me down a pallet on your floor. I am choosing this one because it uses multiple patterns so we can build up a nice process and also because I transcribed it myself last year, so the tabs I have are all written by me and no-one can complain I reuse their tabs. Just generating the incremental versions now, but you can already start listening to the song
You’ll find lots of versions of this song on youtube. A famous one is of course Mississippi John Hurt’s one, but that’s on a totally different level, I have not even attempted to learn it, although it is down on my dreamer list somewhere. Gillian’s version is nice and laid back. There are also videos out there of her playing it live but that’s always a two-guitar version, the recording was just one guitar.
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) without most people noticing. Then build up things gradually. Start with a simple pattern and use that throughout a whole song, then move on to using a different pattern. Daisy-chaining two patterns can be surprisingly hard to get into your fingers (i.e. alternating the patterns throughout a song) so don’t be too hard on yourselves and just take one small step at a time.