#26 5th JGVersary
Today’s the day: 5 years since I started my musical adventure with the very first lesson of the JustinGuitar BC. I love to look back on the year gone by and reflect on all that has been achieved since day one. I celebrate, irrespective of how much progress has been made, the time it may have taken. For me a healthy balance between looking forward at the road ahead and looking back at the road travelled, while being always in the moment keeps me motivated and satisfied.
This year was quite a year.
NB I shan’t embed links throughout, you can find all the videos on my channel if you are of a mind to take a look and listen.
It began working on a simple finger style arrangement of Deck the Halls to be submitted in a Festive season contest. Simple it is, easy it wasn’t. It ended working on the Simple Blues Lead project that I have just posted in AVOYP. Simple it was. Easy perhaps an overstatement, but it was pleasing to find it not too big a stretch to get the parts under the fingers and recorded without too much blood, sweat, and tears.
Between then and now, the biggest focus and gain in this year was on my singing. Just after Christmas I signed up for Chris Liepe’s Discover Your Voice course and following it has delivered a huge improvement in my singing. Much like following Justin’s BC did for my guitar playing. It is early days and I look forward to more improvement as I continue to follow his path.
During the year, I opted to cut back on AVOYP recordings while working on the singing. But I did get the call from @Richard_close2u to be the vocalist (I love to stretch a word to its max) on a production of Love In Vain, the Robert Johnson classic, which was based on The Rolling Stones cover. It was a wonderful project and came at just the right time to be able to make the most of my singing lessons.
At the same time, I applied myself a little bit more studiously to practice, rather than just playing songs and having a good time. I invested time in some finger-picking drills, worked through RUST 1 (I still got no further on RUST 2 than counting the 1e&a, foot-tapping on the beat, and an accent on the beat; maybe next year), and worked on learning the notes on the neck.
The second highlight of this year was the Community virtual Open Mics. The brainchild of our own @Rossco01 these events that were held every couple of months on Zoom were the perfect way to continue to build my ability to perform live. It was also good to get real feedback on the progress I was making in my singing (bless you all for all the super encouraging comments on that).
These events build on the YT series, “Songs From the Playroom (Not the Wood)”, that I recorded in which I’d play 3 songs with chat in between to simulate an OM performance.
So when our local music club began to host live OMs again, I was ready. It really felt like a second first time when I went back. The benefits of the singing lessons and our OMs translated into the live OM being a completely different experience. I found myself so much more relaxed and confident. Still a long way to go before I’d dare consider myself to be an entertainer, but the performances were a step up from the pre-pandemic days.
Towards the end of the year, I’d decided to try my hand at power chords again, and long story short, the muse showed up and I produced another original song, “Self Destruction (Wine Women 'n Song”, my 8th. Most of my originals have been acoustic guitar driven. This one made use of the power chords, played on the electric. Loads of fun to get down and rock a little harder.
In between a few improv noodles inspired by @sairfingers and a couple of explorations to make use of Borrowed Chord theory shared by @Richard_close2u
Since moving from SoundCloud to YouTube I’ve always wanted to consolidate my SoundCloud recordings. That was done in this year, the subject of a previous RC episode. I’m almost done with that migration. Just one more original to re-work, re-mix, and re-publish on YT; something for 2022.
All in all another wonderful year. I’m more than satisfied with progress made. I continue to have fun learning, playing, performing, recording, and being an active member of this Community.
I cannot express enough what the Community means to me, the support and encouragement, the friendship, without it I may well have packed up at the first challenging moment 5 years ago.
And now we find ourselves in a new house. A more modern house, with new shiny fixtures, for us to get used to and learn how to use. But a house becomes a home through the people who live their lives in the house. I look forward to making new friends, sharing more experiences, in the years to come.
My Music
My YouTube Channel | SoundCloud Years Archive
Gear
Guitars: Fender Paramount PM-1 Deluxe | Honer Resonator | Epiphone LP Standard Pro | Celebrity CC67 (Nashville strung)
Amp: Blackstar ID15:TVP
Pedals: TC Helicon Play Acoustic
Mics: Samson CO3 | AKG D5 | Shure 545SD Unidyne III
AI: Focusrite Scarlet 2i2
Software Tools: Reaper | Guitar Pro
RC Episodes
#25 The three types of songs
#24 Biennial (The SoundCloud Years)
#23 About the 3Ps: Practicing Playing Performing
#22 Funny how it goes, just going as it flows
#21 My 4th JGversary
#20 5000th Forum post and 4 keys to learning
#19 My 3rd JGversary
#18 First Open Mic and setting up the Playroom
#17 My 2nd JGversary
#16 First live performance
#15 First two originals and winning the Forum Contest
#14 18 month update
#13 My 1st JGversary
#12 Going beyond my dreams
#11 September songs and success
#10 RC up to date, 8.5 month reflection
#9 A severe attack of GAS
#8 It’s not a linear journey
#7 Consolidation, Forum Contest, and BC Stage 4
#6 The onset of GAS
#5 Joining the Community and my first recording
#4 First time playing in public
#3 Beginning Justin’s BC
#2 Starting the guitar adventure
#1 Discovering a love of music