A couple of weeks ago my 18 month guitar-versary passed by, which sounds like a good excuse for some narcissistic self reflection, so why not. I’ve been feeling like doing some anyway.
Gear
I left work a bit earlier than usual today and stopped in at a guitar shop to test drive some different guitars. Acoustics. Not that I’m due for another one for a while, but I keep thinking about what my “next” guitar would be and why.
I really like the idea of a small acoustic that’s a bit more electric-like to play - one that still sounds great unplugged. I had my eye on a mini maton. Or perhaps a Cole Clark thinline. The Mini Maton sounded great but I found my leg got in the way strumming while I was sitting down - unless I sat at an angle - I guess that’s a problem with tiny guitars. The cole clark thinline was better, but the sound not as rich. Then I tried the Maton Performer. OMG, wonderful. Sounds great, smaller than my dread, and very thin. I guess I love Matons. So tempting, but not yet. Not this year.
Playing
For the first time, I wasn’t nervous playing in a guitar shop. Actually, I felt pretty good. My playing sounded good. I’m quite happy with how my playing is developing now. Learning strummy songs with open or barre chords is very quick now. Fingerpicking or picking patterns still take a while, solos are miles away, string skipping is still flawed… but progress is happening. I have 3 shapes of the major scale pattern under my fingers now, up to around 260 bpm (130bpm two notes per beat). And in thirds, but not near that speed in thirds.
I like the technique practice because I don’t have to think about what to practice. Just set the metronome to what it was last time, then try to bump it up.
I usually work on at least two songs at a time that are stretching me - with new techniques or more complicated (for me) arrangements - while also learning other songs that are within my capability but just need to be remembered. I think that works.
Singing
I wrote earlier this year that I would get lessons, and I didn’t. I enquired at some local places but none are at times that work for me. So I keep trying to figure it out for myself. I think I’m getting better, but still quite far from where I’d like to be. So I persist with this slow way of improving. I should probably continue that online course I bought… but it’s a bit less fun than guitar, I usually just try singing in the car or when I’m practicing for a song on guitar.
Songwriting
Calling it songwriting sounds a bit grandiose, as to what it really is: experimentation. I experiment on the guitar and come up with material that I think sounds decent. I shared one on here recently - She Dies - an original by JK - which I thought would fly a bit under the radar but it got a lot of comments. I’m thinking I’ll share a bit more in the future, but perhaps put a bit more effort into the audio production than just hitting record. But I really don’t want to learn too much about music production, just the basics - for now, at least.
That’s it, thanks for reading.