My 3rd guitarversary is only a week away, so I thought I’d post an update on the state of things.
Since the previous post, my practice routine hasn’t changed much. What is new is that I started the transcription lessons in Grade 3 and finished the first one without any hints. I added these songs to my practice routine. So far, Black Night received the most repeats, it’s pretty fun to play along with the recording. I decided to write down all the other riffs I know into tab + standard notation (at least for the key signatures and the pitches) - like my own book of riffs.
The intro to Glowin’ by Dr John has been bugging me for quite some time, so this week I sat down to get it down on paper. Well, I don’t know if I’m deaf or what, but the intervals just keep on eluding me. I always seem to get it almost right but not quite. Maybe it’s because the original is played on a tuba or something like that and the range is below that of the guitar. I really don’t know, but it’s a bit annoying.
In the past few days, I’ve been thinking about goals for the remainder of the year (or thereabouts), and I’m planning to do some technical woodshedding (mostly with a metronome, especially when I’m tired for creative stuff) and tackle some song lessons from the website which are not terribly difficult and can be accommodated to my free time after work.
Last week I bought some vinyl LPs again, including a recording by Segovia which is pretty cool:
Today I made some interesting discoveries on YouTube:
- Friday Fretworks by Chris Buck: I haven’t heard about him before, but his videos seem to be quite informative and entertaining. Check him out!
- Rob Scallon: found his channel by chance. He has some interesting and funny videos featuring less common instruments, e.g. the sitar, about which I posted earlier today.
- Emily Hopkins: I found her by way of Rob Scallon’s video about the harp. She’s a classically trained harpist who uses a lot of effect pedals, so it’s pretty unique. Plus her videos can make anyone laugh easily.
So that sitar video gave a bout of GAS that I managed to conquer (so far). But I got an idea and did a Google search, and found that there is a sitar course at the Indian embassy in Budapest. To be honest, it was quite unexpected. I requested some more details from them and I’ll see if I can fit it in my schedule. The lessons would be on Friday afternoons and somewhat far from home and my workplace, but I hope I can arrange this at work.