Ok, about me. I’m a 71 year old who knows enough about guitar to be dangerous.
I’m currently working through Beginner’s Grade 1 and am currently on Mod 5.
I’ve spent the afternoon trying to figure out how Youtube works. We’ll see. I think I’ve set the channel I created to “private” as I only wish to share baseline and progress videos in this forum. I guess I won’t know until I’ve uploaded and hyperlinked my first video which will be coming soon.
My mid-term goals? Make it through the Justin Guitar course work that is available and during the process, create a catalog of “Camp-Fire Songs” that I can play reasonably well.
Caveats? I have a quirky sense of humor. So bear with me during my journey.
Whoo Hoo. I successfully uploaded a video to Youtube. You’d think that after two decades in IT I’d know how to do this. Nope. I’m dumb as a box of hammers when it comes to social media.
So consider this my first baseline of my playing.
Takeaways of my playing?
Strumming is a work in progress
Chord changes are a work in progress
Singing? (laughs hardily)
If I come across as using vulgar words, I’m not. That is “funky little thumb” in case you hear something different.
Playing in general - a work in progress.
And there we have it. The First LamphunLamyai video. I’ll post more videos has I progress. All this is base-lining my playing for future reference.
Well done Daniel and congrats on posting your first video. And an original song too! You got the technology to work. Great idea to start a LL, it’s good to look back on as you progress.
For future videos I’d suggest using landscape mode on your camera and framing the video to show your strumming and fretting hands. That way we can see what you’re doing and can comment and offer advice on your technique. Assuming of course that is what you want.
Well done again. I look forward to your next video.
More about me as I cool down from 1/2 hour workout on the treadmill.
US citizen Expatriate who worked and retired in Thailand and who is married to a Thai National. Been here 15 years and haven’t returned stateside in 14 years. I’m currently living in the rice-field of Northern Thailand. This is our little slice of paradise about 5km from where I live. We live in a small rural village with chickens, ox, water buffalo, geckos, skinks, frogs, toads, various bird species, Dragon Lizards, cobras and various other long, venomous and non-venomous critters, a whole lot of dogs (who tell us when the cobras and other critters show up - including guests, wanted and unwanted), a cat, a bird, and about 200 other villagers. Ain’t life grand?
Btw, I’m dyslexic, I can’t proof-read my own writing, so enjoy the typos. I know they are there.
What brought me to Justin Guitar?
That’s a convoluted story, but I’ll shorten it up for the sake of brevity.
I was in a major rut after playing close to two years. One of those ruts that you gauge by how-much-of your-calluses-have-wore-off-your-fingers type of rut. Deep Rut.
So one day I asked myself, “Whatayagonnado?” My inner psycho said, “Funk.”
“Funk it is,” says I. So off to Youtube to check out “Funk Lessons.” Paul Davids had a great video of where you can take funk given time. However, the fact is - I don’t have a good solid guitar foundation to build upon. More on that. So I asked myself, “What funk music could I play within the year?” I channeled James Brown for a moment who shouted, "OWWWWW! SEX MACHINE Fool! “Get on the scene, like a Sex Machine!” Root 9 and 13 started pounding away in my head and my foot tapped out 16 note scratches, hits, and mutes. My inner Jimmy Nolen howled, “OWWWWWWWWWWWW Baby, one two three four HIT IT…”
And then I found Justin. On Youtube. Sex Machine tutorial. Then I spent and hour or so checking out the site. Then a 1/2 hour or so trying to figure out how to pay for a subscription, well before I realize that most his site is (drum roll + 8 G9 strums at 108 bpm) FREE! Then most of an afternoon checking the site out.
So yeah, I started over at Beginner Grade 1 Mod 1 because? “I don’t have a good solid guitar foundation to build upon.” But still, at some point I’m going to tackle the Level 6 Funk Course, sooner then later. Why? - I’m highly motivated to do so. Remember what kicked me out of my rut?
Lamphun - Is city in Northern Thailand - or - also the name of the province in which Lamphun City resides. I reside in the province surrounded by the Doi Khuntan National Park.
Oh what the heck. It so beautiful, I’ll post the picture again!
Lamyai - Known in the West as “Logan” which is a type of fruit. Brown and leathery skin with a white, succulent, very sweet fruit. Grown in Northern Thailand and is a major export product in the form of dried Lamyai.
Lamyai snuggling up to my cheapo Epiphone Les Paul Special VE. In my bed (everyone under 18 - close your eyes!!!
(Laughs) One man’s pit of vipers is another man’s paradise.
Although I’ve lived in many of the concrete jungles of Western Coastal USA (LA, SF, Oakland, Seattle/Tacoma) I’ve also spent considerable amounts of my life in rural America as well. I like rural America. Good down-to-earth people there. The sames goes for Thailand. I’ve lived in Thalland’s major cities (Bangkok, Korat, Chiang Mai), but I prefer rural Thailand - cobras and all. Good down-to-earth people here too.
Right now it’s Dogs 1, Stick 1, Brooms 5, Cobras 0. But that can always change.
A proper amount of caution, vigilance, and paranoia never hurts.
A computer. Yeah, I did work on these. And your Android Smartphone has more computing power then this had.
A personal computer. I kept one of these until I moved to Thailand after divorce number 3. At that time my life sounded like a country-western song. Sold EVERYTHING, (including that AT which I really wanted to keep.) Quit one of the most thankless jobs in IT that i’ve ever had and took early retirement, packed what was left after an estate sale into a backpack and a computer bag, boarded a plane to Thailand at LAX, and never looked back.
Life’s Lessons: You only have one life. If it ain’t working for you? Change what your doing while you are still relatively young and do something different. Like? Learning guitar!!!
Ok - enough about me. Future posts will be actual baseline videos and comments about learning guitar.
Better? By the way, I always wondered why people posted those AWFUL portrait videos where the sides are all blurry. I thought it was an option in their camera. Now I know that it’s added by Youtube to any portrait video you submit. I won’t be submitting any more of those. Ugggh.
One thing I’ve found which is a limation to my setup. You’re not going to see my face in my playing videos as I have to be close enough to the Samsung Galaxy for the microphone to pick up the sound. So ya’ll will see guitar, hands, and that’s about it. Anyone who wishes to admire and adulate my handsome mug will have to scroll up to these still pictures while I play.
Close but no cigar regarding your video framing. Your strumming hand is still out of shot.
I also use a phone for my AVoYP videos and with a bit of experimentation with things ie. distance from camera to mouth and acoustic guitar or distance from camera to mouth and amp volume for electric guitar, perfectly decent results can be achieved. Certainly more than acceptable for what’s required here.
Many others of course are into much more hi-tech audio/visual stuff but that’s a rabbit hole you may or may not wish to go down.
I think you’ve set yourself quite a difficult target with your choice of ‘funk’ song but I’m sure with work and practise you’ll get there.
As you said yourself in an earlier post, the key thing is to work through Justin’s lesson’s and get a solid foundation in the basics.
I’ve just order a Blue Tooth microphone for the Android. Equivalent to $10 buck so you never know what quality your gonna get until you get it here in Thailand. Hopefully that will allow me to back away from the phone, i.e, strumming.
As far as ‘a difficult target.’ I don’t see it that way. It’s in my “Developers” list. It will take time and practice unlike something like the the solos to Comfortably Numb which probably will be a long-term goal. In the meanwhile I need to work with some Grade 1 level songs to get in my “Growers” list to keep Beat On The Brat company, then work to get 5 to 7 of them into my Campfire list before the end of the year. That’s a good 3 month goal. Sex Machine isn’t going to be in my Grower’s list this year. Gotta give more attention to the foundation work first.
I have plenty to keep me occupied at different levels for quite awhile. I’m a happy camper.
A Journey: One step in front of the other while heading toward a destination.
One should stay in the moment and enjoy the journey.
I’m going to make “Wild Thing” my first Campfire Song. Let’s make a dead-line for a video - September 20th. Stand-by. (lights, camera, action - hopefully I have my new Blue Tooth microphone by then).
I work best with a ton of structure as well as hard deadlines.
If I fail to deliver!!! Ya’ll can needle me, rib me, conjole me till the cows come home and I’m shamed into publishing the song. Deal?
Good luck on your campfire song, I hope you reach your deadline. I am like you, give me a deadline to work to and I find it a lot easier to concentrate. As long as the deadline is not too soon to be impossible
Yeah, my middle name is “Procrastination,” so if I don’t have goals and deadlines, nothing gets done. Which is why after almost 2 years of guitar playing I’ve only learned one song. I’m beginning to think that “A Song A Week” derived from the Grade Level I’m working on is a good set of short-term goals to start filling out my Campfire Songs.
Reading through your log was quite entertaining, you seem to be enthousiasic and very motivated, that’s great.
Good luck with that! I made the experience, that it takes me much, much longer to get a song to a decent level . And there is no point to say it’s done…there’s always something more to refine…
Good approach to live in the moment, as you wrote above, and being happy with that!
You have posted some fun beginning videos of yourself. You have set your goals high and there is no problem with that as long as you are having fun and not let yourself get discouraged. If you have your sights set on Funk, then I recommend focusing on all the strumming tips that Justin gives in the regular beginning lessons and in many of the beginner (grade 1 and 2 and even 3) song lesson videos. Have fun learning all the songs and watch your step when you are outdoors.
Great idea to start a LL, it’s good to look back on as you progress.
“Get on the scene, like a Sex Machine!” 
Root 9 and 13 started pounding away in my head and my foot tapped out 16 note scratches, hits, and mutes. My inner Jimmy Nolen howled, “OWWWWWWWWWWWW Baby, one two three four HIT IT…”
paradise? 
“But everyone knows how Android works.”
Here - let me date myself.
Make it so Number 1!!!"
. And there is no point to say it’s done…there’s always something more to refine…