Lisa's Learning Log

Lisa_S · September 29, 2026, 8:26pm

Time for a little update here.

On October 1st, BLIM 5 kicks off and I am happy to participate again. Could not spend as much time with the prep module due to stuff I will mention in a moment, but I am looking forward to doing it again and hope to get a lot more out of the course since the last time around (it won’t help that the nasty cold and cough season already started again, but there’s a tiny ray of hope it won’t hit us as hard as last time). At least, I managed to do another base line recording, which I will also share here:

It felt a little rusty, to be honest. I paused my blues activities in the past months after the course to focus on songwriting for a change and I definitely see and feel it in my playing. My bends got a little worse again with regard to my whole arm/shoulder moving. I will put effort in this again. Also, I’m still so lost when trying to improvise and I can’t play anything fast, too. A lot to work on, but that’s what BLIM is made for.

The past two months I spent in a songwriting sprint with HTWS and @dominique7 was my fellow in this one as well. It was/is fun and definitely challenging to get a song down in only two weeks. But the good thing is, there are three new originals of which one I already shared here, two are drafts that want to be finished and posted hopefully before the end of the year and the final one is in the making. That feels good!

In any case, I’m so glad I get a little more time making music and playing my guitar again.

CATMAN62 · September 29, 2026, 11:10pm

Hi Beenie!
Imagine my surprise a couple of days ago when I was flicking through “Shorts” on YouTube when you popped up!!! I was like… “Hey!!! I know this girl!!!”
You did a good job advertising BLIM… I was excited to hear you play!!! I’ll try to post the link here…

https://youtube.com/shorts/t_lBB17Wqi0?is=a8-WspuNFs7U4oTX

Have fun with BLIM refresher training!!!

Tod

dominique7 · September 30, 2026, 3:10pm

Thank you, Tod, this is a great testimonial!

Lisa, you leaned so much!
And I think you kept much more than I did. It seems l have to start all over every time, my brain has a lot of holes where the licks fall through…
Gladly the technique slowly improves (I tell myself).

Lisa_S · September 30, 2026, 6:26pm

@CATMAN62

Hi Tod,

thanks for checking in here, leaving some kind words and sharing the link to my testimonial.

It worked just fine… and it is so awkward to hear myself talk. After all those years, I got used to hearing me sing on recordings, but talking… man, that’s a totally different story. And I’m wondering if we were out of combs that day.

@dominique7

Hi Dominique,

thanks for your encouraging words! You are way too kind to me and to hard on yourself. I think you learned so much as well. Also, you are not alone with forgetting things, my brain has mastered this technique long time ago.

Socio · October 3, 2026, 10:44pm

Not only is she knocking out some fine originals, she knocing out some fine improvs. I can hear a lot of the blim licks shining in the piece. Now here’s a question for you, who do you take the most inspiration from as a blues guitar player?

AvalonJ · October 4, 2026, 6:14am

Hey Lisa
Hope you’re feeling better
You are sounding great, I love that slide you did (what’s it called?)
I might need to take BLIM too - maybe next time

I saw your BLIM testimonial reel on Instagram. It was great, you sounded and looked great too (it definitely did not look as though you needed a comb )

Have lots of fun in BLIM 5, looking forward to the updates, and hearing your other originals too

Silvia80 · October 4, 2026, 11:26am

Hey hey…your updates now are more frequent

Your testimonial for BLIM was really great and you do sound great! Also this last shared recording, I was wondering if you’re improvising, as it shows you’re building some confidence really nicely

It doesn’t show, not really, but I think I know what you mean as I’ve started improvising recently (way simpler than this with the Major Scale Pattern 1) and it always feels like “ok where am I going now?” before I get to know where I am at, but there’s no time for thinking,I just need to keep moving my fingers…it is so much fun nevertheless!

I wish you a lot of fun with BLIM5, and again thank you for the kind thought of wanting me in your study group, it so uplifted my spirits! @dominique7 after your message came Lisa’s testimonial which was so inspirational and now this last lesson from Justin about mixing Rhythm and Lead which really makes me want to play some Blues one day! Not in the near future, though but I’ll be happy and privileged as well to follow your progress.

Lisa_S · October 4, 2026, 7:51pm

Thank you all for your kindness!

@Socio

Thank you, James. I am trying to get on with the improvisations. At least I am getting closer to real improvisations, finally. But often, I do a few runs through my ideas before I records. So it is only half of an impro.

This is an excellent question and I had to think about that quite a while. I am still so much more into acoustic playing, so the early blues players like Robert Johnson or Blind Lemon Jefferson float my boat among others - for more contemporary ones, Justin Johnson is of course a go to, but I’m far from putting anything of his style into my playing. I also like Bonnie Raitt.
For electric blues, I think BB King is the most influencial for me so far. The way he milks a few notes to make great music is mindblowing. But on the other hand, I still have to discover so much, I’m sure the list will grow.

Who are your inspirations? Always keen to get to know some new music.

@AvalonJ

Thank you, Jasmine. You are too kind (to me and my hair ).

It is one of the licks being taught in BLIM. It is a slide down from the root note (A in that case), one note - great effect. I would need to rewatch the lesson now, but one of the Kings (I think BB) uses it as signature lick and I love it too.

Yes, I can’t recommend it more than enough. It is such a great course with so many things to take home and keep on working on. And it’s lots of fun too with all the peers doing the same stuff at the same time.

@Silvia80

Thank you, Silvia.

It is not a “true improvistaion” as in: I play the backing track, start recording and that’s it. What I did here and in the testimonial. I put on the BT and started playing without a plan, then kept the bits I liked and put them together and hit record after a couple of practice runs. So the idea evolves out of an impro, but I’m not yet skilled enough for on spot improvisations. Working on it.

Oh I totally get this! But the good news is: It really gets easier the more you do it. At least in a standard 12-bar blues I kind of start to feel where I am and what chord comes next an when. That was one of my major achievements during first BLIM.

Most welcome, Silvia! Whenever you are ready, you will get this and still, I would love to join the ride with you when it is about time.

AvalonJ · October 5, 2026, 1:12am

I love this! Such a great idea!

Socio · October 5, 2026, 6:50pm

I would say I really like Daniel Casto’s playing, his take on I’ll play the blues for you has to be my favourite blues tunes. I quite like some of Eric Gales songs with his pentatonic runs but particularly enjoy the song somebody featuring Buddy Guy. Then there’s Kingfish who’s such a great player and Ally Venables. So many too choose from but I think you take inspiration from them all and build it into your vocabulary and style.