So to bring my backstory up to the current time, I’ve mentioned elsewhere that my other great hobby is railway modelling, when my last daughter got her own place, I decided to relocate my model railway layout to another room. I doing this, it liberated the guitars and amps that had been stored behind it and were inaccessible. I started to go through stuff probably with a mind to see what I could get rid off. And in true guitarist fashion, I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t bare to part with any of it. But in dragging myself through this I discovered that the mojo that had eluded me for so long had returned. So just coming up to retirement age I decided to pick up the guitar again.
I promised to try to resist jumping ahead in my JG journey but, now in Grade 3, I’m finding there may be a certain amount of repetition (or maybe I’d already watched the lessons and forgot I had) so I have had a sneak preview of later lessons. But I like to go through every stage as there are hidden gems buried that can be discovered; currently reviewing string bending which again I’ve never really “practiced”.
Any pictures handy that you could share of the model railway? I don’t share the hobby, but do enjoy looking at the layouts. And I do know one of my most favourite musical role models, Neil Young, is quite into that with his son and worked on sound for model trains at some point (even owned a share in one of the companies, if I recall correctly)
@DavidP Not just him but Jools Holland, Rod Stewart and of course Pete Waterman who once owned the Flying Scotsman IIRC.
This video is years old but everything on this layout is handmade including the track. You can see the guitars in their cases and music books atop in the corner behind…
Returning to the vexed issue of improvisation, when I play a song, such as “A Million Miles Away” by Rory Gallagher, when I attempt the fills and riffs around the F chord I play the same fill every time. Yet he played everyone different. I don’t have the mind to think of so many variants. And I bet he never played it the same twice too. So the only way I can sound like RG is to copy exactly what he played in my own way. Here’s an example of AMMA and there is serious guitar playing in this clip after the intro:
Thanks for sharing the train video, Peter. That is quite something, another that I imagine can have significant associated GAS building up all the rolling stock, track, and even building scenery etc.
RG is just fantastic. I think fair to say he’d be one of those under-appreciated guitarists, a little outside the mainstream of players majority know. Perhaps a little like Peter Green.
Now that I have discovered you can filter the songs on JG website by Grade, I have come up with this shortlist of songs to learn as I go through and to give me more focus. Currently I’m on the first module of Grade 3:
Ziggy Stardust has to be in there to get me to overcome the 4 finger G chord! Gently Weeps is in here twice because it appears as both a Grade 3 and 4 song. I’ve got more Grade 6 songs listed than any others but I already know these anyway as I do all of them.
You will notice my list of songs choice, as an advanced player, is quite specific. I want to master blues guitar and particularly in the styles of the guitarists featured in the list above. With a couple of exceptions they feature guitarists I have already mentioned except for Jimi Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix was the one I admired and followed from an early stage but could never work out what he was playing. This is my dreamer song:
I also have an interest in acoustic country blues so might slip a few of these in. Players such as Rev Gary Davis, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake.
Writing this log I’m beginning to feel like Jessica Parker penning her latest column in Sex And The City the title of this one being “Can an old dog really learn new tricks?”.
I was very fortunate that I learnt to play guitar in my teenage years when you must learn quicker and easier. So to answer the question “Can an old dog really learn new tricks?” the answer is yes but VERY slowly. Stuff already I know just falls lout of my hands but learning something new is frustratingly hard. For example the 4 finger G chord I still can’t get and this totally baffles me. Also the song “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”, must have been one of the songs that drew me to JG initially but can I play it? No.
I have therefore recently acquired a greater appreciation for the older learners on here who persevere with their lessons. Keep going folks I say. Hopefully I’ll finally master the 4 finger G enough so I can put an AVOYP on here of me playing Ziggy Stardust. Until then more OMC’s in my practice routine.
I hear you Peter. Much as I don’t like to consider myself an older learner I most certainly am, but if nothing else I hope I am a slight example of practice paying off, even if it’s more practice than I wish it was!
Hi Peter, I’ve been always kind of a slow learner, but I think that have helped me to learn better some things so I do not get overly frustrated when something takes me more time to learn that I would like. I learnt the basics of guitar as teenager like you so when I started taking Justin Guitar lessons from the basics and not jumping ahead was with the aim of refreshing and improving my guitar skills. Now than the previous knowledge well I can draw from is starting to dry, newer skills can take me a while to get a minimum proficiency with them. I don’t think that necessarily I would have learnt faster earlier in my life and I wouldn’t have had the commitment and resources to do it.
Earlier this week I went to bed on Module 16 of Grade 3. The next day I was back to Grade 2. I half hoped that, in the upgrade on JG.com, it might have forgotten my progress on Grade 3 as I am finding that a hard slog and I would have jumped to Grade 4. Anyway, last night I completed Module 16 having finally watched all the way through a 35 minute lesson on moving open chord shapes. There was one nugget of wisdom in there in that you can’t use a 9th on the 3rd chord i.e. Bmin9 when in G = verbotten…
Yesterday my PC laptop stopped working and for a while I had a blue screen of death. I managed to get it back up and running. I had previously recorded a solo of sorts on “Wishing On A Star” and have stuck that version on the AVOYP. I think the videos are taking up a lot of disc space on my ancient laptop which is running windows 8, no longer supported by Microsoft. So I have deleted videos to relieve some disc space and hopefully it will stay alive long enough for the OM. Otherwise I have Zoom on my iPhone so it might be on that.
In the meantime I’ve completed Grade 3: Module 17 - nearly an intermediate now!
Anyone that has followed my ramblings on here will know that my passion is the 2nd wave British Blues players (the 1st wave being BBKing etc.) And most notably Rory Gallagher, Paul Kossoff and Peter Green. In Module 17 Justin talks about focusing your goals so I thought that styuding 3 diverse styles would be too much. Some may think that those 3 were all the same but they all had different styles. Rory and Koss were quite unique but Peter Green was more of a straight blues player. For those that don’t know he replaced Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers and is the only one BB King claimed gave him cold sweats. So I was concluding to consolidate my studies of Peter Green.
Pure coincidence, yesterday I had an email from Gibson launching a Peter Green signature Les Paul “Greeny” now owned by Kirk Hamnett. The hand made Gibson Custom Shop aged versions at $50,000 are already sold out. Damn! The next level of spec are $19,999 (about what I paid for my first flat!). But they say they are doing a non-aged Standard so I might be tempted if it’s at a reasonable price.
In continuation of my treatise on older guitarist not being able to improvise. Here is said Kirk Hamnett playing “Greeny” at Mick Fleetwood’s get together to celebrate Peter Green. The song is Green Manalishi which is one I am trying to fine-tune at the mo. Kirk’s solo is decidely mediocre and that’s not just my opinion read the comments. You would have thought that on such an occasion he might have come up with something better. Green himself did play solos on this live and I have a recording so he could have copied that. But Green was about 24 when he left Fleetwood Mac and was much younger proving my point:
Thanks David. Yes that is the live version of Manalishi that I was referring to. I think that was recorded in Boston and nowhere near Sweden. Legend has it the the solo at the very end Green is playing it on a six string bass guitar! I believe there is a new CD of the FM Boston gig but I’ve not found it yet in HMV. The sound on that might be better. I have numerous bootlegs of live concerts where the sound quality is considerably worse than this example though. Most were recorded on battery operated portable cassette players back in the day.
Andertons now has this listed at £3,000. I don’t know how they can justify a price tag of twice that of a standard just cos it’s a signature model? Despite being a massive Peter Green fan, I’m less tempted as way out of my price range.
Pretty much finished Grade 3. Need to do Grade 3 of the music Theory. I also skipped the lessons on Happy Birthday and Greensleeves so might go back and do these just in case there were any gems I missed.
Despite my best intentions, after dragging my brain through several lessons on the E shape Barre chord, I’ve skipped around in the Blues Guitar lessons which is where my heart really lies. These have been both Grade 4 and 5 so I’m somewhere in there at the moment. I occasionally go back and do a lesson I’ve skipped over.
I think I might have mentioned that, before I started right back at the beginning, I had already done the non-Jazz portions of Grade 6. I guess that from then onwards advanced equates to learning jazz guitar. That’s until more Grades are available.
Well after a year’s absence I’m back with the guitar. After work, I found that I was just crashing out on the sofa at night in front of the TV so needed something to occupy and stretch my brain. This means learning new things and perfecting what I already know.
I’ve started looking at the Jazz elements of level 6. I’ll go back and fill in anything I’ve missed on the other levels.
It’s interesting to see on here currently that a number of people are working on Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits. This is a piece I have wanted to do and particularly due to the guitar tone.
There comes a point in this guitar journey when your fingers can play whatever your brain tells them to do. And from that point, the limiting factor becomes the brain and not your technique. The challenge in Brothers in Arms for me is remembering all the parts and that’s a brain issue. Interestingly the likes of Knopfler play these things differently live and not identical to the recording.
So I’ve found and gone through Justin’s lesson on BIA. But I’m beginning to wonder if I’m more likely to learn/remember the parts if I discover them for myself…
In the meantime, I read that I had previously nailed my colours to the Peter Green mast and committed to focusing on his stuff. However, I’ve found that it’s Paul Kossoff and his body of work that’s motivated me again to come back this time so I’m back on that road at the mo.
