Sairfingers’ Learning Log

Hi Gordon, happy 5th guitar anniversary. Just follow whatever inspires you. Once basic dexterity is achieved, and you’re well beyond that, the options are endless. So many genres, songs and techniques to go for. I think you can guilt free alternate between progressing in one direction and later in another. There’s no actual road to follow and maybe no actual destination to reach except having fun playing the guitar. Keep us posted.

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That’s a really nice update Gordon, at the end of the day if you’re happy playing then there’s no need to question what you’re learning or if you’re spreading yourself thinly imo. I’ve enjoyed all your AVOYP postings as well as your OM performances.
Wishing you another happy guitar year!

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You’ve given me undue credit there Mark. I haven’t done an OM. :grinning:

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Well colour me confused!! That’s what going away for a week does to my brain :face_with_peeking_eye::confounded:
Apologies!

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Forgive me Gordon, for being late to the party. Excuses are in my LL :grin:
As I said in your AVoYP posts, you inspire me. 5 years in and you are killing it!
Here’s to continued fun and learning :tumbler_glass:

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Thought I should add a link to this thread as there is a lot of learning and fun going on. After all, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it. :smiley:
Have guitar, will travel, but without Justin’s lessons. Edit : Now in France! :fr:

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Maybe even a wee song recorded in France by the barbecue camp fire on your portable recording equipment that you took with you :grinning:

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It’s such a pleasure reading through your Learning Log. When I came to the last entries, I thought this wouldn’t be complete without the adventures of your shrinking guitar in France… And there you went already :slightly_smiling_face:

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Well, this is a Learning Log so as I’ve learned something new I thought I should add it in here.

Video editing. I tried it once a few years ago and tried to cut out the beginning and end camera on/off bits from one of my AVoYPs using the basic video editor on my iPhone. However I did something wrong and lost my video, ending up with only the beginning and end bits! :woozy_face:

Fast forward to last week. I decided I needed to up my game to compete with some of the videos others members post. I wanted to have a go at tidying up my latest AVoYP and at the very least cut out the aforementioned camera on/off bits.
I downloaded a free version of DaVinci Resolve which is suitable for use on my iPad and which I’d seen mentioned by someone in the JG Community.
As always with new tech there was a bit of a learning curve but it was fairly intuitive and I found instructional videos on the web.
Beginning and end cut. Done, great, what else can I do? Add titles. Done, albeit very simple ones. Then I discovered I could zoom in and out sections of the video and as the song had an instrumental bit I added that effect there. Then transitional fades between sections.

Job done, that’s enough. In my mind I remember back in the day when MS PowerPoint appeared on the scene at work. People would create presentations for training lectures etc and use every effect possible. Text of every font and colour flying in from every direction, graphics fading in and out all over the place. All very distracting until people realised that less was more.

Clearly I’ve only scratched the surface of what this very clever video editor can do, but it’s enough for now.
The result of my effort is here.
Sweet Virginia - The Rolling Stones

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Gordon @sairfingers
Be careful sounds like another rabbit hole!!!:rabbit2:
Michael

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What a great learning log. Great writing and your organization skill is something we should all strive for. Just a guess, but your organization skill is probably the super power that got you playing so well in just a few years.

Your list of songs has a considerable overlap with the songs I’ve tried over the years. If fact it seemed a bit uncanny. Four Strong Winds and I’m looking through you are not on many people’s lists, but they are on mine. Bunch of others too. I was hoping the Layla song was the one from Unplugged (I like playing that one too) but the link appears to be broken.

Ramblings in Dm sounded so great. Very musical, great rhythm and tone.

Finally, some equipment overlap: D-28 and an electric. I have a Strat style electric, but we do share a Katana 50.

Your progress and ability to share are aspirational. Thanks.

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Thanks so much for wading your way through my LL Mitch. Much appreciated.
Regarding our overlapping song choices/tastes. I’m a bit stuck in the 60s/70s as those are the songs of my youth. I’m guessing you may be the same vintage as me. :smiley:
As for any organisational skills, you’re giving me undue credit. I’m a bit “what’ll I do today” I’m afraid. :smile: There is an overall plan I suppose but nothing like some others in the Community who have it all planned out and recorded in spreadsheets and suchlike.
So we share the same model acoustic too! Yes I enjoy playing my D28, SG and my PRS parlour although to be honest the SG has been neglected recently.
If I’ve inspired you in any way that’s terrific. I’ve been inspired by many others here so as Justin says “pay it forward”.

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Hi Gordon, I’m happy to read you succeed in your video editing attempt and I’m also happy to read the Da Vinci software turned out to be intuitive as one day or the other I’ll want to try it out. Jeff mentioned and reccomended it to me as well.

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I only briefly stuck my head in the hole Michael! :smiley:

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And got more than a :rabbit2:

No need for you to compete as the content of your posts have always been great but good to see you taking that leap into video production. Now when are you getting that DAW? :wink:

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Well, the long dark nights are looming so I thought I’d try learning a couple of ‘techie’ things.

The first one is to create a digital song book. I’ve been following a discussion here so I’ve downloaded Songbook Pro onto my iPad. Up until now I’ve transcribed songs by ear (as best I can) then written them out by hand or used Ultimate Guitar tabs and printed them out. This of course results in lots of sheets of paper. I like sheets of paper but feel I should be moving with the times. :grin: Anyway I’ll give it a go and see how I get on.

The second one is to give the built into my iPad GarageBand DAW a go. I’ve looked at this before and not got anywhere with it. At the moment I can’t work out how to plug my guitar into my iPad! There is a load of tutorial stuff on the internet of course, but I’ve yet to find something that is at my non existant level of knowledge. But as I said, the long dark nights loom so……….

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Good to hear you’re getting all techie for the dark nights.

If I recall correctly people either use the i-rig or apogee jam to connect their guitars to their ipads. Focusrite have also got an interface unit too. Lots of options. @Majik could probably give you a better view on which would be best for you if you haven’t got one already.

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Sorry, I have no view of iPad or iOS audio devices, as I don’t own or use them (except for occasional testing).

I would suspect that audio interfaces for that platform are much of a muchness: if they are listed as working with iPad then they probably all work equally as well. Bear in mind that any “class compliant” audio interface should work with most phones and tablets these days.

(A “class-compliant” audio device is one that follows the USB specifications precisely and doesn’t need drivers as it can use the standard USB audio driver built into the device)

Cheers,

Keith

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Gordon, for this you need a USB powered hub, something like this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B08ZKSK6MB/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_plhdr=t&aaxitk=11e8f317bd95112f9295202b632894e5&hsa_cr_id=4648050470002&qid=1695984014&sr=1-2-e0fa1fdd-d857-4087-adda-5bd576b25987&ref_=sbx_be_s_sparkle_lsi4d_asin_1_title&pd_rd_w=NftXO&content-id=amzn1.sym.25f7c301-a223-4ff8-91c9-accfeab9fda8%3Aamzn1.sym.25f7c301-a223-4ff8-91c9-accfeab9fda8&pf_rd_p=25f7c301-a223-4ff8-91c9-accfeab9fda8&pf_rd_r=7WP63TQGXT1C5M9DKJCB&pd_rd_wg=bxpot&pd_rd_r=5c908116-58e7-4db6-87e1-7dc04284294c

And also an apple connector, there are much cheaper non apple versions but I’d recommend you stick with apple.

The above has a lighting connector for an ipad, you’ll need a different version if you have an iPad with USBC.

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@sairfingers this shows you all you need to know, as above make sure your apple adaptor is Usbc or lightning as appropriate.

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