19. Januar 2024
Project ‘Play with others!’ is coming along slowly:
I’ve had a friend over for a few days who likes to sing, and we made some music together. It was awesome! We only had three songs in common, though (Eleanor Rigby, Country Roads, Über den Wolken) so they gave me a lot of new songs they like to sing. I’m slowly checking them out, and so far, I’ve found a few tutorials for ‘Me and Bobby McGee’. I’ll put all the others in a list at the bottom, so I don’t forget. I also asked another friend for a Christmas song, and they gave me ‘Fairytale of New York’, so it goes on the list as well. I also found a teacher who is living roughly in my neighbourhood, and I’m not sure if I can afford it, but I might just check him out for a few lessons if he’s OK with it.
List of songs to check out: Me and Bobby McGee, Sugar Mountain (Neil Young), San Francisco Nights (Eric Burdon…), Living Life (Kathy McCarthy), Sweet Baby James, People are strange (The Doors), Father and Son, Peace Train (Cat Stevens), Dein Anblick (Schandmaul), Schritt für Schritt (Ton Steine Scherben), Paloma Negra, La Llorona (Chavella Vargas), Ever Fallen in love… (Buzzcocks), Country Joe and the Fish, You got to hide your love away, I should have known better, Can’t buy me love, Lelia, The Sidewinders (REM), Bella Ciao
I really like muddling my way through ‘Sweet Baby James’. It’s one of Justin’s earlier videos, so not everything is explained in every detail. I think I got the chords now where they should be, even without the video. I love the little embellishments, and so I’m learning them as well from the beginning, even though I probably should concentrate on the chords, really, especially that pesky B minor barre. But, quite frankly, the embellishments also help me remember what chord is next, and they are what’s making this fun, so there
‘Me and Bobby McGee’ is a bit more difficult. I’m practicing the difficult bits, but I have not yet played it through completely, because I find the chords kinda boring, and my singing is not good enough to make it fun. And I’m also not fast enough yet to play with the recording, which is a shame.
I seem to have some problems now with F barre chord. I am shifting my guitar position around a lot atm, and most of them seem to hurt my hand a lot more when I play it. F# minor barre is easier, so is B barre in this respect. I don’t have a solution to this yet, I’m just watching it for now.
3. Februar 2025
I did a deep dive into ‘Sweet Baby James’ today, which means I put it in my song book, and spent entirely too long listening both to the original recording and Justin’s lesson a few times. I spent most of that time figuring out how many bars on each chord at the end of the phrases, and what Justin does in there with the hammer-on’s, since he does not explain it.
I’ve also worked on my timing. First by ‘playing’ along with the original (it was mostly just strumming along with no chords, with one or two chords in there when I got lucky. The original is fast, y’all), and then using a metronome on 60 bpm because I noticed a tendency to play the easy chords faster and slow down for the barre chords. I’ve also played it without embellishments for this, concentrating on timing and chord changes, and only added some frills when changing into easy chords, mostly to get used to hammer-on’s with a metronome.
I’m learning this one to play with my friend when we meet again, but it will be some time. I have written to a local teacher and asked for a few lessons, but he hasn’t responded yet.
26. Februar 2025
I haven’t been up to much, election and other personal stuff are wearing me down. I try to practice every day, but it often feels like everything is just overwhelming, and I don’t feel in the mood for music. Community aspects especially feel like something I’m never be able to do atm, which I know in my head is bullshit, and the exact opposite of what we all need right now, but my heart is just not feeling it.
Whenever I do get into it, it does help with all of the rage, and frustration, and overwhelming sadness I’m trying to process, so I try my best to play as much as possible.
maybe lame and not your thing at all…but those flowers have helped me an incredibly often when I was lying down in the grass feeling … well …uh …not that good… but also in good times so, I still enjoy watching them here every year when they come out en masse…although my view is very different from this photo…
Good luck and keep playing the guitar, the power of music is certainly as big ( of course nature is full of music Attenborough’s Wonder of Song is a nice docu)
26. März 2025
I think I’m slowly getting out of that slump I’ve been in for a while. How do I know? I’ve been playing more again, and - as usual - I love every minute. I’ve returned to Free Fallin, which has sadly fallen by the wayside a bit. It’s still every bit as gorgeous (and as finger-confusing^^) as I remember, though.
I find that I need to break up songs/chord practice by some string melodies frequently, or my fingers get stiff and won’t move as well, so I’m going to look into more chord melodies, or solos, maybe some Blues licks, etc. I haven’t really gotten into something new in quite a while; I’ve been focussing on getting my barre chords right, and everything new I’ve tried didn’t really stick for some reason. Something to look into.
The thing with the guitar teacher didn’t work out in the end, but I’m still playing with my friend as often as we can. They even wrote a song in a spur-of-the-moment thing, and they said they were inspired by our sessions together, which is just awww
I’ve been trying to transcribe it into notation, but it’s not as easy as you might think. Just finding out the rhythm was difficult, but we think it’s in 6/8, which would make sense since a lot of their favourite songs are, too. It’s a work in progress, that’s for sure
14. April 2025
Not much playing has occured, life is lifeing a bit too much atm. But I think I got the strumming for ‘California Dreaming’ today, yay! It’s not on my friend’s list, but it has been on my own from the beginning. Also, it has two melody parts, so we can sing different things if we like. ‘Father and Son’ I did almost perfectly as well, only forgot the lyrics for the last verse, which happens a lot. Love that song, it feels really good to play.
Maybe ‘People are strange’ (The Doors) next? It looks a little complicated, but maybe it’s a good challenge? The last challenge was/is ‘Sweet Baby James’, and I’m getting there, so I need a new one. ‘Living Life’ (Kathy McCarthy) looks easier, so maybe that one, too?
9. Mai 2025
I did not start a new song, because shockingly, having to pack up my home so plumbers and electritians can put in complete new electric cords and waterpipes is not very encouraging to learning, especially when you’re also lying in bed with a cold at the same time. Who would have thunk it? I did a little bit of my own renovations, though, and finally put the mosaic glass tiles down in my bathroom that I’ve had for 5+ years.
Now that the chaos (and the cold) have subsided a little, I finally had the headspace today to dig into something again, and I decided I’d learn the solo for ‘Father & Son’. It’s not that difficult tbh, but the rhythm is kinda tricky in parts. I love Lauren Bateman’s version of the solo, it sounds really cool. I think I got it down, but I’ll have to test how much I’ve retained tomorrow.
