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.
I played ‘Father and Son’ for my mum on Saturday, with the solo, and the dynamics, and going all out with the singing as I don’t often do for myself. It felt real good. My mum doesn’t speak English, but she does know the song, and she appreciated it nonetheless. I even got her to sing along to ‘Keine ruhige Minute’ and the chorus of ‘Yellow Submarine’, and apparently, some neighbours were listening through the open window as well^^ Which just goes to show that music should be shared, no matter your skill level.
I have started on two new songs, ‘People are strange’ by The Doors, and ‘Loosing my religion’ by R.E.M., and I’ve gotta say, the rhythm on on the first one is a bit tricky. As for the latter, I have to find out how to do insta-mute for the upstrums, especially when I also want to build up to ‘Sunny Afternoon’ one day. I think I’ll ask here in General Questions, if I can’t find something like it.
Note to myself: remember those songs you wanted to either get right or started learning a bit and then forgot. Namely these:
Tigerlily, People are Strange, Living Life, Californication, Let Her Go, Major Tom, The Joker, Teenage Dirtbag, Jolene, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Free Fallin’, Bei Ilse und Willi
26. August 2025
Time is a weird soup, isn’t it? I’ve had over half a year to think about what to gift my nibling when they’re born, and it is only now, two days after they were born, and four days until I travel to see them, that I had the idea of “hey, you could take your guitar and sing for them”. That was yesterday night, btw, when I was lying in my bed, tossing and turning. And because I could’nt really sleep anyway, I ended up looking up songs to sing for a freshly born babe. I found this version of a popular German birthday song (starts at 3:04)
Since I’m not the parents, I had to change a bit of the lyrics, going with this for the verses:
Jetzt beginnt dein Leben, endlich bist du da
Wir ham schon drauf gewartet mehr als ein halbes Jahr
Willkommen in der Welt draußen von Mamas Bauch
||:Deine Eltern freun sich und wir natürlich auch :||
Viel zu hell und laut ist deine neue Welt
Mach die Augen zu und träum was dir gefällt.
Wir sind für dich da, wo immer wir auch sind
(denn)||: du gehörst zu uns, bist auch ein [Nachname]-Kind:||
Now I only have to practice a fingerstyle version as much as I can in the next four days, finish the quilt I’m making as a gift, and ideally also have time to sew a plushie, two onesies, and a bag to put it all in, and also make a card to go with it. Probably not really doable, but I’m gonna try anyway^^
6. September 2025
I ended up recording for my nibling, which was good because we did not have much time when I visited my sister. I also did not finish all the presents, but the freshly-baked parents were very happy about the quilt and the plushie.
Since I’m back, I have been playing more regularly, and for more time, too. I just finished a several hours long session, where I hopefully finally memorised the chords for the Country Roads bridge. For some reason, they would not stay in my brain for love or money, so I wrote the whole thing down in my song book. Hopefully, that finally seals the deal. I’ve also changed some embellishments for Sweet Baby James, and tried to make it sound more like a song overall, by adding a few strums here and there. It’s by far the most complicated song in my repertoire, and I’m nowhere near original speed, but you can still sing to it, which is the goal. I also put some chord embellishments on Breakfast at Tiffany’s, since I have still not given up on the chord shape explorers. The flick-off is really difficult, but fun to get wrong, too^^
While working on Country Roads, I noticed how much smoother the Mini-F comes to my fingers, now that I have played a few songs with the chord, but where it is not the most complicated thing (e.g. Loosing my Religion). Also, when I practiced some chord changes from F# minor to G or to B, I was surprised how clear the barre chords ring out now. Looks like practice really does work, huh?
I also found this version of Bella Ciao, and I love it. Nice, easy, and so very hummable. It feels very musical to me, because I can manipulate speed and dynamics easily to make it sound good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-O6PSKMqvU
Discovering six string fingerpicking through another thread here is a revelation. They have an easy version of Scarborough Fair, which is just delightful, since my sister loves the song, but I had to stop practising the original because my guitar sounds horrible in those high registers. This is a great compromise! They also have an easy version of Brahm’s Lullaby, which I was delighted to find out is the fancy name for the lullabye I knew as just ‘Guten Abend, Gute Nacht’, and which is, coincidentally, my mum’s favourite song since we were kids. For other songs, I can now pick and choose which songs I want to learn fingerstyle, and which I want to learn rhythm guitar style, and that is very, very cool.
I was playing through my songs today, and for some reason, everything felt way more musical than usual. And while practicing the more difficult parts of the easy Scarborough Fair, I realised for the first time what a pleasing, somehow round movement of the fingers this particular part of the arrangement was:
30. September 2025
I have Scarborough Fair almost memorized now, there’s just one or two parts where I regularly get confused for a moment, before finding it again. It really is a lovely arrangement. My D-chord variations for Breakfast at Tiffany’s are coming along nicely, though singing to 16th note strumming is still impossible, apparently. Variations on Sweet Baby James also coming along nicely, though I still don’t have it a tempo.
I’ve started with some easy triads, which is fun atm, but I neither have a looper nor a jamming buddy, so we’ll see for how long it remains so. But I do enjoy using the fretboard more. I’m also noticing how bad the notes sound up there, and how far away the strings are from the fret board, and my wish for a new, better guitar intensifies. I would love to get a better acoustic, an electric with the simplest set up, and a looper, but alas, the money!
I’m also getting more into barre chords, and hand positions for it, and I noticed how tense my fretting hand is even on normal chords. My wrist is positioning weird, I think, and I am experimenting with getting my thumb more in a position to mute the base strings on normal chords, while not also muting the high e string with my palm. It relaxes my wrist a lot, even though it is not an easy feat even for my big hands, seeing as my acoustic guitar has quite a big neck. (even more reason to buy a better one, to have it easier for once^^).
Started on Fast Car from six string, and it’s also very cool.
Two things happened today: I got a second guitar! Remember when I said I don’t have the money for an electric? Well, I mentioned that in my latest DnD group, and two(!) people instantly said they have electrics + stuff just lying around. And three days later, 'lo and behold, I have a new baby! I’m so very excited to find out what all the buttons and levers do! I experimented a little with it already, but it’s late, and I can only play quietly atm. But tomorrow, me (and my neighbours^^) will find out!
The second thing that happened today is I learned Mrs. Robinson, everything but the riff. I love, love, love the song, and I was so stoked to find Justin’s video. But it’s not just that. I know Simon & Garfunkel songs are quite difficult, and I was expecting to just do a beginner version as usual, and leave the more complicated one be for now. But no, I tried out all the embellishments, and it was actually a lot easier than I thought. That’s not to say I have everything in time just yet, but I can play through the verse and chorus without fault by memory already, and I can keep up with Justin when he plays it in time, even though I fumble some things then. My first time playing ‘in the big leagues’ from the beginning, and it’s so great that it’s with this song, too!
