One of my hobbies 1
I’ve owned a guitar for about three years now. In fact I own three. Problem is, other things keep on getting in the way, and I have never learned to play them properly.
Actually, that’s a complete lie. Not the bit about not being able to play, but rather about the other things getting in the way. I do have a lot to occupy my time, what with the job and the Scouting, but I tend to use it as an excuse a bit too often. Fact is, I veg out far too much, when I could be using my time a bit more valuably.
Anyway, thats all changed now, and I’ve started really having a good crack at the guitar. Until recently, I’ve limited myself to noodling around with the odd riff here and there, never learning the complete song all the way through, or I’ll start learning a song, then getting stuck and moving onto another song, and so on.
I even took lessons for a while, and although the guitar teacher is great, I couldn’t wrap my head around the song he gave me to do (Message In A Bottle by The Police - it’s a total bitch!). I should have asked him to let me try a different song, but no, I just gave up on the lessons and gave up slightly on the guitar for a while (I do that - I have loads of different hobbies which I flit between as my mood dictates).
I recently went on a holiday to Scotland with some close friends (some photos will be up as soon as I get a gallery running on this site), and I took my guitar with me, with the decision to spend most of my time playing it. Doing this has really given me a boost. Even though I came back not being able to play anything properly, all that time spent with the guitar in my hands has made it feel more natural to me - the chords are coming easier and I am able to find the strings or the frets without having to look for them every change. I also managed to get a couple of my friends bitten with the bug to play as well!
I came home, and had a look at a site that I have read for quite a while now:
I’ve known about their online lessons for ages now, but never took the leap and learned any of them. I decided to finally attempt one of the songs. Luckily for me, one of the songs on the beginners page was one I really loved - ‘Wish You Were Here’ by Pink Floyd. The site includes not only written tab and instruction, but mp3’s of the song broken into parts and played slow with a bit of verbal instruction by the writer, a guy called David Hodge. It’s funny, but when I first glanced at the lesson ages ago, I looked at the tab and thought “….there’s no ***ing way I’m gonna be able to do that!” but when I actually read the text and listened to the samples, it made it look and sound really easy. And it is!
Well, it is because I’m a little experienced on the guitar (and I do mean a little!), so I knew where all the chords were. A total newbie to the guitar couldn’t just pick one up and start playing it straight away or anything, but it’s right there among the first songs to learn if you decide to play. That’s about as cool as it can get - being able to play a song by Floyd! Roll on Comfortably Numb!
I really feel like I have passed a threshold in my playing when I finally played that song all the way through without cocking up (I should add though that I still cock it up from time to time!), and my enthusiasm for playing has really kicked up a gear.
For my next effort, I thought I’d take on a different challenge, and learn a punk track - ‘Dumpweed’ by Blink 182. The notes are easy to play, it’s just the speed that is proving to be a big obstacle at the moment - it’s bl**dy fast! My mate Cornell recently picked me up a metronome from ebay, so I ‘ve decided to approach it methodically - start playing it very slowly until I can play it without errors, and slowly up the speed of the metronome until I’m up to speed. I’m nearly there.
One big plus about learning anything by Blink, is that Aaron, Tom and Kyle (The Pancake Eating Freaks) will happily let me play it with them, since they know probably every Blink song backwards and forwards and upside down! And, of course, playing with a band is the best way to enjoy playing an instrument.
Until then, I guess I’ll just have to play with myself….