2020 What a year !!

The new year started well enough - A new job closer to home so more free time - well that was the plan.

Then we had a family health scare closely followed by Covid and the lockdowns.  Pretty much normal family life and normal working life ceased and we entered a limbo state of trying to care for our families and ourselves.

Lots of household jobs that had been put off suddenly we had time to do them all.

I now have a dedicated hobby room and permanent Guitar setup and for the last month I have been making the most of it again.

My Pedalboard has been updated with full MIDI capability so it not only controls Youtube  but also switches patches on my GT-001 and even has 2 Expression pedal slots.

Speaker wise I'm running 2 Alesis Active Monitors which sound really nice.

I finally graduated to playing standing up. It took 2 or 3 sessions to get comfy but now I actually find it comfier than sat down.

Next goal - to records myself playing a real song all the way through!  No idea how long it will take but its a goal.

Happy New Year !!

Well the holidays have come and gone.

Friends , Family and far too much food and drink  really made it hard to pick up my guitar.

I did manage a few unplugged sessions and during those 10 - 15 minute periods I stuck to practicing my chords and some slow accurate changes and the odd run through of the Minor Pentatonic shapes.

My 12 Riffs of Christmas is finished and this is where I got to -

1)   The Trooper - Into    pretty slow but recognisable
2)   Crazy Train - Inro     This one is quite good on a good day and my fingers behave.

3)   He's a Pirate  I can play it through from the sheet but not yet from memory
4)   Star Wars Main theme - Again I can play it from sheet but not from memory

5)   I Walk The Line -  Base and Strum - This too is coming along nicely
6)   Common People - Pumping 8ths This one I can play to the record
8)   Bad Moon Rising -  Chord changes ok but so far I cant get the strumming right

9)   Seven Nation Army - Co-ordination test but very fun to play
10) Three Little Birds - Another play-along song. Fun but Reggae rhythm is off still

11) You Give Love a Bad Name - Riff and Rythm   Another recognisable tune - Bending practice !
12) Powerslave - Intro Riff  - Slow - practice for string damping

In all I'm quite chuffed - I have a long way to go with all these but I set out to dust off and learn 12 tunes and I managed them. Now I need to level them all up !! 

Finish what you started!

So  its been a harder week this week.  Family got in the way of daily practice, though after 24 hours I really wanted to pick up my guitar and just strum!


Still working on  my 12 riffs challenge and so far I have -

The Trooper (Intro)
Crazy Train (Intro)

He's a Pirate
Star Wars (Main Theme)
You Give Love a Bad Name
I Walk the Line
Common People
Bad Moon Rising
Seven Nation Army
Three Little Birds

I'm working on these and most sound familiar now which is pleasing.

In doing this challenge I'm very aware that I am only playing fragments, which for a beginner I'm told is normal and good.  I really want to start building my repertoire with some complete pieces so I've been really concentrating on three songs -

Common People and I Walk the line which I'm playing along to the originals at about 80% speed which is fun. 

He's a Pirate this is going to be my first real peice and so far I have about 60% of the tune under my fingers and at a decent speed.

Fun times !!