Lesson 54 Tuesday 11th February 2014

This lesson again I started with the Oasis song “The Importance of Being Idle”.

I started off with the intro.

  

Again my changes from chords are very slow and it does not flow. My teacher made me slow the pace. When I did that if gave me a chance to change the chords at a more comfortable pace and not sound so bad.

I then went through the Rhythm of the song.

I had been practicing this all week but probably because I was rushing through it I had adopted a slightly different rhythm. I obviously have not got my ear in on the rhythm so I needed to take a bit of time getting it right.

I played through the rhythm a few times. My main problem was that I was not getting the chord B7 correct and the change to E was very slow. We practiced a while again slowing down the speed so that I am playing more smoothly.

We then had a look at the chorus.

This is played in two bar chords.

Playing these chords is hard enough but I have to sort of mute the sound by taking my fingers off slightly then putting them back down again to play the next strum. This is proving very difficult.

I finally looked at the songs riff part that I had practiced.

At first I was one string too high and it sounded very strange. Once I was playing on the correct strings the tune sounded correct but I need to get the sort of bounce that you hear in the song.

Plenty of parts to practice.

Lesson 54 Tuesday 4th February 2014

I started off the lesson with the Oasis song “Importance of being Idle” intro.

I had been practicing this for a while now and have got the idea of the palm mute but the change from Am to Em is very slow.

I then went onto have a go at the main rhythm of the song.

I had been practicing this rhythm at home. Unfortunately it still is early days for me and the change from the different chords is very slow and I sometimes miss the strings.

My teacher went through the rhythm and we slowed it down so I could get the changes much better. As usual the rhythm appears to be the main area where I have the problem with too many or not enough ups and downs.

After a while of playing slower I did find that the changes linked a much better.

For the final part of the lesson we had a quick look at the solo riff.

We only looked at the first part of the solo before the bending. As to be expected my first few goes through this does not sound nothing like the solo. I will have to practice more to get the flow of the solo.

Lesson 53 Tuesday 28th January 2014

We started off this week by going through the Oasis Song "The Importance of Being Idle".
I showed how much progress I had made with the intro that I was shown last week.

My attempts where very slow and it is not flowing very well at the moment and there was a few times I forgot to palm mute too. But on a positive note I did hit the right chords.

We had a few goes through this and after awhile it did flow a bit better.

My teacher then showed me the main rhythm.

It took me awhile to get this rhythm correct but after a few goes I got close if not very slowly. This rhythm is used with four bars of the chord Am then one bar of chords Fmaj7 and C.
The sequence is then finished off with B7 and E in a slightly different rhythm.

Again I could piece it all together but it needs a lot of work on.

The final part of the lesson I showed How well or not well I was getting on with the Intro to the Oasis song "Wonderwall".

It is getting there but I am changing too soon or too late so I need to look at that.

A great lesson with my hour going past far too quickly.

Lesson 52 Tuesday 21st January 2014

This week I had been practising a lot on the Intro from Oasis "Wonderwall". It has been a real pain as I would practise it every day. But come practise the next day I would forget everything and it would sound rubbish.

So the start of my lesson we had a look at Oasis "Wonderwall".

My first times at doing this would fall apart when I would get to either the chord Dsus4 or the start of A7sus4.

As the first part was going OK my teacher decided it was best to focus on the second part.
The second part I kept adding in too many down strokes when I would get to the A7sus4. After a few false starts I did start to get it. We then put both bits together and I did actually play all the way through it. I played it a few times to make sure it was not a fluke. Even though I did get to play through it a few times it was not flowing for me at this moment in time.

We then looked at starting a new song again by Oasis called "The Importance of Being Idle".



We just started off with the intro.

My teacher showed me how it was done with the palm mute.

My first go at it I could get the first Am but the second section I was putting in too many down strokes. Also the change to the Em was not very quick. The Am chord also was not clean as I kept on muting the second string with I think finger three.

When I got home that night I played my new bit I had learnt and asked my wife if she knew what it was. She had not idea. Looks like I need to practise more on this then.

Guitar Stand

I decided that it was time to get myself a guitar stand. At home between practising I have to place one of my guitars that I am using in a safe place that will not get attacked by one of my many hyperactive young kids. A stand will allow it to be placed in an area of the house and still be at hand.

I looked around and a chose a Stagg SGA108BK foldable Universal A Accoustic and Electric Guitar Stand.

It is a universal "A" stand for acoustic or electric guitars.

• Steel Construction

• 2 Cradling hooks & back rest with soft rubber covering to hold guitar securely & prevent it from scratching.

• Spring loaded lock-pin mechanism to keep stand safely open.

• Folds flat for convenient storage and portability.

• Adjustable width: 20 to 34 cm.

• Weight: 1.5 Kg

The stand fitted the acoustic guitar no problem.

I have also tried my electric guitar in it too and it fitted that well too.















I was a bit concerned that my kids may knock it or something but where it is they leave it alone and it is very convenient for picking up and practising with.
Which is good because I need loads of practise.

Lesson 51 Tuesday 14th January 2014

I had spent a lot of my practice this week trying to crack the intro from the Oasis tune “Wonderwall”.

I would play it in sections and try and build up the rhythm bit by bit. I had even gone through all of the excersises for the changes which isolated I could do no problem. However put it all together it would sound a mess. My eldest son even commented that what I was trying to practice did not sound nothing like the song. But I will not despair the reward when this does work will be so much more due to my blood sweat and tears.

I started off showing how great (bad) I was at the intro. After a few false starts and messing up a bit my teacher suggested that I slow the rhythm down. By slowing down the rhythm I was able to think a bit and I could get the first line of the rhythm part correct but not the second. So we focused on the second. After a while I could get the second part going no problem.

We then had to put both parts together. After a few wrong bits I was able to play the tune all the way through and it did not sound too bad. I had to have a few other goes just to be sure that this was not a fluke. The intro is not totally in my head yet but is sounding better and I now have a technique to finally get it.

As that was very taxing we decided to look at some of the other tunes I have been doing.

We looked at the Radiohead Song “No Surprises” the capo 15 version.

 This is the part that most people would recognise. It took me a few minutes to remember the sequence but I was pleased that it came back so well.

We then had a go at the riff in the Oasis song “I’m Outta Time”.

 I do like this riff and even though it is not perect it does sound all right and got better the amount of times I did it.

We also had a little play of the rhythm for this song which I quiet like playing but had forgotten parts of.

We then looked at the riff in the Cream song “Sunshine Of your Love”.

How we had played it before was not totally correct as an acoustic cannot make it sound right. As I had an electric guitar now I liked the idea of trying the real version.

I cannot remember all the details but it would start on the third string, go up one string for the three notes played in a row, then up to the sixth string. Then down to the fifth string again and finally back to the six string on the same fret. I had a go of this a few times and on my electric it sounded close to what it should be which was good.

Lesson 50 Tuesday 7th January 2014

My first lesson of the year and my first lesson for two weeks and exactly one day off of a year of trying to play the guitar.

In my two weeks off I had been practicing each day. Maybe not as much as I would have liked but I had been trying to play. In that time I had played a few tunes I thought my parents (who grew up in the 60’s) may recognise some of the tunes like The Animals song “House Of The Rising Sun” or “Maggie May”. Unfortunately they did not so I think I may have to improve of them a bit then.

We started off the lesson going through the intro from the Oasis song “Wonderwall”.

This has been proving a problem to me and I have tried to build up the song but once I get to the Dsus4 it all goes bad and the A7sus4 is a disaster.

My teacher decide to get me to slow down on the tune so that I can get the idea. It took me several attempts just to get past the first bar which I can only assume is because I was nervous of getting it wrong. By slowing down it did give me time to hit the chords correctly and I did get better and I even got through the whole intro without a mistake.

Even though we did practice through this part for a very long time with me making many mistakes sometimes on parts that before I had spot on. I have to say I did enjoy myself and the time went by so quick.

Near the end of the lesson to give me a break from the intense practice I was doing on “Wonderwall” and probably to give my poor teachers nerves a rest too, we had a look at how I was doing with “Maggie May”.

  

The intro I still have problems with but I am managing to push through it.

The main song is getting better but the bridge chord hgh still slows up the flow of the song. But the rhythm and timing appears to be correct which is great as this has been a problem with me keeping the rhythm and speeding up too much. It is not perfect though and I can see many areas to improve on like the old favourite of changing chords cleanly and on time.

A great lesson for the new year. If I look back to 12 months ago I knew nothing about the guitar. I had no idea about chords, how to do a rhythm or anything. So even though I am no Jimmy Hendrix I am pleased with my progress and look forward to another 12 months on improvements. The thing I have come to notice is that the improvements are not instant but subtle and its only when I think back to how I used to be I can see a progression and me being more comfortable playing (mostly badly) the guitar.