Lesson 26 Tuesday 26th July 2013

Its been a few weeks since my last entry as normal life has been so busy I have not had a chance to write on here.

I went for my 26^th lesson having now started two pieces. The first is the song “Kiss Me” by the band Sixpence None the Richer.

The first thing I had to learn was the rhythm. This one is like none that I have done before with the rhythm going over two bars.

This has taken me a very long time to sort of get the hang of. I had to practise and practise it even playing the rhythm to myself while time at work or in the car which anyone seeing me must of thought I was a loony.  To help me we had to break it down into chunks to learn.

This did help as I could get the rhythm correct on one stage and then build on it bit by bit.

The Intro which was where I have been most of the time is chords C .

Then it goes to C Major 7 

Then to C7 

Then it is C Major 7 and back to C. I have now sort of got the rhythm and the chord change from C Major 7 to C7 needs to be a lot more slicker as there is a bit of a pause while I work out where my fingers need to go.

We then progressed onto the Chorus which is a challenge.

The chords change half way through the complete rhythm that I am learning which I think is after a bar (still getting my head round the music talk). The first two bars go from D Major 

To G.

Then to C and finally Am7. 

This has proved very difficult and the change from D to G I have practised a lot and still have yet to perfect.

Radiohead "Street Fighting Spirit" is the other song I have been learning and practised in my lesson. This is a nice one for me to play at night when the kids are asleep because the plucking is a lot quieter than the rhythm practise. However I am sure my wife can sometimes here the occasional swear word when I get it wrong  for the 100th time in a row. The first part of the song with the A's in them I am starting to strike the correct strings and I do think that this side of my playing has improved. Not much but better than it was.

The other advancement has been that I have been shown how to tune the guitar without breaking the head of the guitar are breaking strings (so far). I learnt how to remember the strings by saying Edward Ate Dynamite Good Bye Edward. By remembering the strings I am now able to see if the tuner is remembering the correct string. I have so far tuned twice with no problems.

Even though I have not added an entry for a few weeks I am still practising and still scaring the local wildlife with the noises that I produce.