Lesson 49 Tuesday 17th December 2013

This was my last lesson of the year as my teacher was having Christmas off work the same as I was going to.

We started off the lesson looking at how I was doing with the Intro on Oasis "Wonderwall".

I had been doing this part for a while and I did not feel like I was getting it right. After my teacher went through the chords a few times I had several attempts at the correct rhythm before I got it. The good thing was that I was not doing the bouncing rhythm bit so in a way an improvement.

As it was Christmas the teacher thought it was time I knew what the chords where for the intro.

It starts off with a new chord Em7 

Then changes on the up stroke after the fourth down stroke to G with the down stroke just before the G only having fingers three and four kept down.

After the G there is another down stroke played with just fingers three and four down and the chord Dsus4 starts on an up stroke.

Then another down stroke which has only the fingers three and four down followed by the upstroke in the chord A7sus4.

Then the last down and up stroke have just the fingers three and four down.

This intro is proving very difficult as the changes happen on up strokes instead of down strokes. I would either concentrate too much and panic and mess up or come in too late.

I spent a long time trying to build up the intro by starting with the first part and then see how far I could get. We then spent a bit of time just getting used to the changes as a big problem of mine is that not all the fingers land at the same time so that the first part of the chord would be half right.

We went through the intro many times and at a slower pace to help me get the correct rhythm. This worked but did take many attempts and I am not feeling it at the moment.

With two weeks now off I have plenty of time to try and polish this off and start the new year well.

Lesson 48 Tuesday 10th December 2013

I was a bit worried the day of my lesson as I had bruised my finger (number one finger) at Karate training the day before. It had swelled up and closing it was difficult and making a fist impossible. So at the start of the day I did try out some chords to see if I could do them. I could play them just as bad as I could the week before so that was a relief.

The lesson started with my version of the Rod Stuart song “Maggie May”. I had been practicing this song a bit and trying to get the change over from one chord to the next correct. I started off with the intro.

For some strange reason my first play of this I added in a few more up and down strokes. It would sound ok but not correct. This makes me wonder if when I have been practicing all week I have been playing it wrong. Once my teacher went through the rhythm once I got myself back on track. The changes did not sound too bad until I hear the teacher play it. Maybe my finger was impeding me (I wish).

Next we went onto the main verse.

 After my first run through it was obvious that I was playing the up strokes too close to the down stroke so that the rhythm has a bouncy feel to it. I think it’s because I am trying to race through the song. What I need to do is have a more robotic constant rhythm. After many attempts my loose rhythm stated to tighten up to the correct timing.

We next looked at doing another song. My teacher selected the Oasis song “Wonderwall”. Being an Oasis fan this is a favourite of mine so I apologies in advance Noel Gallagher.

We started off with the intro.

The rhythm has a very different make up. It took me many attempts just to get the first line correct and once I did get the correct sequence my old friend the bounce came back. After many more attempts I managed to put the bounce back in its box. The next step was to try the second line which at first seemed impossible to get. This is because of the sort of pause where the two up strokes are next to each other and I have to do a down stroke without touching the strings. Sounds easy. For me it was not. As I have been used to always doing a down stroke to not do one proved a bit of a challenge. After a long while I did manage to fluke a couple.

With this success the teacher thought it a great idea to put both halves together. Suffice to say it did not go well first time. I did manage to get so far but once I got to the two ups the part after I would miss out strokes. Looking on the positive side I was managing to get that far into the rhythm which is not bad for a first go I suppose. However after sweating blood I did manage to get all the way through twice. I don’t think Bonehead has anything to worry about as it probably took me a hundred goes to get them two.

I foresee loads of late night swearing. I mean practice.

Lesson 47 Tuesday 3rd December 2013

I started my lesson with the Rod Stuart song “Maggie May” which is lucky really as this has been the only thing I have been practicing this week.

I started with the intro.

As usual I could not get the rhythm correct for the first four times. I seem to be adding in an extra or missing out a down stroke. My teacher could see the problem and corrected it quickly by playing through the intro. Once I could see and hear where I was going wrong I managed to get this corrected.

We then went onto look at the main verse of the song.

I have been practicing this a bit and remembering what chords come after which, so I was a bit frustrated and disappointed with myself when the first few times of playing it I was all over the place. I kept on missing strings or catching them on the strumming and not landing very well on the chords. The other problem my teacher noticed was that on the last up strum would be just a bit too close to the last down strum. This would then make a sort of springy country type sound to the end of the bar. I feel this is happening because I am trying to give myself some sort of subconscious signal that this is the end of the bar go to the next chord. I needed to get the up and downs to play at the same time in the rhythm. Once I was aware of what I was doing wrong the rhythm started to sound less springy.

I managed to get through the entire tune a few times. We then played it with the song and even though I had played some very bad chords as my fingers would not set correct I was in the correct timing as the song which was very encouraging.

My main problem is that my fingers are just not fast enough moving from one chord to another. For example moving from a G to a D finger two can sometimes be a strum behind finger one. Sometimes I would even forget to take finger four off until near the end of the bar.

So to combat the teacher has given me an exercise to look at. 

The idea is just strum once a chord goes through the transition on the next two strums and then be totally on the next chord. I had a go of this and because of my rubbish co-ordination I find this part (which is crucial I get right) very difficult. I am starting off very slow and I am hoping with loads of practice I can speed up and make this more fluid.

On a positive turn my bar chord in this song F#m once I am on it is sounding clean every eight out of ten times I do it which is better than not so long ago when I could not do this chord for love nor money. Moving from the chord Em to this chord though is proving much more of a challenge. Maybe the big pause while I change to that chord enhances the song. Maybe. Maybe.