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 34 Tuesday 3rd September 2013

For this lesson I took my new Amp and Footcontroller to show the teacher and learn a bit on how to use it.

I was shown about the different sounds. We had it in clean and and crunch and the two different types of overdrive. The amp seams to give out a good sound even though it is not that big. We added the Footcontroller and tuned the guitar with the tuner on the footcontroller. Tuning on the Footcontroller was easy with the name of the string being struck shown and a light on the left or right depending on if it was too low or high and a light in the middle when it is tuned. You can also save in sounds into the footcontroller which I will have a practice at doing






I started off practising the Oasis Riff in the song "I'm Outta Time".

This is getting better but I have developed a habit when I strike another string which sounds out when I am doing the first bend. I have to practice more to get rid of this habit of pulling the other strings.

I next had a look at how I was doing with the Wet Wet Wet version of "Love Is All Around". I started off with the difficult capo 1 version with the bar chord.

Moving from A to Bm is still proving to be a problem. On the brighter side though I have managed to get the bridge chord sounding nearly right.

I then went onto the capo 3 version.

This one is starting to get there a bit but I have to remember that a lot of the chords I need to mute the top string with my thumb. The chords on them selves seam to be getting a lot cleaner. However moving from one to another my fingers need to hit the strings a lot more sure than they do now.

Lesson 33 Tuesday 27th August 2013

I had been away on holiday for a week so could not have my weekly lesson the week before and had not been able to practice really. I did toy with the idea of taking my guitar with me on holiday but there would be no room to store it and in reality I would not have the time to practice.

We started off Practising the Oasis Riff "I'm Outta Time".

It took me awhile to get myself back into the swing of this riff. My main problem was that the second bend you could hear the note bending back. We tried playing along with the song and I could hear that I need to be more swift and crisper. It was not too far off though which was pleasing to hear.

We next went onto look at the Wet Wet Wet song "Love Is All Around".

I started with the capo 3 version. It took me a few attempts to get the rhythm correct again and the first few attempts the transition from one chord to another had no fluency at all. I then practised just going from G to A minor at first to get the correct sound then moved on by adding in the next part until I had all four. It was not perfect but at times there was some notes that sounded like the tune starting to struggle out.

Then I had a go at the capo 1 version. This was much harder as the bar chord B minor sort of stops me in my tracks.

I focused on trying to get this chord sounding good and a few times I managed it with all the strings that need to be heard ringing out. I did this a few times and tried to hold the hands there and will them into remembering how it felt.

For the last part we had a look at Amps. It was my birthday coming up and I was asking for money so I could get an amp to go with my electric guitar.

After a bit of a search we closed it down to two.

The Marshall MG15CFR  which is an 15 watts amp with reverb.

Or The Marshall MG15CFX which again is a 15 watt with reverb but with the chance to have a footcontrol which you can program in different sounds.

They are not massive amps but I am just learning at home and I am sure this will be enough to upset the wildlife near my house anyway. I am not sure which one to go for at the moment. The first one is the cheaper version but the second has much more functionality. I have money for both ut my worry is that the second one maybe to much stuff on it to learn when I am new to it all.

I will have to sleep on it.

Lesson 32 Tuesday 13th August 2013

This lesson we started off by looking at some small riff that we could practice on my electric guitar.

The teacher come up with the riff which comes one minute 30 into the Oasis song "I'm Outta Time"

This riff has some bending in it.

I had a go of this and I found that I was not bending the strings up far enough. Even though this looks like a small easy rift It has taken me some time to get the structure right and the bending. After awhile there was some sort of semblance to the songs version.

I next looked at the song that my Mrs wanted me to play which was the Wet Wet Wet version of "Love Is All Around".

The rhythm is a simple one and there is two versions of the chords.

There is the version on Capo Three which goes G for one Bar then A minor for the next bar then C for another bar and finally D for the last bar. This carries on like this till the chorus.

I had a go of this and at first I could not surprising enough get the rhythm correct. I could get the rhythm eventually but the chords do not flow together yet.




There is a second more tougher version which is played on capo one. This time it is A for a bar then to Bm which is a bar chord which is very difficult to do for a bar.

Next it is D for a bar and then E for the final bar. Then repeat this until you get to the chorus.

The hardest part is the bar chord and at this stage I have no idea how I am going to move from the A chord to this bar chord.

The teacher showed me how it is done and the way he just eases into it is not coming to me.

I did not think it would it will take much time and practice to get this to work I think.