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.

Lesson Seven 20th February 2013

I started off my lesson with the Theme of The Simpsons that I had been practising. It did not sound too bad, it was slow at times and I kept on hitting the wrong string sometimes but on the whole it was not too bad. The teacher thought it was OK and gave me some tips on moving my fingers and assured me that as time goes by I will know where the strings are. I think there has been improvement as at times I can sort of hear the tune coming out. The teacher seamed please so far with the progress and talked about maybe in a few weeks looking at another song to practise with lead sections. I was given two options.
House of the Rising sun by the Animals

Or
Radiohead Street Spirit (Fade Out)


Being a big Radiohead fan I picked Street Spirit though at this stage it seams incredible to be able to play this.

I then went through how bad I am at practising my cord changes for the Green Day song. I was all fingers and thumbs and there was massive pauses between each cord change and the up and down strokes where in not particular timing at all.

The teacher decided that I need to slow the tempo down. He had a computer software which he could take the song I was to learn and slow or speed it up and take out instruments so that I could hear the part I need to learn. This did help a bit but I still had big trouble trying to find the strings for A from D mostly. I was thinking that I may see if I could find some sort of metronome app for my phone to help practise with.

We then talked about songs to practise. He asked me if there was any I would like to learn as if there is a song you like it would make it more fun to learn. I thought about it and said I would like to learn an Oasis song like Wonderwall or Half a world away. It was decided that Half a world Away would be the better one as there are cord changes that I have already been given and some that I have not yet which would be good for learning.


I just started off this one with the first two cords and changes. This would be the cord of C followed by playing just strings 1, 2, 3 and 2 then cord F major 7 and the same single strings to play. This is just the intro part. I had a go and the teacher said it sounded all right but I need to get the cords sounding far more crisp.

A good lesson with plenty to work on.