Couch Media: Blue Spanish Sky

21.2.07

Playing: my new guitar

Sitting in the arm chair last night picking away at my new electric guitar, my housemate Abi came in and sat next to me (banging the guitar head in the process - accidentally I know but it put me on edge a little) and said - "Oh, is that Tim's guitar?".

Now strictly speaking it was Tim's guitar but it's mine now (preeeciiiouss) and for whatever reason I didn't take that so well. It's as though I've mentally incorporated some of the guitar's "cool factor" into my own personality and having the guitar associated with Tim rather than me took me out of that zone.

(Yes, I can be a bit of a twat sometimes :)

Anyway my response was a bit of a mini-scowl and a muttered "No, it's mine". If you're out there Abi, sorry I was a grumpy git. (She promptly disappeared to her room) (And yes, next time I see her I will apologise in person)

Anyway (I really use that word a lot, don't I) after this I took both guitars to my room for a bit of a play. I have a trusty old nylon stringed acoustic as well which I got at uni about 15 years ago when the fret-bar thingys (what do you call the metal bits that divide the frets?) on my first guitar started falling off. (I'd like to say that it's because I was so rock but that's just not true).

So I worked through my usual warm-up routine (previously mentioned here), firstly on the acoustic and then with the electric (all plugged in and amped up).

It was the little differences that made it interesting. I've often bemoaned the fact that the frets on the acoustic are spread so far apart and that the neck is so wide, making it difficult to reach across to the fourth fret and beyond. (Because obviously it wouldn't be my lack of dedication to practice). I took comfort in the thought that when I (finally) got an electric, everything would be more centrally located.

Well this is true however it also means that the strings are a tiny bit closer to one another as well, giving me a decidedly sausage fingers experience at times.

The difference between the nylon (acoustic) and steel (electric) strings helped here in some ways, with the steel strings being thinner and feeling more precise.

After 15 years of playing one guitar, my fingers have physical memory of the chord shapes that I need (mostly - F is still iffy) and that translated across fairly well but finding the strings when picking will take a little more time.

It was when I moved on to the songs that I'm learning that the leccy's charms started to really come out. Rocking along to the admittedly simple chords of the Dandy Warhols' Godless in particular was a lot of fun and if it wasn't so late, I would have been rocking a whole lot louder. (Actually, this doesn't sound very rock at all but what can I say, I'm generally a considerate guy).

Neil Young's Heart of Gold was similarly fun while Down Below by The Cruel Sea possibly sounded better on the acoustic, as did Spanish Sky by Chris Isaak.

Even though there is a strap on the electric, I'm not quite up to standing and playing yet but all things in time.

6.2.07

Learning: songs

So after trawling the web and iTunes and looking at my current skills realistically, I've settled on the follow songs to learn first up.

Neil Young - Heart of Gold
Tom Petty (as covered by Johnny Cash) - I won't back down
The Cruel Sea - Down Below
The Dandy Warhols - Godless
Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene
Chris Isaak - Blue Spanish Sky

(Where possible, I've put videoclips for these songs - uh - down below)(Ironically except for the actual song, Down Below.)(Oh, and the reason there is a woman practicing pole dancing to the Chris Isaak song is that it was a choice between this video and footage taken with a mobile phone video camera with bad sound. )

Anyway, the main reason I've chosen these particular songs is that they are all fairly straight forward to play - no overly complicated chords or wildly varying chord combinations, simple enough rhythms and several of them will also force me along in learning the F chord. (As well as the F#m).

For those who don't know much about guitar, the F (and F family) are barre chords - chords where you use your index finger to press down on all six strings in one fret, effectively shortening the neck of the guitar. This has the effect of moving the chord down a tone (I think). (Update - Ok, thanks Len, it's actually raising them a semitone or tone)

So if you are playing a standard E chord, you move each note towards you one fret and hold your finger down on the first fret. This is something that I've found far too difficult for the better part of 20 years - more a matter of not persisting than anything - but I've bitten the bullet now and slowly, step by step, seem to be making some progress.

Getting to the point where you fingers just automatically form the position is what I'm aiming for I'd say.

So I had a nice play last night, Godless in particular is great to jam along to (and if you turn the music up loud enough, you actually sound like you're rocking :)

There are also some simple riffs in Heart of Gold and I won't back down that I'm getting the hang of as well.

(I also chose these songs because they suit my voice and I'd like to be able to sing them - but combining singing and playing is a few steps away yet)

Neil Young - Heart of Gold