Going Incognito

• I said some regretful things to my TV tonight while practicing guitar. I'm sorry, TV. It's not your fault. #

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Wow, 20 days of learning to play the guitar.  I was going to post a video of me playing Ode to Joy, but then I realized I was wearing plaid flannel pants matched with my dress shirt from work.  Yeah, I looked silly.  Maybe for tomorrow’s practice I’ll dress nicer and try recording again.  The last two practices went well, so I’m hopeful I can keep on chugging along at a good clip.  I can now play single notes on the 1st through 4th strings, woot!

Yesterday’s practice was frustrating.  It’s a very good thing that I am now practicing in the basement otherwise my wife would have likely heard all the terrible things I was yelling at my TV (and by proxy my DVD practice course).  I feel like I should be advancing at a faster rate.  I feel like these silly songs I’m learning should be easy.  I feel like I shouldn’t be a total finger fumble.  Ug.  On a side note I think I’m going to begin titling my posts “Learning to Play the Guitar Day XX”.  Today will be day #19.

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Yesterday was my first practice in the basement, and I really think it helped.  I wasn’t distracted for the entirety of my practice, and I didn’t feel like I was annoying anyone.  I hooked my PS2 up to the TV that I have down there so I could play my DVDs, and off I went.  I tried to focus on switching between C major and G7 quickly and cleanly, and to have those chords sound clear with no buzzing or muting.  All in all I did well, but by the end my left wrist was tired from all the moving about.

If I am ever fortunate enough to have a nice guitar I think I want a Martin D-15M.  All mahogany and very manly looking.  Sounds nice, too.  It’s a bit over twice as expensive as the other guitar I was looking at, but it’s significantly nicer and includes a case.  I was previously looking at a Martin DXK2, which is an all HPL (High Pressure Laminate) guitar.  I saw it in a big box music store (you might imagine the one) for about $450, but it doesn’t include a case.  I played the DXK2 and it sounds and feels fine, and looks great, but in the end it’s not quite as nice as an all solid wood guitar.  I don’t think there’s anything intrinsically wrong with an HPL guitar.  In fact, I think there are some serious merits to having a guitar which is resistant to temperature and humidity changes, not to mention minor dings, dents, and scratches.  A downside is that should the HPL itself become damaged it can be more difficult to repair correctly (cracks, splits, punctures, smashes, etc), and too much heat can completely delaminate the guitar into bits.  I know some people would say that in the grand scheme of guitars even a $1000 guitar isn’t all that “nice”, but it’s more guitar than I ever imagined I might own anyway.  Would I be unhappy with a DXK2?  Probably not, no.  Do I want the D-15M more?  Damn straight.  Sure, I’m just learning, but I’m getting better and eventually I’ll need my own guitar.  If I’m going to get my own guitar I may as well get one that speaks to me, and the D15-M certainly is.

Here’s a link to a nifty YouTube video of a D-15M Sound Demo.

It has been decided: I will now practice guitar in the basement.

I didn’t get much practice in yesterday for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that I had to weed whack and mow the lawn so that when my dog went outside it didn’t look like that scene from Jurassic Park 2.  I usually practice while my wife puts my son to bed, but because my schedule was all messed up from de-grassing the yard I decided to start a little early.  I think I only got 10 minutes in before I got fed up and put the guitar away.  Practicing around an active kid wasn’t my only frustration, though.  Practicing trying to sit on the couch, practicing while being interrupted five times to say goodnight or fetch various kid-related items, or feeling hurried since my wife was done and was trying to watch TV all contributed to my overall frustration level with my practice situation.  Also, I don’t have a music stand so I’m laying my lesson book and music on a chair.  After positively fuming over the conditions in which I practiced I talked to my wife about it and while she doesn’t mind me practicing in the TV room it has been decided that I will practice in the basement from now on, and that I’ll practice before (or possibly after) he goes to bed.  This should minimize distractions and allow me to feel less hurried since no one else is around that I could be bothering or be bothering me.  I feel a lot better now, though.  Tonight will be the first basement practice…But I still don’t have a music stand.

Tonight I focused on getting better at the 1st and 2nd string music reading thing.  I played each note and said the name of it out loud.  I probably sounded dumb to anyone listening, but it helped immensely.  After about 30 minutes of finger exercises and jumping between the 1st and 2nd string to play the various notes (and still saying them out loud!) I felt pretty confident with them.  Yay.  I was able to play Ode to Joy and Jingle Bells at the proper tempo and without missing notes, too.  I spent a little time trying to switch quickly between C major and G7 chords, but I’m still a bit clumsy at it.  Oh well, I’ll get better eventually.

I’ve finally decided that I’m ready to move on to the second lesson in my DVD guitar learning course.  This lesson is pretty much all about learning to read music (only on the 1st and 2nd strings), and thankfully actually has at least one song to learn.  When I was a kid I played the Viola and the Trumpet for a school year each so at one point I knew how to read music.  Fast forward an undisclosed number of years later, though, and I’ve forgotten all of it except Every Good Boy Does Fine and FACE.  After a bit of a primer on what letters go where and which musical note and rest symbol is how many beats I moved into some reading exercises.  These exercises are basically finger exercises but jump around a bit more to help cement the connection between placement on the bars and what notes they correspond to.  After doing that for a bit I jumped ahead to my very first song: Ode to Joy.  I remember learning this song for both the Viola and the Trumpet, too.  I’m guessing this is a common beginner song.  The first version of Ode to Joy was simple with just single notes, no chords and no strumming.  Turns out with only a few minutes of reading music instruction I’m terrible at reading music (fancy that), and was hard pressed to keep up with even the slowed down version of the song displayed on the screen.  I eventually got it, though.  I’m betting that anyone that heard me was likely having some sort of chuckle, though.  I sounded like a monkey plucking guitar strings at first.  I ended up giving up after awhile because my frustration level was slowly growing.  The next bit was playing Ode to Joy using chords instead of single notes, but I wasn’t about to try that last night.  I can actually switch between C major and G7 with some semblance of speed and accuracy, but I need much more practice before I could pass for someone who actually knows what they’re doing.  I know I can get this, but it still seems a bit overwhelming to me.  I think the next song Jingle Bells, then London Bridge is Falling Down followed by Skip to My Lou.

I found an old headset/microphone combo lying around that I’m using with my iPod Touch so that the electronic tuner part of the Gibson Guitar app actually works.  Previously I was tuning by ear using whatever webpage I could find that played the notes, but that was a long process for an unpracticed ear.  Then I found a nice page from a company called Seventh String that has an online tuner that seems to work just fine using the built-in mic on my laptop.  It was a bit of a pain to use the laptop every time I wanted to tune my guitar so I’m glad I found the mic that works with my iPod.  Makes my life easier and saves me the $20 I would have had to otherwise spend to buy a standalone electronic tuner.

I’m deciding if I want to upload any videos of me playing.  Keep in mind that I’m using the word “playing” loosely here.  I prefer to call it “bumbling about”, but whatever.



Snore!  Right now the entirety of my practice sessions consist of finger exercises and a few chords.  1st string, 1st fret, 1st finger, pick string four times (down-up-down-up), 1st string, 2nd fret, 2nd finger, pick string four times, etc.  Then another variation, then another, then another.  The chords are still C major and G7, and I’m really trying to switch between the two without hesitation.  No dice yet.  My fingers don’t hurt quite as much anymore until nearer to the end of practice, but my pinky is certainly feeling it most.