Cmin, my Everest

Took another run at the glass mountain of Cmin today, slipped off and settled for Asus.

Sigh.

Movin' on up

The strumming is improving, the fingering is improving... and I'm sick of playing Aerosmith. It's fine to warm up with, but I'm trying to play some fast-paced songs now, and ones with difficult chord combos. "Hammer to Fall" is a good fast one. All A, D, and E, but the constant A/D/A/D ad infinitum is excellent practice for me. I still don't hit the D chord all at once -- I lay down my fingers on the B and G strings, then stick the middle finger down on the e string.

Others in frequent rotation now are "Hallelujah," "Desperado," and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." I also went back to "No One But You," which is much harder now that I'm playing every chord instead of only the ones I know. Funny how that works.

Picking up where I left off

Today, G7 and an alternative G chording. I tried to learn Cmin, which I could use for a couple of the songs I play most often, and realized that I need to develop my picking more as well. Picking only the four middle strings is not easy.

I need to exercise

Once I get the calluses back up and running, it's time to practice seriously. Maybe some scales, chord series, things like that to get the dexterity up a little more. My friends gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card, which I spent part of on a chord book, Guitar Chord Guru by Karl Aranjo. It looked pretty solid and no-frills, aimed right about at my theory level. I didn't need a book that spent a lot of time explaining to me what a sharp and a flat were, nor did I want a lot of lecturing on the Hypomixolydian. I'll let you know how it goes.

E is for Eagle

E7, Em7 now joined by D7 and Am7. And if anyone is keeping track, the practice song of choice is now "Desperado," which is filled with 7 chords. I must say that the hunt for good practice tabs is giving me a real appreciation for the musical preferences of my favorites. Queen not so heavy on those 7 chords.

I also replaced the pink silk sash on the dreadnought with a real (if not fantastic) strap, tied to the top by a thin pink ribbon which is the remnant of one of my bridesmaid's duties, supplying ribbon to tie little bags of potpourri to pelt the bride and groom. I sense a distinct theme here: keep everything in your closet and it'll come in handy again one day in the most unexpected of places. The strap helps a great deal for fretting and picking with less pain, but I still can't quite see.

The lord giveth...

... barre chords and the lord taketh away power chords. Ow. New neck scale is going to take some getting used to. "Yoga for guitarists' fingers," anybody? Either that or I'm going to have to grow a new pinky.

ETA: Or tilt the neck down slightly. Helps like mad. Of course, I can't see the frets, but this seems to be a general problem with the depth of the dreadnought -- I just haven't figured out yet how I'm supposed to be able to see the face of it.

Glam rock

After almost dropping the new guitar (which may get a name) three times, I had to put something on it for a strap. No top button, had to tie something onto the neck -- and the only thing I could come up with was a pink silk sash that I wore as a bridesmaid at a wedding in Bermuda.

It doesn't look quite as idiotic as it sounds.

And in other highly exciting news, my F chord is magically working much better on this neck! I wonder if the mystical world of barre chords is going to open up for me now.

At sixes and sevens

Where did that expression come from, anyway? Slash chords threw me badly enough that I looked for something else to learn, and peacefully settled on seventh chords. Good times. E7 and Em7 in the bag.

The Wall

Hitting the wall, and not the Pink Floyd kind. The slash chord kind. When I realized that the C/G chord required the pinky to fret the lower A string, I hopped up to the next level of pain. I have an abnormally short pinky. Runs in the family. I will adapt.

Ha, I mean, next they'll be telling me to do something ridiculous, like wrap my thumb around to fret the sixth string. Ha ha. Ha.. what? You mean...? NO.

Giving up quickly

I'm going to buy one of those short slide rings and wear it on my index finger to help with barre chords. I don't see how I'm ever going to make the side of my index finger callus in anything resembling the short term, and it hurts my ears so much when that E string just pings and fizzles. Another little trinket I can buy in Japan or China.

Heidi's Guitar Dictionary

Triad (n.): The less painful lower three notes of a basic barre chord. Used to lead the unwary novice guitarist into realizing that s/he ought to make a severe effort to do better on said barre chord fingering; also may be used to shame novice into learning note locations on the D string.

Two steps forward

Played a little for a friend today -- my first performance. She played my crappy flute, and we dueted slowly on "Scarborough Fair," I think both thinking that the other was setting the pace. Then I did a bit of Aerosmith for her, but I did not rock out the way I usually do in solitude. Must work on performance skills, which come to think of it were always quite crappy on piano. I do not emote publicly.

Also decided to hit the triads today and promptly put away the guitar. Tomorrow's another day to make myself play "Go Cubs Go" with a thousand different variations.

I hate baseball

Grim determination to get this power chord fingering. I am back to "Go Cubs Go." All power chords. Lots of pain, lots of buzz, lots of sour notes. Perhaps tomorrow I can promote myself to "I'm in Love with My Car" again, but it didn't go so well tonight.

Uncharted waters

I really do enjoy practicing, no matter how painful it is -- and make no mistake, it does get painful. I wonder if I'm pushing too hard with my thumb on the back of the neck. Maybe the muscles just have to develop.

Tonight I decided that I was getting into a rut, so I tried a few barre chords, said oh jesus, and went back to power chords. I ventured onto the fifth string, which I found exceedingly difficult. I blame my teeny tiny pinky. I went back to the 1-2-3 fingering I was using originally, then at the end of practice discovered that thanks to the book not numbering the fingering on that tab only, and me getting confused by them calling the index finger 1, I was supposed to be using 1-3-4. I swore, tried it out, found it easier, and was happy for a second till I realized that a pinky callus was going to have to develop. Tomorrow the new pain begins.

The fifth string power chord I tried was C#, which also takes me further down the neck than I have hitherto gone. Not bad, though trying to look at a tab and the neck and my picking at the same time does lead to some sour chords. It nicely fills out a couple of the songs I've been playing.

Incidentally, in a measure of how far I've come, I tried "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" the other night. When I optimistically tried it two days in, I thought it was impossible. Now, managed to follow along half respectably. Rockabilly, dude.

Precision and power

The good news is that my open chords are getting wildly better. I realized that I forgot to learn D minor, but that was quickly fixed and led to a highly satisfying rendition of Aerosmith's "Crazy." I also was delighted this weekend when playing my friend's full-size Takamine and realizing that my skills were improving. As a matter of fact, I managed to switch chords without looking at my fretting hand, a pinnacle of success I had not dared to dream of so soon. We will pass over the fact that his dog went and hid in the other room while I was playing, after enduring it the first time.

Tonight, I decided to build on this success by learning the power chords. I have entered a whole new world of pain. First of all, if there is a theoretical equivalent to power chords in classical piano, I most certainly never learned its name. This is a minor blip. Secondly, the stretch required between the index and middle finger is beyond awkward. I'm back to thanking god that I bought a 3/4 size guitar; also going to have to do regular stretches.

Yeah, baby!

Aerosmith, "Amazing." Sight reading, cold. It was a mess, but I got through!

F is improving. Wearing a bandaid on my middle finger, which helps the pain but decreases accuracy.

F---

F major is hard.

Five and ow

A, C, D, Em, G.

D the hardest by far.

One chord at a time

I progress. I really ought to go back to "Do a Deer," because I'll say one thing for it, it really was giving me a solid sense of where the notes are. However, people seem big on chords, so I've started learning the major chords. I am up to G, D, and C, which lends me the ability to play "Go Cubs Go." It's not bad practice at moving your hand around, either.

G/D/C also gives you plenty of the chords to Queen's "I'm in Love with My Car," though I'm so slow that I don't quite hit everything on time. Amazing what a difference a day makes, though. Two days ago, I could only hit about two chords per verse and kept shouting at Roger (Taylor, the drummer, who sang lead on this song -- extremely underestimated vocalist) to slow down. But today I can hit about two a line. Not always on time, but still...!

Then I got the bright idea to try "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," which is full of major chords. Ha. Do you know how fast that song's tempo is?

As I always say when eating dim sum, it's a marathon, not a sprint. More practice. Today, maybe another chord. A or B, I think.