The (Slightly) Embellished Diary of an Aging Guitar Student

My Birthday . . .

2010-09-30T14:59:00.001+02:00

. . . was yesterday.

This was in one of the birthday greetings I received. I'd never heard this before . . . and all I can say to that is better late than never!

Thanks Frank!!

Acoustic Jimi

2010-09-07T12:35:00.000+02:00

There is no end to the amusement some people (who will remain nameless) find in my attempts to play Jimi on my acoustic guitar. Okay, it is funny, but still . . .

In any case, here's a blues clip of the man himself reminding everyone that the acoustic guitar is every bit as funky as the electric version . . . the guitarist is the deciding factor in whether it rocks or not.

Mine doesn't rock yet, but I'm working on it . . .

My New Tuner

2010-08-24T18:07:00.000+02:00

And it works like a charm!

Manic Depression

2010-08-20T17:41:00.000+02:00

Alas, life is getting in the way of learning to play the guitar. It's all good though. As a freelancer, I can't complain about having a lot of work or doing a little traveling. Still, there is a hell of a lot to be learned and time seems rather precious at the moment.

That said, I am eagerly tackling my homework, which I hope will lead to greater finger dexterity . . . since I discovered by trying to play the blues that I have a long way to go in that regard.

Okay, so Jimi Hendrix's Manic Depression is what I'm working on now. I'm sure I'm playing too quietly (or perhaps "timidly" would be the better word here) for Gernot's liking, but I'm playing . . .

RIP Mr. Hebb

2010-08-05T10:19:00.000+02:00

Okay, I admit that all I really knew about Bobby Hebb was "Sunny," which is a gorgeous song and one of my favorites from back in the day. But given that this was all I knew about him, I was surprised to come across this clip this morning:

As I am now trying to learn something about playing the blues myself, I was really touched by this performance of Little Willie Brown's "Cut it Out." Quite a leap from "Sunny," which is always refreshing to see in a musician.

Pentatonic Scales and Improvisation

2010-07-25T09:13:00.000+02:00

I am now the master of the pentatonic scale in A minor.

No, seriously, I can play it backwards and forwards, slowly and quickly, AND with confidence. The chart looks like this:

The action starts on the fifth fret, if you want to try this at home.

As soon as Gernot taught me this scale, and was fairly certain I could handle it, he suggested that I use it to do my own improvisation while he played the blues track I learned last week.

Improvisation?!

Well, that's what I have to call highly effective pedagogy. By teaching me something new and immediately giving me a real musical application—however elementary—he shows me that all of this abstractness really does mean something, which of course encourages me to stick with it.

So he played, and I picked off some notes on the A minor pentatonic scale, and it worked . . . okay, it would have really worked if I hadn't been so nervous about screwing up, but it will definitely work this week when I see him again.

I've been practicing, you see . . .

I've Got the Blues, Baby

2010-07-17T20:55:00.002+02:00

Not really, I've just been practicing the blues lick (in A) that I learned on Friday. Yeah, Gernot really mixes it up and makes it fun.

Okay, I say "fun" but sometimes I'm so stressed during the lesson. When he's teaching me something new, he plays it, and I have to play along. He gives me the name of the string or the chord or the note, which my tired old brain is struggling to remember and my soon-to-be arthritic fingers are struggling to play. He transcribes everything for me later at the end of the lesson, but during the lesson, I've come dangerously close to breaking into a sweat . . . which is completely unrelated to the sweltering temperatures we're experiencing at the moment.

Gernot never notices that I'm stressed because it seems that I have one of those faces. You know the ones that can look really cool when everything inside is screaming, "WTF??!!" At least that's what Gernot said. Not the WTF part, but the looking like everything is just fine and I'm having fun part. I happen to know, however, that my face can also signal "WTF??!!" with no problem at all. At least that's what my man has led me to believe. So perhaps I'm just being polite during my lesson.

Who knows?

In any case, back to the blues . . . The best part, and I mean the ABSOLUTE best part was the turnaround at the end. I'm playing it to death. I'm even playing it with a pick, which I usually avoid since they make everything sound so loud and I'm so shy. But not now baby, I'm picking that turnaround like a fool. I want to join a band where that's the only thing I have to do. I sit on stage for hours and play—perhaps ten minutes tops—variations on this one turnaround. This time slowly, next time superfast.

So if you're reading this and have a band I can join where all I have to do is look cool and play this one turnaround, please get in touch. You won't regret it.

Today's musical guest, the one and only Mr. Hooker:

The Tracy Chapman Syndrome

2010-07-14T14:20:00.000+02:00

Why is it that when I mention that I have started taking guitar lessons, one of the most common responses is, "Ah, the new Tracy Chapman," or some variation on that theme? Are there so few black female guitarists out there that Ms. Chapman (and India Arie) have become the standard "go-to" examples?

Tracy Chapman is a wonderful musician and I respect her talent enormously. I just don't happen to look anything like her . . .

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

And neither does Lauryn Hill.

The Spirit of Beginning

2010-07-13T18:31:00.001+02:00

My new copy of Zen Guitar finally arrived today, and if I'm not careful I'll read it too quickly, which seems in conflict with the spirit of zen. Or perhaps it's a book that is constantly picked up and put down no matter how many times it's been read completely.

In any case, I like it and am encouraged by Sudo's take on beginnings and beginners:

No matter how adept you are with the guitar already, wearing the white belt means you have agreed to set aside all knowledge and preconceptions and open your mind to learning as though for the first time.

In zen circles this attitude is called carrying an empty cup. It stems from an oft-repeated parable about the visit of a university professor to the home of a nineteenth-century zen Master named Nan-in. The professor had come to inquire about zen but in conversation, he spent more time talking than listening. In response, Nan-in began pouring the professor's tea until it flowed out of the cup and onto the table.

"What are you doing!" the professor exclaimed.

"Like this cup, you are full of your own ideas," replied the master. "How can I teach you unless you first empty your cup?"

When we empty our cup, we agree to rid ourselves of the preconceptions that block new learning. This is the attitude of the true beginner, the mind required to know Zen Guitar.

See? Being an absolute beginner is kind of cool. At least my cup is well and truly empty.

Fancy Guitar Tuners & Music Theory

2010-07-12T23:12:00.002+02:00

Last Thursday's lesson raised the bar a bit.

Okay, it was only my third lesson, so I guess each one of them raises the bar to be honest. Or more simply, each time I leave Gernot's flat, I know a lot more about guitars than I did when I walked in. Obviously, this is a very good thing.

So, first thing first: he replaced my guitar string in less than five minutes and now I at least have an idea of how to do it myself next time. We then went through the tuning process and he suggested that I get a digital tuner (and his has a metronome function, too). The explanation was a bit complicated, but basically speaking, I might not be ready yet for my pitch pipe, and the digital tuner gives fairly precise information about what needs to be tuned and how.

There are a lot of choices out there, including software (for Mac OSX) and hardware like these. I'll probably try the free download first, and if I'm not satisfied, I can buy a "real" one.

Okay, back to the raised bar. On Thursday we began discussing music theory. No, it's not just fun and games over here, with me playing Dust in the Wind repeatedly and memorizing one chord after another. Nope, there's also a "serious" side to the path of instruction I've chosen. One of the main points for this is if I understand at least a bit about music theory, then I don't have to memorize the chords, I'll know how to put them together . . . a strategy that proved very useful for me with calculus formulas back in the day.

So now I am working on whole and half steps and becoming comfortable with (finding) and playing individual notes on the guitar.

I'm really enjoying this.

Update: The Mac software I linked above isn't free, so I'd just as soon buy a "real" one.

Ouch!

2010-07-06T16:03:00.001+02:00

I have been injured.

Struck down, as it were, by a rebellious E string (the high one). Now I wish I could front like I was playing so hard—you know, rocking out or something like that—but the truth is, I was just trying to tune it. So let me now just say how much I hate that bloody pitch pipe.

Or maybe it's my ears.

Whatever. Every other string seemed to follow my rather lame-assed attempt to make it sound like the noise that was coming out of the pipe. Except the high E string. I couldn't tell in which direction I was supposed to turn the tuning key. All I know is that in whichever direction I turned it, the sound didn't match the pitch pipe. And just when I thought I had it all sorted out and was on the road to guitar tuning heaven, SNAP!

If I knew where my camera was, I'd take a picture of the stinging U-shaped welt left by the snapping E string.

*sigh*

Ah well, I'll bet Pete Townsend has tons of scars—granted probably none of them with a background as silly as this one—and there seems to be a LOT information out here in cyberspace about how to change guitar strings. But something tells me that I'll just wait and let Gernot show me on Thursday. That way, I can act really pitiful and perhaps gain some Zen sympathy or something . . .

Luckily, I don't need that string for Dust in the Wind anyway.

Picking Pattern for Dust in the Wind

2010-07-05T20:53:00.001+02:00

(Andreas, look away: it's Dust in the Wind . . . again.)

Here's a YouTube (what else?) video illustrating the finger picking pattern for Dust in the Wind.

I'm most happy to report that I'm playing this a bit faster than I was last week. Yipppeeeee!!!

When I can actually play it at the correct speed, I may even post my own video . . . not on YouTube, mind you, but here on the blog.

Friday's Lesson

2010-07-03T16:01:00.007+02:00

I almost ditched it.

You know how it is: you've been practicing but somehow it just doesn't seem right and you're too embarrassed to makes sounds like that if front of your teacher. The lesson was scheduled for 16:30, so around 12:30 I started trying to come up with a reasonable excuse for calling to say that I couldn't make it. Now given that I have done private lessons (in English) myself, I think that canceling a lesson a few hours before the scheduled lesson is akin to parking in the disabled spot—some people do it, but they're assholes. So, despite my fantasy excuses, there was never really any possibility that I wasn't going to show up. Even though the Netherlands and Brazil were battling it out for a spot in the World Cup quarter-finals . . .

Of course, it was a great lesson. The first "real" one. The other real one was meant to give him the once-over as an instructor (and vice versa) before deciding if I really wanted to make a commitment to continue working with him. So, yesterday was for real. The commitment had been made. As for the lesson itself, one of the most important things that came out of it was pretty simple:

I had been doing it incorrectly.

Only great teachers can make you not feel stupid, when in fact you truly are. For the past week, I had been going about my "Dust in the Wind" duties in the wrong way. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say, that the "right" way made a world of difference. Gernot just smiled (Zen Guitar teacher that he is) and acted like what I had been doing was a perfectly normal mistake. He then reminded me of what I was supposed to be doing and we went on from there. So now I have the rest of the chords that comprise this song and can sort of play it through to the end. Hallelujah!

I also started using a capo, which was suggested by Black Betty and Gernot. I have to say though, that the one Gernot has (and let me test on my guitar) sounds a lot better than the plastic one I have. Hmmmm . . . Perhaps an investment is in order here.

In any case, the moral of the story is: "Don't skip a lesson with a Zen Guitar teacher because you think you sound like crap; nothing is as bad as it seems."

Wild Thing

2010-07-02T13:21:00.000+02:00

What I was supposed to be learning this week, in addition to Dust in the Wind, I was meant to be learning Wild Thing, or at least the chords that make up the introduction—A, D, and E—as well as the strumming technique. In fact, I spent most of my time trying to find chords and pick appropriately. Without much success, I might add.

Happily, though, they don't hurt as much as they used to.

In any case, here's a sample of what I am NOT aiming for, but love deeply . . .

Now to practice like crazy until I have to leave for my lesson . . .

Playing the Guitar in German

2010-06-29T09:31:00.002+02:00

When I saw my future instructor's flyer at Guitar Doc, I was relieved to see that he also offered instruction in English. So why did I speak German when I called him to ask about a trial lesson?

Having started in German, I supposed he figured I was comfortable in the language and so we continued in German once I showed up at his place last Friday. On the whole, this is not a major problem. It's not like trying to go to a German medical school or anything like that. Still, there are a couple things that I really have to concentrate on, and one in particular that is truly baffling.

The main thing I have to pay attention to (which also includes the source of the bafflement) is the name of the guitar strings. "Put your finger on the low E string" sounds in German like I'm supposed to put my finger on the A string. But the different vowel sounds are already a bit hardwired in my brain,* even though I did have to stop and think about them last week. More confusing though, is the naming of the guitar strings themselves . . . or at least one in particular. Previously, I learned that the strings on a guitar were named like this:

(Courtesy of Storm at guitarteacher.com)

Low E to high E and a useful acronym for remember the strings in between is Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie. Well, in German the B string is an H string. It's not as if there were no B in German. In fact, the letter B is alive and well and useful in words like Brot and Butter (yes, I'm having my breakfast as I write this).

Being a certain kind of student, I didn't want to ask too many questions about this on the first lesson. I gave my instructor a questioning glance, he gave me a smile and a shrug in response, and that was that. So now I have to learn a German acronym or change "Bye" to "Health" or something stupid like that. Making matters slightly worse, is that the letter H is pronounced "Ha" . . . and my inclination is to think, "Ha is right, where's the B string?"

Whatever.

This is all probably a really important development for me. Next thing you know I'll be cooking in German, too!

*My name for instance, sounds like EE-Nez, because of the different pronunciation of the letter "i."

Dust in the Wind

2010-06-28T16:44:00.003+02:00

The fingers on my left hand hurt like hell . . . I've been practicing you see.

The goal is to have a forty-five minute lesson once a week and to practice an hour each day. So I have been working on "Dust in the Wind," the intro to which I learned on Friday. The intro is based on the chords C, Cmaj7, Cadd9, Am, Asus2, and Asus4, as well as a basic picking technique. The trick is to get the chords and the picking in sync.

The picking is fine and the chords are fine, but when I try to put them together—along with the appropriate rhythm—I feel terribly uncoordinated and wonder why my fingers look as if they don't really belong to me. Hopefully, this feeling—along with the pain—will pass eventually.

In any case, once I learn the entire song, it will be some variation of this:

I also have to learn "Wild Thing" but more about that later.

Guitar Student 3.0

2010-06-27T13:40:00.000+02:00

On Friday July 25, I had my first guitar lesson. Not the first ever, but the first as a serious guitar student. My two previous versions of Guitar Student were not particularly successful, but went well enough to convince me to continue. Briefly, they went something like this:

Guitar Student 1.0

I was living in Scotland and was also busy being Doctoral Candidate 1.0. Having lusted after a guitar my entire life and decided that it was "now or never," I talked my friends Matt and Adam into going shopping with me in Edinburgh to test guitars that would be suitable for beginners. I eventually settled on a Yamaha F310. The lessons themselves were given by Matt in exchange for cooking lessons. So we'd meet on Sunday afternoons at my place and he'd give me a lesson and I'd show him how to cook something. Given that I was already heavily invested in being Doctoral Candidate 1.0, it was probably a bit silly to think that I'd actually have time to learn to play the guitar. In any case, I didn't.

Guitar Student 2.0

I moved to Washington, DC after finishing my studies and was anxious to pick up where I left off. I don't remember where I found my guitar teacher, Craigslist perhaps, but I was happy with him in any case. But here again, the realities of everyday life—particularly the new job—meant that I didn't really have as much time to invest in my instrument as I had hoped, and after three lessons I called it quits.

*********

The new and improved version of my life as a guitar student (Guitar Student 3.0) has many advantages over the previous models. First of all, I'm in Berlin, where everything is just better on principle . . . except for dog poo and no shopping on Sunday. I'm self-employed, which means that my schedule is flexible; my living situation means that can practice during the day when I'm at home alone, which is incredibly important for beginners who are always embarrassed because they know that they don't sound that great. Also critical, is that I've apparently hit the Guitar Teacher jackpot. There will be more about him later, in the meantime, just think Zen.

Perhaps the most important element this time around is age. Of course there is that adage, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks," to which I have to respond, "Good thing I'm not a dog then." What I am is a music lover, who on some level wants to be a music maker as well. I am also keen on having a new project: one in which the the steady advance in skills will inspire me to keep going; one in which I spend less time on the Internet and more time challenging my aging brain to learn something new; and finally, one in which my lifelong philosophy—"why not give it a shot?"—is once again tested.

The purpose of this blog is to document the effort and hopefully garner some support along the way. I welcome your comments, tips, advice, and whatever else you think might be useful.