Week Three: Piedmont Blues

I was lucky to pick up a copy of Roger Hurricane Wilson's Piedmont Blues dvd and book this past weekend at his Charles & Myrtle's Coffeehouse concert. He plays with a very cool and unique hybrid form of picking, using both a flat pick and his fingers, but I'll be sticking with my typical fingers-only style. This week, my challenge is to learn "Railroad Bill" . I don't think this will be an easy task at all, but I'm stoked and ready to give it my best. 

I can see already that keeping to my schedule of learning something new on guitar every week is going to be especially difficult during insanely busy December. My strategy is to make the guitar a priority so I won't fall behind with the goal I've set for myself. Wish me luck!

Lick A Week: Week Two

I really enjoyed learning that little rockabilly walkdown. I found a jam track that was adequate for practice and decided having an available jamtrack is probably a good place to begin before I decide what to learn next. Getting the lick, riff, chords, whatever - down pat is fine but, to my way of thinking, I can't really say I've learned it until I can play it easily with other music.

This week, I'm digging into the blues by learning some new chords and a turnaround. Should be fun. 

I'm discovering that learning these new things to do with my guitar is opening up my songwriting, making me think of melodies and even lyrics that I haven't explored in the past. Nice to know that creativity doesn't decline in the middle ages.

Until next week, have a Happy Thanksgiving and happy trails :)

Lick a Day....Maybe

I've been on a quest to improve my knowledge of guitar and uke. It's going well but I think I need a kick in the seat or some sort of carrot out there to make me push it to the next level. My friend Charles Allison did a very cool project where he wrote a song a week for a year!!! and did amazingly well with that project. As I've been pondering how to get myself motivated, Charles came to mind, primarily because his work has always impressed me. His song-a-day project knocked that respect up to a whole new level. Now I'm thinking I'm not adding any more time to my life's clock so why not make this learning more on the guitar stuff interesting. Why not commit to learning a new lick, riff, turnaround, whatever, once a week. At best, I'll have a little library of 52 things I didn't know before and hopefully a brain that has eliminated some flab and amped up for me a bit. At worst, well, frankly I don't see a downside. Today is as good a day to start as any other day so this week I'll be working on a little rockabilly walkdown. I probably won't take the time to record my newfound guitar knowledge but I'll check in here just to keep myself on track.

If you're doing something in your life that helps you feel connected, and not lost in the middle ages, I'd love to hear about it.

I'll be posting again next Tuesday. Until then, happy trails!