Yellow Blog Journalism

My Learning Curve

I love playing my guitar. If i have a couple of hours to burn, a load of stress on my shoulders and a million things on my mind, I can make them all disappear. I've been learning to play for a few months now, and I'm progressing pretty well. I am eyeing a few song books and  have the beginnings of a few songs on scraps of paper littering the bottom of my guitar case, waiting for my skill to develop to meet them. 

It seems pretty simple. One small concept builds upon another concept. Once you cover one skill, you move on to the next. Reading music has been a bit of a challenge. I was 12 years old the last time that I had to read a sheet of music, but given time, effort and a dummies book on reading music, I have been able to make up for lost time.

The strangest source that I have found for great--if not antiquated--information is an old instruction book that I found on Google Books. It is titled "COMPLETE METHOD FOR THE GUITAR: CONTAINING THE ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF MUSIC, AND A NEW, ORIGINAL, AND PROGRESSIVE MODE OF ACQUIRING A RAPID MASTSRY OF THE INSTRUMENT. INTERSPERSED WITH A PLEASING VARIETY OP POPULAR SONGS AND NATIONAL MELODIES."

Its title is half the length of the book.

I Don't know if I am ever going to be good enough to impress anyone other than myself with my new skills, but I an enjoying the process right now. Especially since I have gotten past the sore fingers of the first few months, and can practice for more than half an hour at a time.

 

 

 

Great Moment Today.

It's an easy song. Twinkle twinkle little star. It's one of the first ones that you learn no matter what instrument you play. I learned it on the violin, and then on the guitar. I remember my brother playing it on the flute. I'm willing to bet if we were to call up my sister, she learned to play it on the cello as well. We could start a band. we'd only have one song to start with but it would probably sound ... horrible. Who am I kidding?

I was sitting on the couch today when Jack came up to me. I'd been practicing my guitar for a few hours, vacilating back and forth between "work" and "play".  So it goes.  He wanted to hear twinkle twinkle little star. Soon he was singing along, skipping around a bit. I did my best to keep up. Eventually he wanted a new song.

"Play me the ABC's"

I was happy to oblige.

Don't You Want Somebody to Love?

It is getting close to Christmas. Thanksgiving is going to be next week, after that, four weeks of the onslaught of Commercialmas to make sure that you know that Christmas is on its way. Catalogues have made their way to our house already, but there is one that we recieved that is different. There is one where we can buy a pig or a goat or 5 years of vaccinations for less than a TV. Even a small one.

Jenn and I have spent a good part of the last year sponsoring a young girl from the Dominican Republic. We have gotten pictures and letters, and we have enjoyed putting together cards for her as well. The price isn't much. Under 40 bucks.  Easy. That is a week of coffee.  Or Two coffee free days every week. Man up, you can go two days without hitting Starbucks.  They don't have to be consecutive.

I am asking you to consider going over to Compassion International's website find a kid (cute, ugly, young, old, whatever) and sponsor them. Starbucks will understand.

 

See this comic? It is nothing like this.

My EMS Day in 90 Seconds

I've been playing with my flip video in legally acceptable ways while at work lately and a couple of weeks ago I put together a 90 second no frills glimpse of my day.  I'll probably be doing a few more of these no frills videos. Work days, travel days, days spent playing with Jack when I should be responsible and take him to his pre-k class, but I keep him home to play trains and hotwheels instead...

So, expect this to become a random feature of this blog.

 

 

Also here is an older video from August with a great interview at the end.