Quiet weekend...
Played the guitar a fair amount over the weekend. I'm determined to learn jazz chords. They are pretty much useless for anything except jazz (suprise) but give new sounds like major 7 and minor 7 flat 5. Plus all the progressions (though there appear to be a relatively limited number that cover most jazz standards.) Jazz guitar really seems to have the most complete syllabus for harmony.
Bass is coming on fine as well. I have a classical method by Franz Simandl:
The person: http://www.billbentgen.com/bass/players/simandl.htm
The method reviewed: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0007H6OTW/qid=1106567402/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-5856346-2041410?v=glance&s=books
plus a couple of jazz and rock methods. I've always liked the tactile quality of the guitar, steel strings burning my fingertips and the smell of the wood. The classical bass must be a real challenge to play, squeezing notes out with the bow and using the 3rd finger to support the 4th as the strings are so thick.
Getting back into classical music is like fresh air as well. Romantics, of course, but Bach for electric bass??? I can't wait.
Finally, a bizarre incident as I left the Pickerel on Sunday. A well dressed, fresh-faced young woman, totally straight looking, walked past on her own, carrying a chair. It was a light, aluminium type and I immediately thought she had filched it from a pavement cafe.
Sure enough, as I crossed the road to get my bike, I noticed the same chairs in front of the Italian restaurant across the bridge. Plus, two black-aproned Italian waiters gesticulating frantically to...a passing police car.
I crossed over and turned to watch the fun. The police car crossed the bridge and purred up to the young woman, who hadn't seen them (police cars 'purr', if you are guilty. Don't ask me how I know :¬)) The officer opens the window: "Excuse me Miss, would you mind putting the chair back where you found it?" Caught red-handed, she says yes, of course, and walks back the restaurant.
By the time I had unlocked my bike, she had got back to where she was when the police had passed her. The patrol car had, by then, got to the end of the street, turned round, and come back. By chance it met her just at the same place as before. It stopped again. The officer asks, amused: "Any particular reason why you took it?" The young woman, with a 'I don't know what came over me' tone, says that 'they' (the waiters) saw her take it. Like that makes it ok. It was a bizarre thing to do. Maybe she needed one for her student room? Whatever, she must have been very embarrassed.
Bass is coming on fine as well. I have a classical method by Franz Simandl:
The person: http://www.billbentgen.com/bass/players/simandl.htm
The method reviewed: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0007H6OTW/qid=1106567402/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-5856346-2041410?v=glance&s=books
plus a couple of jazz and rock methods. I've always liked the tactile quality of the guitar, steel strings burning my fingertips and the smell of the wood. The classical bass must be a real challenge to play, squeezing notes out with the bow and using the 3rd finger to support the 4th as the strings are so thick.
Getting back into classical music is like fresh air as well. Romantics, of course, but Bach for electric bass??? I can't wait.
Finally, a bizarre incident as I left the Pickerel on Sunday. A well dressed, fresh-faced young woman, totally straight looking, walked past on her own, carrying a chair. It was a light, aluminium type and I immediately thought she had filched it from a pavement cafe.
Sure enough, as I crossed the road to get my bike, I noticed the same chairs in front of the Italian restaurant across the bridge. Plus, two black-aproned Italian waiters gesticulating frantically to...a passing police car.
I crossed over and turned to watch the fun. The police car crossed the bridge and purred up to the young woman, who hadn't seen them (police cars 'purr', if you are guilty. Don't ask me how I know :¬)) The officer opens the window: "Excuse me Miss, would you mind putting the chair back where you found it?" Caught red-handed, she says yes, of course, and walks back the restaurant.
By the time I had unlocked my bike, she had got back to where she was when the police had passed her. The patrol car had, by then, got to the end of the street, turned round, and come back. By chance it met her just at the same place as before. It stopped again. The officer asks, amused: "Any particular reason why you took it?" The young woman, with a 'I don't know what came over me' tone, says that 'they' (the waiters) saw her take it. Like that makes it ok. It was a bizarre thing to do. Maybe she needed one for her student room? Whatever, she must have been very embarrassed.