Musical Ambitions
I'm reposting here two posts that went initially to Facebook and Google+, one from October 25, and the other from October 26:
October 25:
(Tara will probably complain, but) I picked up a Jamstik as a late birthday present/right hand exercise. It arrived the other night and I've been working through the tutorial.
I've already figured a few things out, however:
- I'll probably want to still get a real guitar and take lessons from a live person. I don't know whether to go through the Poway Adult School, Palomar College, or go the private lesson route.
- I need to build up the calluses on my left hand.
- my (literal) fat fingers make it hard for both of the chords the tutor has tried to teach me: E and A.
- the tutor program has an "arcade mode," based on Guitar Hero and the like. I find this much harder to do since I have some eye-hand coordination issues that still require me to do too much thinking before fretting the correct string(s). Even in the other mode, I pick the wrong string a high percentage of the time.
- I find it easier to use headphones - otherwise the actual sound of the strings kind of distracts me.
- I need to stick with this in order to get myself up to the level I'd like to be at: enough to at least accompany myself in filk type settings (which, sort-of includes the monthly worship sessions at our church)
October 26:
I did a bit of noodling tonight. Mostly working on E and A chords. I still have to look at reference and think to get my left hand correct.
I'm also having a problem with the E chord that tends to make the Jamstik sense the third string (C?) as being fretted on the second fret, not the first. I don't think it is because I'm swapping my first two fingers. I also think I'm going to need to trim my nails.
I located a place for lessons. I decided to give their voice lessons a try first - since I already own the instrument.
(I also need to decide if I should get an electric guitar so I can practice without disturbing Tara. On the other hand, that is what the Jamstik is for.)
{If this shows up twice - it is due to a glitch in how the Wordpress plugin that is supposed to post all of my Wordpress blog posts over to LiveJournal works when I post from my iPad)
October 25:
(Tara will probably complain, but) I picked up a Jamstik as a late birthday present/right hand exercise. It arrived the other night and I've been working through the tutorial.
I've already figured a few things out, however:
- I'll probably want to still get a real guitar and take lessons from a live person. I don't know whether to go through the Poway Adult School, Palomar College, or go the private lesson route.
- I need to build up the calluses on my left hand.
- my (literal) fat fingers make it hard for both of the chords the tutor has tried to teach me: E and A.
- the tutor program has an "arcade mode," based on Guitar Hero and the like. I find this much harder to do since I have some eye-hand coordination issues that still require me to do too much thinking before fretting the correct string(s). Even in the other mode, I pick the wrong string a high percentage of the time.
- I find it easier to use headphones - otherwise the actual sound of the strings kind of distracts me.
- I need to stick with this in order to get myself up to the level I'd like to be at: enough to at least accompany myself in filk type settings (which, sort-of includes the monthly worship sessions at our church)
October 26:
I did a bit of noodling tonight. Mostly working on E and A chords. I still have to look at reference and think to get my left hand correct.
I'm also having a problem with the E chord that tends to make the Jamstik sense the third string (C?) as being fretted on the second fret, not the first. I don't think it is because I'm swapping my first two fingers. I also think I'm going to need to trim my nails.
I located a place for lessons. I decided to give their voice lessons a try first - since I already own the instrument.
(I also need to decide if I should get an electric guitar so I can practice without disturbing Tara. On the other hand, that is what the Jamstik is for.)
{If this shows up twice - it is due to a glitch in how the Wordpress plugin that is supposed to post all of my Wordpress blog posts over to LiveJournal works when I post from my iPad)