MUSICAL URGE SUGGESTIONS: A LESSON POST

Acting on a musical urge is always chancy.

Will you sound the way you think you sound, would like to sound?

There’s only one way to find out, and there’s a guitar laying around. Maybe it’s enough to stop thinking about it and get back to the more important things like video games and TV.

We’re way past fifty-seven channels and nothing on.

So you listen to yourself, then lock that guitar back in the case and chase one hundred fifty-seven channels and nothing on, one thousand and fifty-seven channels.

Don’t do that. Why?

Until you’re a parent of a baby you have no idea how badly you sucked at new things, like feeding yourself, dressing yourself, taking a bath.

We do it all unconsciously over time, but it’s a tough lesson starting over with someone who doesn’t know how easy it really is.

Why can’t a six month old kid catch on a little faster?

 

Six Month Old Guitar Player

Every parent dreams of their kid’s first step, their first word.

No guitar player dreams of being bad for a long, long, time. Maybe forever.

How often does that happen? Does it happen?

Yes, it happens every year when someone digs around in a closet, a storage space, a garage, and accidentally finds that guitar case and thinks, ‘Today is the day.’

You’ll be as bad as your were last year, and your guitar is sad.

It wants to be tuned up, wants to be held, wants to sing its song, your song, any song.

It wants to see the world, feel the love, but it’s got you instead.

A dog groomer said my dog has exceptional athleticism and would win a dog agility contest.

I said, “That’s nice, but she’s got me instead.”

So the dog and I train together with, “Heel, come, sit, good girl.”

We’re both getting better at it.

Why not look at your guitar the same way?

Instead of the overwhelming number of notes on each string to play the most complicated music ever written, focus on the basic sound.

Who’s a good girl?

 

The Basic Sound 

Three chords? You have to learn three chords?

You learn three of anything. Three hundred, maybe not, but three chords? You can do that.

Three chords use three fingers at a time. How hard is that?

Difficulty depends on whether your guitar comes with nylon or steel strings, but the actual learning part is three chords.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Now what?

Guitar chords run from A to G, including B, C, D, E, and F.

It looks like this: A – B – C – D – E – F – G.

Now give the chords numbers 1-2-3-4-5-6. Stick with me here.

Many songs come in an arrangement of 1-4-5.

If G is the 1, then C is the 4, and D is the five. Go ahead and count it out.

A song verse starts in G, moves to C, then back to G, with a  chorus in D, before starting over in G.

You’re probably thinking, ‘inconceivable, how is this possible?’

 

The Inconceivable 

And you thought I was making things up? Nooooo.

KISS = keep it simple, stupid.

After learning three chords you’re no longer guitar stupid.

After learning to keep time and stay on beat you’re no longer musically stupid.

Picking up your guitar and playing three chords absentmindedly is the key to success.

You’ll make mistakes that sound good, change progression that sound even better.

The three finger chords lead to barre chords of the same three chords.

Look at the finger formation for the D chord and move the same formation up to the seventh fret and it’s a G chord.

Whaaaaaaat? It’s true. Now the big mystery starts to unfold. It’s not impossible.

Now you’re ready boldly go where no one has ever gone before.

 

PS:

If you live alone and cook for yourself, you’re a chef, a conductor of the caldron, a maestro of macaroni.

Give yourself a Michelin star. Call James Beard.

If you live alone and play guitar? Same thing. You are Jimi, Jeff, and Eric, combined.

You are Prince.

 

PSS:

 

Can you play that guitar?

Yes, you can.