Guitar Musings

Remember that old tip, in english class, where if your stumped on what your going to write, you’re instructed to scrawl “I don’t know what to write” over and over until you get past that block and continue with your writing.  I’m working on a couple of projects and on all of them, I’m stumped, can’t move past that one line or chord. 

Which leads me to the my question, “what is the guitarist version of ‘I don’t know what to write’?”

 I’ve tried recording writing, down the progressions, learning new tunes, etc….   The only two things that have helped a bit was to hum the melody over the chords or run it over and over again in my head.  I try to do this in order to hopefully polish these skills nad move on.  My best friend tells me that the reason why I’m so stumped is because I try to get it perfect and I won’t move on until it is, which is partially true.  He also says that I need to treat it as a rough draft that will get polished soon enough. 

Anyway…  I’ll keep pluggin’ away.

I guess you can say that I a bit old fanshioned but I still prefer buying a CD over downloading.  I could say that I never purchased a song online to download.  I normally buy the CD and then rip them to my iPod but I was forced (poor me) to setup an ITunes account because I recieved a gift certificate.    I have to admit, the convenience is nice.  I downloaded two Tommy Emmanuel albums, (Only and The Mystery), and just like that it’s on my iPod Touch in a matter of minutes.    The trade-off with this convenience is that the CD jacket is missing and I enjoy reading the little tidbits that the artists tend to leave for you in the bio, special thanks, notes, etc in the jacket.  I’ve always enjoyed listening to the CD for the first time while reading about it in the CD.  Ah… those were the days. 

So am I converted completely, probably not but this isn’t the end especially if I get more gift certificates.

For what seems like forever the “Tommy Emmanuel Note for Note” songbook has been off the shelves and not available.  I was afraid that I would never be able to purchase it.  In case you didn’t know this book is probably the most accurate Tommy E.  songbook out there.  I’ve heard stories that Tommy worked with the trascriber to make sure that each note was accurate.  I’ve worked with some Tommy Tabs available on the internet but they do lack some accuracy so I can’t wait until my copy comes in. 

Song List Includes:

• Amy
• Blue Moon
• Cascading Harmonics
• Countrywide
• Day Tripper
• Dixie McGuire
• Freight Train
• Lady Madonna
• Limehouse Blues
• Since We Met
• A Taste Of Honey
• Tom’s Thumb
• Trambone
• Up From Down Under
• Windy And Warm

I was hoping Borsalino would have been on it but no such luck.  If anyone who might read this, if you find a good/complete transcription of this piece, please let me know.  I’ll be anxiously awaiting this in the mail in the coming days and it’s guarenteed that my familiy won’t be seeing me much once I get it.

http://www.certifiedguitarplayer.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4

 Other Tommy tabs can be found here: Most are pretty decent but some shouldn’t even be up there.

In a little over a month, I will be at a Bruce Cockburn concert. He will be playing at the Denver Folk and Roots Festival March 28th.   It will be the 7th time that I’ve seen him play live and I will never miss a show.  In case you didn’t know, he is a big influence on my playing.  Probably the single reason why I switched to fingerstyle guitar completely.  The man can write some serious music;  his guitar playing is incredible with that “thumb of steel” pounding the base while he plays some incredible leads.  To top it off, he is a master at the words so if are in the Denver area that Friday, go!  You will not be disapointed.

http://www.swallowhill.com/festivals/DenverFolkFest2008/DFRF2008.htm

http://cockburnproject.net/

My name is Larry and I’m a guitarist.  I am a network manager by profession but my passion is the guitar.  My initial goals for this site is to journal my progress and/or failing while trying to become a better guitarist and writing songs.   It has always been very hard for me to write and to stay focussed and I find that being around other musicians helps. So I want to use this site as my new friend to vent my frustrations and successes in this journey.  I hope that some might find what I write helpful or comments left might help me.