Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
With I Can See Clearly Now, I was introduced to the F chord at last week’s session. While there is an instance of the chord in Take Me Home Country Roads, it’s very quick–two beats–and not at all easy for someone just learning it. Of course, in I Can See Clearly Now, there’s a crazy switch between several chords with two beats per chord that I have to work on. Even practicing every day since last week’s lesson, the F chord is difficult and so is the chord progression in the latest song. One big solace is the A major 7 chord I also learned last week. Incredibly easy compared to its partner.
However, my difficulty with the latest bits is a good thing, in perspective of my instructor. She wants to get me at a point where I’m really challenged and so far, this is it. Right here is where I’m in a very stuck position. Comparing to all the other things I’ve learned up to this, those past challenges were very tame. I’ve been bumping up my practice time to about an hour and a half. Fingers don’t hurt so much anymore, but my hand does cramp up a bit on some songs. This kind of hard work is really fun.
I had a troubling guitar practice session last night. It felt like I didn’t have timing and I couldn’t hit any chords correctly. There was a lot of buzzing towards the end of the night. I kept muting a string on a chord. It was very frustrating.
I have to keep reminding myself that it takes a lot of time to get good at something. I’m trying to relate learning kata to learning the guitar. I need to see the chords, strumming and fretting as the fundamentals, equivalent to punches, kicks, stances and blocks. Practice them individually and in basic kata (the songs I currently have) repeatedly.
Just as my stances could get more stable, my strikes speedier and more focused, I have to work on positioning my fingers on the fret board correctly from the start (I’m fumbling and having to correct my placement). Same thing with strumming. I need to be consistent and always strike the strings on down and up strokes. Just as the focus of power is in the hips, I need to relate that to my wrist (not the elbow) for guitar.
Every kata, even basic ones like Taikyoku, have a tempo to them, a rhythm. It took months of practice to get the timing down, even on my favorite kata like wanshu and annan. I have to see guitar playing the same way.
And even when I did get pretty good at all my kata, I still had a lot more room to improve. And that was seven years of training. I’ve only been practicing the guitar for a few weeks, just about a month.
Last week Friday marked the third guitar lesson. There is a layer of cracked skin on my left hand fingertips. Perhaps I’m building the calluses up too much? While I can play longer, which is a godsend because I have six songs to practice, it is harder to feel the strings. What little aptitude I displayed was proof of my continued practice, which I think pleased my instructor.
Read the rest of this entry »
This past Friday, I reviewed the first two songs I learned on my first session and was introduced to three new chords (A, D and E7) and two new songs (Jambalaya and He Aloha Mele). The new chords are harder to switch between than the first four, but hopefully I’ll be able get the hang of it through my daily practice. As for the practicing itself, the calluses are starting to show and fretting is getting a bit easier to do for longer periods. However, my forearm is beginning to hurt a little bit. I suppose I’m building up the muscle there.
Besides handling the frets, strumming is also a little challenge. I sometimes miss the strings on the upstroke but at least my instructor says I have good rhythm. I just need to keep my wrist loose and continue practicing the twisting motion.
I gave a wishlist containing some of my favorite songs to my instructor so hopefully, once I get better I can start learning some of them.
On the week of February 14th, I decided that now was the time to learn how to play the guitar. That Saturday (the 20th), I went to Island Guitars and, amidst information overload, picked up my first guitar. An Epiphone DR-90. It was part of a player pack, meaning it came with the guitar, a bag, guitar strap, tuner, picks, extra strings and a DVD. The folks at Island Guitars were even nice enough to toss in a cleaning cloth too.
David Chang was the person who was primarily helping me, showing me their selections of acoustic guitars and introducing me to the complexities of choosing one. He then gave me breathing room to look through the selections and see if there were any that “called out” to me. Being a complete newbie, however, hampered whatever siren call any guitar may have cooed my way. Instead, I went back to David and asked if he could recommend something to start with. Informing me of the player pack and all it came with, I was sold on it. The guitar is good quality but not an immense investment. Likewise, the bag isn’t the best but good enough for my first guitar. It was such a joy to have the guitar in my hands even if I had no knowledge of any chords, much less know how to hold it properly, and I couldn’t wait to get started learning.
Read the rest of this entry »
