Prolly no one did

Getting ready to head out for today's guitar lessons. Most of the kids did come up with a song they wanted to learn, but none of them actually looked online to see if the song was chords they (kinda) know. ;)

Me: "Well, that one has lyrics that aren't 'school appropriate'."

"Nope, that has more chords in it than they will learn in the next year."

"Oh, look, a three chord song... OMG, it's a Taylor Swift song. Someone kill me now."

"Well, that one's not gonna happen: bar chord."

:D

I gave them a couple "licks" to practice: one was the opening to Secret Agent Man, and surprisingly, they had all heard it before. I'm trying to get them to be able to pick individual strings... and have some rhythm to it.

You should have seen the looks on those little faces when I said, "OK, work up that song you picked and be ready to play it for the class on the next lesson." (Yeah, I was kidding.)

I take for granted that "we all have rhythm"... I spent some time with my son-in-law last night, and proved that thought wrong. We changed out (and by "we", I mean I coached him through it - he did the work) his strings, too. We'll see what he thinks of coated strings, now that he is building calluses.

Captain;

That's a new one on me. Did changing strings help your son-I-law's rhythm? It's a pretty unorthodox teaching method, but if it works I'll start changing strings more often..

Captain;

Wait a minute! You're son-in-law is developing calluses from changing strings? How does that work?

The Captain probably has him changing the strings on all his guitars too...:D
String on...String off

For those of you who question my tactics: I had my son-in-law keep those original strings on for the last 7 weeks or so... and helped him switch them to some Elixir Nanowebs, which should be easier on his finger tips. First: build up the calluses, then we'll switch strings. Plus, we are leaving here in 10 days - he needs to know how to change strings. I am pleased with his progress.

Now, regarding the school kids' lessons - here is proof that I am willing to go to any length to keep them fired up about learning to play...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB5N...ature=youtu.be

Yes, a grown man playing Taylor Swift. As I have been know to say: it is important to know your audience. :D


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On edit: The "ooouuh-ooouuh"s in that recording are apparently coming from the person doing the video. I won't mention anyone by name, but it is Stephanie (my daughter and their math/science teacher). Apparently she was into it, too.

Oh Captain, that is such good stuff! Thank you for sharing.

A Wrap and a Life Lesson...

Today was the last of the guitar lessons at our daughter's school. It has been an interesting journey. I wrote about it on our blog...

https://captnjim.blogspot.com/2019/0...fe-lesson.html

The highlights if you don't want to view that: the kids gave me hand-made cards and a wooden pick holder in the shape of an acoustic guitar...

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7pT98L9lA.../ThankYous.jpg

Very nice of them. I also tried to leave them with a life lesson, and it had to do with that Taylor Swift song, Shake It Off. I hope some of them stick with playing guitar... especially the one boy who wrote in the card that when he becomes a rock star he is going to give me a lot of money to show how much these lessons meant to him. ;)

One more week and we'll be on the road, heading for home.

Nicely done, sir, nicely done.

I'm hoping that my impending retirement will provide a similar suggestion to serve somewhere. We shall see.

In the meantime, what am I going to do with these 4 packs of wonderful DR Strings that I don't really care for? :) :)

Pay 'em forward, David. A kind participant here sent me some wood picks to try and asked that I let other players give 'em a try. I am sure there are some folks here (and on the main forum) that would like to try the DRs.

Or:

http://www.darrylpurpose.com/second-strings-project/

We got together with my keyboard playing buddy again. The main plan was to lay down a couple tracks with the Spire Studio so I can take them home, add bass and percussion, then send them back to my friend so he can do some enhanced keyboard (he just ordered a new synth) stuff on another track.

With that done, we all had lunch, then Mark and I just made some music. Joan asked if we would learn Shallow (by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper) for her - here's an iPhone video of our first raw run through with that...



If that embedded file doesn't work: https://youtu.be/v_icCgD2rH0

Once we get that down, that will be another to add to our "track swapping" list.

Our time here in the desert is getting short. While the desert weather hasn't been as nice as we've experienced in the past, I have gotten a lot more music time in while we've been here. :)

Well done Captain !

Nice job Captain Jim!

Todd in Chicago

Thank you for the YouTube version. And for sharing.

My first attempt at playing harmonica (just bought it last week). Mark put down a piano track on the Spire when we were at their house on Wednesday; mostly a scratch track so we can get comfortable with sending Spire Studio tracks back and forth after we get home. I had an hour or so today, so in the noisy environment of the motorhome, I added a vocal, nylon guitar, and harmonica track...



No, this isn't a finished product... more of an experiment. What's that? Frankenstein was "an experiment"? The people in the RV park are gathering with pitchforks and torches? Yeah, it's about time for us to hit the road. ;)

Good job Captain!

There must be something swirling around the Ethernet. I just picked up a harmonica and working my way through this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/John-Sebast...oAAOSwXY5ZP~Au

Thanks. When I bought the harmonica (Hohner Marine Band), it came with a one-month free subscription to a blues harmonica course; $16.95 per month after that. The guy doing the course said, "If you practice regularly, you should be able to play a song in about 2 months..."

Two months? I've gone through a couple modules of that course, mostly to understand how to tongue block. (insert your own "Junior High School first kiss " joke here :D )

So far, what I have gotten out of it is a sore jaw and chapped lips. :roll:

The Kazoo is easier. One year I bought a gross of Kazoos and passed them around to all the village kids. Within minutes those kids were making some great sounds. For about a week the village was full of joyful sound. Once the parents figured out where the Kazoos came from, I had to hide out for while.

You don't hear a lot of blues kazoo players. ;)

Hard to find the minor pentatonic scale on the kazoo. :D

I didn't say it was an easy instrument to learn. It's a very sensitive horn and it takes a pentatonic sort of person to play the pentatonic scale.

So that means you had 5 girl friends at once?? Good way to lose your kazoo.

:roll:

It took a few seconds but oh my.......

I hear that Pentatonia is lovely at this time of year.

We are, of course, talking about carbon fiber Kazoos.

Ah, to be Petatonic in Petatonia, when the Petonias bloom.

I used to live in Petaluma, and played pentatonic scales there. But we never had petunias.....

Home! Four driving days, but I did pull the X10 out a time or two once we were settled in for the evening.

We rolled onto our island and had the motorhome parked by the house at 3:00 this afternoon... mostly unloaded by 6:00. We always say, "Let's not be crazy about unloading..." but we always are. On the bright side, I left one guitar out while we were gone: the X7. I took a "3 song break" from carting stuff and played that great little guitar. Love it! Rufus loves it. In between carting stuff, the Blonde applauded... and said, "You are a happy boy, aren't ya?" Yep. In another day or two, I'll get some more guitars out... although the X10 and the Yamaha Silent Guitar are on the wall, already. I did miss having the variety while we were out.

Once we get the motorhome cleaned up and put away, I will have more time to get my guitar room set back up. Right now, I feel like I need a break. ;)

My apologies for the non-kazoo content.

I must have been road weary when I made that post above... it was 5 days of driving, not 4. On the bright side, the X20 got to come out and play... it makes my heart, ears, fingers, and belly (from the rumble) happy. :)

And now you have time to work on your Kazoo. Life is good.