I've been back from the family reunion for almost a week now and I did want to take some time to write about it. My brother in law and I did finally find some time to jam. I'm the one with the acoustic, naturally. We were playing a diddy I call Caitlyn Starlight with is nothing more than a chord progression that I like to play:
G D C (x2)
G D Em Am
Em C D
Am7 Em
Am C D
Of course it means little with out the rhythm, but it's one that I've noticed people start bouncing their heads to when I play it. So, I started playing it and BIL started playing a melody. I was impressed. He told me that what he was playing was variations on the Gm pentatonic scale, which is the scale I mentioned in my previous post. It was quite cool.
I had never paid much attention to all the different modes of scales except for the Major and Minor scales of course. Turns out that a lot of melody, riffs and blues played on guitar is based on the minor pentatonic scales. BIL took the time to show me what he was doing and it seemed to me to be such a simple shape. I can't really explain how it works in written words, so I'm going to let the guys at rockongoodpeople explain it better:
Just a plug here for the guys at rockongoodpeople. They have over 350 videos on youtube for guitar instruction--mostly samples from their commercial products they self produce and sell at www.nextlevelguitar.com. I've not ever bought one of their pay products, but they share a wealth of information in their free videos. One reason I like their videos so much compared to other "instructional videos" on youtube is they teach while so many others just "show." Check 'em out.
Video embedded with permission from rockongoodpeople.
I have really been neglecting AmishGuitar lately. I've not had too much to say, to tell the truth. Real life has kind of taken over the last few months. I haven't really had any new experiences with the guit-fiddle to write about, or tried something new to report on. In fact, I've not had much time or reason to get the blasted thing out of it's case for much more than a quick noodle in what seems like forever.
Right now I'm writing from a family reunion to which I was able to bring my guitar. My brother in law had said he'd bring his out as well, but much to my surprise he brought an electric and a small amp. His is a Yamaha Pacifica and a Roland Micro Cube amp.
Now, I've always eschewed the electric and written about the simple pleasure of the acoustic. But. Me likey. I'm not a loud, in your face, heavy metal slasher type guy, so I've always said to myself that I'd have no interest in an electric, but I was very surprised to find out how much I enjoyed playing it. I still don't like a lot of distortion, but it was a pretty sweet sound that I was able to produce from that tiny amp. Don't think I'll be getting one anytime soon, but it's nice to know I am no longer afraid of the idea.
My BIL and I haven't had much time to play together. We brought our instruments only to learn that we're at very different levels of skill (he's been playing for, what, 15 years?) and I don't know a lot of the songs and artists that he knows. But we've had time to chat about guitars and playing and that's been nice. He did a really nice blues riff and I noticed that he was just playing a scale on the 5 and 7 fret. I'm hoping we have time that he can show me what he was doing, but the house is VERY busy most of the time.
I'm hoping that real life will settle down soon.
I've returned from a two day, two night conference for the state library federation held in Indianapolis. Good conference and I took Patrick along to work on "Falling Slowly" during my spare free time.
While there I afforded myself a rare treat. Downtown Indy has a blues bar called the "Slippery Noodle." I'm not sure what the story behind the name is. Perhaps because it is in a building that formerly hosted a bordello? Any rate, we went expecting a cover and a band performing a regular gig. What we found was Jam Night. I had never experienced anything like it. Musicians, some arranged in groups, some not, just put their name on a list and then took the stage when called. Sometimes the "group" consisted of a singer and a guitarist and someone from the audience got up halfway through a song to plug in his/her bass or sit down at the drum kit. I mean, these people had no idea who each other were and they were jammin' some righteous blues! And, even more heartening is that no one expected perfection. In fact, one duo, a fantastic acoustic blues duo started an original song that was just fantastic. Halfway through the song the singer just quit and said "we're going on to the next song. That one was in the wrong key and we're going to have to figure out what key we wrote it in the first time."
!
And the audience just cheered all the more.
After all my angst brought to the forefront by the movie, it was so refreshing to experience live music in the presence of imperfection. Sure, I'll never be able to jump on a stage and be told "standard 12 bar in G" and know what the hell to do. But it is enough that I understand that I know that.
That, and my club sodas were free. I guess I was the designated walker. HA!
