Saturday, February 4, 2006

Beginner Guitar Class #2

     Last Wednesday, twenty-five or thirty people showed up for the beginner guitar class. That's a whole lot of non musicians with guitars, playing a whole lot of ... well, what ever that was we were playing.

     Luckily we were able to break down into 2 smaller groups, one starting at 6:00 and the other at 7:00. The smaller class this week seemed much more manageable.

      Taking into consideration that this is only going to be eight, one hour classes, "Dr. Bob" is going over a lot of information very quickly and is requiring that we do a lot of practicing at home. Obviously this is not going to be a class for the weak and squeamish, looks like you either sink or swim here and I expect that there will be a bit of fall out within the next couple of classes.

      I hate to see people give up before they even get started but if you don't 100% grasp everything we are going over so quickly in class, how can you go home and practice it?

     I for one plan on doing what ever I have to do to at least get through this first 8 weeks. "I will keep up with the class" How's that for the power of positive thinking?

                              

     We are continuing the finger exercises from last week, and have added the C scale as well as basic chord progressions G, E minor, C and D7.  We also went over the "here comes the bride" method of tuning the guitar, (I may need a refresher on that one).

     If anyone is interested in details, I'll be glad to share what I can. It's not to late to get started and it shouldn't be to difficult keeping up with me, I'm only 2, 1 hour classes into this thing.

     It's actually been great having that chart posted on my journal this week. I can look at it now and see the scales. Before the class started I was able to pick out a G scale by ear. You know... do-re-me-fa-so-la-ti-do. I had no idea it was a G scale until I looked at the chart this week and noticed that the notes I had been playing started with the open G string and ended on G on the 6th string so ... that makes it a G scale.

     Up until now I've only played around with the notes on the 4th , 5th and 6th strings, it just seemed easier. Dr. Bob started up out with the C scale (in yellow above), starting with the C on the 2nd string and ending with the C on the 5th string.

     It was a little intimidating at first, I was afraid it would be very difficult picking the right string not only on the fret board but also with the pick. After practicing it several times, I can now do it with my eyes closed. I've been playing it over and over and over again. Now I can play 2 scales with near perfection, who would have thought?

    BTW ... my hit counter was near 33,000 and somehow it got reset to 0000000 today,  Maybe AOL is trying to tell me that It's time to officially move over to blogger. With all zeros here at Rain, is it as if no one has ever even been here?

     I'm 00000000 sad :-(  maybe I'll get over it.                                                                                                                                  

                                  

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had to delete my counter, it reset too. So did Denielle's.
Bloody AOL Overlords!

Anonymous said...

No....don't leave!  I'm still trying to figure out the whole blog feed thing.   Great job w/ the guitar classes...I'm jealous!
Nancy

Anonymous said...

There's been a lot of 'counter' problems around AOL this last week or so... Wonder what that means AOL is up to? Probably NOT something that will make me happy <sigh>
http://journals.aol.com/astaryth/AdventuresofanEclecticMind
http://adventuresofaneclecticmind.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Well done with the lessons, you really sound like you are making good progress and enjoying it...I lost my hit counter but it is quite easy to reset....Ally

Anonymous said...

that sucks when the counter resets...but hey, whatta ya gonna do...guitar lessons sound like fun!  who knows maybe you'll be the next big thing in music!  :-)

Anonymous said...

That is just great that you are enjoying the guitar class. It sounds like a lot of fun!

xoxo

Anonymous said...

Coy
Congratulaions on learning the two scales.  I think it's great you picked out the G scale on your own.  Only two weeks into this and you seem to be making great progress.  Way to go!
Sam

Anonymous said...

Can't believe they do that on purpose, BUT, either way it is a bummer! Even though a bunch of them are your own, it is a gauge of what, if anything,  has been seen by others. rich

Anonymous said...

Coy, you do not cease to amaze me! Your pursuit of new knowledge is just amazing. Well, I do not know if I will have the courage to take music lessons but it had been my dream to be able to play a violin. I think fear of embarassment keeps me from even trying. Keep us posted. I might even gather the courage to call a music teacher.

Anonymous said...

you will always stay young as long as you keep doing new things.
What a drag about your counter.
Please don't go!
Marti

Anonymous said...

Here`s ONE!
V

Anonymous said...

Wow, I didn't know AOL even HAD journals...  ;-)  ;-)   ;-)

Very cool that you're learning to play the guitar.  You are always learning new things, I really admire that in you, Coy!  

Sorry about the hit counter......................
Albert