I was a bit behind in getting my last post out. I had written it and every time I sat down to do the last bit of work to get it posted, I would just run out of time or energy. I finally got it posted, though I had to make a few edits as it was out of date. I find it frustrating when due to either a sudden lack of time, I find I don’t get done what I intended. I feel this way in a lot of circumstances and as I can get distracted it happens a bit more often than I like.
The donut tutorial is a good example. I had expected to be done with it by now and to have created a set of donuts for Valentine’s Day, which is now passed. Not only have I not created the donuts, I haven’t finished the tutorial. While I did get distracted by something it wasn’t until after I had already come to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to get the Valentine’s donuts ready in time for the holiday. I started on the scene. I got part way through it and realized that I had made a bit of a mess and would really need to start it over. I also realized that given my schedule for the week, I wasn’t going to have a quality piece of art ready in time for the holiday. I could have a piece of art ready but it wouldn’t be the quality that I want to produce. So, I pursued the distraction. I will be getting back to the donut. I promise.
My distraction had to do with playing guitar. Wait. No. Don’t get excited. I am not back to full form. I’m still limited in the amount of practice I can do at one time. Though that is increasing and I now have strengthening exercises to do. I’m on a good path. What I have realized as I’ve got through the physical therapy for the shoulder and the forearm is that a significant cause of the issues have come from trying to do things like everyone else. From how I sit at my desk and work, or home for that matter, to how I try to play certain songs on guitar, or for that matter how I play guitar in general. In general, there’s nothing wrong with doing these things like everyone else. When it becomes not ideal is when you realize you are 5 feet tall in a world designed for people between about 5 foot 4 inches and 5 foot 10 inches. I personally, don’t have an issue with being short. I rather like it to be honest. I fit places tall people can’t and I often have a good time surprising people because well, they just didn’t expect that out of someone so small. Ok short. However, the reality of our cookie cutter world is that when you do not fit the mold well, then things can be a problem. And I have no doubt that people on the other side of the design specification have a similar problem, just in the opposite direction.
So while they were able to help me get things corrected at my day job by bringing in an ergonomic specialist to assess my work space, fixing my guitar playing is all up to me.
I have been aware for a couple of weeks now, because of the physical therapy, that one of the things that has probably been a big contributor to my issues has been the way I play the rhythm for the song ‘Dust My Broom’ it’s a nice blues shuffle that requires me to do a lot of work with my little finger on my fretting hand. I have to move it quite fast in a regular rhythm and a little over stretched for the size of my hands. Oh and yes, I play a regular size guitar. As I was starting to get a little practice time in I came to realize this and that some of the issue might also be how I play rhythm guitar. Instead of thinking that I just couldn’t or wasn’t meant to play guitar, I thought of the people that want to play so bad and yet don’t have the use of some of their fingers like Django Rheinhardt, or people that play with their feet because they don’t have the use of their arms, or don’t have arms. At that point I realized, I can play, I just have to find a different way. The way I play pretty much comes from how I learned to play and how I’ve defaulted to playing for so much of my life. A lack of understanding of theory has somewhat limited my ability to change this as well.
The cool thing is that because I have some ability to read music, and an electronic keyboard, and an analytical mind, some pretty cool friends that help me understand the bits I need, oh, and mustn’t forget a really stubborn streak, I’ve been working on ways to get me some music to play to accompany my singing while I recover enough to get back to guitar. As a result, keyboard chords and a little more theory. And that was helpful. And not satisfying. It’s not guitar.
As I was talking to some of the other guitar players at the last jam I realized that I could try, yet again, to learn to play slide guitar. Yes, it requires control, but it doesn’t require as much grip. As I’ve tried it before I know one of the ways this works well is by tuning the guitar to an open tuning, and open G tuning is quite popular. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones has been known to use the same tuning on a number of songs. A quick search on the web and I found a couple of great sites on open G tuning and how to play in it and even how to play the shuffle pattern like in ‘Dust My Broom’. And guess what, it doesn’t require a lot of over stretching to make it happen! So I was off to the music room to tune a guitar in open G. And then to figure out where the different chords are. Once that was done it was time to figure out how to play the pentatonic scales in an open G tuning, and not just for the key of G, for any other key I might want to play in. This is where that analytical mind thing comes in. Yes, I might have been able to look up the patterns to figure it out. But why do that when I could probably figure it out myself. So I did.
I don’t know if open G tuning will turn out to be the tuning that works best for me. It could end up being a different tuning. But now that I’ve figured out it is based on the G form from the C-A-G-E-D system, I know where I can easily or fairly easily find different chord shapes within it. I also know that I can either find the tuning or figure out how to get an open tuning for a different shape, if it makes sense to try it. At this point, the primary reasons for me to try one of them would be either, I prefer the sound of the chord in that shape, or it makes it easier for me to play without causing me problems. That I know of, or can tell or hear, standard tuning on a guitar, does not produce a regular chord. What it does, is make it possible to make the same chord in a lot of different shapes, with relative ease.
Yes, I’m a little behind on things I thought I’d get done. But wow. Look at what I’ve learned and figured out. I’m slowly starting to put it all together and make it work and make sense. I will be learning most of the songs I do, all over again. Some almost from scratch. And in the process, I’ll hopefully make them a little better. I’ve one I’ve already identified a better way to play the rhythm and another that I’ve found a way to add a little extra to it. It makes sense, to take this time to learn a different style of playing. While in some ways I get to revisit that old friend from the art world, the valley of suck, because of the need to take things slow and steady, it’s much less frustrating. I’m kind of excited about the whole prospect. Ok. I’m really excited that I get to play again.
Oh, a bit more news on the Blues Jam front. We are back to having two a month. They have found a different second location that we’ll be playing at starting next month. I don’t think I’ll be ready to debut my new playing style there for the first one but I’ll sure go and sing and have a good time.
And in between my five minute practice sessions I’ll be working to finish up the Blender Donut Tutorial. And download the newest release. For Valentine’s Day we were gifted a new release of Blender. Version 2.82 is now available. There are mostly fixes in it. But it has a bunch of fixes for things that I didn’t know were a problem. So best to go ahead and update it since nothing I do is tied to any earlier versions. Honestly. I’m mostly excited for 2.83 which is due out in the summer I think. It has some changes that though I don’t use them or need them right now, they are super cool. And huge improvements.
I don’t really have any new pictures to go with this so I’ll recycle some from previous posts. I’ll try to keep you updated on the mind bending mental gymnastics of learning to play the guitar differently. And I’ll post the progress on the donuts. Perhaps with fewer trips to the donut shop.