I’ve been really fortunate. I haven’t had a set or a song that went sideways in a long time. Most of the time, we’ve managed to make it all the way through the song with it mostly intact. Until the jam this week. We had one song that turned out to be a train wreck. And you know what, that’s okay.
A complete train wreck of a song or set has lots of lessons in it. Just as this one did. In this case it was just one song. The rest of the set went pretty good. Including my shaking hands on the first song. But that’s about normal for the first time I do a new song. And while I usually manage to make it through it pretty solid on guitar, this was a little different because I was playing the intro. I looked and my fingers on the frets and they were shaking like I don’t know what. I managed to get through it though and get to the song. I even took a lead that I thought went pretty well.
Back to the train wreck. We wanted something a little more up beat since we had two slow songs so we chose a song that relies heavily on a very predominant riff. It’s played through the whole song except the stops and at the end. I can play the riff. I can sing the song. I’m still working on playing the riff and singing at the same time. That means I have to rely on the other guitar player to carry the riff while I sing. That means they have to carry it until we get to the break. Things didn’t really go that way. I tried to pick up some sort of rhythm but I got off and lost my place. Then the bass player got lost and the other guitar player couldn’t find his way back. Train wreck. Near total derailment.
What did I learn from that? You mean besides that it’s not the end of the world?
That song is not my strongest. I’m not strong on the vocal and I’m not that strong on that riff, which really is the rhythm riff. I am better if I am just playing the riff. If I try to 
do both, sing and play? No. The most basic thing I learned with that song is that, I need to work on it more. It’s not that I won’t be able to do it. I will. I just need to be able to play the riff, and keep it going, and sing over it. That sounds like a tall order given what I’ve said about it so far. And maybe it is. However, there is a reason for it.
If I’m going to do that song, I need to be able to hold the rhythm and the pace and keep us all in the same place, even if someone wanders off. I need to hold the line so that others can find their way back if I’m going to lead that song. And as the singer, and rhythm guitar player, that’s my role on this song. It’s not that I can’t rely on another guitar player to carry the riff, I just need to be prepared to do it if they can’t, or if they lose the riff.
I also need to pay better attention when discussing a possible song with others. I am pretty up front when someone asks if I know a song. Usually, I will tell them I don’t know the song, or that I only
kind of know it. I might want to play it but I know my limits and I will share that so that if it’s a tricky song, whoever is leading it has the option of choosing something else or letting me fumble my way through. In this case, when I was discussing the song, there were clues in the conversation that this might not go so well. I didn’t pay attention and we forged ahead. I could have been upset about it. What was the point? It was one song in a set of three and the other two went pretty good. And look at what I got to learn.
I’ve been aware for the past couple of months that I was at a point where it was time to step up my playing again. Time to make that next move towards the next level of skills. Then, I traded in those guitars for two new ones that are a couple of steps up from what I had. And now when I play those, along with my Les Paul and my Gretsch, all I can say is, it really is time to get busy and step up my game to meet my guitars. This experience, was just one more reminder. One more voice, or email, or insistent notice saying ‘Get with it. You said you want to do this. You can do this. Now do it.’
Thanks to Kevin, I came home with some homework and lots of stuff to work on. I’m excited. I can’t wait to dig in. I feel a bit like my friend’s son. She posted that he’d been at band camp all day marching and drumming and he came home, had dinner and went up to his room and started drumming again. Even after a full day of playing, he was ready to keep going. I relate to him. I would have done the same thing if it weren’t for having a day job that meant I had to be up early. And I can say that after that day job, I came home and unpacked everything and got in and started working on a way to make that song work for me. And I started working on my homework.
I have the video from the previous jam edited. I just need to get it uploaded. I don’t plan to post the train wreck. Just because. I only have partial video of the first song from this week’s jam so that won’t go up either. I have the last song and I will probably post that. There’s another jam coming up again this weekend so I’ll be practicing and learning new stuff and working on making the old stuff better. I’ve got a couple of recommends to add to my repertoire that I’ll get started as well. Enjoy some pictures from the jam. Along with a picture of the new guitars.