Today's Stuff

I learned Fade To Black today! Just the outro solo is remaining; the rest is all pretty decently done. Of course, one problem is playing it all together without breaks between parts, but I'm sure that'll work out in time...

Stories From My Guitar Childhood: 5-String Guitar

This is the second story I'm recounting from the early days of my guitaring. The first one is here.

So in the previous story, I talked about the time when I broke an A string while trying to install it as a G. Yes, very cool, I know :-P

After that happened, I was out of options. Other than buy a new set of strings of course, but I was too lazy to do that, so... I... kept my guitar that way. Without a G string.

I played 5 string guitar for 2 months. It wasn't all bad. Quite the opposite in fact. I learned transposition. I'd known about the perfect 4th tuning between the G and the B, but I didn't realize what it meant before I tried to transpose stuff from the high strings to the low ones. Ah yes, playing the Dream On intro on the E, A and D strings...

Another thing that was good about it was that I got restricted to power chords mostly, so I finally taught myself some metal. I learned Metallica's Wherever I May Roam during this time.

Finally, after my exams got over, I just HAD to get a full guitar, so I got myself 2 new sets of strings. Both have long since rusted and been replaced, but I remember it felt very weird to suddenly have a string in the empty space where I used to do some heavy-duty bending and vibratos of the B string. I *almost* typed that as vibrators... LOL.

Just Couldn't Take It

My first exam was yesterday. On Friday I'd kept my guitar in and told myself I won't take it out before the 13th of June when my exams get over. No computer either. But now that one exam was over, I couldn't take it anymore and I took out my guitar and I've been playing it today since 3 PM. That's more than 6 hours.

What's new? Well, I came up with a "brilliant plan" (my first NOT involving taking over the world) to get me better ear training, so that I can play wotever the voices in my head are singing, so I can be the best guitarist in the world, so that I can rule the world!!!! OK, it's a plan to take over the world after all.

And what IS the plan? The basic thing is that I'm going to try transcribing music. I pick out lines from PowerTab files at random, just 3 or 4 measures, and make a MIDI file out of it, at a much slower speed. This should work for both melodies and rhythm guitaring. Then a few days later, I hear the MIDI and transcribe it with my guitar in hand! And it seems to be working!!! I transcribed 2 pieces today. One was from Iron Maiden's Dance Of Death and I don't know where the other one was taken from, but I wish I knew, because it sounded really cool. The third thing I tried to transcribe was the solo of Knockin' On Heaven's Door by G'n'R. Couldn't even get started with this one, though. Was too difficult, too all-over-the-place. So I scrapped trying to transcribe it and went directly to the PowerTab file... so now I can do the solo to Knockin' On Heaven's Door!!! Kind of...

Oh, and I'm also learning Metallica's Fade To Black. I absolutely LOVE the arpeggios in the beginning of the song, especially the Am and C ones. Felt so damn good when I nailed it the first time. And I've got the starting solo done too. The outro solo is really mean though, so I'm going to have to put it on my to-learn list, I guess.

Ummm... I don't really know when I'll be playing next, so I'm going to try to play some more now before I keep my guitar inside.... but my fingers are hurting badly. I think I lost my calluses during the two days I didn't play. :-P

Ooh! Big Test!

http://www.shredaholic.com/hesslesson20.html

Trying to answer this. Seems difficult.

1. My goals with guitar
i) I want to play better than John Petrucci
ii) I want to hurt people with my music (or affect them in some way)
iii) I want to take it all out through the music I make

2. My most important goal
I want to take it all out through the music I make. (I don't care as much if someone ever hears a song I make or not. I don't care as much whether I'm better than someone or not. Although I do want to be VERY good with guitar).

3. If I had my goal...
I'll feel so much more free. Being able to channel all my feelings through guitar would be so damn liberating. I want to achieve a stage where my guitar unifies with me.

4. If I got THAT, then...
I'd have a commitment to look after. I'd have a purpose in life.


Hmm... Interesting, very interesting. OK, the next set of questions...

1. Is my original goal different from what I finally figured?
Yes. Although I've known this. That last goal thing wasn't such a revelation for me.

2. Obstacles
The obstacle I'm facing to good guitar-playing is inexperience. I need more practice. I'm still only learning.
The obstacle I'm facing to having a purpose in life is that... hmmm... I don't do relationships. I don't have anyone I need to drive myself for. I'm trying to expand outwards, trying to do things I find interesting. I'll learn to do wotever I want to learn and I'll pick my favourites and stick with them, yet never stop learning new things. All of this is one of the things I want to express through the music I make. In the end though, it comes down to exploring myself and my potential. There's no obstacles to that any more. Not been since a long time. I only do wot I want.

3. Strategies
To play better guitar, I'm trying to practice as much as I can. I just need a little more discipline in the way I practice. This WILL directly lead to my final goal.

4. Am I on the right path?
Totally.


FUCK! That turned out to be a full-on therapy session, man! But there wasn't much I gained from it.

Today's Stuff

Scales
I did the pentatonic scales at 240 bpm (That's HALF of my aim :-( ). Then I tried 300 bpm. And it worked. It was the first time I did something at 300 bpm. This is some real, good progress.

New Melody
This one is a little fantasy, pastoral kind of thing.

Speeeeeeeeeeeeeed, Dude!

I need speed before I can attempt to play these solos. I went through the Sweet Child Of Mine solo again. I thought that if I dedicate myself to this one solo for a month, I'll have it nailed. But then I thought, it would be a solo nailed in isolation. I want to be able to pick up solos quick. So I say, I need to be able to play faster. My speed needs to improve and get to a level where I can control my fretting fingers without tension. So, scales and other exercises have suddenly gotten high on my list of priorities.

I'll aim to get to doing the pentatonic and other scales at 480 bpm. I've never even heard 480 bpm before. This is one difficult challenge.

Guess What?

I broke another G string :(
My 5th one... It seemed like it was going to break anyway... I bent it, bent it, bent it more and finally put it out of its misery. Hmmm... I haven't tried playing My Friend Of Misery Yet, have I? Next week, baby!

Today's Stuff

New Strumming Pattern

D_D_DUD_
> >

and its cyclic permutations

D_DUD_D_
>   >

D_D_D_DU
>      >

DUD_D_D_
> > >

New Melody
I can't really describe this one. But I'm very proud of it. Uhhh, the first half of it. The second half was added just to make it feel complete.



New Riff
This one's going to be the intro to my third song, So Much Rage Inside. Here's a link to a MIDI file which contains this followed by what I'd posted previously of SMRI. This is software music, not played by me-
http://www.MegaShare.com/174133

And here's tabs and sheet-

Untitled

"Nail it each time. Time after time."
Remember that.

Stories From My Guitar Childhood : String Break

I'm going to recount a few stories from the early days of my guitaring. There isn't many of them, but enough to make a tiny series. This is the first one!

I have a problem with the G string. It seems to be on the verge of breaking just after 2 days of installing it... every time. And I've broken 4 of them so far. And broken just one high-E. The G seems to like, erode away wherever I bend it against a fret. Sloooowwwwly wearing away, molecule by molecule (atom by atom, more likely, because they're steel strings, so mostly iron, so... ummm.... forget it).

Anyway, I'd bought an extra set of strings when I'd gotten my guitar. My first set got rusty pretty early, so I had Siddhartha replace them for me. I kept the old, rusty set of strings with me, just in case I might need them sometime, which I did, which is what this story is about.

Siddhartha had tuned the new set with a relative tuning, which I found out later was down 2 whole steps!!! That's like CFA#D#GC. I didn't like the sound, but continued playing anyway. Until one day I decided to take the strings all out and put them on myself. Many illustrated tutorials on the net and 3 hours later, I'd put on strings on my guitar for the first time!!! Felt so cool. And I tuned it to EADGBE by comparing with software-generated notes.

So, few weeks later, G string breaks when I'm bending. Digression: strings breaking is a weird thing for me. Its like, you are bending the string, and it snaps while you are at it. It happens so quickly that you have to take some time before you realize the string's just snapped. And it happens with a THUD sort of noise. Very weird. End of digression.

Yeah, so the G broke for the first time with me. I was like, "Ohhhkayyy.... now what? Do I buy another set of strings? But who would install them? I'll have to take my guitar all the way to Thane". I was feeling too lazy to go to Thane, and with my guitar in tow. So... I took out my old, rusty set of strings, took out the (still intact) G from it and put it on.... halfway... it was too tight, so it snapped! 2 strings in a day! (Really sad joke came out of this - "I was bending when my G string broke. I tried to put on another one but it was too tight, so that snapped too").

Now what do I do??? I tried the rusty B and high-E string now. But they were too short or something. Or I think I broke the B while trying to put it on and the high-E was too short.

What next??? Of all things... the A string! Why not the D? Because with the A, I have to install it as usual, and then tune it down one whole step to get a G string. Of course, it escaped my mind that the A string is an A2 while the G is a G3, so I'd have to tune it *UP*, like, 5 steps!!!! So I put it on, and tune it down one step to a G2.... I had this tuning - E2 A2 D3 G2 B3 E4. It didn't sound so good, and that's an understatement.

Then I understood what was wrong, so, naturally (*ahem*), I proceeded to tune it up to a G3. I'm turning the peg, turning the peg, testing the pitch, its getting higher, higher, higher still and I'm thinking like, "Wow! This is one tough string". Until... I hear a snap! At first it was incomprehensible. Like, "No wait! That sound can't be of a string breaking. It was an A string. How the hell do you break an A string???". I look down at the fretboard, and guess what? The winding around the string has unwound. And the string INside the winding has broken! It was just the weirdest sight! I wish I had taken pics of it... would've made a great memory.

I've kept from experimenting with weird stuff with my guitar since then. There's more that happened because of this incident. That'll have to be another story, though. Wotever.

Third Song Started!!!!

I was feeling a little angry today (PMS, maybe? :-P). And what came out of it? My third song! I might call it So Much Rage Inside. Trés metal! Should NOT be played on acoustic guitar... only a heavily distorted electric will do. And BANG on the strings, like you ARE angry or something.

Only the chorus is ready as of now (yeah, I'm slow at writing songs). It was a great release for me to play this riff over and over. I was banging against the strings so hard, it felt like my bass strings would break! They didn't break BTW, and it would be a major world event if they did... I mean, can u really break those strings ever? Hmm.... I've broken an A string once, so probably yeah.

Oh, and GROWL the lyrics... this is not a melodic song BY FAR.

Afterthought: In the last section of the song, where the 2 half-bends occur, you play those by fretting that power chord and pulling down on the 3 strings, towards the high-E string. Doing that feels soooo goooooooooood! In a very evil way. You can grind your teeth while doing it. I think I'm really liking this song!

Here's ASCII tab-

4/4
Gtr I
E E E E Q  Q    E E E E Q  Q     E  E E  E  Q  Q    E E E E Q  Q
|---------------|---------------|-------------------|---------------|
|---------------|---------------|-------------------|---------------|
|---------------|---------------|-------------------|---------------|
|-7-7---7-7-----|-7-7---7-7-----|--8--8----8--8-----|-7-7---7-7-----|
|-9-9---9-9-----|-9-9---9-9-----|-10-10---10-10-----|-9-9---9-9-----|
|-9-9---9-9-----|-9-9---9-9-----|-10-10---10-10-----|-9-9---9-9-----|


E E E E Q  +Q        E E E E Q  +Q
|--------------------|--------------------|
|--------------------|--------------------|
|--------------------|--------------------|
|-7-7---7-7--(7)b8---|-7-7---7-7--(7)b8---|
|-9-9---9-9--(9)b10--|-9-9---9-9--(9)b10--|
|-9-9---9-9--(9)b10--|-9-9---9-9--(9)b10--|

Tabs and staff notation along with lyrics is here-







Duration Legend
---------------
W - whole; H - half; Q - quarter; E - 8th; S - 16th; T - 32nd; X - 64th; a - acciaccatura
+ - note tied to previous; . - note dotted; .. - note double dotted
Uncapitalized letters represent notes that are staccato (1/2 duration)
Irregular groupings are notated above the duration line
Duration letters will always appear directly above the note/fret number it represents the
duration for. Duration letters with no fret number below them represent rests. Multi-
bar rests are notated in the form Wxn, where n is the number of bars to rest for. Low
melody durations appear below the staff

Tablature Legend
----------------
h - hammer-on
p - pull-off
b - bend
pb - pre-bend
r - bend release (if no number after the r, then release immediately)
/\ - slide into or out of (from/to "nowhere")
s - legato slide
S - shift slide
~ - vibrato
tr - trill
T - tap
PM - palm muting
= - hold bend; also acts as connecting device for hammers/pulls


Misc Legend
-----------
| - bar
|| - double bar
||o - repeat start
o|| - repeat end
*| - double bar (ending)
: - bar (freetime)

Tempo markers - = BPM(8/16=s8/s16), where s8 = swing 8ths, s16 = swing 16ths


***************************************************************************************
* Generated using Power Tab Editor by Brad Larsen - http://powertab.guitarnetwork.org *
***************************************************************************************

Today's Stuff

Nothing special to post about, really. Made 2 melodies.

Melody Line 1

 Q = 120
4/4
Gtr I
                                                                   ~
 S E E E +S  E E E +S  E E E. +S  E E E +S   E  E  E  +S  E E E +S  H
|-5s7-7-7-(7)s3-3-3-(3)s9-9-9--(9)s3-3-3-(3)s10-10-10-(10)s2-2-2-(2)s3----|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Lots of slides... It totally got my middle finger :( uh, thats a bad thing, btw. Tabs and sheet-



Melody Line 2

  Q = 120
4/4
 Gtr I
 E E E E E Q  E   E E E E E Q  E   E E E E E E E E   E E E E E E Q
|-8-----5-7-8----|-8-----5-7-8----|-8-----5-7-8-7-5-|---------5-7-5-||
|---8-5----------|---6-5----------|---8-5-----------|-8-6---6-------||
|----------------|----------------|-----------------|-----7---------||
|----------------|----------------|-----------------|---------------||
|----------------|----------------|-----------------|---------------||
|----------------|----------------|-----------------|---------------||

This one is a little, I dunno, sad or something... not really sad, ummm... something else... Its over C major btw. The cool part is notes 3 to 6 (E A B C). Tabs and sheet-

Duration Legend
---------------
W - whole; H - half; Q - quarter; E - 8th; S - 16th; T - 32nd; X - 64th; a - acciaccatura
+ - note tied to previous; . - note dotted; .. - note double dotted
Uncapitalized letters represent notes that are staccato (1/2 duration)
Irregular groupings are notated above the duration line
Duration letters will always appear directly above the note/fret number it represents the
duration for. Duration letters with no fret number below them represent rests. Multi-
bar rests are notated in the form Wxn, where n is the number of bars to rest for. Low
melody durations appear below the staff

Tablature Legend
----------------
h - hammer-on
p - pull-off
b - bend
pb - pre-bend
r - bend release (if no number after the r, then release immediately)
/\ - slide into or out of (from/to "nowhere")
s - legato slide
S - shift slide
~ - vibrato
tr - trill
T - tap
= - hold bend; also acts as connecting device for hammers/pulls

Misc Legend
-----------
| - bar
|| - double bar
||o - repeat start
o|| - repeat end
*| - double bar (ending)
Tempo markers - = BPM(8/16=s8/s16), where s8 = swing 8ths, s16 = swing 16ths


***************************************************************************************
* Generated using Power Tab Editor by Brad Larsen - http://powertab.guitarnetwork.org *
***************************************************************************************

I'm in Looooooovvvveeeeeee (Yet Again)

I played an electric guitar today! Or at least, it felt like I was playing electric guitar. Microphone goes into my guitar, guitar's sound goes into microphone as electrical signals, microphone goes into my computer, electrical signals go into... GuitarFX!!!! (some details missing, like electrical signals buffered while GuitarFX isn't the current process, etc. etc.) And out comes the heaviest, most distorted, delayed, reverberating and downright ROCK-est of all guitar sounds I've ever heard. This is one COOL software. I found it here.

And I'm like, schedules and exercises can go fuck themselves, I'm fuckin' jamming all day long on this! I jack headphones into my computer and I'm in Rock heaven. I've never heard myself play so bad before... effects processors REALLY amplify your mistakes. But I don't care! It was like I was playing an electric guitar! I just *touch* a string and I can HEAR it!!!! That was like, the coolest thing.

So, anyway, I'm like a hypochondriac in an apothecary's shop (just wanted a little variation from kids and candy shops, and to show off my vocab... anyhoo...). I'm touching my guitar all places, banging its body, slapping the strings, dragging my pick along the frets, and crap like that.... just experimenting! It was soooo goood.

LOL, I had to turn off GuitarFX to play for Sunayana over messenger, and my guitar suddenly sounded so weird clean! And she told me my guitar sounds nice. And I was like, "Uhhhh... like, no!".

I don't know if using GuitarFX has made me more eager for an electric or has made me stop caring about getting one. I mean, I can now see exactly why I'd want an electric guitar (because it sounds so good, and you can make it sound better), but then, I'm getting all that with an acoustic guitar. But I'm sure I will get myself an electric guitar SOMEtime.

So, I tried jamming with my guitar while standing. I made the belt really loose and I had like, one wire coming out of my guitar and one out of my headphones, both connected to my comp. It seemed like wotever I did, the guitar body gravitated towards my crotch.... and I find that very sad... uh, and disgusting.

Oh, and I inadvertently transcribed a Hindi film song today. Won't be publishing the tabs because, c'mon, its Hindi and its a film song. I mean, puhleeease!

Back to the effects processor, yeah, so... I fell in love with my guitar again because of that. That makes it 4 times in all. Wotever.

4 Hours Today

I tried. But I was distracted. Could only do 4 hours. Skipped a lot of the stuff I'm supposed to be doing, and only did the rest in passing. Got some exercises in though. Here's the stuff I made-

Riff/Chord Progression

Q=120
Em             C/G            D/F#           Em
4/4
H    +Q   Q    H    +Q   Q    H    +Q   Q    W
||--0----(0)--0--|-0----(0)--0--|-2----(2)--2--|-0---------||
||o-0----(0)--0--|-1----(1)--1--|-3----(3)--3--|-0--------o||
||--0----(0)--0--|-0----(0)--0--|-2----(2)--2--|-0---------||
||--2----(2)--2--|-2----(2)--2--|-0----(0)--0--|-2---------||
||o-2----(2)--2--|-3----(3)--3--|-0----(0)--0--|-2--------o||
||--0----(0)--0--|-3----(3)--3--|-2----(2)--2--|-0---------||


Em             C/G            D/F#           Em
Q  E Q  E Q    Q  E Q  E Q    Q  E Q  E Q    W
|-0--0-0--0-0--|-0--0-0--0-0--|-2--2-2--2-2--|-0----|
|-0--0-0--0-0--|-1--1-1--1-1--|-3--3-3--3-3--|-0----|
|-0--0-0--0-0--|-0--0-0--0-0--|-2--2-2--2-2--|-0----|
|-2--2-2--2-2--|-2--2-2--2-2--|-0--0-0--0-0--|-2----|
|-2--2-2--2-2--|-3--3-3--3-3--|-0--0-0--0-0--|-2----|
|-0--0-0--0-0--|-3--3-3--3-3--|-2--2-2--2-2--|-0----|


Em             C/G            D/F#           Em
H    +Q   Q    H    +Q   Q    H    +Q   Q    W
|-0----(0)--0--|-0----(0)--0--|-2----(2)--2--|-0----|
|-0----(0)--0--|-1----(1)--1--|-3----(3)--3--|-0----|
|-0----(0)--0--|-0----(0)--0--|-2----(2)--2--|-0----|
|-2----(2)--2--|-2----(2)--2--|-0----(0)--0--|-2----|
|-2----(2)--2--|-3----(3)--3--|-0----(0)--0--|-2----|
|-0----(0)--0--|-3----(3)--3--|-2----(2)--2--|-0----|

Tabs and sheet for this are linked below -







Melody Line 1

Q=120
4/4
Gtr I
E  E  E Q  E  E  E  4x
||--10----10-8-------10--||
||o----10-------8-10----o||
||-----------------------||
||-----------------------||
||o---------------------o||
||-----------------------||

This one is a little rustic, Golden Age sort of thing. The identifying part, the one which gives it its feel is the 3rd note to the 6th (D C G A). Tabs and sheet (it is over the C major scale, not C# major... my bad) -



Melody Line 2

Q=120
4/4
Gtr I
E E  E  E E  Q      E    Q      E  E  E  Q      E
|-----------8-10b11r=10-|-10b11r=10-10-10-10b11r=10-|
|---8-10-11-------------|---------------------------|
|-----------------------|---------------------------|
|-----------------------|---------------------------|
|-----------------------|---------------------------|
|-----------------------|---------------------------|


Q      E  E  E  E  E  E    Q      E  Q      E  E   E    H     H
|-10b11r=10-10--8----------|----------------------------|------------|
|-----------------11-10--8-|-10b11r=10-10b11r=10-10--10-|-10b11r=8---|
|--------------------------|----------------------------|------------|
|--------------------------|----------------------------|------------|
|--------------------------|----------------------------|------------|
|--------------------------|----------------------------|------------|

This one is a little weird. Sounded nice the first time I played it. Messed it up after that, it seems. Anyhoo, tabs and sheet-



Duration Legend
---------------
W - whole; H - half; Q - quarter; E - 8th; S - 16th; T - 32nd; X - 64th; a - acciaccatura
+ - note tied to previous; . - note dotted; .. - note double dotted
Uncapitalized letters represent notes that are staccato (1/2 duration)
Irregular groupings are notated above the duration line
Duration letters will always appear directly above the note/fret number it represents the duration for.

Tablature Legend
----------------
h - hammer-on
p - pull-off
b - bend
pb - pre-bend
r - bend release (if no number after the r, then release immediately)
/\ - slide into or out of (from/to "nowhere")
s - legato slide
S - shift slide
~ - vibrato
tr - trill
PM - palm muting
= - hold bend; also acts as connecting device for hammers/pulls

Misc Legend
-----------
| - bar
|| - double bar
||o - repeat start
o|| - repeat end


***************************************************************************************
* Generated using Power Tab Editor by Brad Larsen - http://powertab.guitarnetwork.org *
***************************************************************************************

My 10 Hour Guitar Workout Schedule

Straight from Vai's 30 Hour Guitar Workout. Adapted to be done in 10 hours. I can currently only do 5 hours though.

Hour 1 - Technique

• Linear exercises
• Angular exercises
• Legato exercises
  
• Tapping exercises
  
• Sweep picking exercises

Hour 2 - Scales

• Major scale and its modes
• Pentatonic scale and its modes
  
• One new scale every day

Hour 3 - Chords

• Playing with a groove
  
• One new chord progression every day
• Five new chords every day
• One new strumming pattern every day

Hour 4 - Ear Training

• Sing the played note
• Play the sung note
• One new transcription every day

Hour 5 - Sight Reading

• Pick up a random music sheet and play it to a metronome

Hour 6 - Writing

• One new melody line every day
• One new riff every day

Hour 7 - Music Theory

• One new concept every day

Hours 8-10 - Jamming

• Duh!

I'm going to try to follow this schedule. I might not be able to work on something for one hour wherever I say one hour, but I'll do everything. Wotever.

Should've Done This Earlier!

20 June 2006, I buy my guitar. What is it? A 'Hobmer'... no model number, no nothing, just a huge black acoustic guitar with weird stuff on the pickguard. Weird!

I'd also bought a set of strings, a belt and of all things, a capo!!! Why did I buy a capo? That's probably a rhetoric question...



Ok, that's like, NOT the start of my history with guitar.... I'll do a timeline-

Sometime in SE

I get like, really interested in guitar for some now unknown reason (I wish I could remember (See? That's why you should've done this earlier! Dumb you are)). I got some gyaan on guitar from Pragyan and Siddhartha. Started with Pragyan... beginning from "What does a guitar look like dude?". By the time I'd gotten to Sid, I was asking "What's a hammer-on dude?". Progress!



End of SE, prep leave (April-May 2006)

The internet... I google for guitar and for the first time learn what a guitar is. Like, I learn about the parts of a guitar and about the physics of vibrating strings... Now that's unconventional!

I'm supposed to be studying for my exams, but in stead I'm reading about chords and strumming patterns from guitar.about.com. Oh, and I don't own a guitar yet.

I dive deeper into this stuff, get to some music theory and before long, I can construct any chord you can name. My source was this dude's site. That's a good site, I'm still using it!

I also learned about alternate tunings. I was going to tune my guitar to DADGAD when I bought it... I'm yet to dabble in alternate tunings, though.

Oh, and how can I forget! The pseudo-guitar!!! I'd drawn 6 lines on a drafter's case, and divided that into frets. I could make so many chords on the first 5 frets!!! And changing chords was like, the easiest thing! I also used bottles and such to practice. I told myself it was easier to play barre chords on a curved fretboard... that was just so sad.



Early June 2006, Goa

So I'm in Goa with pplz. I finally get to lay my hands on a guitar... I discover I suck at actually playing one. But its real fun to try to construct chords on a real fretboard and hear sound!



20 June 2006

GUITAR!!!! My very own guitar! Went with Anshul and bought one. He bought one for himself. My guitar! All mine!!!! And I fell in love with it the very first day.... I think.



25 June 2006

My aim with the guitar was to make music, to express myself, and stuff like that. So my guitaring was geared towards making music rather than playing other people's stuff. In the first week, I'd made my first song. I called it 'Mass Homicide' (tabs for this later). It was about a thousand deaf people in a cemetery at midnight, so its really dark. If you kill one of them, none of the others will notice. "Easy mass homicide", I told myself. Uhhh, I just hope this doesn't mean I'm getting into death metal.



Mid July 2006

I've been practicing. I've been learning guitar, on my own... And I loved every note I played, every chord I strummed, every song I... uhhh... played. Then I read a book, Principles Of Correct Practice For Guitar by Jamie Andreas (good, GOOD book, this one). And I have to unlearn everything. Because I haven't taken time to build any technique. So I work on right hand, left hand, relaxation, muscle memory and all the other stuff the dude talks about. This stuff REALLY helped me. I couldn't have been HALF as good as I am today without having read it (which isn't saying much, really).



14 January 2007

Its all a haze. July to January. A lot of things happened. I learned a few intros, a few songs, a few scales, no solos. I lost interest in guitar for a while, during my exams. I broke a G string (the guitar one, enough jokes about this already, I'm losing interest). I replaced my strings by myself. I get a lot better at guitar, among all of this. I can play stuff cleanly, can strum with rhythm, and I totally rule in theory (both 'music theory' and 'theoretically'.... aargh! Enough sad jokes already, man!)

So, on 14 January, I figure I have been straying. I started out wanting to make my own music. But I've just been learning songs. So I decide to get a hold of myself and I tell myself I wont play another song for 2 months. I'm only going to work on my guitaring during that (dont try this at home).

I go ahead with this the best that I can. I learn tapping, get good at it. I learn the pentatonic scale and its modes to a metronome (milestone, baby!).

A month later, I give in, my callused right hand fingers sway the pick to Dream Theater's Endless Sacrifice. I've broken my oath... I couldn't care less.



Today!!!

So I continue after that, (now I realize) balancing jamming and technique. I've learned new songs, and a few solos (list coming later). I recently got me Steve Vai's 30 Hour Guitar Workout. I've told myself that I'm going to dedicate my time to guitar this vacation. I plan to follow the workout assiduously. I've already been doing 5 hours every day. Today was day 3. I've learned a lot from it already and its so going to make me a lot better guitarist in the future.





I can call myself a guitar player now, although I always tell people I'm still learning guitar. I'm proud of the things I can do and eager to learn those that I can't. Its close to a year now since I started. I've learned much, and there's so much more yet to learn. And the desire is alive now more than ever to know how far I can get with this. I love my baby!