I seem to have migrated into music mode a the expense of my fiction. This happens to me from time to ime, and I do have some modest ambitions in that area as well. My “band,” the Iapetus Project, will eventually produce self-recorded, self-distributed music. That is several years off, as I first need to learn how to play a few instruments.
I’m currently working on guitar. Once you have a rudimentary knowledge of an instrument, I believe real compositions can be a great way to learn an instrument (along side etudes and so forth). Last time I was active on guitar, I learned the chord progression for Gordon Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Although it’s not a terribly difficult chord progression, I was just starting out and it took me a week to learn it.
Now that I’ve finally dug the guitar out from the dust and started playing again, I wanted to play something different. I bought a Bob Dylan collection and have been struggling with Tangled up in Blue. It’s a more interesting chord progression and rhythm than is Edmund Fitzgerald, but I ran into a bit of trouble because the tab says to pick the A string with the thumb on the first and third downbeat, and strum chords the rest of the time. Seriously discombobulated my hand because I couldn’t do it without switching the fingers holding the pick, then moving it back after the thumb notes. Okay to do if it’s being played largo, but this is supposed to be in cut time. Click here to hear the song (directly off Dylan’s web site–needs flash) and listen for the thumb plucking the bass.
This evening, I figured out a way to cheat. Instead of using my thumb, I used my pinkie finger and suddenly I can play the rhythm without messing with the pick.
Well, my browser suddenly crashed and I have the mandatory reboot window, so that’s it for now.