Hullo, long-lost friends! So it appears I'm quite ridiculously overdue to present to you the very embarrassing results of my Song Challenge Number One in glorious videochron-technicolour. I present to you my humblest apologies, but offer no excuse save for the fact that I have only been home (where the guitar lives, you see) for the sum total of about eight hours since March 30. But I hereby swear to present something, however horrible, to you in the next day or so.
I've been slightly lax in recent weeks, but I have been busy in other musical areas, with a bunch of gigs and world-domination-planning with my band 20th Century Graduates. We're playing at Jive this Saturday night to support Lyla's single launch. We're one trombone down, but it's still going to be pretty fierce. Behold the deets!
Anyway, please excuse this stop-gap post. 'Til we meet again - me, struggling through the meagrest of chord progressions, and you, on the other side of the camera attempting to stifle your guffaws. It'll be grand - see you tomorrow!
The road to Rock and Roll is paved with the corpses of would-be musicians who took on too much too soon, who gave up cursing the guitar with fingers bloody and sore, having tried to play Hendrix before they could manage Three Blind Mice. In respect to the dear departed I've made an executive decision - as of today I'm changing my first Song Challenge. I'll now be playing 'She's Losing It' (also by Belle and Sebastian) on April first, in glorious technicolour on the world wide instawebs.
Some of you may feel the need to point out that I'm wussing out of my very first song challenge only two weeks in, and to you I say:
LOOK - A KITTEN PLAYING A GUITAR!!!
Now the nay-sayers are distracted I can talk to the realists for a second - those understanding individuals who support and appreciate the need for the choice of an achievable goal in the interest of continued motivation and, well, stick-to-it-iveness. I'm still practicing the elements of the former tune, but a simple thing done well is much more desirable long-term than something more complex done with ham-fisted ineptitude.
Since apologies are out of the way I now introduce to you my new Song Challenge. Bring it on!
I'm a relatively new convert to the world of indie pop, and I've recently become completely hooked on the cuteness and/or catchiness of bands like Belle and Sebastian, The Shins, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Architecture in Helsinki and awesome Adelaide band The Keepsakes. Seeing as my musical tastes used to lie almost exclusively in the punk, ska and hardcore camp (aside from the requisite classical - it was my job, after all) this is a pretty big genre expansion, but then again, I was into Dinosaur Jr., Pavement and The Lemonheads, etc. back in the day, too. It was a seminal moment in my formative musical years witnessing live Evan Dando's vague but masterful indie stylings and realising the artistic validity of rock musicians. I don't think I'd properly understood that before - classical music snobbery at its finest, I suppose. I have an excuse, though - it was the '90s. Yes, I am old.
Anyhoo, I completely adore Belle and Sebastian's Storytelling (it makes me feel like I'm in a Wes Anderson movie!) so I looked up the chord chart - to my happiness I discovered I know almost all of the chords (G, C, D, Am). So I'm just missing D# (am I just a brass player or does E flat make so much more sense than D#? I guess it's because the tonic is a sharp key, or maybe it's a guitar thing. Any ideas?) and Bm.
B minor. You bastard.
As far as I can see, there's only one way I'm going to be able to manage this sucker to my satisfaction - I am officially going to have to start learning damn barre chords. I have it on good authority this is the time many people give up on guitar, that the mightiest of men crack when faced with contorting their fingers into uncomfortable shapes, THEN being expected to slide them up and down the frets with perfect form and tuning. Damn it!! I knew this day would come, guitar. But I'm ready.
B minor, you're going down.
So that's it - my first challenge is decided. To play Storytelling by Belle and Sebastian on video for your viewing (dis)pleasure in one month. *gulp* Whatever happens, and however awful it may be, I pledge to post that video on April 1st. To the practice room!
is a blog documenting the return of a former professional musician to the fun, frustration and potential insanity that comes with learning a completely new instrument.
