[paul0r]

Thanks for all the nice comments. Hearing them from those who understand the journey is especially rewarding. I’d be happy to share my song list, but right now it’s just pushed past 70 tunes. I do have a shorter go-to list that I use at the Dining Room. Those songs are more laid-back and appropriate for the venue. Still I hesitate to dump a 30 song list on the forum. I’ll send both lists by PM for anyone who is interested enough to send me a request. Be warned, some of the songs are not easily found, including a couple of originals that are unpublished. Cheers!

[paul0r]

Congrats on a nice round number. Somewhere down the road you might want to pick up a travel guitar that can fly with you. I’ve had good luck with a Taylor GS Mini. It fits in the overhead and sometimes can slip into the coat closet (if one exists) near the entry door. Worst case, it can be checked with the wheelchairs and strollers and may get gentle handling. So far, so good.

On the number subject, be prepared for the erratic behavior of the counting function on the website. Not only are days logged in occasionally lost, but my maximum streak of 129 days recently disappeared, replaced by 28. Broken streaks and days lost are trivial when you reach a steady state of joyful days with the guitar in your hands. (In the spirit of full disclosure, my total log-in count is north of 1400, but the joyful part has been in place most of the way.) Cheers!

[paul0r]

Nice to hear you have turned a corner. Getting a handle on your progress is an implied skill that spans every lesson type, and comes with repetition and some focus. The scale problem is a common one because the physical part seems abstract and arbitrary. As you do more, your ear takes over and your fretting hand gets better at knowing where to be for the next note. A future big win happens when you can even do this on the treacherous B-string! Losing the dread is really good, as it’s hard to enjoy something that makes you miserable. It’s a journey, and it’s yours. Take a deep breath and be ready for your time and effort to pay off.

[paul0r]

Thanks for your performance and for posting. I want to specifically encourage you to work on your vocal instrument: your guitar work is a pleasure and will support lots of future projects. The human voice is a muscle that does respond to exercise, and I hear some good music fundamentals in your singing. Let me suggest that you try this tune with your capo up a couple of frets, and that you try my favorite bit of vocal advice shared with me by a seasoned professional. Sing with the voice you would use to call your run-away dog. Standing up will automatically allow better breath support, more stable pitch and less strain for higher notes. The most important result from all of this is confidence in the sounds you make. Like the guitar confidence you have now learned from an open mic performance and posting. It’s all a journey, and I think you can extend your musical enjoyment with your voice. (Hey, none of us are Adele!) Cheers!

[paul0r]

Now in the light of day, a few additional suggestions make sense to me.

When you pick a song that you want to learn, find a recording (ideally a video) that you like and make your first goal to sing along with it. If the notes are too high or low for you, either pick another song or find another recording that works better. Next you need to figure out what key the recording is in. Options here include checking a chord sheet or tab, or watching the chord shapes used and/or capo settings. (If you are lucky, you can just do what the guitar player is doing.) The short list of chords (keys) to try are the ones easily made on guitar: C, A, G, E and D. If none of these work, see if a capo will make one of these chords match the song. Listen carefully, especially to the last note, which almost always matches the key you want to be playing in.

When you can pretty much match up your singing with the recording, then you can focus on figuring out the cords. Chances are good you have already begun to recognize chords that show up together: I like to think of these as families, because the relationships are everything. Googling for a chord sheet is easy, but what you get may be really fancy, way too simple, or just flat wrong. Play what you have, strumming along with the recording and expect your playing to match really well. If it sounds wrong, you may need a better chord sheet. Rinse and repeat.

Now try playing the song without the recording and see if how that works. It’s OK to try other chords, but most of the time the correct ones will sound best. Playing along with a recording can be a serious win, and there’s a good chance what you are playing will start to be automatic because it fits.

Finally playing and singing is a real challenge. Use the recording to help keep things together and have some fun. When the song starts to live inside your head, you can focus on lyrics and enjoy telling the story.

If all of this sounds impossible, Fretboard Wizard is a great idea. Even for someone like myself with some serious musical training and experience, the Fretboard Wizard course was a huge help. It amounts to what I would call Practical Music Theory for Guitarists. One of the first lessons is all about figuring out the key of a song, so that’s a great place to take your guitar journey. I really hopes this helps!

[paul0r]

First, I have always believed that the best performances come from memory. (Not many pros fuss with a music stand on stage.) Granted many performers use electronic lyric displays that line the floor behind monitor speakers, but few rely on them.

Second, I have been playing long enough that once a key has been established I can “hear” (maybe that means “guess”) what the next chord in a sequence will be. This means I can usually ignore chord sheets when I am rehearsing and focus on the lyrics. Once you know how the various chords in a family (I mean, key) sound in relation to each other it can be relatively easy to figure out the correct chord in a new song. I think the notion of getting caught up in the music is pretty much about hearing the next chord and shaping it almost automatically. I suspect that many TACers who rely on chord sheets would be surprised at how successful they could be playing by ear. Try something like Wagon Wheel (I think it’s in G) and shift to start on an C chord and see if you can guess the chord sequence.

Once I have the key and a pretty good sense of the chords I need, I just play the song lots of times. When I trip up on lyrics, I try to make a mental picture that leads from the line I know to the next line. When I feel pretty confident, I will sometimes practice in the dark so I get comfortable working ‘without a net’.

Finally, I should confess that I started playing and singing a few songs in my twenties; that I learned some music theory from an older sibling long before TAC; and that I will celebrate my eighth TACaversery and my 72nd birthday this next week. Bottom line: play stuff that gives you joy every day.

[paul0r]

Welcome to the ranks of the retired: I bailed ten years ago Thanksgiving and life is good. I’d like to draw on my work history to suggest another strategy that could give you even more control/relief than you have now. Salicylic acid (as in Aspirin) is available in a cream form and has some serious advantages. You can apply and rub it in just where you need it and it will not penetrate enough to monkey with your general body chemistry. It has modest effects of both pain relief and reduction of inflammation, and the latter is likely the reason your best efforts hit a wall after some time goes by. You can expect benefit within 20-30 minutes, and the effect will be gone in 2+ hours. I use this myself occasionally, and use it before I practice. CAUTION: There is a product called AsperCream, which comes in two forms. One has salicylate (the good stuff) but the other only has an anesthetic. I would not suggest the anesthetic, since it just masks the pain and keeps you from stopping when you should. If you have questions, I’d be happy to respond. Guitar geeks unite!

[paul0r]

Thanks for the kind words all. All we can really do is work on today’s session and let today’s enjoyment drive tomorrow’s behavior.

[paul0r]

I don’t have that info for you, but I wanted to post something helpful. Having more than seven years in the TAC family, I can tell you that some of us always ask about gear, and that pick discussion is a bit of an inside joke. Tony has spent hours talking about picks of all types, and I think it’s fair to say that he has used just about every type made and he continues to explore the subject. I think that means that on any given day he could be using something new, even though he has some favorites.

I have seen multiple Acoustic Tuesday shows with reviews on various types of fingerpicks, so I’d suggest you use the Search function (that Magnifying Glass thingy) and type in thumb pick. You will get lots of reviews.

On a more practical note, I would suggest you visit your local guitar shop and spend some time trying on (and trying out) fingerpicks available. Splurge on a couple of available options (arguably the cheapest you will ever get out of a guitar shop) and try them out at home. I am sure Tony would tell you that picks that fit comfortably is the best place to start. While most picks are pretty inexpensive, there are exceptions, especially if you find your way to a website of a company that is making and marketing their own version of the “best ever”. I hope this helps. Cheers!

[paul0r]

If a Mitchell guitar has crossed my path, I don’t recall my impression. I am pretty certain I have never played one, so I cannot say anything from personal experience. I did learn from a simple search that Mitchell’s are made in China, and that they are lower-priced instruments sold at Guitar Center and Musicians Friend, which are essentially the same outlet. Based on this limited information, my answer would be “not so much”, but I’m in the dark.

A guitar of good quality is primarily one that sounds good and makes it’s owner a maker of music. Since you asked, I suspect you have either played one, are considering buying one, or both. What is your take on the brand?

My best advice would be to make up your own mind after you have spent no less than ten hours playing guitars in stores near you and had the chance to compare Mitchell’s with guitars of similar price made by Martin and or Taylor. At least you will have a basis to compare what you think about Mitchell guitars. Good luck!

[paul0r]

My main reason for posting suggestions is that my vocal mindset was almost identical to yours: comfortable doing backup, more comfort in a lower range, hard to project my voice successfully. A few years ago I was fortunate to find my way to a local Open Mic, with a wonderful group of musical friends, and that was the beginning of my vocal development. One guy advised that I should sing like I was shouting at my kid(s). Not particularly PC, but I got the point. The “call your dog” advice came from a woman who had decades of experience as a working musician and decided to take voice lessons in ‘retirement’. Both ideas really helped me.

A few years ago I joined a men’s barbershop chorus and was most comfortable singing bass. Covid broke that option, but if I were to return I would probably sing lead. I have also found that songs I have learned and performed in the past almost always work better a few half-steps higher. Listening to you I recognized that as potentially useful.

It’s clear from your recording that you have lots of musical experience (I would guess keyboards, right?) and your vocal pitch was surprisingly good for someone with misgivings about his voice. I like to think of musicianship as a learned/earned capacity that forms the basis of musical growth: you seem to have that quality in excellent supply, so forge ahead! Cheers!

PS: Give my best to the Scones crowd the next time you Zoom.

Paul Hudson (paul0r)

[paul0r]

Hey Jeff, nice to hear from you. On the inside, I was pretty calm and decided to start even though there was activity in the adjoining kitchen. Listeners drifted in and were attentive. I had a list taped to my guitar but otherwise did all from memory with nary a brain fart. The songs I chose were from my ‘Most Confident’ List. I was tempted to use the 12-string, but decided that bringing 2 instruments was a bit much, and I hate to use a capo on the 12er. Highlight was doing Tom Rush’s “Remember Song”, which most of us could relate to. I highly recommend the experience.

[paul0r]

Hey Carol, we do go back a ways together, don’t we? I would say TAC has been really good to both of us. Cheers!

[paul0r]

Sweet! I need your type of post way more often.