[petelanger]

Fantastic, 9 years and dominating the fretboard! Congrats!

@Tony_S thanks for bumping this!

[petelanger]

Today I got confirmation that guitar strings have a shelf life even in a sealed package! I opened a package of Martin&Co Marquis, that I purchased for my wife probably about 20 years ago. She never installed them because she never actually played. Although sealed in the package inside the guitar case in air conditioning the high E and B strings had rust on them. I threw them all away of course, even if no visible rust is on the other 4 strings they can’t be much better than the rusty ones. It’s funny because the strings on the guitar are significantly older but still playable at this point.

I just ordered new strings because all the spare sets I have are for electric.

[petelanger]

If blues didn’t have the lure that it had and still has, the British Invasion doesn’t happen when it did and rock music would not be what it is today. I’m not saying we don’t have some form of rock and roll music but the men that became Beatles, Cream, Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin heard blues music and said “That’s what I want!”
Just think of all the great players from England that we love, almost everyone started as a blues player. Most of them played either with John Mayall and the Blues Breakers, the Yardbirds (where you had to be a blues player to qualify), or both: Peter Green, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood (all of Fleetwood Mac), Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Jimmy Page, etc. Even Jimmy Hendrix had to go to England to get noticed because that’s where this great blues movement was happening!

[petelanger]

My sister used to play this song back in the 60’s when she was 15. Our whole family gathered in the living room and she would play and sing as we all sang along. There were a bunch of songs, let’s see which ones I can remember:
– The House of the Rising Sun (Animals)
– As Tears Go By – (Rolling Stones)
– Summer Time – (Gershwin/Billy Holiday)
– Yellow Bird – (Harry Belafonte)

– To Sir With Love, Theme Song (Lulu)

[petelanger]

Can’t please everybody I guess. Blues is such a huge part of music, it seems perfectly natural that we are learning blues riffs. I’m sorry that you don’t like it. I’m 65 and I’ve been drawn to blues music for over 50 years. Of course I love rock and classical as well. We are musical creatures and all these genres, methods and styles of musical expression, evolved from the soul we have been endowed with by the Creator.

[petelanger]

I’m practicing chord transitions. I have spreadsheet with 15 transitions listed right now.

Here’s my MO: I practice a change for a little while and then count how often I can do them in a minute. I record this in the spreadsheet and then check again next week how many I can do. Rinse and repeat.
My fingers have been giving me heck because some instructor had make the G chord in a completely different shape from what I’ve been practicing. Guess I’ve got to add that shape to my spreadsheet!

[petelanger]

Thanks for sharing, Brandon! I lived in Montreal until the late 80’s, only made it to Toronto a few times. I went to college in Ottawa (Carleton).
I started about the same time as you (actually a bit earlier but it was it wasn’t TAC and I fell away from doing that other program). By the time I found TAC I had stopped for over 2 months, lost all the calluses. So July 3rd was my restart, although I knew how form about 10 chords already but my C, G, D, B7 even E were often muted. I’m getting better with that side of things but still working on transitioning quicker so as to actually be able to play a song.

[petelanger]

You still have to load them up to YouTube first and then post the link here in the forum. Actually start a new thread and don’t just put them in this one. Each video should stand on it’s own. At the top here is a button that says “Benchmark Progress”. Press there and then post your link!

[petelanger]

They would go right here in this thread. If you click on that menu item it will take you here.

[petelanger]

I totally get it Zebras, I too wanted to get a little bit better before posting. Somehow we don’t want to look like the absolute beginners that we are! Lol!
But is that the point? We would be simply “perfecting” an exercise that represents a work in progress that will unfold over the next couple of years. For some the process will go quickly, for others in may take longer. Let’s embrace the warts and faults in our practice sessions and down the road we can celebrate as we eliminate more and more of our flaws!

[petelanger]

❤

[petelanger]

I should give credit to the teacher I got it from: Lauren Bateman

[petelanger]

I wish I could remember more titles, she had quite a repertoire but those were definitely a few of our favorites. Yellow Bird always made us laugh!

I just looked up the lyrics and was a bit shocked, we definitely didn’t have entirely the same ones back then.
Here is a version by Roger Whittaker that are closer to the words we sang:

Yellow bird, up high in banana tree
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me
Did your lady friend leave your nest again?
That is very sad, makes me feel so bad
You can fly away, in the sky away
You’re more lucky than me

I also had a pretty girl
She’s not with me today
They’re all the same, the pretty girls
Take tenderness, then they fly away
(Our version: “Build ’em de nest, then they fly away”)

Yellow bird, up high in banana tree
Yellow bird, you sit all alone like me
Let her fly away, in the sky away
Pick a town and, soon, pick from night to noon
Black and yellow, you like banana too
They might pick you someday

Wish that I were a yellow bird
I’d fly away with you
But I am not a yellow bird
So here I sit, nothin’ else to do

Yellow bird
Yellow bird
Yellow bird
Yellow bird

Peter

Roger Whittaker – Yellow bird (1975) (youtube.com)

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  petelanger. Reason: Added YouTube video

[petelanger]

I’ve lived in Florida since ’88, so I hardly think of myself as a Canuck anymore (except when it comes to hockey) although most people know that I’m from there. There’s also the element that although I grew up on the West Island, I was born in Austria and also speak fluent German having completed grades 6-12 over there before returning to go to University.

My daughters grew up here and think of themselves as Floridians. I Identify more with Tom Petty than with Neil Young these days. But I’ve still got my sisters living up there, one in Montreal and one in Victoria.

[petelanger]

Would you Love to Change the World? 😉