Yet Another Show and No Guitar?

We hit another live show last weekend. Hell, that's all I seem to write about these days. But to be honest, hitting shows is the only interesting thing I seem to have going on right now. Besides a trio of Red Sox games I plan on catching in Kansas City in early April, the only other thing I have to be excited about in the very near future is another show which I paid a pretty penny for. But we'll talk about that one later.

Last weekend, KJ and I caught the VD Party (Valentine's Day Party, get your mind of the gutter) in DT Kansas City. The motivation for this show wasn't so much for the bands playing but the price. It was absolutely free, well, minus the gas money and the parking garage....and the meal we ended up having at Chipotle which was scrumptious. (Yay, tacos.) But anyway, the show itself was free and you really can't pass that up.

The headliner was OK Go, a band I've never really listened to. Going in, I thought I only knew one song, turns out I know two. The band I was looking forward to seeing was Company of Thieves who we caught at the free Halloween show with Our Lady Peace. (Refer to Slutterfly, Slumblebee, Slirate, and Our Lady Peace.) It was quite a bit different not seeing them in their Wizard of Oz get ups but they put on another great show and busted out a few new tunes.

The band I was really impressed with was called Crash Kings. I'd never heard them and had no idea what to expect. When they first came on and I saw they were a three piece I was a little skeptical. From my experience it seems that a lot of three piece bands, especially up and coming bands, sound too hollow and incomplete without those layers that I so crave. My skepticism went up a couple of notches when I noticed there was no guitar player, just keyboards.

But they proved not to need one. Hell, half the songs sounded as if there was one, or two. With the crunching bass, drums, one hand rocking the rhythm on one keyboard, and the other hand rocking the solo (The thing even had a giant whammy bar! I know it's nothing new for a keyboard to sound like another instrument, but damn, it was still pretty cool to watch.) they filled out really well and were actually pretty heavy sounding in some places. The recorded versions, not so much, but I recommend checking them out anyway.

Maybe I'll go play some guitar now that I have the place to myself for a little while longer. I'll probably just end up falling asleep on the couch with the Olympics on. Not so rockin', but it's been a long week.

Rock on!

Who Needs Guitar Lessons? I do.

It feels like a lot longer but I've only been playing guitar for about 8 years. I started fooling around with a guitar that my sister borrowed from a friend at the beginning of my senior year in high school. Then after messing around with basic chords and cruising the internet for tabs of easy songs that my fingers could most easily fumble through, my parents decided it was time for an upgrade, a guitar of my own. My journey with Siggy began at my high school graduation party.

It's been a good self-taught ride so far and I'm proud of where I've gotten myself so far. But my self-taughtness (Not a word is it?) is starting to shine through and my lack of skills is beginning to become frustrating.

I started writing music sometime in my first year in college, mostly with simple, first position chords and straight forward melodies. And really, there's nothing wrong with that. It's not the simplicity of the song but the quality of the song as a whole that makes it good. But, especially in recent years, as my songwriting skills have slowly developed, there are so many things that play in my head and that I want to fit into a song, but I just don't know how to translate it into actual music.

I know a lot of this has to do with my lack of technical knowledge when it comes to the guitar. I'm stuck playing the same chords, strumming the same rhythms, and altogether, not really knowing what I'm doing. I don't write music because I know it's musically correct, I write because I know what I like hear and I understand what sounds good and fits together.

Once I net myself a job I think one of my top priorities is to find someone locally that I can build some knowledge from. I know if I want to take my music to the next level and if I want to get out of the rut that I've been in, I need to learn more than I have the patience to teach myself.

Reading books, getting tips and learning other people's songs is all well and good, but sitting down with someone that has much more guitar knowledge than me is really going to make all the difference. Back in college I had similar thoughts about my singing skills and how I could improve for the band I was in. I took lessons for a month or so and though a bit uncomfortable, I feel it really made a difference.

So first comes job, then comes money, then comes guitar mastery. Good plan.

The Weather! Honestly!

Once again, not complaining here, just a random observation. Snow! That ground was bare yesterday. I was skating in those streets the day before!

Haven't seen much snow this year so it's weird waking up to a winter wonderland. My Maine instincts are kicking in. Well, maybe not my instincts, I have no desire to start shoveling and driving around town because I know I can. It just feels like winter again for the first time in a month or so. It's totally messing with my head.

And you know what, I really don't feel like going outside so maybe I'll sit in here all day and work on some tunage. You know what, that sounds like more than an idea, that sounds like a plan. A real good one.

Holy crap, a snow blower out my window!

Fingerpickin' Good

More like fingerpickin' ok if you're talking about me. When it comes to playing guitar, fingerpicking is one those skills that I never really mastered. Not only does it take quite a bit of practice to coordinate all that finger movement on both hands while usually singing at the same time, it requires long finger nails to really do it justice, and I'm not a fan. Honestly, dudes with long nails kind of gross me out. (Sorry Esteban, you're incredible but those finger nails are creepy.) Not only that, they are constantly in the way of any other task in the other 14 hours of the day that I'm not playing my guitar. (Ladies, I don't know how you do it.) It's especially weird looking because the nails on your fretting hand always have to be kept as short as possible.

I've always had people suggest fingerpicks as the alternative to letting my finger nails get all Crypt Keeper, but the concept always annoyed me. I never really gave them a shot I suppose, but I have enough of a problem hanging on to a normal pick for more than a week, let alone 3 pointy plectrums (you normally only use 3 at a time, one on the thumb, index finger and middle finger) that I can't exactly keep in my pocket for that impromtu jam session.

But, you know, I've never complained about the annoyance of fingerpicking, and I'm not here, I'm simply very open to my flaws as a musician. I actually started thinking about this while working on another song in my list of tunes to get done asap. This tune is actually a cover. (We won't talk about how terrible I am at learning other people's songs. Let's stick with what I'm good at after this post. Sound good? Good.)

This cover song has a lot to do with living up to my promises like I wrote in my post "New Tune, In Spite of Stanley Steamer" which introduced my song "Only Apart". I promised you, my readers, and myself, that I would spend this year putting more of focus on my music. So far, I think I've done a decent job at that with two songs about a month into 2009.

The story of this cover song goes back much further than my promise about 2009. I promised a good college friend, a new friend at the time, that I would learn a tune for her from one of her favorite artists. Easy enough a task you would think. But this my first year in college and I had been playing guitar for less than a year. All the songs I was looking to learn involved quite a bit of fingerpicking and we know that I've never been that great at learning other people's tunes. (Lots of excuses, I know.) So years passed, 8 of them in fact, college is over, my friend is living half way across the country, and my promise is still left hanging there, unfulfilled.

I'm sure she's not exactly thinking about it everyday, or ever at all, but it still bugs me now and then. Partially because I made a promise, and partially because it bothers me that I just never could take the time to learn a simple song. She was always so supportive of me and my music back when I was just starting out and I needed that support the most, I at least wanted to have the chance to return some of that favor. So I've picked a song and I've spent the last week picking my fingers to the bone to finally get this right so I can surprise my friend with a song that's been 8 years in the learning. (That is unless she is reading this and realizes it's her I'm talking about.)

So that's my songwriting task for this week. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be posting it up for all to hear because I'm keeping my music player to originals only. Honestly, I really don't want to mess with copyright issues. I don't mean to tease but I have a fingerpicking song of my own creation that I'm working on for the near future that I will definitely be sharing.

So until next time, thanks for reading. Keep pickin'.....I mean rockin'!

UPDATE - I just remembered something in regards to fingerpicking. Check out Now Transmission's song "One To Blame" at their MySpace by clicking here. I wrote the majority of the music originally, but the fingerpicking part in the intro and first verse is my one musical performance contribution to the EP. I guess that's a little proof that I'm not totally useless when it comes to the skill.

These Old Strings

I remember a day when my guitar was the love of my life. I would always wash my hands before playing, I would change the strings consistently, I would even sit and rub "her" with a soft cloth to a glittering shine while my friends all stared and told me I was crazy. I wouldn't even dare to put stickers on the case because I wanted to keep everything in prime condition.

But as the years passed the routine became less and less important. The dust started to build, fingerprints became more prevalent, and the strings were almost always dirty and dull sounding with every pick stroke. The case was even covered with a myriad of stickers, tasteful, yet there none the less.

Though, I pick her up most every day, she rarely gets the treatment she deserves. I can't even remember the last time I changed the strings. It has to have been at least 6 months and 1,500 miles in the past. So sad. But despite the dings and the old strings, she still plays on. Maybe not as bright as she did at my high school graduation party when I first set eyes on her, but she puts up with my fumbling fingers anyway.

The more I write, the more I'm thinking of my old '77 Sigma acoustic as a person. And the more I feel like I need to wash my hands, grab a new set of strings, and that soft yellow cloth and treat her like she should be treated.

Being around the holidays, this little story has to do with a lot more than an old guitar. It has to do with taking so many other things for granted. A cheesy moral of the story, I guess so. But true. It's so easy to take things for granted when you have them. But when you don't, you realize too late how important they were.

So go change your metaphorical guitar strings. And Happy Holidays to everyone.