I have a feeling that my selected title for this series of post is going to prove horribly ironic.
A quick recap for those of you who don't read every single post I make. As part of my New Year Resolutions I decided THIS was finally going to be the year in which I taught myself to play guitar. My aim is to be able to play 5 songs to a reasonable standard (i.e. recognisable by someone who knows the tune) by the end of the year.
I've always wanted to be able to play guitar but have never found the time or determination to sit down and give it a really good go. At the back of my mind I have a doubt that I ever really could. I don't think I have a natural talent for music. But then, opposed to that, there is a vast history of people from all sorts of backgrounds who can play guitar, which suggests if I just put the effort it I almost certainly could.
I'd already been pondering a new concerted effort this year and this crystallised into a resolution during a pre-gig chat with my mate Mark. Mark sings and plays keyboards in Feltham's finest covers band The Phantoms. He challenged me to be able to play a 5 song set live in 18 months time. Actually just typing that last sentence puts the willies up me a bit. Playing live may be a step too far but my more modest challenge seems achievable.
I bought my first guitar in the late 80s while I was at College. It was an cheap electric guitar by a company called Axe. It came with a series of tapes titled "How to play Heavy Metal Guitar" but even my Metal mate, who spent a bit of time helping me out, agreed it was not the easiest thing to play. At least it gave me something more satisfying to pull air guitar shapes with in my bedroom and, when my Mum & Dad were out, I had fun getting feedback out of the amp. It also provided me with my one brief moment of on stage stardom when I used it to "play" alongside Never Before Midnight (one of Mark's previous bands) at my 21st birthday. It was pretty obvious I wasn't plugged in but one Uncle complimented me on making the band sound more rocky.
I eventually gave the Axe away to a friend and didn't have a guitar until my 40th birthday a few years back. This reinvigorated my desire to be able to play but, again, the lack of available time defeated me. My aborted attempts thus far have not gone much beyond strumming three chords and failing to move my fingers between them in anything less than 9 minutes. I have a long way to go.
True to form, my progress so far this year is minimal. I've not picked up my guitar all year. In my defence I have thoroughly sanded our staircase and applied two coats of paint (possibly three by the time you read this), I have helped my Dad out with his financial planning and I've done some long hours at work to get on top of all the work I failed to do before Christmas. These are all just excuses though. I promise to try harder next month.
I have downloaded an App for my phone to help me with the chord sequences and started a list of candidate songs. I'm hoping that if I pick the five songs which use similar chords I'll make life much easier for myself. Two hot favourites so far are "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash (A7, B7, E) and "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedance Clearwater Revival (A, D, G). My plan for February is to have a go at both and then look for some compatible songs.
Suggestions are more than welcome by the way, leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
A quick recap for those of you who don't read every single post I make. As part of my New Year Resolutions I decided THIS was finally going to be the year in which I taught myself to play guitar. My aim is to be able to play 5 songs to a reasonable standard (i.e. recognisable by someone who knows the tune) by the end of the year.
I've always wanted to be able to play guitar but have never found the time or determination to sit down and give it a really good go. At the back of my mind I have a doubt that I ever really could. I don't think I have a natural talent for music. But then, opposed to that, there is a vast history of people from all sorts of backgrounds who can play guitar, which suggests if I just put the effort it I almost certainly could.
I'd already been pondering a new concerted effort this year and this crystallised into a resolution during a pre-gig chat with my mate Mark. Mark sings and plays keyboards in Feltham's finest covers band The Phantoms. He challenged me to be able to play a 5 song set live in 18 months time. Actually just typing that last sentence puts the willies up me a bit. Playing live may be a step too far but my more modest challenge seems achievable.
I bought my first guitar in the late 80s while I was at College. It was an cheap electric guitar by a company called Axe. It came with a series of tapes titled "How to play Heavy Metal Guitar" but even my Metal mate, who spent a bit of time helping me out, agreed it was not the easiest thing to play. At least it gave me something more satisfying to pull air guitar shapes with in my bedroom and, when my Mum & Dad were out, I had fun getting feedback out of the amp. It also provided me with my one brief moment of on stage stardom when I used it to "play" alongside Never Before Midnight (one of Mark's previous bands) at my 21st birthday. It was pretty obvious I wasn't plugged in but one Uncle complimented me on making the band sound more rocky.
I eventually gave the Axe away to a friend and didn't have a guitar until my 40th birthday a few years back. This reinvigorated my desire to be able to play but, again, the lack of available time defeated me. My aborted attempts thus far have not gone much beyond strumming three chords and failing to move my fingers between them in anything less than 9 minutes. I have a long way to go.
True to form, my progress so far this year is minimal. I've not picked up my guitar all year. In my defence I have thoroughly sanded our staircase and applied two coats of paint (possibly three by the time you read this), I have helped my Dad out with his financial planning and I've done some long hours at work to get on top of all the work I failed to do before Christmas. These are all just excuses though. I promise to try harder next month.
I have downloaded an App for my phone to help me with the chord sequences and started a list of candidate songs. I'm hoping that if I pick the five songs which use similar chords I'll make life much easier for myself. Two hot favourites so far are "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash (A7, B7, E) and "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedance Clearwater Revival (A, D, G). My plan for February is to have a go at both and then look for some compatible songs.
Suggestions are more than welcome by the way, leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
– When I first got into music I was like a loyal dog. Once I had decided I liked a band I would obsessively buy everything they released; LPs, 7 inches, 12 inches, picture disks, solo albums by the singer, solo albums by the drummer, even solo albums by the bassist’s ex-girlfriend. Whilst I remain obsessive about music (and just about everything else as this blog proves), these days I am a more fickle fan. I loved the first two or three Mogwai albums, but my interest had waned. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed their later releases, I just haven’t found myself playing them all that often. I’d probably have let “Hardcore” pass me by completely if a friend had not gone to see them live earlier in the year and piqued my interest. 
– This might be an obvious choice (the number 1 album for 2011 in Mojo, NME & Uncut) but PJ’s Mercury Prize winning album is outstanding and a very close second to Mogwai for me. Polly Jean is a songwriter who gets better and better. I missed the initial excitement generated by her early albums but her first Mercury Prize winning album “Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea” shaved off the rough edges and drew me in. Since then she has alternated between the bloody good, “Uh Huh Her” & “A Woman A Man Walked By”, and the absolute genius “White Chalk” & “Let England Shake”. One of the highlights of last year was seeing David Cameron fail miserably to appear “hip” and generally look a bit uncomfortable whilst PJ played “Last Living Rose” on the 
– One of my new favourite bands. I had not been completely won over by their 2009 debut album, "Carbeth", but was completely stunned by their second album, 2010’s “Abandoned Love”. That was still on heavy rotation when “Constant Pageant” came out this year – they’re nothing if not prolific – and this new release showed a further progression, hinted at in “Abandoned Love”, from folk to seventies rock. I’m desperate to see them live. Alex Neilson sounds like an amazing drummer and also provides complimentary vocals to the stunning voice of Lavinia Blackwall. They are in many ways a modern day Fairport Convention, no bad thing in itself, but have something a bit special that really hits the right buttons for me.
– Zach Condon has brought the Beirut sound into the mainstream with this album. His first LP “Gulag Orkestar” (2006) was influenced by Balkan folk, whilst the folow up, “The Flying Club Cup” (2007) was influenced by Jacques Brel and French chanson music. 2009’s E.P. “March Of the Zapotec” didn’t quite live up to those early standards but added Electronica to Zach’s list of influences. Now performing as a fully fledged band Beirut seem to have got the balance between ethnic influence and popular music absolutely perfect. “The Rip Tide” has a lush sound that emphasises the best bits of his previous albums whilst retaining that fragile charm of a solo folk artist. It’s like a “Best Of” but with brand new songs.
– I spent some time considering whether this album ought to be in my top five. It is, after all, nothing you won’t have heard before. Instrumental Garage Surf rock basically. However, there’s something about this collection of songs that always brings a smile to my face. I first heard the band on a Marc Riley session back in January. It wasn’t just their Link Wray inspired sound that appealed, the band had a laid back manner and sense of humour that won me over. All the tracks on this debut LP are numbered, a la 
