More guitar madness!

I was practicing my guitar before bed as I am tempted to sometimes, and I decided to read a couple of chapters in my guitar book. I flipped through suspension chords and practiced them quickly. They are quite confusing. Each sus2 and sus4 for the chords can be different. It can be pinky here or a ring finger there. Sometimes it's remove a finger, sometimes it's add a finger. And then a seventh chord with a sus2 can be described as ninth chord (F7sus2 = F9). Craziness.

After suspensions, I flipped through bass runs. Then I reach barre chords. Boy, did this chapter explain a lot. For most of the songs I play, instead of the traditional F chord, I play the F barre chord. This chapter explains how the F barre chord came to be. The finger barre on the first fret essentially acts as a human capo and pops the normally E chord up half tone to an F chord (there is no E#/Fb). This chapter also explains B, Bm, and B7 chords. It is essentially A chords with a finger barre on the second fret (there are two half tones between A and B). Everything falls into place for the F and B chords now.

With all these new chords, my fingers are hurting from the new chord shapes and pressures. I'm sure my callouses will change once again to accommodate. But this is pretty exciting. I always wondered how some guitarists on YouTube fret their chords pretty far down on their guitar. Now I understand that they are just using a barre chord and moving down the neck to change the chord easier much like how I move from a F barre chord to a G barre chord. Now if I can only figure out the suspension chords.

Got a capo!

So I went out and purchased a capo for my guitar. I had found one at Target for $9.99, but I figured I should spend a bit more for a quality one. So I dropped $14.99 at Guitar Center for a trigger capo by Dunlop. It looked and felt like a quality one, so I felt good with the purchase. The salesman offered a capo for $19.99 that would also work on an electric guitar if I ever buy one in the future. I wasn't sure, and even though it was only $5.00 more, I opted out of that.

While at Guitar Center, I peeked into their humidity-controlled acoustic section to see what I might like in terms of my next guitar. Boy, was I overwhelmed. There were probably 100 guitars on the wall and stands. There were some people jamming away on a few guitars, and I felt pretty small in the presence of the beautiful music. I didn't bother picking one up to play, as I probably won't be able to tell the difference yet anyway. As I left I saw one guitar by the door for $899. My cousin told me she saw one for $1,500 when she was buying her Ibanez. I'm fine with my $60 Lyon by Washburn right now. Haha.

So, in terms of my guitar progress, I've learned a few more songs. It seems to be much easier to pick up new songs. I've also learned some more chords. Mostly seventh chords and power chords (fifth chords). I received a guitar book for my birthday, so I'm learning from that and the online lessons I've found previously. The book is currently teaching me suspension chords, while online, I am learning to play the blues riffs. I think I'm getting a pretty solid education here. Not professional, but pretty good for my recreational purposes.

As for the songs I can play, they are:

Ingrid Michaelson - "The Way I Am" (half of it anyway)
U2 - "One"
The Perishers - "Pills"
Pearl Jam - "Last Kiss"
U2 - "With or Without You"
One Republic - "Apologize"

While learning to play "Apologize", I realized I cannot sing. Haha. I'm working on that. I think it's more of a self-conscious issue anyway. I tend to sing in my speaking voice when I'm around others, as if I'm afraid what they would think of my singing voice. I'm no American Idol, but I'd like to get to the point where I can have a decent singing voice for my guitar accompaniment. I did discover that if I capo the 5th fret, "With or Without You" and "Apologize" is easier to sing as the higher key encourages me to start singing in a more comfortable key.

Anyway, hoping my learning will advance even more later.

High school reunion

On of my friends from high school got her 10 year reunion notification last week. It's pretty weird, but next year, it'll be ten years since we graduated from high school. I know a few people who have already decided not to attend the reunion. I'm not quite sure if I would either.

What is the purpose of a reunion anyway? I mean, unless you did lose touch with some people after graduation and you want to get in touch again, sure it sounds like a great idea. But being in a pretty big greater metropolitan area, I didn't exactly fly the coop after graduation. I still live in the same city. In fact, most of my high school friends still do, some even at home. So, the people worth keeping in touch with, I'm already doing. Some not as frequent, but I can't think of a lot of people that I've lost touch with that didn't move away or whatever.

I feel like sometimes reunions are a status check. It's a convenient way to compare yourselves with others to see how far you've gone in life. Or a great way to showoff where you are. I suppose reunions can also be a great place to network. Who knows? I doubting that I would go though. Now if it was open bar...

Biking Spot Pond

Finally dusted off my bicycle in the garage and took it out for a ride. Five of us met at my mom's house where I keep my bike (my apartment doesn't have a lot of room for me to store stuff like that). We filled tires and I attempted to fix my front brake handle (my sister broke it last summer, but I didn't have the part). Then we set off on a nice route that I claimed was half an hour. About an hour later, we came back. I guess I was off on the time.

It was a decent ride. Lot of stopping and going in the beginning and end because of city riding, but once we hit the hockey rink in Stoneham, it was mostly smooth biking on Rte 28 and along Spot Pond. I get an email later from my cousin telling me it was a total of 8.4 miles. Not too bad for the first ride of the summer. It was nice to workout outdoors too. We're thinking we'll hit a bike path nice time so there would be less stopping. Breakheart reservation was nice last time I rode it a few years back. Lot of hills, so it's a great workout.

But speaking of working out, I've decided to stop my kung fu class. I haven't gone for two weeks, but I've been doing other things to maintain/build. I just can't justify the $95/month now that I'm finding it hard to make the classes. I'll probably do a mixture of working out at home and outdoors or join the YMCA again. It's easier for me to workout when I know I can do it anytime instead of during certain hours of certain days of the week.

Well, can't wait for the next ride.

Skipping class

So I haven't been to kung fu class since May 6. It's a great class and all, but the schedule is not that hot. Classes on Tuesday and Fridays start at 7:15 and go to 8:30, although we usually get out at 8:45 and I don't really get into my car until almost five of nine. And Fridays? C'mon, do you really think I'll go to class on Fridays? Then the last class of the week (or the first) is on Sunday from 1:00PM to 2:15PM. By the time I go home and shower to "start" my day, it's 3PM. Not a great "morning" workout you see. So on a good week I'll make two classes a week, but I'm mostly making one class a week. At the monthly rate I'm paying, the classes are at quite a premium.

If you look back at a previous post, I picked kung fu over aikido in terms of martial arts for its fitness benefits. I'm developing a lot of flexibility and muscle endurance, but there's really not as much practical uses as aikido. And since I'm not that excited about sticking to a not so ideal schedule, I've been thinking a lot about joining a gym again. I figure I can go anytime, and my experiences in kung fu gives me a little more perspective in how I should train my body. I think about it some more, but every time before each class I'm just not thrilled to go. I feel great afterwards, but there's always this initial resistance I need to overcome to get to class. Whereas when I was at the YMCA, I was just geared to go each time. We'll see how it goes.

Learning the guitar

I've been trying to learn how to play the guitar for a few months now. Let me tell you, the guitar is a pretty frustrating instrument to learn. For Christmas a couple years back, I had bought a student guitar for my younger sister. She never really picked it up. I took it back a few months ago, determined to learn it. But issues ranging from fingernails that go past my nail bed to pain from fretting deterred me.

I eventually bought a cheap full-size guitar from Target. It was a Lyon guitar with bag, picks, tuner, strap, extra strings, and a DVD. It was decent for my purposes as I don't like spending money on something I might not like. The DVD sucked. I fared better with detailed lessons from about.com. I eventually started looking up tabs for songs I like. But man, it was still very frustrating. Waiting for callouses and finger strength to develop was a long process. What really jump started my development was when my cousins both bought guitars as well. I was determined to pick it back up. I eventually was able to switch chords easier, and finger strength was definitely developing. No help with the fingernails; my only option is to cut them really short more often.

I'm on lesson four of the about.com lessons. I just learned about power chords, and I looked up the mechanics of how to capo as well. Looking to get a capo later on and play with it. But the rewards of knowing how to play a guitar are well worth the frustration, pain, and cramps of learning. As for songs I actually know how to play, I can play U2's "One", The Perishers' "Pills", part of Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am". Not a lot, but I like to be good at songs before I go on to other ones. It actually took me a while to learn to sing while playing.

As for the pick or no pick debate. I play with no pick. I like the softer sound better. Oh, and I'm on an acoustic.