Calloused Verily

[Donna]

Hi you guys~

Today I noticed anew my calloused fingertips - now there's a slight string indent atop most of 'em as well. I guess this is just par for the course? Never played enough that this happened before.

I told someone (a writer, not of songs) that I have so many guitar irons in the fire right now, what did he think about that? He said the same thing is going on w/ him and he hadn't a clue. I said that I think I'm supposed to be working on everything, maybe more attention to certain things at certain times, but keep hitting most of the spokes, as it were.

Many of the songs I'm working on, I really have to work! I'm learning new chords/progressions and experimenting a lot with thumb position and how things can fit together w/ the least physical strain. Began working on a 3rd cover (Sail on Sailor) when the other two I've far from mastered. Yet the progress is there.

My own stuff, I have added simple and sparse things, either fingerings, motiffs, chord inversions or so on; working on these changes - plus starting to add the singing. Plugged into an amp is another new thing to get used to.

Obstinately working on scales - via a Dick Grove book. Lesson One is "complete mastery of major scales as applied to your instrument." There are 6 "routines" (w/ choice of 2 starting points) in Lesson One: like starting at C, playing an octave of the scale, going thru the cycle of 5ths. You do these to "rythym cards A & B" - 4 measures toto - which include accents, tie, triplet (and one stacatto note). One routine of cycle of 4ths, and then the other 4 routines are chromatic or chromatic/cycle of 5ths.

The goal is to go smoothly thru the entire 6 routines w/ strict accuracy, increasing fluidity/tempo. I almost got thru R. 1, and immediately said, "baby! You're set to work on triads now!" Cause he says review each time, so the review will be what I almost did, once. Soon I'll get it whole. Then the review will be routine 2, and so on.

So yeah, next the guy has major triads; then chromatic triads (ascend in C, descend in Db major [same measure] onto ascend in D, descend in Eb major, etc;); then major 7ths, then maj 7th chromatic. All done in the 6 routines, to "rhythym cards A & B".

So...I figure lesson one will be my pal for roughly two + seasons, if I still care by then!

I hope I stick with it, though. What a foundation that would be!

It's been 6 weeks I've been playing about 5 days a week, lotta hours. It's to the point where I can see if I keep on, there will be a bar of consistency. Anyway, that's where I've been. It's good too in that trying to make my stuff more interesting than simply strumming chords, is another way to songwrite. The tunes and passages go thru my head and I write (embellish or add) while thinking...then try to play it as I hear. SFSG

Cousin Bruce and I should be getting together in a month or so. I'll be interested in his opinion about any progress made.

Edited March 1, 2007 by Donna

[Steve]

Crickey! I've got a headache just thinking about that lot! Good for you Donna. You're a lot more commited than I at the moment!

[Rudi]

Good luck. It cant do you anything but good, I would think.

[Donna]

Thanks, y'all.

The callouses are getting harder. I'm up to doing routine 5 in scales for "review", though R. 1 is still at the almost-doing the whole cycle of 5ths, with rythym cards, fluidly.

Wow - the traids are beginning to make sense! I can play each of them, and getting to know 'em by memory. The Ab triad is a great pinky stretch/exercise. It's easy to see how thoroughly the first 5 frets of the neck could be mastered, just like Dick Grove claims.

The book is called The Encyclopedia of Basic Harmony and Theory Applied to Improvisation on All Musical Instruments Volume I.

It is what the title says!

Edited March 14, 2007 by Donna

[Rudi]

I must say I am impressed with your dedication. I have hard right hand fingertips too, but it doesnt take long for them to soften up. So if I play a gig straight after a holiday, the fingers get sore.

Hope this work is useful for compositional musical ideas.

[Donna]

Hey Rudi~

Yeah, that's kind of puzzling. I'd think with the increased callouses the fingers wouldn't get sore, but mine still do, or can. Thanks for letting me know what's normal!

Re: dedication - just going with the flow....grateful for the motivation. Maybe this is the channel to help right the vacuum of recent deaths. But I must say I also credit Lazz for me re-visiting this kind of study.

"Hope this work is useful for compositional musical ideas"

I'm glad you mentioned this. I know for a fact that it will be, and probably already is. Can't quite explain all those connections - suffice to say it's a gold mine of related things. Even stuff like beginning to understand "is the key C# (with constant B natural) - or is it Db - why or why not?" That sort of thing, which is a tremendous help for me scoring existing melodies. It's another tool for me - if I can see the song in written beads and stems, it's easier to then make up others. I like to think about musical abstracts, I like the relationships (female thing helps here).

There's something current I'm working on, and it's taking shape much more easily because of the study. In finding right chords (often substitutions) + now I've a fighting chance to run some descending melodic thing for a measure...my fingers are knowing where to go, both position wise and knowing-the-scale wise. I think this song is becoming beautiful and complete.

Somehow figuring out the notes ("that's a Dm 9 chord")and becoming familiar with the cycle of 5ths + traids is helping me craft this song. Which I always loved to do, but could get so stuck when the well of intangible inspiration dried. Knowledge seems like a surer foundation.

[Donna]

Dude!

It hit me a few days ago...

To do the Dick Grove routines with voice, Lesson One begin.

Think of it, the training of the voice in melody, accents or inflections + rythym. The confidence tool gained thru sure foundation of (if one stuck with it), knowing what middle C or whatever is, without having to check. This would be a perfect compliment to gaining speed in scoring lines, to reading or perusing any kind of (somebody else's) written stuff, including gregorian chant (which is often unusually notated, in my book). It'd help me nail stuff in choir. You'd be surprised how often I'm sight reading during High Mass itself! Usually it's not disasterous cause I listen well to those who do know the music, and have learned () to back off when I can't deliver.

I know I'm come to the table late in this, Finn's spoken of it many moons ago and given lessons as it were. To be truthful, that kind of stuff always scared me...lol, that is I knew I'd fear sounding like hades trying to do it. But now that I'm getting pretty warmed up w/ the liturgical stuff - esp. chant which is modal or scale oriented, I think I'm up to try scales and traids proper. And I'd do it following Grove in cycles of 5ths and 4ths, chromatic ascending and descending. Gee whiz, even 1/2 a routine singing, done per guitar session, would yield a lot over time.

I am still on Lesson One. But the triads are beginning to flow, and I have used them in crafting one bridge and two, two- bar interludes in another song. It's working!

PS: And y'all, do you remember in the bar once, posting Ray Charles' version lyrically of "Oh What A Beautiful Morning?" I've an old jazz cronie who actually has a vinyl version of it...it's out of print. I am really hoping to use that recording, once he gets it to me, as a lesson...try to figure it out in some manageable version. And I'd unashamadly copy Ray's vocals note for note. The thought of being able to get any young people to hear it, the emo boys and even the Bowie boys...is a good one.