Jeff Campitelli - Happy birthday!!! And now that that's done...where's your website? Get working on it! ;-)

Live In San Francisco was eight years ago tonight...if I have some free time later I think I'll watch the DVD again. It's been a while, for sure. What a fun show that was...but as good as parts of it were, I still say the highlight of those two shows was Surfing With The Alien from the night before. That's one of the best performances I've ever seen Joe do.

Chadley, we've have a bit of snow here and there, but I think 2 1/2 inches was the deepest so far. It's coming...I know it is. lol!

Man, you know it's getting bad when the only place hiring is the feckin' unemployment office!

Okay, now it's time...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!! I agree with Austin - GET A WEBSITE!!

Hi all,

I'm back from a lovely week away in the high country of Victoria. Had a fantastic Christmas Day - amazing how Santa got all our pressies up there.

It was beautiful warm weather all week, ate freshly caught trout and at night we would sit on the deck with several dozen bourbons and look at the milions of stars you just can't see when in the city.

I finally had some free time (apart from swimming in the river, walking, 4WD'ing and pottering around) to read the Guitar for Dummies book. My niece's boyfriend had his $100 Essex acoustic with him so, officially, on 28 December, I did my first guitar lesson.

I cut my nails back (*sniff*) and learnt A,D,E,Am,G,C,F,Em (where the hell is B??) . D and F I found almost impossible - with D I had to use my first finger to hold down the first 3 strings and use my 2nd finger on the 2nd string in the next fret, because I couldn't get my 2nd and 3rd fingers far enough apart to go a fret apart.

I remembered an interview of Joe's where he said you have to use the end of your fingerbone perpendicular to the fretboard, and not press too hard, and tried to use good finger and hand position. After an hour I could remember where each finger went for each chord and could mostly get a reasonable sound as opposed to a strangled cat.

At this point I was supposed to be able to play Kumbaya, Michael Row The Boat and Auld Lang Syne, which I tried but for the life of me couldn't get it to sound anything like them, plus I had to put each finger in place 1 at a time at each chord change so there was a big gap :0). I also have to remember which chords only use 5 or 4 strings to the strum, without looking back at the book.

My kids were delighted when I did a fab rendition of Phoebe's "Smelly Cat" song from Friends.

By then my fingertips had gone numb and were tender so I gave it a rest. The next morning I did another 30mins on those chords even though my fingers were still numb.

So now I have to practice until I can play the chords by placing all fingers at once, not 1 at a time, and so I can change chords seamlessly. In the pictures the person's hand was wrapped around the neck with the thumb on top but I found I had to put my thumb at the back of the neck or else I couldn't stop touching a heap of other strings - is this OK?

On the 6 hr drive home I read the Guide ahead a few chapters to 7ths (minor, major, dominant, WTF?), barre chords, double-stops (WTF?), slide, and then to the C scale. But I will stick with just learning the basic open chords in practice.

Now I'm home I don't have a guitar but hubby has an old acoustic in storage so will retrieve that this week and see what it's like.

GG2 - how you going with the geetar???

Hope all of you are well and gearing up for a great NYE.

skippygirl, i recommend the thumb squarely in the middle of the back of the neck for maximum finger / string pressing strength. This was from my first unofficial guitar lesson, when I picked up the acoustic again at midlife (I knew a few chords, still do). I laid it down, but I've never forgotten that unofficial lesson from the mysterious stranger who first spoke joe's name to me.

listening to: Is There Love in Space? (the song, not the cd)

...paxamundo...

~f

I've re-worked my Satch 101 playlist:

SWTA

I Just Wanna Rock

Summer Song

FIABD

Mind Storm

I Am Become Death

Look My Way

Hordes of Locusts (live, from Dreaming #11)

Crystal Planet

Is There Love in Space?

The Headless Horseman

Echo

Friends

~f

Thanks Novjul, for the confirmation about the thumb position.

Skippygirl,

Technically thumb on the back is more "correct" - however you need to balance fun with theory.

What I mean is, it's like everything, unless you are a superhuman or a robot, you cannot learn the best position and habits from the beginning. It won't make sense and it will slow you down. Just like you cannot learn guitar by first learning all musically theory before you pick up an instrument. Sure, in the end you may be a better player and pick it up like lightning, but the years leading up to that day will be less interesting.

So learning is an iterative process, do what you can for now to get a good sound and enjoy your learning, just have a few pointers in the back of your mind each time you play. Then your technique will evolve and improve. And when you feel like it, get a bit of playing you have trouble with and try and improve THAT technique. Just be aware you will learn a lot of "bad" habits, fix some, and call some your own "style".

I personally try to use good technique when I can, such as if a run or chord can be done the "real" way with the pinky, or cheated with a barre chord, then I'll try to use the more difficult one, which forces good hand position. But if just strumming for fun, substitute the cheat chord to get the right groove, the hand can be more relaxed in this case, as you discovered with D.

Above all, as I think Joe put it, don't spend too much time practicing, spend more time playing.

roo - thanks for that. When I thumbed through the Dummies Guide in the book store I liked the way the authors get you to play songs ASAP - in fact straight after learning A,D,E. But I do need to get the chords right by straight out practice as well as playing songs.

PHOEBE: How many chords do you know?

CHRISSY HYNDE: (shrugs) All of them

:-)

remember, it's not the destination, it's the journey

unless, of course, you're driving in Boston

with music, there is no destination, there is only the journey

~f

hello everyone...

Ally, you mentioned Beyonce. I think she'd put a hurtin' om ya!

Last song before bed: IF I COULD FLY

~cOsMiC~

...night all...

~f

All you muppet fans, heres Another Belter good ol Rainbow

Al:Non stick pans are bad for boobies next time ya bring some birds round yer gaf they might leave their chicks at home!

Fab:I saw G,s desk on myspace, looks awesome, would have loved t have spent more time in Scotland t see everyone.Defo goin t Dublin next year t catch up with the lads, i,ll probably hire a car & do an extra week in jockland then, y have a good xmas yersel?