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Practice, practice, practice
Oct. 4th, 2003 04:00 pmI had my first guitar lesson on Wednesday. I really like the teacher; not only is he a good musician, but he's a good teacher. He explains things well and is very encouraging. He got me feeling like I really could master the guitar, and I've been none too sure. He asked me what my aspirations were, and I told him that I wanted to learn how to accompany myself singing. (I didn't tell him that I had a secret yen to learn classical guitar because it seemed preposterous to say that when I couldn't play a note!) He then decided that he should teach me basic chords and not bother me with learning how to read music--and I protested, so he agreed to follow the full course. I had the fun of bringing my guitar into the Lab afterwards (because I didn't want to leave it in a hot car). The Lab being the Lab, no one even blinked. ("Oh there's a woman with a guitar, ho hum.") Because I've been working crazy hours, I've continued to bring the guitar to the Lab so that I can practice. No doubt I've added to my rep for eccentricity -;)
I'm thumb-fingered with the guitar right now, of course. I've had problems with chords because I wind up pressing or interfering with strings that I'm not trying to press. However, each practice I get a little bit better, so I'm staying motivated and hopeful.
In fact, I've been so motivated and hopeful that I just bought a second guitar. Yes, there is a method to my madness. To properly accompany myself on guitar, I need to use a steel-string (folk) guitar. The reason that I bought a nylon-stringed (classical) guitar is because steel strings hurt my hands. However, the only way to build up callouses to play a steel-string guitar is by playing a steel-string guitar. So I thought that it would be good to learn new things on the nylon-stringed guitar, but also do some practice on the steel-stringed guitar to build up callouses.
Here's the new guitar on the left, with my classical guitar on the right:
( Too much info about the decision-making process )
Because the guitar teacher is so good, I've been wondering if the piano teacher that is affiliated with the same place is as good. However, I keep going over my schedule in my mind, and just don't see the time to practice. What I have been doing is wandering over periodically to the keyboard and work on a song (I've been working my way through a book of beginner songs), and then go back to what I've been doing. It seems to be working. Two interesting things happened. The first day, I was playing the melody for "When the Saints Go Marching In", and the last two notes that the book had were flat out wrong. So I picked out the right notes. The second day, I was playing a new song, looked at a note, and found myself playing it automatically without thinking about it. I stopped in shock, looked again at the note and the keyboard, and yes, it was the right note. I did it again. ('Twas then that I had the blasphemous thought: "This is like typing, only with music.") I wondering if somehow I've tapped into some sort of sense memory; I did know how to read music for piano once. But still, that was 25 to 30 years ago. My playing has been really raggedy, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't. It's slowly improving.
I've been multi-tasking like crazy to fit voice in: practicing in the shower, listening to lessons when I put on my makeup, and reading voice books when I'm on the treadmill. My voice frequently breaks up when I hit a particular note; that's the most worrisome problem. However, it doesn't always break up, which gives me some hope. I've also been working on my speaking voice because speaking and singing are related. (I think that my speaking voice might be screwing up my singing voice.) One night, I was doing speaking exercises to re-pitch my voice, and I wound up singing words rather than speaking them. And my voice was beautifully resonant up in the mask (the area around the nose and cheeks) and sounded a little like some of the beautiful voices on some of my singing tapes. I hated to go to sleep for fear that I'd forget how to do that. Sure enough, I haven't been able to do it again -;) Ah well, singing practice is like that. I've forgotten how hard that it can be.
I'm on call for jury duty next week, and I have a low group number, so I suspect that I'll be called in. I'm going to have a bag of music theory and writing books ready so that I can use my time well.
I'm thumb-fingered with the guitar right now, of course. I've had problems with chords because I wind up pressing or interfering with strings that I'm not trying to press. However, each practice I get a little bit better, so I'm staying motivated and hopeful.
In fact, I've been so motivated and hopeful that I just bought a second guitar. Yes, there is a method to my madness. To properly accompany myself on guitar, I need to use a steel-string (folk) guitar. The reason that I bought a nylon-stringed (classical) guitar is because steel strings hurt my hands. However, the only way to build up callouses to play a steel-string guitar is by playing a steel-string guitar. So I thought that it would be good to learn new things on the nylon-stringed guitar, but also do some practice on the steel-stringed guitar to build up callouses.
Here's the new guitar on the left, with my classical guitar on the right:
 |
 |
( Too much info about the decision-making process )
Because the guitar teacher is so good, I've been wondering if the piano teacher that is affiliated with the same place is as good. However, I keep going over my schedule in my mind, and just don't see the time to practice. What I have been doing is wandering over periodically to the keyboard and work on a song (I've been working my way through a book of beginner songs), and then go back to what I've been doing. It seems to be working. Two interesting things happened. The first day, I was playing the melody for "When the Saints Go Marching In", and the last two notes that the book had were flat out wrong. So I picked out the right notes. The second day, I was playing a new song, looked at a note, and found myself playing it automatically without thinking about it. I stopped in shock, looked again at the note and the keyboard, and yes, it was the right note. I did it again. ('Twas then that I had the blasphemous thought: "This is like typing, only with music.") I wondering if somehow I've tapped into some sort of sense memory; I did know how to read music for piano once. But still, that was 25 to 30 years ago. My playing has been really raggedy, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't. It's slowly improving.
I've been multi-tasking like crazy to fit voice in: practicing in the shower, listening to lessons when I put on my makeup, and reading voice books when I'm on the treadmill. My voice frequently breaks up when I hit a particular note; that's the most worrisome problem. However, it doesn't always break up, which gives me some hope. I've also been working on my speaking voice because speaking and singing are related. (I think that my speaking voice might be screwing up my singing voice.) One night, I was doing speaking exercises to re-pitch my voice, and I wound up singing words rather than speaking them. And my voice was beautifully resonant up in the mask (the area around the nose and cheeks) and sounded a little like some of the beautiful voices on some of my singing tapes. I hated to go to sleep for fear that I'd forget how to do that. Sure enough, I haven't been able to do it again -;) Ah well, singing practice is like that. I've forgotten how hard that it can be.
I'm on call for jury duty next week, and I have a low group number, so I suspect that I'll be called in. I'm going to have a bag of music theory and writing books ready so that I can use my time well.
