Tuesday, December 26, 2006

better blogging coming soon!

merry christmas past, happy boxing day and hello to 2 weeks off! sweet.

christmas has been fantastic. we have done some major family hanging out time which has been very fun however getting in the way of consistant blogging. haha. the macdonald's started a boxing day at the movies tradition since lord of the rings first one then i think last year was lion witch and the wardrobe. this year it was the pursuit of happyness with will and his son. it's a bit of a downer the whole time though very interesting. we used the word "intense" to describe. i still liked it. maybe that's because i bought myself popcorn and diet coke to watch with it. ha.

well i recieved a CAMERA for christmas from tim hence better blogging coming soon! now i can take photos and instantly upload at home, not waiting to go to WR to upload them at my parents. won't that be remarkable? actually...we still haven't figured out our whole technology setup though. we also got an ipod nano for christmas but our computer's USB port doesn't seem to work so not uploading anything here. we're relying on the work laptop until we figure out a plan with getting a new computer. who knows. either way, photos are on their way. also, a plethora of random stories as well.

here's the first one:

tim got a guitar for christmas from me. he says he needs "an indoor hobby". inspiration from james charboneau. what do you think of that james? so we bought a "teach yourself" book that comes with a cd and he's out in the living room as i type learning his first few notes. i did always think i'd end up with a musician. haha.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

whoa! GO TIM! I'm looking forward to hearing a rousing rendition of "twinkle, twinkle little star" or possibly "stairway to heaven" when we see you guys next week! Ha. Just kidding...

Um...HI! I can't wait to see yoU!

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm flattered. There's almost nothing more satifying than playing an instrument. I'm not sure if you want advice, but you're going to get it.

1) Learn your scales. Many people learn chords without learning scales. Practicing scales not only gives you familiarlty with the instument but builds finger dexterity the quickest. The great thing about the guitar is that is is very geometric and this makes learning scales easier. For example, If you learn the pattern for the G major scale, that same pattern is used for every other major scale on the guitar. While learning these patterns you'll also begin to see where chords come from.

2) Practice in time. When practicing your scales or chord changes, try to keep time. It will be annoying, but building your muscle memory in time will prevent you from having to do it later. Many of my friends learned to play without learning to keep time and it drives me crazy. Do it for me, if for noone else.

3) Have fun. It seems obvious but make sure you learn some songs you like. Playing exercises is a good way to build technique, but many people I know get bogged down and lose interest. If you enjoy the music you make, then you'll make more of it. Another possiblity is to take a song you like and try to make an exercise out of it.

4) Play with confidence. This is more of a performance tip but there are no wrong notes, just notes played wrong. If you play a wrong note just keep going. Noone will notice that you hit the wrong note unless you tell them you did. If you don't make a fuss, people will commend you for your skilled use of chromatic passing tones.

cheers!