"Sigh Alone" ~ Mauger and Conroy
I was donated my first acoustic, and old 1970's Epiphone, junior year of high school. Taught myself how to play the most popular open chords: major, some minor, and a few 7th. The guitar had unforgiving high action combined with Dean Markley Acoustic Blue Steel in 12's.
On the upside, high action and heavy gauge strings made the guitar ring out in beautiful tones; on the downside, bar-chords were nearly impossible. Couldn't even finger Bm, which is necessary in most open chord / acoustic songs. Forget playing any lead or solo work: sliding was tough enough, bending a no-go. Songs were limited to the G-C-D or A-E-D (that good old I, IV, V) progression with the occasional capo key change thrown in for variety.
Strumming simple chord changes could suffice with a powerful voice commanding the melody. Just look what it did for David Grey; I'm not David Grey, and it didn't work for me. Either I have no potential for vocals, or just have never tried correctly. Drove Caroline to near insanity hearing the same three chords, played the same way, time after time.
Fast forward 10 years- still strumming those same three chords, though I am now capable of throwing in a Bm or a crippled acoustic style F. Ten years of misspent self-teaching and practice; all I had to show for that time was more strumming patterns and quicker chord changes. Since I couldn't sing, I would only play a verse and chorus before getting bored. Caroline challenged me to learn a song all the way through; though how fun is it to strum Indigo Girls or String Cheese incident without lyrics? I learned one or two songs, and attempted the open mic in town. At that time, I was under prepared and still too unskilled for live performance, although my desire to play drove me onward.
Typically I waited 15 minutes before closing to jump up on "stage". Figured by that time most of the audience left or were too wasted to notice. Also it would give me enough time to build up liquid courage, vitamin B. This approach didn't calm my shaky nerves. The more nervous I became, the harder I would finger my chords, the faster I'd strum, and quicker I'd fatigue. A combination of shot nerves, muscle tension, and sweat would add to the sloppy playing.
That may have been it if Larry, Agnes and Ed, the resident musicians, hadn't jumped up to accompany me week after week. Larry put in bass lines, Agnes was amazingly versatile on just the snare drum alone, and Ed soloed over any chord change. They taught me to relax, to play musically rather than aggressively. Gave me enough courage to jump into different blues jams, where I could play my three chords with confidence.
That fall I resolved to take guitar playing a little more seriously. Started taking guitar lessons at the local mom-and-pop. Turned out that my guitar teacher could not have been a better match. We saw eye to eye on equipment, tone, and appreciation of various musicians. Early that winter I was gifted an electric semi-hollow with amp by my ever-supporting wife, Caroline. Think she was finally glad to hear me strum something other than three basic chords. Later that winter I joined my first band, The Earthtones, and by spring had played two live shows. Early summer I started to collaborate with Mauger, a writer / singer, to compose original songs based on his poetry. Large step from playing three chords repetitively. Call it the power of resolution to make it happen.
I now understand when people say, "Played guitar for 10 years, but have only really played for less than a year," I've been there myself.
Today I uploaded my first MP3 to Soundclick under the Mauger and Conroy songwriting collaboration. Sigh Alone is the product of our first session. Brian had lyrics and a melody in mind; I retrofitted the guitar chords to fit what he already had in place. The song was composed, revised, rehearsed, and recorded in under two hours. Don't expect polished- the song has a rough demo quality. Somehow my guitar lost bass and mid frequencies during the recording process- either the mic wasn't aimed at the sound hole or during equalization. The result sounds more like a steel drum than acoustic. Gives it an interesting and unexpected tone.
Maybe years from now I'll look back and wonder why I ever choose to put this song up on Soundclick. It's my teaching philosophy that "Life is a journey and not a destination"; and thus this song is a "process and not a product". For now I couldn't be more proud.
On the upside, high action and heavy gauge strings made the guitar ring out in beautiful tones; on the downside, bar-chords were nearly impossible. Couldn't even finger Bm, which is necessary in most open chord / acoustic songs. Forget playing any lead or solo work: sliding was tough enough, bending a no-go. Songs were limited to the G-C-D or A-E-D (that good old I, IV, V) progression with the occasional capo key change thrown in for variety.
Strumming simple chord changes could suffice with a powerful voice commanding the melody. Just look what it did for David Grey; I'm not David Grey, and it didn't work for me. Either I have no potential for vocals, or just have never tried correctly. Drove Caroline to near insanity hearing the same three chords, played the same way, time after time.
Fast forward 10 years- still strumming those same three chords, though I am now capable of throwing in a Bm or a crippled acoustic style F. Ten years of misspent self-teaching and practice; all I had to show for that time was more strumming patterns and quicker chord changes. Since I couldn't sing, I would only play a verse and chorus before getting bored. Caroline challenged me to learn a song all the way through; though how fun is it to strum Indigo Girls or String Cheese incident without lyrics? I learned one or two songs, and attempted the open mic in town. At that time, I was under prepared and still too unskilled for live performance, although my desire to play drove me onward.
Typically I waited 15 minutes before closing to jump up on "stage". Figured by that time most of the audience left or were too wasted to notice. Also it would give me enough time to build up liquid courage, vitamin B. This approach didn't calm my shaky nerves. The more nervous I became, the harder I would finger my chords, the faster I'd strum, and quicker I'd fatigue. A combination of shot nerves, muscle tension, and sweat would add to the sloppy playing.
That may have been it if Larry, Agnes and Ed, the resident musicians, hadn't jumped up to accompany me week after week. Larry put in bass lines, Agnes was amazingly versatile on just the snare drum alone, and Ed soloed over any chord change. They taught me to relax, to play musically rather than aggressively. Gave me enough courage to jump into different blues jams, where I could play my three chords with confidence.
That fall I resolved to take guitar playing a little more seriously. Started taking guitar lessons at the local mom-and-pop. Turned out that my guitar teacher could not have been a better match. We saw eye to eye on equipment, tone, and appreciation of various musicians. Early that winter I was gifted an electric semi-hollow with amp by my ever-supporting wife, Caroline. Think she was finally glad to hear me strum something other than three basic chords. Later that winter I joined my first band, The Earthtones, and by spring had played two live shows. Early summer I started to collaborate with Mauger, a writer / singer, to compose original songs based on his poetry. Large step from playing three chords repetitively. Call it the power of resolution to make it happen.
I now understand when people say, "Played guitar for 10 years, but have only really played for less than a year," I've been there myself.
Today I uploaded my first MP3 to Soundclick under the Mauger and Conroy songwriting collaboration. Sigh Alone is the product of our first session. Brian had lyrics and a melody in mind; I retrofitted the guitar chords to fit what he already had in place. The song was composed, revised, rehearsed, and recorded in under two hours. Don't expect polished- the song has a rough demo quality. Somehow my guitar lost bass and mid frequencies during the recording process- either the mic wasn't aimed at the sound hole or during equalization. The result sounds more like a steel drum than acoustic. Gives it an interesting and unexpected tone.
Maybe years from now I'll look back and wonder why I ever choose to put this song up on Soundclick. It's my teaching philosophy that "Life is a journey and not a destination"; and thus this song is a "process and not a product". For now I couldn't be more proud.
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1 Comments:
Joe!
Excellent post man.. Thanks for the history, its very interesting.
Looking forward to more sessions & more songs. Thanks for the energy & motivation.
-Brian
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