Playing Guitar
- What's new with me?
I’ve been playing guitar a lot lately, and I have to say that I’m excited about how I’ve improved even though I haven’t been playing very much over the last few years.
When I was in high school I had chops. I could learn about any song by any band unless it was Steve Vai or any of those other increadible players. I was very happy with my skill level and it worked well for the band I was in at the time, Caje. However, by the time I graduated from High School the band had disformed and John and I were playing our little duo thing. That was a great musical time for us and perhaps when I was at my peak.
Well, fast-forward a few years and here I am. I haven’t been playing more than one or two times every couple of weeks. My creativity is lower than it was but my chops are better.
About a year or so ago Jamie and I recorded a song. I played guitars and created the drum tracks and Jamie did the “vocals” if you’d call it that (you’d have to hear the song to know what I’m talking about). I played a guitar on that song that was pretty good, but it was mostly improvised because I’ve never been very good at memorizing lead guitar parts. BUT, last weekend I decided to re-learn that solo and try to improve it the way a real lead guitarist would. I listened to it a couple of times to get the feel of it again and see if I could internalize it and then I set about the task of figuring out what I had done to achieve certain sounds.
It didn’t take long, maybe five minutes and then I knew how to play the solo exactly as I had on the song. This wouldn’t seem like a big deal to most people, but if you knew the way my head works when it comes to guitars you’d see that this is a big step for me.
I’ve been playing the solo over and over again when I get the chance to try and make sure that I remember it. It’s wonderful to be able to memorize a solo and play it about the same way every time. Great stuff.
I’m going to try and keep playing and recording stuff and get my skills built up to be better than ever. I’d love to play in a band again some day.
