Earl Scruggs and friends - Foggy Mountain Breakdown - Brilliant, Fun and Upbeat

I have to share with you another fantastic video. It features the late Earl Scruggs and (famous) friends playing Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

My God, it's so fun to watch, and look at all the different instruments!

Man of Constant Sorrow [Live] - I'm In Bluegrass Heaven!

Found this fantastic video and want to share it.

Watch it with plenty of volume and a good set of speakers or earphones.

Weeks 6 & 7 - They Say Anyone Can Play Guitar

With DIY projects getting in the way, it's really been a quiet couple of weeks, grabbing a few minutes when I can, but at the end of week 7 I managed to have most of Saturday and a good part of Sunday just chilling, getting piece and time to myself and my guitar, not forgetting my laptop loaded with downloaded YT video lessons.

I managed to get a bit further with Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, solo section. I'm still naff at some of the slides, especially the bottom 2 strings, B and E, from the 3rd fret, to the 5th fret, then the next two slides after that with the G and B strings on the 2nd and 3rd fret to the 4th and 5th fret. I've worked out a cheat to get around my naffness so I can progress and learn more of the solo.

I also and time to give Wonderwall some more practise as well as learning a bit of Sweet Home Alabama, just for fun.

Week 7 also saw me getting some quality time with my friend, Tim. It wasn't a lot but it was better than nothing. He does say it's better to learn the guitar with someone else. That is probably true, but I felt under pressure to do well, which made my playing go to pot!

I also - now don't laugh - bought a harmonica - OK, 2 actually. One in the key of C and the other A. I've taken a liking to the blues, just wished I could get my fingers to like playing them too. Now I'm hoping to get my mouth to like playing the blues.

I'm on a mission now to learn the guitar when I can, and the harmonica too.

Week 5 - They Say Anyone Can Play Guitar

Welcome to week 5 of me attempting to learn guitar.

When I could grab the time I would try to get some practise in. I was determend to learn a little more of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.

Yesterday I got the chance to watch more of the Marty Schwartz YouTube videos so I could nail more of the intro part - which I'm chuffed to bits to say I did. I'm happy to be playing something that sounds really nice. I also attempted more of the solo. If you watch the video you will see it's in parts. The slides in the second part are stumping me.

Oh, well. I'll just have to keep on keeping on!

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here - David Gilmour

There is one music video I've been playing over and over as it's absolutely fantastic. It's David Gilmore from Pink Floyd, live, playing the solo of Wish You Were Here.

Without further ado, because it so good, here it is:

Fortunately if this is something you would like to learn to play here are a couple of videos from Marty Schwartz - the guy I always go to for YouTube lessons.

This video is the beginning part of Wish You Were Here - the bit that is played with a 12 string guitar.

http://youtu.be/jt4veKC2I10 - unfortunately the video won't embed in blogger for some reason so you will have to click on the link.

Now for the solo section played by David Gilmour -

http://youtu.be/n67FLy3TLS0 - again, Blogger for some reason will not or can't find the video so I added the link for you to click on.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. By the way, I'm no where near actually playing the whole song - I'm definatly not that good - yet :-)

Getting back to basics - switching chords and strumming

Over the last couple of weeks, I've had little time to do much of anything with my guitar so I thought it was about time to get back to basics - and to be honest I'm still very much as the basic stages of learning.

Yes, I've memorised some chrods and have attempted to play a very small part of a few songs I like or that have been recommended, but the fact is - I still very much need to pracice switching chords and to strum in time. Perhaps it's just me but doing a simple down, down, up, down, up down strum and switching chords does not come naturally, but it feels that it should.

To help I've been watching a few videos. Here is one that is helping me just now - I hope it helps you too...

Week 4 - They Say Anyone Can Play Guitar

Over the last week I have been practising power chords, but it's been painful due to issues with the old fracture on my left wrist. I hope the trouble I'm having with my wrist will ease off - I can go for a very long time without even thinking of it, then for many months it can bother me more than usual, and this is such a time.

I lowered the bridge of my guitar by sanding it down. It turns out that it is a fairly cheap plastic bridge and replacements can easily be bought from Amazon. After I sanded down the bridge I found it easier to play, but I felt the sound had changed slightly for the worse and wondered if I had taken a bit too much off. I ordered a better quality bridge. When it arrived I noticed in the instructions that came with the bridge that it suggested it be sanded down to the right height so the low E was about 3mm from the 12 fret and the high E 2mm from the fret. I gave it a sand down then tried to fit it. It turned out to be too tight a fit. I had to grab it with pliers to get it back out. Looking at the fitting instructions on the packaging again, it also suggested that it be sanded to the correct thickness too! 

The new bridge is in now but I still think I haven't taken enough off  the height yet. I will have another go, and perhaps buying some cheaper bridges so I can mess about with the height of them to find a height and sound that I'm happy with. I can just imagine all you great guitar players out there shaking your heads in disbelief at me butchering my guitar.

I've not had a great deal of time on my guitar this week due to the weather getting nicer and working in my garden - got a lot of digging to do - so I've still not really improved any since last week. I have, however been challenged to learn a bit from Dueling Banjos which is an instrumental featured in the film Deliverance. I'm working on that now, just for a bit of fun.