"Sara Smile"

I've never given Hall and Oates much thought one way or the other.  They had some decent songs, but also a lot of schlocky pop stuff, and I was never a real fan.  But I saw a lesson of their Sara Smile from one of the YouTube guys I follow (who gives fantastic easy-to-follow lessons on a lot of good songs.)  So I watch the lesson, played along, and was *very* pleasantly surprised.

It's not only a beautiful song, but it's made up of interesting, almost jazz-type chords.  With my Tele on a clean setting, it sounds fantastic, and I often go through the chord progressions just for the pleasure of hearing it.

It's a song I'll never play in a band, but one I'll play often by myself.

Adding to the Set List

With lots of time to rehearse, and our alleged gig retreating before us like a desert mirage (June 24 became June 25, and now looks like it won't be then either), we're adding songs to our set list.  It's not that we don't have plenty of material, but it's fun to rehearse every Tuesday, and we need to keep ourselves interested.

In terms of time, our original goal was to put together a 45-minute set.  Which we did, easily.  Then we were told we'd need to do two 45-minute sets.  Also no problem.  We played every song but one at the seminar party, and we played for more than 90 minutes.  But we're playing around with a few new songs:

• Gimme Three Steps (Lynyrd Skynyrd): a deceptively difficult song.  Yes, it's only three chords, but the leads and fills are not that easy.
• Foxy Lady (Jimi Hendrix): let's just state up front that I'm not taking the lead on a Hendrix song.  Nope.
• Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young): a classic - pretty easy and sounds good.
• American Woman (The Guess Who): on the theory that you can never have too much Canadian music in your set.
• Another One Bites the Dust (Queen): Machine Gun Joe wants to sing this one.
• Tush (ZZ Top): classic crunchy blues, and I can take the lead on this one.  And oh-so politically uncorrect, which will fit in perfectly with a number of other songs we're playing.
• Can't Get Enough (Bad Company): another one (along with "Mississippi Queen") that was in the Axys set list (how many years ago?  No, don't tell me....)

Playing with Eric

Yesterday afternoon, returning home after a morning of aikido, I was pleasantly surprised to find Eric and his family visiting with Lori.  I showed Eric my Epiphone Les Paul (even though I've had it for a while, I didn't think he had ever seen it.)  We made plans to go to his house for dinner, and he mentioned in passing that I should bring a guitar with me.  He has a beautiful Fender Strat, and we've talked about playing, but never actually have.  So I took my Tele and my amp with me just in case.

And we played.  We messed around with some simple three-chord songs, and then worked on The Moody Blues' "Tuesday Afternoon", which is a bit more complicated.  We also just jammed some, with Eric playing a chord progression and me doing some improv over top of it.  Since that's what I'm really working on now, it was a lot of fun.

I had fun, and I hope we'll do it again soon.

Eric's take on the evening is here.

How to Boost?

With one successful house party under our belts, we're feeling pretty good about ourselves and our set list.  We weren't perfect, but we have more time to get better - and we're playing for non-critical observers (i.e., friends who want to hear music and have a good time - not record company executives.)

Technically, everything went well too.  Our amps were plenty loud for any small room/bar or backyard party.  But there's one issue that Eric and I, as the guitarists, are wrestling with - and that's how to boost the volume for a solo.

We're playing at one level during the song, but when it comes time for the solo, you need to be louder to be heard above the band.  I know some amps have foot-switchable channels - so the guitarist steps on a switch, and gets a boost for the solo.  We don't have that.  Instead, we've been fumbling with volume knobs, which just doesn't cut it.

Actually, I may be able to get a foot-switch - I'll have to investigate.  Eric, at last Tuesday's rehearsal, had another possible solution - this equalizer pedal.  I haven't had time to pick his brain and see how it worked for him.

We need to get this worked out.

Hiatus on Lessons

I'm sorry to say that I'm now on hiatus with guitar lessons.  There's just not enough time in the week to give it proper attention.  It had just become too much, so I finally e-mailed my teacher and told him I had to stop for now.

I'm very grateful for what I've been able to learn, and I've picked up a number of good fundamentals that I had never gotten from my self-teaching and YouTube learning.  I now know the basics of how to solo, the scales I need to practice, and the exercises on how to get faster.  I can continue to practice this on my own, and I intend to.

If things get less hectic down the road, I will happily resume taking lessons.  I have to say it's hard envisioning that at the moment, but I won't say that it couldn't.

Back to 10's on the Tele

I mentioned that I had put 0.09 gauge strings on both my electrics, for easier string bending.  I liked how they felt, but there was a side effect on the Telecaster.  There was a buzzing on the D string when played open that was annoying.

I didn't immediately pick up the correlation that the buzzing started when I put the 9's on.  Or if I did, I figured I hadn't put the string on correctly.  Then I remembered a post on a message board, saying that changing the string gauge on a guitar sometimes means the neck tension will be different, so the neck will need adjusting.

Since I don't want to take it into the shop for an adjustment, I re-strung it with 10's.  The D-string buzzing went away.

I'll keep 9's on the Epiphone, as that's how I asked for it at the setup.  But it will be 10's for the Telecaster.

Joe Perry's Gear

Just wow....