It's now a fraction over six months since I picked up my guitar for the first time. When I started, part of me reckoned it would be an achievement if I was still playing at this point. Another part of me felt this would be the time my interest started to wane.
At one stage this is how excited I was about another night of guitar playing
A few weeks ago the latter happened. Sure, I was still playing every night but I was beginning to get tired of it. The law of diminishing returns was kicking in - I was getting less enjoyment as I wasn't learning much, if anything, new and I was going through the motions. I was still trying to get to grips with the F barre chord and while I could use it on a few songs, the rest of the tunes on the courses at this stage weren't things I was particularly interested in playing.
What I needed to do was recapture my enthusiasm somehow. When I started there were regularly times when I would pick the guitar up before going to work just so I could strum a tune I'd learned the night before. It was a long time since I'd had that sort of feeling. I initially wanted to learn guitar so I could play the tunes I wanted. It was time to re-take control from the courses. It was time to go rogue.
Not quite what I had in mind...
Obviously there were limits to what I could try. Clearly I couldn't dive into Stairway to Heaven (not that I'd want to). Neither could I jump into Oasis' Roll With It, even though that's what had given me the motivation to start in the first place. However, from listening to my iPod there were a few things I had in mind.
First up was what could probably be described as a modern classic - "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life". I could already play along to a few Greenday songs, however this is probably about as different to "Holiday" as you can get without changing to a different band. It holds a lot of emotional memories for some folk as it's used at proms and the like. For me it stands out as I went to the "American Idiot" musical the last night of my holiday to New York five years ago.
Any excuse for a picture of New York
For this it was back to my old pal Marty from GuitarJamz. I couldn't believe how easy it was. It uses four chords - all of which I'd been playing for months. It uses an easy strumming pattern. It was just a case of putting it together. Sure, there's slightly more complex bits involving only playing/plucking some strings but for now I wasn't bothered. I could play it easily. Suddenly the wide eyed wonder and enthusiasm were back. I could hardly put the guitar down. It was about the only song I played all night - and I usually play for about an hour a time.
There were a few other songs I was interested in playing. If you want to learn a song on guitar, put the name into YouTube, stick chords on the end and chances are it will come up. Sure enough, I found success with "Kiss Me", a teen movie/rom-com classic (watch She's All That for proof) from Sixpence None the Richer, whoever they are. This seemed more complicated. While the verse just used a few variations of C, the chorus seemed packed with chords and the guy on the video wasn't exactly going through it slowly. Thankfully he said to look at the Ultimate Guitar website for the full chords. Two minutes later and I was away and running. Again, not much else was played that night.
Not that sort of train
One I really fancied was Train's "Drops of Jupiter". Another slightly soppy, emotional song (aye, what of it?). My main memory associated with this is singing along to it loudly while swinging on a chair at a wedding reception a few years ago (and I don't drink). Unfortunately, I couldn't play along on guitar while swinging on my seat but I could produce a passable version. As an added bonus, the likes of this and "Kiss Me" also included F chords. I'd started off down this route as I was bored trying to practice barring, yet I'd stumbled into being able to incorporate it into songs and getting better at it.
Me and the guy from 90s band Deep Blue Something have never been seen together.
Other songs have since followed including some Kasabian, U2 and Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast at Tiffany's". I've probably satisfied myself enough that I'll soon go back to learning techniques rather than songs but the important thing is I have rekindled my enthusiasm - hopefully for at least another six months.
And so we come to what feels like the beginner guitarist's equivalent of hell on earth - the F barre chord.
You're barred!
Up until now all I've been doing are open chords, where you put fingers directly onto the string and then strum away. Barre chords involve putting your index finger across all the strings in a straight(ish) line. Effectively you are using your finger as a capo and then using your other three fingers to make chord shapes.
Getting your finger across all the strings so that they still make a sound when you try to play them, rather than a dull, muted noise is hard. However, I had problems even before I got to that stage as I couldn't physically put my finger across the strings and then put the other three fingers down. This wasn't a case of laziness or anything like that. For whatever reason when I put my index finger down, my other fingers were flailing all over the place and there was no chance of getting one of them, let alone all three of them, in the right place while keeping my index finger down. This did not bode well at all. So I did what I often do in situations like this when I'm struggling - I screamed for help.
It was good to discover on Facebook on Twitter I wasn't the only one who had gone through this struggle. A few tips came in quickly and following them, along with a few other hints I'd found on Google, got me going. The improvement wasn't as dramatic as I've seen when learning new chords but that's understandable. While open chords are different, they all use the same technique to make the shape. This was a completely new style of playing and was always going to be hard to master.
Gradually I was able to make progress. Some extra strumming while watching TV definitely helped and I began to feel confident - perhaps too confident. As I keep thinking the best way to learn chord changes is to do them in a song I thought it was time to give something a go.
Unfortunately, while playing any chord on its own seems straightforward after a bit of practice, changing between chords is usually quite difficult. And while I can do most chord changes so far without looking at my fingers, I'm nowhere near that stage with the F barre. While plonking down some fingers and changing to some other fingers can be done, plonking down fingers and then trying to barre a chord is extremely difficult.
A laid back polar bear. Don't think that's what the song is about...
So it proved when I tried to play Laid by James. This is a family(ish) blog so I won't go into detail about what the song is but let's just say it doesn't involve chickens producing eggs. Anyway, as like so many songs so far, it was effectively the same chord sequence over and over. This meant there was only one change to and from an F barre during each sequence, an ideal way to get started. However, I found it rather difficult - and it would usually be about half way through the bar of barre (more bars than Wetherspoons in this blog) before I'd managed to get the chord shape AND was able to play a note that sounded something like a chord.
Sadly not the type of bar being talked about
To quote The Beatles, I have to admit it's getting better. Practice doesn't make perfect yet, but it does lead to improvement. Problem is, this is only one chord change - F barre to G and back. The number of chords I know must be into double figures and trying to change between all of them with some degree of competency is going to take some amount of practice. Fingers crossed - although that was the problem when I started barre chords...
