Esotropiart

Speaking of guitar, it's about time I give a progress report. A large part of my free time has been devoted to practicing with my guitar. By my calculations it has been 20 days since I bought the instrument, and I'm seeing definite, encouraging improvement all the time. I am no prodigy, nor do I detect in myself any natural aptitude or ingrained skill whatsoever. Nevertheless, each time I sit down to practice I feel more adept; and I have yet to discourage, frustrate or bore myself with this hobby/endeavor. A day still hasn't gone by where I haven't picked up my guitar to strum a bit - or a lot.

I mentioned of a sore pinkie ("finger 4") in my last report. This condition has improved, but now my index finger (#1) is sore. I think it is from consistently bending very tightly against my hand to make chords that require such a position. I have very definite callouses on all four of my left fingertips. The only way to describe the feeling of these callouses to a non-guitar player is to compare it to super glue finger. You know, that feeling when you accidentally get a drop of instantly dry super glue on your finger. That's pretty much what my fingers feel like now. I guess this new feeling (or lack thereof) is better than the initial pain of pressing down the strings with delicate fingers. It's pretty amazing how the body adapts to such things, and so quickly. God designed us very well indeed.

I read somewhere that 99% of all acoustic guitar players prefer to use picks. I find this surprising because I have much difficulty in using a pick. It's too hard to have quick control over the strumming with a pick. It tends to grab the strings violently, causing too much variation in volume (very loud in general). It's hard to achieve a good angle of attack with the pick so it's not so grabby. When the grip is loosened it is possible to play more softly, but then you get that horribly noticeable clicking sound as the pick snaps against each string. For just about every reason I can think of, using my fingers is preferable. I use fingers #2 & #3 on downward (accented) strums and my thumb on the way back up (unaccented). Hopefully I'm not handicapping myself by starting out this way. I imagine if 99% of people use picks, there must be a distinctive advantage to doing so. I'm certainly not seeing it. If any of my readers know why picks are so overwhelmingly preferred, please clue me in. The only disadvantage I've noticed to finger strumming is the very clear scratches on my thumbnail from rubbing against the abrasive steel strings. A small price to pay as long as I don't wear a hole in my nail. I guess I won't be the Pentalic hand model next time around.

Over a week ago I formed a very nice music binder. I filled a 3-ring binder with 15 year old clear sheet protectors - the very same ones I used to store my artwork in when I was younger. I found a web site with many popular worship choruses, along with guitar chords to accompany them. I printed the songs I like, placing them in the sheet protectors. I also printed a basic chord chart from the web and threw that in my binder for good measure.

In addition to the very cool, http://www.chordbook.com web site with its virtual guitar and chordbook, I found a free download, Chords 1.1 that I find infinitely useful. I have been creating my own vector format chord patterns. Whenever I encounter a chord I don't know I look it up in this program and scroll through the different voicings & inversions until I find one that I can easily play. I then create a vector chord pattern. For songs in my worship binder that I am interested in playing, I print out the chord patterns on the bottom of the song sheet so I don't have to flip to my chord chart each time.

I am starting to realize that there are so many chords that this project of making vector patterns for each one is potentially endless. I only make the ones I am going to use in a song. However, it would be cool to utilize the scripting capabilities of Macromedia Fireworks to automate chord creation. Or better yet, write a PHP script that generates chord charts in SVG format. I don't suppose it would be overly difficult. Perhaps some day.

Here are some "new" chords I have learned/used since my last update:

Okay, so I realize this looks more impressive than it is. I don't have all these chords memorized. I have simply used them. When there is a song in my worship binder I want to play, I look up the chords indicated on the song sheet and play them, attempting to keep a sensible rhythm. Some of these I'm absolutely horrible at while others I have memorized and can switch to quite smoothly.