Boredom Is The Enemy
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| Bens Morning Warmup |
I just saw two "traveling kids" laden with backpacks almost as big as they. They approached the porto-let as if wanting to use it.
I was going to cry out "It's locked!" before they got there, but they soon enough saw the padlock on it. It sits right across from an alley where one can be quickly arrested for urinating in public, by the way.
I could have also given the traveling kids, a tall skinny guy and a female; walking -you guessed it- a dog ("a dog is your money-maker; people feel sorry for the dog and give you money") some advice: The reason that traveling kids ride right on through Mobile and that they are the only two that I have seen in as many weeks, is that there is no panhandling allowed here; they will put you in jail.
Lily, the banjo player could qualify as the third that I have seen, but she doesn't have to panhandle; just stand up with her banjo and strum a few chords with her thumb and sing about Mississippi. She IS a traveling kid, though.
"...But, that's what we do; go all around the country on a permanent sight-seeing vacation, living off of the generosity of everybody..."
They probably know the ropes already, though, and will be sitting on the sidewalk with some form of artistic activity manifest, maybe making necklaces out of elbow noodles and tapping a tambourine to draw attention to their craft. They may be already setting up now, as I type.Heaven On Earth
I told Howard about my plans to play the area around the Florida/Georgia game on the weekend of October 27th. He didn't really respond, but I am kind of hoping he doesn't ask me when I am planning to leave and then plan to leave with me.
He has found the "Wings of Life" mission with its showers open all day and its meal which is served every weekday which dwarfs anything offered in New Orleans or Baton Rouge by the same type of agencies.
I am kind of thinking that Mobile is perfect for Howard (he has heaped encomiums upon the library, where the morning papers arrive regularly and on time; the McDonalds is literally across the street from it; and there is no shortage of Cheetoz and Pepsi -heaven on earth for him...
Modern Fundamentals Of Guitar Playing
I have been filling the hours between weekend busking, with a lot of study of other musicians on Youtube, especially the video lessons offered by players such as Steve Morse, Brian May, Zack Wylde, Al Di Meola and am really focusing upon their postures and the way they hold the pick and stuff like that.
I had become so entrenched in the only style that I cared to play that I was kind of blind to the fact that different styles are facilitated by holding the pick different ways and/or resting the palm of the picking hand on the bridge of the guitar or not.
I am trying to tear down my playing style and rebuild it (beginning at the beginning), and will be using "Seabreeze" from the Mastering the Guitar book as my morning warm-up exercise until I can grab the guitar first thing in the morning and play it without screwing it up like in today's recording, and without going back and fixing it; you only get one chance in life to play "Sea breeze."
"It's not what you can do or have the potential to do, but what you do, that matters." -Joe Paterno
I have been holding my pick with my middle finger and thumb ever since reading an interview of Eddie Van Halen when I was about 17 years old. He does it so that his index finger is available to do all his fret tapping stuff, without him having to hold the thing in his mouth, like some tappers.
However, seeing Steve Morse and Eric Johnson holding the pick between their index fingers and thumb pretty much proves to me that it is at least not a hindrance, and may just be vital in keeping the hand at a certain angle or balancing it a certain way.
I remember when I was learning to golf at the age of 14.
I had a book written by (the Great) Ben Hogan called "5 Modern Fundamentals of Golf," and in it Ben basically taught how to grip the club and swing it exactly as he did, right down to the minutest detail (the "V" between your left thumb and index finger should be pointed at your right shoulder. Your left pinkie should point at your right nipple after taking the club back....etc.).
I read that book and practiced it and was, honest to God 1 under par after 15 holes on my next round, before it started to rain cats and dogs and I came in at 8 over after hitting one into the pond on the 17th hole when I slipped in the mud and threw my nipples out of line.
I basically figured after that that I had done well enough at golf and kind of quit playing after that...
I've been playing for 30 years and I've always held the pick between my thumb and middle finger (even when strumming). For the longest time I thought I was a total anomaly until I read the same article on EVH. Its a small brotherhood, to be sure.
ReplyDeleteI've never even heard of holding the pick between the thumb and middle finger ... I guess what works, works. But when I was messing around with a guitar what I really noticed was how drastically the sound changed from the slightest change in pick, or where the hand was rested, etc.
ReplyDeleteErrol told me that a steel-stringed guitar has so much "noise" in the sound that when you try to play louder so people can hear you, it's counter-productive because you just create more "hash" in the noise, where with a nylon-string one, you can play more of a clear tone and that's what people hear. He also said you *have* to start out by learning some classical, then you can get as different from it as you want, but you have to start from classical so underneath it all, you know how to hold the guitar right and what the basics are.
I really think you ought to try a nylon string, hell if I had one I'd send it to you, but you can find 'em fairly cheap and the savings in strings may make it worth it.
Yeah, I think that things are kind of a trade-off, but it seems like the classical stuff forces you to hold your body and instrument correctly; it isn't just "sit up straight at the piano" so you don't look like a slouch, or keep your posture straight with the classical guitar out of respect for the art form; it all kind of makes sense as far as oxygen flow to the brain LOL and being able to stretch for notes without having to adjust radically; plus Eddie Van Halen never really DOES play like Eric Johnson or Steve Morse, so maybe his mutant pick holding style limits him to sounding like himself, Steve can throw in some Van Halen-esque stuff along with countless other flavors seemingly at will. But, that will be more of a concern when I go back to electric, what I played for the first 30 years of playing. Funny how nobody seems to tell Jeff Beck to stand up straight and keep his feet on the floor...
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you should then aspire to get one of those little amps, like a micro-Orange or something. You'll run the risk of getting run off for having an amp, but it may enable you to not have to thrash the strings to try to be heard.
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