Flaming Chords

This is my front page. All comments here are screened; if you don't have my email address, you can drop me a line here. If I know your email address, I'll reply by email -- if not, I'll reply to your comment, and then rescreen both your comment and my reply.

It's also got every tag I have -- this is because my current LJ style doesn't include a tag index. (At least half of my participation on LJ is on my Treo. I chose this style because it loads quickly and it's still readable on a small screen.)

I'd tell you more about myself, but that's what my profile -- and the rest of my journal -- are for.

Well, my hands and forearms are a bit sore, but I think I'll be back to my original skill level in a metter of weeks or months, instead of years. I may even surpass my old skill level -- I didn't have Cakewalk when I was first learning.

I've been throwing together short midi loops (drums, bass guitar) to play along with. The one I just finished is a basic palm-muted picking exercise, all sixteenth-notes and rests, on one string -- it's basically a mid-tempo thrash gallop with power chords. I can do it comfortably at ♩=160, and with more struggle I can do it at ♩=180. Admittedly, if I really wanted to, I could play it at ♩=220, but I want to make sure that when I reach that tempo, my technique will be correct. (As I progress, I'll start including more fretwork, using more strings, making more jumps between strings, and probably finger-picking as well. Stuff like sweeping and tapping can wait, but I hope to get back to those, too.)

It's still going to be quite a bit of work, but it now seems like there's a direction to it. My biggest mistake when I was playing regularly was that I'd try too hard to run before learning to walk. I will not be repeating that mistake.

Non-musicians, you may want to skip this entry. I'll try to keep it in english, but some of this is going to be a bit technical.

The Good News

My guitar is strung, for the first time in a few years. The chrome is peeling off the bridge in a few places, but nowhere vital -- it's ugly when you see it close-up, but still functional. The truss rod needed only minimal adjustment and I was able to do this myself, though I may need to fine tune it a bit later. The strings are, as I type this, in tune (B-E-A-D-G-B-E), but since they are new, I'll have to retune them periodically for a couple of days.

My signal processor not only still works, but remembers all my old settings. Granted, I'm not happy with them anymore, but they are still there, and I can tweak them as I see fit. The names of the settings are a little on the cheesy side, but I'll probably leave them as they are. I can't believe I named one of my distortion patches "Nocturne 666 Dm" -- yeesh, what was I on? (Don't answer that!)

My computer is finally set up the way I want it. All the audio jacks are up front, with switches -- I can plug my guitar (or another instrument, like a keyboard) in, and push a button to route it either to the computer, or straight to speakers/headphones. Later, I may add a mixer to this set-up, right above the monitor.

( Pictures here, if you're interested. )

As far as equipment is concerned, I am set. Sure, I could always find more stuff I'd have uses for -- an octave pedal, for example, would be great for recording bass tracks -- but in terms of all the "stuff" I'd need for music, what I have is plenty. Which brings me to...


The Bad News

I have not played my guitar in a few years, and believe me, it shows. I used to be able to play Slayer riffs in my sleep -- Slayer isn't particularly difficult, or shouldn't be, and it's frustrating that it's giving me such trouble now. My fretting is forced, partly because I don't have those callouses any more, but also because I have to work to remember where the notes are. My picking... ugh, let's not go into that.

With any luck, my fingers will remember what they're supposed to do in time. In the meantime, I'm going to have to relearn a lot of stuff that was once easy. It will be harder, since I don't have the time to dedicate to my guitar that I once did, but I suppose that's what things like discipline are for.