improve my guitar playing

I’ve definitely improved my guitar playing :-) so that’s a result. Because I had no criteria for completing this thing, it’s just been sat there doing nothing. I practice anyway coz I enjoy it, so it’s not like it’s inspiring me or anything. The real challenge is performing, and that’s a different thing altogether!

So – it’s been useful, but as a never-ending goal I am closing it off so I can move on.

This has really sneaked up on me – I’ve been playing quite a bit, various bits and pieces, old favourites, stuff on the radio. I’m definitely getting better, especially with the strumming, chord changes and singing over the top. I like it when I make progress on things without having to try too hard :-)

Played around with “Long Time Comin” off Devils and Dust last night. Lot of fun. I still find singing and playing together hard, but it’s probably because I don’t know the song intimately enough yet. I ought to pull together some covers to practice a short set, say three songs.

Here we are again, trying once more to play guitar :-) when will this ever end? It’s amusing, but I’m also getting a little tired of it.

I’m definitely playing more at the moment than I have in ages. I’m picking out melodies and practicing the songs I know. Perhaps I need something to focus my energy. By how much do I want to improve my guitar playing? Well, enough to be able to write songs on the guitar, and play them to people so they enjoy them.

I want to not suck!!! I want it to feel more natural. I want to have 4 or 5 song covers I can have fun playing. I want to enjoy plucking tunes and lyrics out of the air. Sigh. It’ll come.

I stopped practicing for a while as life interrupted me, but I played again last night and the break might even have done me good – I felt fresh again. Let’s see if I can move this forward so I can take it off this list. The bottom line with this is to be able to play and sing a song in front of an audience… that’s as good as I need to be, not a virtuoso or anything. Just good enough to get a smattering of applause.

I realised today I play everything at the speed the artists recorded it – but if I slow it down to my own pace the sounds I make are much much prettier. Like, duh! I know I know, but I got there in the end.

I now have ‘Absence of God’ down, better practice it some more (and some more!) Wonder how long before I can hit the chords without looking at my fingers?!

I can strum a lot of chords, and switch between some of them pretty well, but I feel I’m missing something… like the big picture. It’s still all so jumpy and amateur ;-) which describes me perfectly. Next I’ll choose a song I love, get the chords down, and practice until it flows. Will it work?!