The guitar...one year on
29/09/06 15:04 Filed in: Music
Well after
about 12 months of fortnightly visits to a tutor for
30 minutes of show, try, look, listen and then a pile
of stuff to go away and practice. I know that I have
progressed. You could argue that starting from
scratch is the only time to show rapid progress.
Well, I'm still encouraged and by measuring things it
is possible to actually see improvement.
As an old dog definitely trying to learn new tricks, the hands, fingers and brain are sometimes well out of alignment. But in an encouraging book I got there are 3 P's to consider: Patience, Perseverance and Practice. Along with the idea that you do not set any personal everests - how it is difficult when all you hear in the music you listen to and the musicians you see - are people very much at the top of their game.
Still after a year, I'm progressing with soloing around the pentatonic scales, getting the main open chords and main barre chords up to a satisfactory consistency and fluidity. Though I admin readily that I have some obvious weaknesses - D minor chord! Just started to finger-pick a bit. That's hard - and as a point to not develop bad habits I'm deliberately not looking at my right hand.
As an old dog definitely trying to learn new tricks, the hands, fingers and brain are sometimes well out of alignment. But in an encouraging book I got there are 3 P's to consider: Patience, Perseverance and Practice. Along with the idea that you do not set any personal everests - how it is difficult when all you hear in the music you listen to and the musicians you see - are people very much at the top of their game.
Still after a year, I'm progressing with soloing around the pentatonic scales, getting the main open chords and main barre chords up to a satisfactory consistency and fluidity. Though I admin readily that I have some obvious weaknesses - D minor chord! Just started to finger-pick a bit. That's hard - and as a point to not develop bad habits I'm deliberately not looking at my right hand.
|
Seasons
25/09/06 20:51 Filed in: Personal
I don't know
whether it's because I'm getting older and the
perception of time changes, but I certainly
experience the seasons much more than when I was
younger. I see the leaves on the trees starting to
change, and yet there are buds ready to spring into
new growth next year.
I also find that I see similar and analogous cycles in many more places, organisations, events and technologies. To take an example or three, when videos first came out, they were very expensive. I remember these huge Grundig machines at university and college. Then after the VHS-betamax war was won, there were video rental stores springing up on nearly ever street corner. Today, with a few exceptions, they are consolidated into a few stores - ie Blockbuster or they have become commodities that Asda, Tesco, etc. sell them. Similarly, with mobile phones - we have, in the Uk, a number of major chains supported by a still viable (for how long) set of independents - the networks - orange, O2, Vodfone, T-Mobile and then the other chains - Carphone warehouse, Phones4U, etc. Again, much of it has become a commodity that Adsa, tesco etc. sell them. There are other examples.
What will be next? The next season for my examples? Well the way things seem to be going is to try to continue to eliminate atoms from the chain. So we have music downloads beating out physical CD purchases in many places. And the latest thing is video - Apple have their new additions - the Disney set first, but probably not the last. As with the other aspects of the iTunes Music Store we'll see many others - and we have that with Amazon already.
It's a different season for the content creators - ie the music labels and film studios - and they've not realised the season is changing and if they don't change they'll be left behind. Musicians are already cutting out the labels and going directly to MySpace, or iTunes Music Store without the labels. Just wait until video goes the same way. And I haven't even mentioned TV.
I also find that I see similar and analogous cycles in many more places, organisations, events and technologies. To take an example or three, when videos first came out, they were very expensive. I remember these huge Grundig machines at university and college. Then after the VHS-betamax war was won, there were video rental stores springing up on nearly ever street corner. Today, with a few exceptions, they are consolidated into a few stores - ie Blockbuster or they have become commodities that Asda, Tesco, etc. sell them. Similarly, with mobile phones - we have, in the Uk, a number of major chains supported by a still viable (for how long) set of independents - the networks - orange, O2, Vodfone, T-Mobile and then the other chains - Carphone warehouse, Phones4U, etc. Again, much of it has become a commodity that Adsa, tesco etc. sell them. There are other examples.
What will be next? The next season for my examples? Well the way things seem to be going is to try to continue to eliminate atoms from the chain. So we have music downloads beating out physical CD purchases in many places. And the latest thing is video - Apple have their new additions - the Disney set first, but probably not the last. As with the other aspects of the iTunes Music Store we'll see many others - and we have that with Amazon already.
It's a different season for the content creators - ie the music labels and film studios - and they've not realised the season is changing and if they don't change they'll be left behind. Musicians are already cutting out the labels and going directly to MySpace, or iTunes Music Store without the labels. Just wait until video goes the same way. And I haven't even mentioned TV.
Temporary links to older items
23/09/06 13:18 Filed in: Personal
See the
following:
Tour de France 2002
Yealand Panto 2002
Yealand Panto 2003
Yealand Panto 2004
Yealand Panto 2005
File Sharing
Temporarily until the other pages have been redeveloped.
Some are now in the sidebar.
Yealand Panto 2003
Yealand Panto 2004
Yealand Panto 2005
Tour de France 2002
Yealand Panto 2002
Yealand Panto 2003
Yealand Panto 2004
Yealand Panto 2005
File Sharing
Temporarily until the other pages have been redeveloped.
Some are now in the sidebar.
Yealand Panto 2003
Yealand Panto 2004
Yealand Panto 2005
London-Centricity
15/09/06 18:03 Filed in: Travel
I've recently
travelled to Newcastle (on Tyne) and by train it is
unbelievable that the link across the North Pennines
is so slow. There are very few cross-Pennine routes
and there is a lot of commonality between Carlisle
and Newcastle that I'd expected the rail link to be
better, faster and much more modern. There are lots
of level crossings, small stations and no inter-city
class trains. They also don't seem to arrange the
timetables well to let people come off the West Coast
trains to step onto this line. I spent about an hour
each way at Carlisle station. It might have been a a
little quicker to go up the east Coast line to
Edinburgh and then get a West Coast train back down.
Also I've been looking at getting to Yeovil - I expected to go down maybe change at Bristol and get to Yeovil . The Trainline.com website directs you via London! It even forbids you to go to Exeter and work back. This is crazy - the trip time would be about 8 hours!
We should get grid rid of the hub and spoke model of the railways around London as the major hub.
Also I've been looking at getting to Yeovil - I expected to go down maybe change at Bristol and get to Yeovil . The Trainline.com website directs you via London! It even forbids you to go to Exeter and work back. This is crazy - the trip time would be about 8 hours!
We should get grid rid of the hub and spoke model of the railways around London as the major hub.