Leaderboard

I started learning guitar in the second half of 2017 when I stumbled upon the LMG course. Even though I have gone through a lot in last one and half years I've practiced almost daily. I might have missed my practice at most 15-20 days last year, mostly due to travel. I'm on session 11 now. Around mid-2018 I started the barre chords lessons. Even after few weeks I couldn't make it sound clean even though I could make the shapes fine. I knew it will take time, as Steve said numerous times. So I decided to move on to further sessions while keeping those practices on. I decided to skip the finger-picking session after practicing for few days. I hated the growing nails in my right hand which I use for eating (typical Indian habit?). I plan to try it some day with finger-attached picks of some kind, which they use in slide guitars here. I know my LMG progress is slow, but I've kept learning something or the other. For example, I focused on improving my strumming last few months, with good help from some YouTube lessons by Pawan Jalan. He is great in breaking down any strumming pattern of Indian songs, making it very easy for beginners. He also showed the importance of using stress in some strokes. I've also learnt a lot from scores of Youtubers, some of them very good. I've also practiced singing along while strumming and I think I made decent progress on that. So yeah, I'm still at it. I don't know when I will finish the course, this year or next. But it doesn't matter, learning is lifelong... PS: Last month, during Christmas vacation, we drove with few family friends to a jungle resort and I carried my guitar. During the campfire barbecue I strummed few popular songs, I sang a few while others sang along in some songs. I played with mostly open chords and used capo to reach other scales avoiding barre chords. Everyone enjoyed and I was good enough to make my wife proud of me!☺️

Will do! Every step will be documented!! It is brutally cold in the NE right now, so I have to wait a bit to sand it down, get the neck right and glue everything in place. I also want to shape the headstock before gluing which will send sawdust flying everywhere, LOL. I'm super excited to try to stain the top. Hopefully, I won't screw it up when sanding as that veneer is only 2mm thick! I have a lot of painting experience but nothing like this.

Swing? Well... thats a good question. Musicians are always on the hunt for "it" . A common term among Jazz musicians it refers to a "feel" or gut response to the music and the beat. In the case of Minuet in C , a waltz in 3/4 time, ( rythym count 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3,)the Swing would mean putting emphasis on beat 1 of each bar, as a dancer would in taking a step. In other forms like jazz , the " swing" comes from emphasis on beats 2 and 4 in 4/4 time, etc. I hope that makes sense.

"Green Onions" has been used extensively in television, film and advertising, so I am glad that it fits into the challenge for this month. I tried to mimic the organ by plucking chords. It was a real fun one to learn. Wim.