matonanjin

What a great idea, Cindy. I know that you have directed this before. But to do it now to commemorate is just a great idea. I sure hope people participate.

Thanks everybody. I was an absolutely great time that I had with Malene, my granddaughter. As you said Cindy, quality time! Jay, Pat has migrated over here. But has not been on here since Tuesday.

RK, I do have that book. I can't review it because I have started it many times and then set it aside. I did think that it looked promising but just got distracted. How about I start it again, like you working it 10 minutes a day, and then you and routinely compare notes?

I'm sure it will be great. But then, they always are!

Helpful site, Doug. Thank you.

Any of us that spent any time over at our old home know about the very amazing repair work on guitars that PatIam is capable of. It was well documented over there. I was talking with Pat about the annual toy drive here to provide toys for underprivileged kids on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Pat very generously donated three of his guitars to go along with us to the reservation to give to kids wanting to learn to play guitar. There are some very happy kids on the reservation learning guitar as I type this and I am going to have a full post about that soon. The conversation turned to my granddaughter wanting to learn guitar. Pat said "I have just the perfect guitar for her". In fact, Pat gave me the choice of two different parlor size guitars and a very, very attractive price on it. Pat couldn't have begun to cover his time but I know, for Pat, it's not about making money. And Pat shipped it to my son's house so I didn't even need to worry about taking it on the plane to Chicago! My granddaughter's birthday is after the first of the year so at that time we went to Chicago and had a late Christmas and birthday celebration. There was one very surprised, happy 10 year old girl. And after that Papa had the great time of taking her to her second guitar lesson. And I had arranged for her lesson with a guy I had taken some lessons from on trips to Chicago. And the real treat was spending some time with my granddaughter helping her practice. My son and I and granddaughter got in the car to go to that lesson and my granddaaughter said to my son, "Daddy drive carefully! I have my new guitar back here"!!!

Nice recording Doug. Some very nice strumming. And especially cool you could do that in your car. I am doubly impressed!

Wim, No, I'm sorry I didn't say that in my post. I have not started that book. I'm not ready for that yet. Soon I hope.

Wim, I am about the same spot as you, " making my first small steps in soloing". I need to study Gerard's link a little more to try and figure this difference between chord tone and scale tone. I have this book, Chord Tone Soloing.  A Guitarist's Guide to Melodic Improvising in Any Style. It's a Hal Leonard book written by Barret Tagliarino. I also have a couple TrueFire courses on the subject.

Thanks for this Poju67

Hey Fred, You got some great advice above. If it says, C7 how do you know if it's a 5th or 6th string barre chord? The answer is "Yes". Unless the music states what it should be and you want to follow the music dogmatically, as Mandy said above, chose whatever is "the closest together or sound(s) the best". For that matter if it just says C7 what's to keep you from playing an open C7 if you want? It's your call. I'm currently in S13, "Playing the Blues". In it is a perfect example. In the video Steve has us playing a C Blues 12 bar blues progression. You probably don't know what a I-IV-V blues progression is yet. But in the key of C the chords are C - F-G. Steve plays them as 7 chords. First time through he plays the C7 as an open chord and the F7 and G7 as 6th string barre chords. on this video he plays it through twice and then, the 2nd time through, he moves it up the neck and plays all 3 chords as barre chords. The C7 as a 6th string barre chord at the 8th fret and the F And G as 5th string barre chords at the 8th and 10th fret, respectively. So easy just to change a couple fingers and go from that C and F and back. And just move down two frets to go from G to F! I'm not suggesting you go study 13 yet but it would almost be worth it to sneak a quick peak at the video to see what I'm talkng about and show you an example. It's at 33 minutes. When playing 5th string barre chords can your index touch the 5th string? Sure. But it's important that you don't play the 6th string. You have to make sure that you only play the 5 higher strings.

Hey Doug, I am currently working on Day Tripper. Yes, that riff is iconic and definitely a memory of my youth. I'm not sure I agree that the riff is harder than the barre chords. I struggle with, and I'm still struggling after months of working it, going from the riff to the barre chords and keeping in time. Way back when one of the monthly challenges had a topic that was appropriate for Day Tripper and I told UncleHammy I might actually post a contribution. I still haven't got it finished up. But I bought a backing track for this and am trying to learn the lead guitar part as well. Off to work on this some more in a few minutes!

And the second part of this question is: Where do you like to ideally keep the humidity in your music room/studio/house?

I went to my local guitar store today and didn't come out with a guitar!!! I actually went to look at one in particular and, of course, fell in love with it. But didn't buy it! And my wife was with me, encouraged me to make an offer it, and I still didn't! And I'm feeling ok! All I came out of the store with was a hygrometer! A D'Addorio Planet Waves Humiditrak. It monitors the humidity in my music room and pushes the results to my phone. I've gone way too long without humidifying my music room and I finally started a humidifier this morning. I have no idea how much damage I done to my guitars. But since I started the humidifier I figured I need to see how it works. The guy that owns the guitar store recommended this one and he uses it in his house. It will be interesting to see how it works! Currently 42% humidity and 71 F! What is everyone else using to humidify your music room and monitor?

Watson43, Welcome to the forum. As UncleHammy said, it is great to have a new poster. And it reminds me we need a place for Introductions for new members. And what a way to start! Really nice playing, singing and a very nice job of recording it. Thank you for posting this.

Fretless, thank you for posting this.

Someone, years ago, posted at our Yahoo Groups page, the bpm for all the songs on the playalong cd. I had downloaded that. I just did a very quick search on my hard drive and couldn't find it. I will look again tomorrow and should be able to find it for you.

Thanks for this link, Gerard.

But the rate of osmosis is a function of solute concentration differential.............Oh wait! You're saying I am thick skulled

Yes, Ian, sounds great. Nice vocals and really nice playing.

UncleHammy, I took the blues scale boxes chart and I've been putting it under my pillow every night. But dang, it doesn't seem to be working. I thought it would.

That is exactly what I said last year. I'm hesitant to say it again this year! (But I am hopeful)

We don't have Showtime either. But we have Hulu with the Showtime add on. I'm hoping I can see it there.

I can't remember if I had posted about this at our old home or not. Even if so, maybe since it's coming out next month a reminder is appropriate. "Life in 12 Bars" a full length documentary about Eric Clapton will air February 10 on Showtime. Here is more information about it and the trailer. For us Clapton fans it looks fascinating.

Thank you for the recommendation, Dave!