Guitar Stuff and Beyond

Well my school days have been keeping me jumping through hoops.  It seems so much of my time is gobbled up and when I have a free moment I either crash on the couch or grab a guitar and play for a bit.  I have been working on memorizing Walbert's arrangement of "If I Fell".  I am feeling pretty good about my progress.  I am getting the notes down and now my next job will be to really look at the timing and eventually use a metronome with the piece.  These days I rarely have a sustained period of practice time and today when I grabbed my guitar to play for a bit during lunch, I felt as if I was greeting a long lost friend.  The end of lunch signaled the attack of the teenagers and the conclusion of my bonding period.

Our weather continues to parallel that of Ireland.  I have the weather for Clonakilty and South Bend posted on my desktop and it seems we are in nearly complete synchronization, temps in the 60's here and the same there, rain here sprinkles there.  Yes, I am obsessing about Ireland.

I have been thinking about approaches to guitar playing and the contrast between what I do and what the typical electric rock player does.  So many rock players attempt to squeeze enormous numbers of notes into every measure.  If their guitars were weapons they'd be holding down the trigger of a music machine gun.  On the other hand when I play I prefer to make certain each note is celebrated.  I suppose if my guitar were a weapon, it'd be a sniper's rifle.  The mega fast rock player doesn't have time to cherish individual notes.  I prefer to give each note the respect it deserves.  Of course I am far from possessing the skills of a speed demon guitarist and maybe my note sanctification is just my excuse for playing slowly and carefully.   Let's look at this from the perspective of how the guitarist views his/her audience.  That Maserati guitar player's primary intention seems to encourage a visceral reaction from the audience.  There is nothing wrong with that goal.   Some players seem to even assault their listeners by cranking up the volume to the point of creating at the very least temporary hearing loss.  Now I have some real qualms about that because the potential for lasting physical damage exits.  Perhaps this is the territory of youth because from my teens and through my thirties I willingly paid the admission to be a sonic victim.  Still even back then I did not enjoy having "concert ears".  Now I refuse to subject myself to those levels of sounds.