A Slow Summer

Yeah, the music-making gets slow when you don't have too many friends around. I was thinking about just dropping off the face of the map and ignoring this blog, but I decided to keep it for when we get back to school. So far, I've been learning quite a few new songs, but I really can't bring myself to record them without a vocalist, since it's about the same chord progression over and over again. Some new songs, though: Let Her Cry by Hootie and the Blowfish, Unwell by Matchbox 20, Mr. Jones by Counting Crows, and What Sarah Said by Death Cab for Cutie. New picking song: The Devil's Tears by Julia and Angus Stone.

On another note, I've been getting back into photography again, so I may post a link here if I get something going.

Finally: Collide

So, now that we're just days from leaving for the summer, we finally got to recording Collide. Yesterday, we spent the evening coming up with a new set for next year's Open Mic-- we've got some awesome songs lined up. We'll definitely do Collide, and we're also working on You and Me by Lifehouse. The next thing we're working on is a duet for Hallelujah. Last, we're going to try and get enough people to perform Ed Sheeran's cover of Wayfaring Stranger. Miguel's got the perfect voice for it, and he and Rose may end up doing a duet.

A word on Hallelujah before I post Collide: We were practicing last night, first with guitar and viola, then with guitar and voice. The chords are easy enough, minus the barre chords which are slowly ruining my hand. The rhythm was also decently easy to pick up on, once I found the right video to practice with. So, we we're playing, and Miguel went at it with the viola, which sounded great. Then we moved to a study room, and he started singing...and holy shit. I mean, holy shit. I knew he was a good singer-- but this is just crazy. I mean it, I'm trying to convince him to record it with me, because he absolutely blew me away. We were playing, and we got to the second verse, and then all of the sudden I just missed a chord cause I was too busy listening to him sing. The notes he hits and the quality of his voice are just incredible. I can't wait to record that one.

But before then, here's our video of Collide by Howie Day. The strange frame is because we had to use my phone to record, since we blew out the mic on my computer with this song before. Below is the tab, as usual. Sorry you can't see my strumming hand, but the pattern is consistent throughout the song, so you should be able to get it by listening to the intro.




Verse and Chorus:
            G        Dsus2   Em7     Cadd9
e |-------3-------3-------3-------3-------|
B |-------3-------3-------3-------3-------|
G |-------0-------2-------0-------0-------|
D |-------0-------0-------2-------2p0h2---|
A |-------2-------0-------2---3---3-------|
E |---3---3---2---2---0---0-------x-------|

Bridge:
e |--------3-----------3----2-------------|
B |--------3-----------1----3-------------|
G |--------0-----------0----2-------------|
D |-----2--2-------2---2----0-------------|
A |--2-----2---3-------3----0-------------|
E |--------0-----------x----x-------------|

The dawn is breaking
A light shining through
You're barely waking
And I'm tangled up in you, yeah

I'm open, you're closed
Where I follow, you'll go
I worry I won't see your face
Light up again

Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills my mind
I somehow find you and I collide

I'm quiet you know
You make a first impression
I've found I'm scared to know
I'm always on your mind

Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the stars refuse to shine
Out of the back you fall in time
I somehow find you and I collide

Don't stop here
I lost my place
I'm close behind

Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills your mind
You finally find you and I collide

You finally find you and I collide
You finally find you and I collide

Time for Three and some new tabs

So, my friends and I went to this concert about a week ago where Time for Three played with our orchestra-- and they were amazing. Solo, they played a bunch of songs, including a cover of Hallelujah. Miguel turned to me after they had finished, eyes and mouth wide open. The first thing out of his mouth was, "Can we play that?" He sounded like a little kid asking for the biggest birthday present. What could I say? Of course the answer was yes, I just had to find some tabs. Fast forward to Thursday night, when classes are over and a few of us are hanging in the lounge. Béa fell asleep on the couch, she was so tired, but Miguel and I stayed up listening to some music I hadn't shown him before.

And that was when one of his comments really struck me. First, we were testing out our ranges, and he was trying to figure out how high my chest voice goes-- kinda hard when you can't do scales. But after that, I was showing him some things we could try for Open Mic: Hang You Up by Yellowcard, Hallelujah (of course), Cascada by Jesse Cook. Then we were discussing Time for Three, and I remebered a song I wanted to show him. Cook's Bay by Regina Carter has the most gorgeous strings part. So, we're listening to it, and he's echoing it to figure out the notes, and pretty confident that he can learn it. Then he asked if there was a guitar part, and I said no, it's mostly strings drums and piano, and he responded, "Oh, well it's not worth it then."

That was what really got me. One, because I was thinking, how could it not be worth it to learn that song just because there isn't a part for me to play? Then I realized, everything we had been discussing was for practicing together and performing together. More than half the fun is having someone to collaborate with, having someone to help arrange the song. So I started thinking, what we might try is to translate the piano and percussion to the guitar, and work something out that way.

Cause that's where the fun lies, right? Taking on something you think can't be done. So go have fun with it!

-Kal

Is the road to social robots a Boulevard of Broken Dreams?*

Two posts in one!!!

So, I realized it's been a while since I posted any new songs for practicing. I was practicing Boulevard of Broken Dreams a few days ago when it reminded me of the book I'm reading for an English paper. In the first section of "Alone Together", Turkle talks a lot about sociable robots and what they offer, but also why they seem so appealing. She talks about their highlights, but also their dark sides. Through her research, she has come to the idea that what sociable robots really do is make up for the vulnerabilities we feel as humans-- and in the end, they keep us from truly learning how to relate to and interact with each other.

Here are just a few examples, if you're looking for a reference point:
- Cog
- Kismet
- Leonardo
- Domo

So, the thing that got me relating it to the "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" was Turkle's point that perhaps we are expecting far too much out of these robots; that when they don't perform up to par, we tend to dumb ourselves down, stooping to what we know the robot can accomplish, in order to make it appear as though it meets our needs. And meanwhile, we're totting around the idea that robots will eventually replace us in caring for children and the elderly. As the children she's interviewed have asked: "Don't we have people for those jobs?"

Anyway, on that note, here's a new song for you to practice. Excuse the fact that this song is very much at the low end of my range. As per usual, the tab can be found below.

(Em,G,D,A)2x Capo 1

 I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone

(Em,G,D,A)
Em                              G  
  I walk this empty street
D                      A                        Em     
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
                    G   
Where the city sleeps
          D                   A                         Em
and I'm the only one and I walk alone

G,D        A                    Em
        I walk alone, I walk alone
G,D           A
I walk alone, I walk a...

[Chorus] (Solo is the same)
C    G            D             Em              
  My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
  My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
  Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
C      G      B
  'Til then I walk alone

Em      G      D      A     Em
  Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,
      G      D      A  
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah
Em            G       
  I'm walking down the line
D               A               Em
That divides me somewhere in my mind
       G 
On the border line
D               A             Em 
Of the edge and where I walk alone

Em,G,D,A,

Em       G           
  Read between the lines
D                    A            Em
What's fucked up and everything's alright
         G         
Check my vital signs
   D              A                 Em
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

G,D
       A
I walk alone
        Em
I walk alone

G,D
       A
I walk alone
      
I walk a...

[Chorus]

C    G            D             Em
  My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
C    G       D                Em        
  My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
C     G       D                Em
  Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
C      G      B
  'Til then I walk alone
Em      G      D      A     Em
  Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah
      G     D
Ah-ah, Ah-ah
       A
I walk alone
           
I walk a...

Solo (C,G,D,Em)3x
     (C,G,B)
Em            G          
  I walk this empty street
D           A              Em
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
          G     
Where the city sleeps
    D            A
And I'm the only one and I walk a...

(Repeat chords for chorus)

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone...


-Kal

Just because you're not speaking doesn't mean you have to be silent

So, there was a bit of confusion over Day of Silence, but my friends and I celebrated it yesterday. I ended up having to talk during my bio lab since we were planning an experiment, but other than that I lasted the entire day.

Now of course, one fo the interesting conflicts was my love of singing and playing. There are plenty of songs that I've been working on, and songs where I want nothing more than to sing with the strumming of the strings. One of the great things though, was that since I knew I wasn't supposed to be singing or speaking, all my attention was focused on the chords. I actually started looking at a few new songs yesterday: Goodbye Days by Yui has a very interesting chord progression, and one that's actually pretty difficult at first.

Aside from that, I took a look at Hang You Up by Yellowcard, which I'll post just as soon as I have a singer. That one's just three chords, but the progression takes some concentration.

There's also For One Day by Evermore, which I really haven't touched in a while. That has some pretty strange chords, for which I'm not even sure there are proper names.

Point is that sometimes our attention gets drawn away from what's really important to us (I actually wrote about this in my essay yesterday-- Thoreau's sacred spaces and such). I've been so caught up in the idea of performing that I've stuck with songs that are easy and safe. I have to say though, it's much more satisfying when you come back to a song that you haven't been able to play for weeks, and you finally understand the chord progression or the finger positions. In addition, it's definitely worth checking back at ultimate-guitar every month or so, since new tabs are posted.

I actually didn't realize this part at first; like we read in English (Barlow), our generation sorta tends to see the Internet as a product (like a printed book) instead of a process. Of course if you're reading a blog or on Facebook it's different; you expect it to change. But information for us has always been steady, constant. For updated information, you would just find the most recent edition of a book-- and even then, not a lot had changed. With web databases though, which can be updated whenever, new info can pop up any time. So, it's definitely worth checking on some new tabs when you start to get frustrated.

-Kal

A chord library is a bit like your own personal bar

It's something that's developed over time, not something you can build overnight. Since I began playing, I would collect the tabs for songs in the "lyrics" section of iTunes. Some of them are proper tablature, and some of them are simply the chords listed above the lyrics. As I've encountered, and as people have pointed out, one of the biggest issues with being a self-taught guitarist is the very immediate ignorance you face when first finding songs to play. Oftentimes when you find a tab that consists of chords, the chords will be listed out in this format: G (320033).

Just as often though, chords aren't listed. If you use ultimate-guitar, you can often mouse over the chord and see the website's suggestion. This is fine for simple chords, A through G and some of the minor chords. When you get to more complicated chords though (often variations on F and B, the main barre chords), the site's suggestions aren't so great. And often, the fingering for these chords is not set in stone.

When you collect tabs though, you have a lot of people's opinions at your fingertips. One person might list a Dsus4 chord, which may be used but not tabbed out in another song. There are also plenty of variations on these types of chords (Xsus and Xadd type chords). Don't ask me what these mean; I just know how to play them.

On a new page (Chord Library) I'll list the information in my chord book, as well as my own chord library, developed over almost two years of collecting tabs. Don't be surprised if you see multiple or repeated fingerings, and don't be afraid to try these variations in the same song. Some variations sound better than the suggested chords. And aside from that, you can sometimes substitute things like Cadd9 (032033) for G (320033), and they sound basically the same. Conversely, you can insert a Cadd9 into a line that's supposedly all G, in order to make it sound more interesting. But I suppose that's a demo video for another post.

-Kal

You might just get everything you wish for*

Strangely enough, everything I posted about last time just started happening today. Right now, I'm just hanging in my dorm with two friends, one maybe a little unexpected, with some awesome acoustic stuff being played on my unplugged electric.

A friend came up to get some darts for HvZ, and then he just plopped himself down on my window seat with Béa and we all started talking. Then I realized he hadn't seen Moonlight yet, so I pulled her out, and he asked to play, so I said sure. I guess to get a full grasp on this, you have to realize that he can sometimes be a bit much to hande in anything but small doses. And if you can't get past that, it's hard to realize anything else about him.

See, we've had this love-hate relationship for a while, where he basically opens himself up to teasing, and I jump at every opportunity. Watching him perform at Open Mic though, and listening to him play now, it's actually kind of amazing. He's a really talented guitarist and musician, and when you give him a guitar, he just shuts up and plays the most amazing riffs.

And I have to say, one of the things I envy about him, watching him play now, is that his hands are way bigger than mine, so he gets these amazing spreads across the frets. The one he's playing right now is capo 6, and maybe a 5 fret spread.

Right now, we're all just hanging, soft acoustic in the background, his voice just floating over the strings, all of us just...being here. It's nice. I'm going to make this happen more often.

-Kal