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

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen all at once*

...except that sometimes, it still does. Sad to say, we ended up not performing at Open Mic, due to a lot fo things culminating at once. I personally didn't feel prepared enough (having only practiced together three times) to get up on stage with such short notice, aside from the fact that I had an exam the next day. Miguel was still going to perform his rendition of Schindler's List, which sounded AMAZING when he was playing back in the dorm, but again schoolwork reared its ugly head, and that didn't happen either.

Hopefully, since this week is Humans vs. Zombies and we'll be leaving the dorm as little as possible, we'll be able to get some recordings up. The songs we were going to perform are Collide (which I know I promised but have yet to post), and Kiss Me (which is still gonna take some work as far as arranging).

On another note, I wanted to touch on the "nostalgia" of the young, as Sherry Turkle puts it. She talks about how this generation misses the time they never had with parents who are now always attached to their phones. They miss the times when you could just call someone up and talk, or the times when people would write proper letters to each other instead of just "poking" on Facebook to say, "hey, I'm thinking about you". The point is though, they miss all these things they never had. They long for how life "must have been" in their parents' days.

I remember when I was little, and getting a letter was such an exciting thing. I remember that I didn't start emailing people until middle school, and even then it was through my parents' account. And I do remember in middle school, when it was cool to just chat on the phone with a friend for hours, until mom yelled at you to stop tying up the phone lines. I was on the cusp of that transition.

The point of all this though, is that this type of "nostalgia" crops up in all fields.

As a biologist, I imagine the times when there were fewer regulations on the types of animals you could house. As a pre-health student, I miss the times when clinical trials were subjected to less rigorous standards.

As a guitarist, I miss the times when I could play a single song without my phone going off-- these are times I never had, but I still miss them. As a performer, I miss the times when you could just play with friends for the heck of it and not have to worry about a deadline. And not worry about being judged, for that matter. I imagine what it must be like to be able to sit around a campfire with your friends and just strum quietly in the background till someone recognizes the tune and everyone starts to sing along. I miss how music used to bring people together.

Why is this important though, if we miss all these things we never had? Well the point is, it doesn't matter what everyone around you is doing, and it doesn't matter how society is changing. All those little things? You can change them. When I'm playing, I can turn off my phone. I can knock on a friend's door and be like, hey, I'm kinda bored, lets go play for a bit.

No one's stopping you from writing letters or calling people or having proper alone time or proper friend time. It's all on you. Time to stop worrying about being judged, and go hang with the people who really matter to you.

Oh yeah, and don't forget to go outside every once in a while. No one likes that computer tan. Besides, it's nice to play in the sun.

-Kal

So where do I find all these tabs anyway?

When you first start out looking for music, you'll probably type something like "collide howie day tab" into Google. You'll get a zillion hits from sites like www.e-chords.com, www.911tabs.com, www.azchords.com, and of course, YouTube. I will tell you right now though, your best bet is this little thing called www.ultimate-guitar.com.

If you simply go to the site, it can be pretty overwhelming. You can search for songs, artists, albums; you can find tabs, chords, drum tabs, bass tabs, solo tabs, acoustic tabs and chords. They also have this thing called "pro tabs". This will show you the tab and will also play the song, allowing you to follow along. Sort of like a sing-along.

Point is, the site itself is a little difficult to navigate if you don't know what you're looking for. Or even if you do. What I like to do is search something like "howie day tab" on Google, and click on the ultiamte-guitar link that says "Howie Day Tabs: 89 Tabs total @ Ultimate-Guitar.com". They always mention the number of tabs available; that's how you'll know you've got the right link. I try to avoid 911tabs because although the site shows up frequently, it's often just a bunch of reposting of the same tabs.

So, what do you do once you get to this page? You'll see an alphabetical listing by song title of every song by this artist that has been tabbed by ultimate-guitar users. If the song is a "tab" that means you'll get this notation:

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

------0-0-0-------0-0-0---|------0-0-0--0----0-0--0-0-----| ------1-1-1-------1-1-1---|------1-1-1--1----1-1--1-1-----| ------2-2-2-------2-2-2---|------2-2-2--0h2--2-2--0-0-----| ------2-2-2-------2-2-2---|---3--3-3-3--3----3-3--0-0-----| ---0--0-0-0---0---0-0-0---|-------------------------------|
--------------------------|-------------------------------|


If the song is in "chord" notation, you'll get a set of lyrics with the chords listed out above the words, like this:

CAPO 4
G- 320033
Dsus2- 200233
Em7- 022033
Cadd4- 032033

G Dsus2

The dawn is breaking

Em7 Cadd4

A light shining through

G Dsus2

You're barely waking
Em7 Cadd4
And I'm tangled up in you

The great thing about ultimate-guitar is that there's almost always both; and if it's an electric song, chances are there will be a tab for an acoustic version, too. So, take your pick! Eventually, you'll get an idea of which you prefer.

Now on to your next question... Since users contribute tabs to the site, there can be upwards of 20 tabs for just one song. If there are that many, how do you know which to pick? Well, the site also lets users rate their tabs. If you see a tab that's rated 5 stars by at least 20 people, that's probably the one you're looking for. These highest rated songs (and the ones with lots of votes, not just one or two) are a great place to start. If something doesn't sound quite right, or you want to see what other people have done, just go back and click on another. I usually try and stick with 4-5 star tabs. Even 4 star tabs are pretty good, even if they might need some tweaking. Stars and votes are something you have to look at in concert: if one tab has 5 stars with 2 votes versus another with 4 stars and 20 votes, the latter is probably a safer bet.

Another benefit of having so many tabs on one site: some songs (case in point, Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls), excuse my Japanese, are A BITCH to tune. Iris, by happenstance, is EBBBBB when played live. No one wants to do that. Often though, users will transpose these tabs into "normal people" terms, so you can keep your guitar nice and happy and in tune.

The last thing to watch out for (on any tablature site) is that some people won't tell you if a song needs a capo. My favorite case of this was when I found the tab for Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer. It had 4 stars, 38 votes (that's pretty good by my standards), so I went to play and DAMN it was awful. I don't know what possessed me to start playing around with the capo, but I think I may have found another tab that suggested capoing the 3rd fret. And poof, the song sounded perfect. Moral of the story: feel free to explore other tabs, feel free to combine them, and don't be afraid to just play around.

Hope this helps, and if anyone needs a little more guidance in navigating ultimate-guitar or has a tab that they absolutely can't find, feel free to comment and I'll see what I can do.

Also, this totally isn't a plug, but ultimate-guitar also has an app which is epically amazing for looking up tabs on the spot. It's also a little easier to navigate than the comprehensive site.

-Kal

A New Cover

So, I know that we promised you a cover of Collide, which Miguel and I have been working on, I swear. This is a really busy week, and we really haven't gotten a chance to actually record it. Plus with Open Mic Night coming up this week, I may end up memorizing another monologue if we can't pull our act together with the songs we were arranging.

However. In lieu of this song*, I decided to record another cover in order to illustrate a point I've been meaning to make. So, here's another recording of Say It's Possible by Terra Naomi:



Now, I know we've done this one before (see Beginner Song: Say It's Possible for the chords)-- Rose and I covered this for Open Mic, and she's a wonderful singer. I've tried singing this before, and I absolutely cannot hit the notes in the chorus. I've discovered a neat little trick, though. I'm sure this has some basis in music theory, and I'll ask Miguel if he can explain it to me later. But the idea is, since the song is usually capo'd on fret 2, I can just ditch the capo and drop the song to a lower pitch-- one that's within my voice range. I can also put the capo two frets up (4th fret, in this case), and raise the pitch. I'm pretty sure the only time this works is when the song is played on the 2nd, 4th, or 8th fret, or open strings.

Other songs this works for:
- Collide by Howie Day (originally 4th fret)
- It's Been a While by Staind (originally tuned half a step down, but can be played capo 1)
- Swing Life Away (also half a step down, but can be played capo 1. I also think this can be played open frets if you're really lazy, though I'm not sure musically why that works)

I'll let you know if I find any others, but play around with it. It's a great trick to bring songs into your range.

Another quick thing to note, is that sometimes when you do switch the pitch of a song, it can be a bit weird to sing if you haven't practiced. It takes a little bit of trial and error to hit the appropriate notes (take note of my little slip at the beginning of the final chorus, when I slip down almost an octave). With some practice though, you'll be able to tell when you're hitting the right notes.

Also, sorry if I blew out the mic. I put some fabric around the computer to absorb the sound, but the acoustic is really loud and the mic is really bad.

-Kal

There is no spoon*

So, we watched The Matrix in class a few days ago, which was probably one of the most epic classes ever. We spent a lot of time afterwards discussing the symbolism-- what the glasses mean, the roll of the robots, the significance of the telephone as the connection between the worlds-- but of course the one thing that stuck out to me again was everyone's favorite line, "Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.There is no spoon... Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself."

I thought this was an awesome quote the first time I watched the movie-- and of course I immediately went home and tried to bend a spoon, so obviously I missed the point of it the first time around. And admittedly, this time it took me at least until I got back to my dorm to make the connection.

But, just a few days ago, I picked up my electric (now named Moonlight), and set my mind to finger picking. I tuned the guitar down half a step (see Tuning...and its Hazards for more info) and decided to leave it like that, since a bunch of my favorite songs are tuned as such, and I'm quite lazy. The first song I chose was Broken (Seether, feat. Evanescence's Amy Lee), since the picking is very distinct. I barely even thought about it, just looked at the tab (shown below) named the positions in my head, and started playing. And lo and behold. The technique that for almost a year has been the bane of my guitarist existence suddely just...happened. I don't really know how to explain it otherwise. I sat down, and I decided to take a different approach. Since chords are my strength, I looked at where in the song I could keep my fingers planted, and tried to relate them to chord positions I already know:

D
e-2h3-------3--3---------3------------2h3-----3---3--------3------------|
B-------(0)------3------3----3-------3------0--------3-----3----3------3-|
G---------0------0---0-------------0-----------0------0---0-----------0---|
D-2------------------------------0-------2-----------------------------0-----|
A-----------------3--------------------------------------3---------------------|
E-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
                                                 D
e-2h3------3--3--------3-----------0h2-----3p2----0h2-|--------3p2-----|
B-------0-------3------3---3------3------3----------3-------|-3---3-----3----|
G---------0-----0---0-----------0-----------2----------------|----2---------0--|
D-2----------------------------0------0------------------0----|------------------|
A----------------3----------------------------------------------|------------------|
E----------------------------------------------------------------|------------------|

The first position reminds me of a D chord (xx0232), so that's what I named it. A little later in the song, an actual D chord position comes up, so I named that one as well. Once I was able to figure out those positions, I was able to just focus on my plucking hand.

Then I guess as I was playing, that's when it sort of hit me. About the spoon comment I mean-- it's like mind over matter. Once you overcome that mental construction of yourself that can't play, it's no longer a self-defeating construct. Like he points out, the spoon isn't bending-- likewise, the guitar isn't complying, because it's not the guitar that's the issue. You instead, bend around the guitar. You learn to move with it, to work with what you're given, your strengths and weaknesses. You learn how to relate what you can't understand into terms that you can.

And well...I'm still working on that with the acoustic, since it's a lot tougher on your hands. But don't forget-- THERE IS NO SPOON!!!

Till next time.

-Kal