Bene,
Greetings,
I'm retired 2 1/2 years now and enjoying myself a great deal. Now I have the time to do again what I was doing "BC" (before children), mainly what I want, if I want. Struggled with the concept for 8 or 10 months but have gotten noticeably better of late.
Often lately, I am finding it doesn't take too much to dress up rudimentary playing. For example I have played 5 or 6 blues progressions for years. Nothing in particular, a train song or two stuff like that. A couple BB King Classics. Simple bass runs, pretty boring after a while to me and those around me.
I started diddling around with my take on pentatonics, (whatever the heck that really is) & quickly things became more interesting. Doesn't necessarily sound like anthing I have heard before, but more "interesting". I'm foolin more people even myself.
I purchased dozens of how to books over the years, the one that did me the most good I bought for a quarter or a dollar somewhere. Old Timey Country Guitar? , in the back of the book was a little floppy piece of plastic with a 33 1/3 recording stamped on it. Perhaps the first floppy disk.
I learned a song "Buckdancers Choice",as played by Sam McGee. from the record. Crazy pickin, and what I thought at the time was complex patterns. Book would show you where to put yer fingers & the record told you what it was supposed to sound like. Revolutionary. I worked on the one tune for weeks, the recording was lost years ago.
Fretboard logic has pictures & text, but it also makes noise, thereby stimulating a second sense. It seems the lumber between my ears needs more stimulation than others to achieve comprehension.
There is a bit in the material Somewhere about the 1st semester of the 2nd year for a guy like me, called, I think, Tearin Up the P Patch. Nice hot Pickin, I have heard similar tunes many times. But the material walks you thru what's happening. A lot of cerebreal terms are bantered about, pentatonic this resolving in chromatic this to that, with a diatonic whatever thrown in here. It is surprising how much of you can pick up over 30 or 40 years. In theory that is.
Point is, lately I pick up my guitar & start messing around, a lot of it appears. Clumsy as it may be it's more fun than boom chicka boom. I'm hearing, actually hearing, much more of what's going on in the music I listen to as well. Often I can tell now if a passage is complex or just something simple done well. Seems often as not simple rules the day.
Like dklsplace said; " Oh yeah, that's what that is. I'll be darned, hey look it does it over here too".
Thanks for sharing the three phases, I feel pretty well set on phase 1, most everthing I have plays far better than I do.
Would be interesting to yak up some of your blues logic .
