Wow, Harmonics

6 Oct 14 (Mon)

  Been playing every day for a few hours. It's pretty cool when you're looking forward to guitar-practice.

  I wouldn't have thought that after 5 days or so, I'd be doing things like having harmonics (Guitar Harmonics (Wikipedia)) become pretty natural and easy, but here we are. One of the Guitarcade practice mini-games is for harmonics, and I find it to be the most fun. Probably because it's at a less hectic pace and takes less effort or finger-pain than the rest. Also it's a bit more thoughtful than reflexive. Here's a quick example of my gameplay:

  Picture at top is of the guitar that I'm thinking of for my next one. Squier Strat HSS in red. Nice.  :P

Okay Fingers

2 Oct 14 (Thu)

  Playing is going well. Getting a feel for moving between frets in rhythm and where things are on the guitar.

  Using Rocksmith, it's very easy to play for quite a while without noticing because it's so helpful and easy to progress in whatever aspect that you're performing at any one time. I've played for a few hours each day, and my fingertips are surprisingly not too sore. A bit, of course, but just a little. Very welcome.  :)

  Picture is, of course, Stevie Ray Vaughn. One of the best guitar-players to have ever lived. He played blues-rock, with nice crunchy chords and beautifully articulated solos. I once described one of his songs, a girl's name if I remember rightly, from his live video as picking diamonds from the air.

  Hmm... now I'm gonna have to go listen to some Stevie.  :P

First Day

1 Oct 14 (Wed)

  So, Rocksmith 2014 arrived yesterday. After the usual rigmarole of setting up a new game & hardware, it works fine.

  As a game/program/teaching-tool, it's outstanding. Really. From the basics of never having held a guitar before to guitar-god-level ability, there seems to be something for everyone. The path from one to the other seems pretty well laid out, and achievable with dedication and practice. This is true of almost any program, of course... the trick here is that it seems that you're having fun and encouragement along the way whilst playing a game.

  There are songs here that I've been hearing since I was a kid, and in the back of your head you always kind of think a little what it would be like to play them... well, now I have. Admittedly at the most basic of levels, like the occasional note or chord or two per bar, but still, I've played along with the song as it played and the difficulty automatically increases as you get better. It's pretty great.

  I recorded my first song-attempt, but the God-damned Youtube copyright-censor won't show the video. As soon as I figure out how everyone else is doing it, I'll link to it. That way, I can demonstrate my progress by comparison as time goes on.

  So far, so good. Also, the picture today is the guitar that I have. I was pretty surprised when I bought it at how good it was for how little money.

  Davison Guitar Starter Package (Amazon)