By Sign & Design: My Charmed Life

Guitar Lesson # 2

The header is self-explanatory. I came home from work in a funk with a capitol F- feeling apathetic about the week (is it really only monday??!). Pete brilliantly offered to get take out and teach me lesson # 2 on guitar (thanks again for that, XO). By the end I felt much better having sated my comfort food craving and having learned and even applied some very rudimentary musical skill:

Chords I know how to form, kinda:
E, A, D, C, G, E minor and F

Chords I do NOT know how to form:
B (yikes!!) and, well, the rest of them.

Chords I can switch between without looking SLOWLY:
E and A.

Chords required to play "Pride (In the Name of Love)" by U2:
A, D, G, E minor  - In  that order.
Pete and I played this over and over and I even managed by the end to switch consistently (and again, slowly).

Here's what goes on inside your head when someone is teaching you a song on guiter:

Eighth note, eighth note, eighth note, eighth note, oh no.. change is coming... where does that finger go again... Eighth note (off this time) Eighth note, oh oh what was the next note.. argh there it was, uhhhh THERE ... (and repeat).

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I - quite literally - have made a career out of being a professional listener. What fun to realize that for about 10 seconds that it FELT like I was actaully PLAYING the instrument, not just executing the chords in a technically correct manner (and I mean that loosely).

Nothing breeds success like sucess, they say.  I am feeling just a little proud of myself, I must say  :)

Jumping (back) in with both feet...

For over a year now, I have been reduced to “lurker” at my own site – cringing every time I see the date on the last post. How can it have been that long ago? You know how it happens: I got a little busy… then a million things happened of big and small consequence, I’d have flashes of inspiration to write and sometimes felt exhausted and overwhelmed just thinking about putting words to “page” to bring it up to date. Well I’ve figured out that with a blog - it doesn’t have to be done that way. As a Shediac lobster fisherman once said when explaining to me how fast lobsters can swim (travel?) backwards – and it is astonishing – “sometimes it just more important that you GO than know where you are GOING”. So, with respect to catching up on writing here, I guess I’ll start where I am today and just GO.

What I’m into right now (In no particular order):

                                             

• HOUSE M.D. - Can't get enough!

• John Mayer – The John Mayer Trio CD is amazing, I have new respect for him (with exception of the whole Jessica Simpson thing). By the way his BLOG is HILARIOUS – Among other things, he has a great product idea for JIF peanut Butter packaging.

• Stave Puzzles   – The artwork images on these are so fun and whimsical, I was compelled to get out my art color pencils and play! One of my favorites is a “teaser” puzzle called Turtle Soup.

• Alice in Wonderland – Still on the whimsical kick, I must re-read this! I’d love to find a really inspiring version!

• Fabrics by Amy Butler -  I just made a tablecloth I LOVE out of this:

• The Police reunion! Watch the Grammys' intro this coming Sunday night!
• Sudoku
• Yoga
• Training my pups!!!
• Eating healthier - Can anyone please tell me how you break the nighttime munchies habit?!
• Learning electric guitar!!!
• Learning Greek - Ok, some Greek words, at least. "Kalimera" means Good Morning.

OK, that is a start at least. I promise it won't be another year  before I post again ;)

Chelsea

PS Sorry for the poor formatting in this post, I'm a little rusty.