Tuesday 26 August 2008

What's happening August 2008

I'm usually working on several tunes at a time, I flick between them as my interest weathervanes.  The funny thing is if I've been away from a tune for a week when I get back to it I can play it better!  Strange old thing the brain.

Anyway, what's happening - I've been processing Naudo's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" for about 6 months.  It's hard, good fun though.  I can't play it well enough for youtube, but it is next on the list.  This one is more plucked than strummed; I used a similar technique that I applied to my "Reckless".  Naudo strums it but I found it initially easier to pluck it.  If I was to do it again I'd probably force myself to strum it instead.  Next time.

It's got a skippy feel to it baaah-da-baaah-da-baaah-etc and you lock your first finger across second fret first 3 strings and your _third_ finger on the third fret second dtring to make a D - and then use your second finger to do the walk the thumb bassline F# and B.  Give the intro a try, remember, skippy and mute the treble strings with your left hand after you plucked them:
|---2---2---2---2-|
|---3---3---3---3-|
|---2---2---2---2-|
|-0---------------|
|---------0---2---|
|-----2-----------|

Another tune I've been working on for a long while is "Great Gig in the Sky".  Whenever I play "Breathe" I spawn straight into it.  It's quite complex from a chord point of view, and I tried for ages transposing it for a "nice" left hand position, but nothing worked.  Found a piano version, it doesn't transcribe very easily to guitar; pretty much everything ended up being a bar chord.  Which means I can practise it for about 3 minutes before my left thumb is knackered ;)  However, it sounds *fantastic*.  I'm up to the vocal solo, and surprisingly it is going to be straight forward to oo-ah-ah-oo while keeping the bassline going, as the vocal is in the chords (which are Gm and C9).  Just a case of memorising it...and putting in the 3 minutes a day practise!

I've got a couple of others on the go...talk about them next time.

Monday 25 August 2008

Opener

...they call me "JAW" but that username isn't often available so I go with the "Jawmunji", a name given to me by an an old boss and so unique on the web that if you see it, yep, it is me.  Indeed, it is a reference to the movie Jumunji, I'm not of the clan "Munji" (yes, I have been asked). In real life I am Jason Waddell, and by saying that the internet now knows the connection, job done.

The purpose of this blog is for me to rants and raves about playing guitar.  Lets see if I can explain why:
  • I post videos of me playing songs on youtube (http://youtube.com/jawmunji), but that's not really a place for ranting and raving.
  • I've got a lot to talk about and occasionally the tens and tens of people who read this blog might find stuff useful, insightful, or just plain humourous.
  • I spend all day in front of computers and I can type fast so finding time now and then to blog is convenient.  However I don't get much time to play guitar (to paraphrase John Denver "I'd play my guitar all day if I could but The Lord and my wife wouldn't take it very good") - so if I can't play much, then I will talk about playing instead.
That's enough for now.  It's just a blog, not a full blown memoir.  I'll be in touch.

~~~JAW