Finding My Voice

While John Mayer has played so many amazing guitar solos, this is probably one of my all-time favorites (solo is at 2:48 mark):

I've always had an affinity towards hip-hop. I can't personally say I can relate, having never been affiliated with any gang. My parents even steered me towards the high school I graduated from because they wanted to keep me away from the "gangsta" life.

But even so I still enjoyed hip-hop. Tupac was the guy for me growing up, also I also enjoyed Ma$e, Puff Daddy (pre P. Diddy), Jay-Z, a little Notorious BIG, and Eminem. Lately I've been exploring some old school stuff, like Bone Thugz N Harmony, going through Jay-Z's discography in chronological order, some Warren G. 

Like JM, I got into D'Angelo, and while I do enjoy the likes of Boyz II Men and Babyface, among others, D'Angelo combines the sweet tones of R&B with the grit of hip-hop and mixes some funk in there, and his latest album, "Black Messiah" has more of a rock flair to it. 

There's always been sort of an earthiness to hip-hop, especially the stuff that came out when I was growing up. A lot of hip-hop now, sad to say, is mostly borne in the studio; my generation's hip-hop was borne out of the streets, and the studio was just a medium, a canvas onto which hip-hop artists could express themselves on. Hip-hop is modern day blues in the sense that it's the outcry of (mostly) oppressed people set to music. 

Guys like Tupac, Nas, Notorious BIG, Eminem, Rakim, and Jay-Z have the same spirit of BB King, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Muddy Waters. They're all storytellers, all geniuses in their own way, wordsmiths, and all earthy. They were beloved within their own communities but misunderstood outside of them. But as the bluesmen have become more revered through the years, hopefully emcees will also garner the same appreciation as time goes on.

I guess my mission, at least for the time being, is to not just find a way to fuse blues and hip-hop, but really mine the riches of these two seemingly disparate yet similar genres of music and strike gold, discover something that may have been brushed on but never really experimented with.

Thoughts on Love epilogue

Hold on to whatever you find, baby
Hold on to whatever will get you through
Hold on to whatever you find, baby
I don't trust myself with loving you
- "I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)", Continuum

Studio version: 

Live version with crazy intro and solo:

As if I didn't brag about my girl enough in my earlier post, but more than anything the reason why I love her so much is she had the courage to risk her heart with me. This song has struck a chord with me (as has a lot of other JM songs) because since my parents' marriage was so rocky, I never really got to witness on a day-to-day basis how to love a woman. I heard a lot of second-hand stuff from other good men, but still.

And from the get-go there's always been this doubt, not just from a physical standpoint (although apparently I'm not doing that badly, LOL), but emotionally if I would be able to respect and care for my girl the way she deserves. But like I said, she makes it easy. I've dealt with so much BS from people in my life that anytime someone comes along who is unabashedly honest and open, it's refreshing. It's like eating a real mango after eating nothing but mango candy your whole life.

It's been good so far, but when times get rough, as they inevitably will (from my cynical perspective), will I be strong enough to walk with her through them? And even though I'm crazy about her, I still enjoy flirting, and I wonder if, when faced with an incredible amount of temptation, especially when another girl wants to turn things up a notch, will I be strong enough to resist?

But part of me feels like I will be, and that's because if there's anything I DON'T want to do, it's break her heart. She's been through enough crap in her life, and the last thing I want is to add even more. I also want our relationship to be as drama-free as possible, since my parents' was so bad.

It's Been Awhile! Thoughts on love

You love, who you love
Who you love
You love, who you love
Who you love

My girl, she ain't the one that I saw coming
And sometimes I don't know which way to go
And I tried to run before
But I'm not running anymore
Cause I've fought against it hard enough to know

That you love, who you love
Who you love
You love, who you love
Who you love
You love, who you love
Who you love

Oh, you can't make yourself stop dreaming
Who you're dreaming of
If it's who you love
Then it's who you love

-"Who You Love", Paradise Valley

One of my all time favorite movies is "The Last Kiss". Zach Braff plays a guy who just turned 30 and is about to settle down with his pregnant girlfriend (played by the lovely Jacinda Barrett). At their friends' wedding, he meets a girl (played by little cutie pie Rachel Bilson) and ends up sleeping with her. Spoiler alert: even though his girlfriend is pissed off about what he did, she gives him a second chance. But he slept with the other girl out of fear of settling down because there won't be any surprises in his life.

I'm madly in love with my girl, but when we "broke up" for a day in an attempt to placate her husband (it didn't), I tried to convince myself and her, but especially myself, that I didn't want this relationship as badly as I did, that part of me still wants to be a bachelor. And it's not completely false; I still enjoy being flirty with the ladies, especially at my new job, where I meet beautiful women from all over the world, and some of my co-workers are lookers.

But on Friday when we spoke on the phone, I realized right then and there how much I really loved this girl, and maybe she could be the one I settle down with. It's not the situation I pictured myself in; I thought I'd end up with someone single, maybe a little younger (don't hurt me! LOL), and with less baggage. But in a way this is actually much better than I could have imagined. She's so wonderful, and it's so effortless being around her; it's kind of scary how easy it is. There will probably be conflict, as in every relationship, but I can't imagine those being very long-lasting or frequent; we're so in sync like that.

It's the honeymoon phase, and I wonder at times if things will ever get stale. But neither of us are really thrill-seekers, and as much as we like to do exciting things once in a while, I think we're just as content curling up on the couch watching TV or playing with our dogs or cats. It's like the poem that says,"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." She's honest, intelligent, strong, compassionate; she's everything I've ever wanted in a woman, and I can't imagine anyone better to come home to the rest of my life.

I'm tearing up as I type this! I'm such a softy.

Even though I see plenty of bumps (and some huge ones) in the road ahead, I'm willing to navigate them because I know once she and I get through these next few months to a year of dealing various issues surrounding our relationship, we'll be able to declare to the world our love for each other, and that's what I want as much as anything else in life. And I can finally change my Facebook status! LOL

Update On New Job, JM Book Idea

I apologize for the 2.5 weeks break in between posts. Update: I've been hired by the Red and White Fleet and started work this week!

Whew! It's been fun, but also pretty damn hard. I'm on my feet a lot more with this job than my other job as a special education paraeducator, and yesterday was pretty busy. I'm off today, but tomorrow should be even busier since it's the weekend.

But it's been mostly fun. I met another training supervisor, who happens to also be a musician! He has an album out on iTunes with his former band, Red Light Mind, and it's really good. Has a psychedelic, Hendrixian feel to it. Although he no longer goes around doing performances, he still plays and write songs. We chatted about music during our down times, and he has some great insights.

I made a post on Facebook about JM, which I didn't expect to blow up like it did. But in the end it made me realize how much JM really means to me and so many other people. I got pretty long-winded, but I essentially said I feel like I'm a stronger, braver, and more compassionate person, and JM played a big role in that, not just with his music but also from listening to interviews and watching videos like Eastwood Allen's "Someday I'll Fly".

Got me thinking: what if a bunch of us wrote essays on the impact JM has had in our lives, put them together as a book and sent it to him! It would be nice if they got published and we made a bit of profit, but ultimately just to see JM get it and making his day, if not his week, month or year, would be satisfying enough. 

Sounds cool?

A New Hope (yes, I love "Star Wars")

Got "Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967" playing as I type this:

I applied last week for a customer service position with Red & White Fleet in San Francisco:

I just had my interview this morning, and I felt it went well. They later e-mailed me about doing a background check, which according to my buddy is a good sign. 

"Walt Grace" is a great them not just for the nautical aspect, but because the song is about a man who out of "desperately hating his old place" (like me in my current job) took a gamble.

"And his wife told his kids he was crazy".

When I told my mom about the initial e-mail requesting an interview from R&W, she didn't seem too happy about it. Just a few weeks ago there was a recent announcement that they had a few permanent positions open. I know my mom and some of my co-workers were telling me to do it since it meant a steady paycheck and benefits, but I couldn't. The last time I took a job for security was the fall of 2012, and I was literally losing my mind. At one point I punched a hole in the wall. It wasn't just the job, but a combination of things, but the high-stress job didn't help.

Since then I've kept plugging along, subbing here and there, but in the past month I've applied to seven different places in hopes of landing something different. I've been depressed, with fleeting thoughts of suicide (sorry for the morbid turn, but I gotta be honest). I've felt stuck, like I had nowhere else to go. But with this interview and the potential hiring, for the first time, it's like someone just threw color on my gray world.

So my mom and other folks may think I'm crazy for wanting to take a job in the city, something that's way out of my comfort zone, working on a boat. But I need change. I've been stuck indoors, either in classrooms or in different stores and movie theaters for the last 15 years, and an outdoor job would be awesome. Not to mention the job entails riding a boat on tours of the spectacular San Francisco Bay, including the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, and not just during the day but during sunset as well. Also, while this job I'm in isn't the easiest, it's still the same routine of either disciplining kids with emotional problems or toileting and diaper changing even teenagers and young adults. And to make things worse, everyone's miserable at work.

I know the grass may be greener on the other side, and at some point if I get to work for R&W it might become a bit of a grind. But my impressions so far are the staff seems very cool, and one of the managers that interviewed me said as intense as the job can get from time to time, they do try to keep things as relaxed as possible.

Wish me the best, guys. I'm going to hear from them in a couple of days. Right now it's part-time they're looking at, so I might still keep subbing a couple of days a week, but there's full-time potential if I do well, and if I can get a full-time gig, then NO MORE SUBBING!!

BTW, shout out to these young cats from Hawaii. Wish I knew their names. =) They released this cover of "Walt Grace" around the time the album came out. Enjoy!

Would you like some water to wash down that humble pie?

So my younger sister has picked up the ukulele and just played her first song last night. Needs to work on the rhythm, but got the notes right at least. =)

But just tonight we were chatting about it, and right off the bat she was like,"I ain't playing no 'Twinkle, Twinkle'".

It got me thinking: all these guitar methods I've been on had me play melodies of lullabies or songs from like the freaking Civil War era, or just strumming chords. While there's nothing wrong with either of those things, right from the bat my sister's like "Why play stuff that's boring? I just want to get to the good stuff."

Why have I subjected myself to playing these exercises that end up with my eyes glazing over because they're so freaking boring? I get that beginners have to start somewhere, but why not just start with stuff you like?

While I still am working on my sight reading, instead of relegating myself to boring tunes, I'll use something like Hal Leonard's Easy Guitar White Pages, where there's all these cool popular songs to start out with. It's a bit challenging, but in order to get better I have to challenge myself anyway.

There's also books and websites with all kinds of riffs and licks I can feast on, too. It's time I started playing what I want for a change.

Where's the humble pie come in? Here I am thinking I've been playing guitar for a couple of years and I was going to walk her through the ukulele, but instead she got me to change my way of approaching the guitar.

It seems like that's how all the greats got their start, anyway. John wanted to play Stevie Ray Vaughan stuff; apparently when he started taking lessons he told his teacher "I want to play this" and then played an SRV tape. Nothing against lullabies, but I don't think Jimmy Page or Joe Satriani got into guitar to play those. =)

So I'm going to get a bite to eat, have a nice little drink and then start finally having some fun! Hopefully I can get around to this in a month or two: 

All About That Bass . . . and Maybe Some Treble

This is more for the guitar and music theory nerds, I'm afraid. =)

My buddy from work (a great guitarist) and I were having a discussion last week about guitar notation, specifically how it tends to be strictly written in the treble clef one octave up. Then the question was brought up: why not the grand staff? 

Here's the range of guitar notes on the treble clef alone (typical guitar notation): 

Notice the number of ledger lines that must be written above and below: 3 below, and this picture only goes up to the 17th fret of the first string, A; if we kept going up to D for a 22 fret guitar, it would require two more ledger lines. Unless you write 8va, but it would create more confusion, in my opinion.

Here with the grand staff, you would need only one ledger line below (the lowest note is actually E, unless you did Drop C tuning but that's a whole other post), and for a 22 fret guitar you're already set because the D would be in the space right above that 2nd ledger line on top of the treble clef, and for a 24 fret guitar you just need one more ledger line as opposed to six with just the treble clef. Plus you wouldn't have to worry about being an octave up. The tones are the same as on a piano.

Coming from piano, while I have improved my sight reading, I still find it easier to digest the idea of reading using the whole grand staff. On guitar threads I've seen, the most common reasons why guitarists (if they read) use the treble clef alone are space saving and ease.

Maybe this won't be some sweeping movement where all of a sudden more people will use the grand staff. But the late great jazz guitarist Johnny Smith was a huge proponent of the grand staff, and his book from Mel Bay, "The Complete Johnny Smith Approach To Guitar" emphasizes right off the bat why he prefers using the grand staff for guitar notation as opposed to just the treble clef.

This is my next guitar experiment, playing off the grand staff. I'll be transposing some easier pieces, such as those from the Gibson Learn and Master Guitar series, onto grand staff using Musescore (I'm totally doing product placement), and we'll see how it goes. Maybe a month from now I'll go back to being all about the treble. Who knows?

(Disclaimer: I actually loathe Meghan Trainor, but I thought having this title would get me a least a couple more views. LOL)

It's been a long time (since 22)

Apologies for the long time in between posts. Work's been crazy lately and also for the boxing fans out there, after 5 long years, two guys are going to finally face each other in the ring. Some guys named Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. It's been occupying most of my time the last week or so.

But back to music. I first became acquainted with Ed Sheeran when JM posted this on Twitter: "You could break @edsheeran's talent into about six equal pieces and *still* have six very talented and successful artists." So I checked him out on Google Play, listened to some of his first album, "+", and thought he was cool but very much a modern pop musician.

Then I saw him on the last night of JM's "Late Late Show" episodes and fell in love with "Don't". The Grammys performance of "Thinking Out Loud" sealed it for me. So I went back and listened to "+" again and got hooked. At first I thought "x" wasn't as good in comparison to "+", but after hearing it again with mostly unbiased ears, it's probably even better.

I just started reading Ed's autobiography, and he got a ton of support from his parents, especially his dad, who took him to all these concerts ranging from Eric Clapton to Elton John. He got a freaking 8-track tape recorder one Christmas.

I've ranted about how my dad cares very little for my music and how if my high school actually had a damn music program maybe my life would be different. But you know something? So what.

That's the thing with dreams; they overcome obstacles. They supersede circumstances. Okay, so my family didn't have a lot of money and couldn't afford music lessons. They still encouraged me to sing in church and bought a karaoke machine. 

But even if my family were against my musical aspirations as opposed to just being incredibly neutral, if this is my passion then that doesn't matter. JM's parents were opposed to him pursuing a music career (until he got signed by Columbia, then his dad changed his mind), but he didn't care. He kept pushing forward. He worked for a year at a gas station, saving up so he could get that Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster. He worked his ass off for hours either alone in his room or on stage to sharpen his guitar and vocal skills. He went to Berklee long enough to meet Clay Cook and make a demo tape of some of his "Inside Wants Out" tracks and then moved to Atlanta.

Regardless of whether I or anyone else has the backing of our family and friends to pursue our dreams, we need to forge ahead and pursue them. If we have to use our own hard-earned money to buy our own gear, then so be it. I was lucky to have qualified for both an Amazon and Sweetwater store cards so I can at least pay for stuff slowly, but I'm still saving up for my first Fender Strat and other guitars and gear. I'm about to get a used car (which will really help with future gigs, jam sessions, etc.), so I'm trying to get a 2nd job to pay that off and save more money. If you want something badly enough, you'll find a way to make it work.

What's the freaking point?

I got to thinking: why do I  do all this?

Why am I playing guitar or chatting with people on John Mayer and guitar groups? What do I want to do musically, and why do I want to take classes at my local community colleges and pursuing an associate's in music as well as do live shows and write songs?

As John Mayer said,"I really hunger for that community".

People pursue careers mainly because of money and/or job security. A lot of people have asked why don't I pursue a career in special education since I've been doing it for so long? I just don't like it. It's noble and I respect the folks who have done it for a long time (like my mom), and I work my ass off, but it's not for me.

But I think regardless of what career I or anyone else pursues, it comes down to community. To relationships. I love music, but having people either in my Facebook groups or my everyday life (not that FB isn't everyday life, but you know what I mean) share this passion is what does it for me. 

My buddy, Dan, and I are an odd pair musically. Yes, we both like classic rock, blues and jazz, but I'm definitely a child of the 90s, so I enjoy hip-hop, R&B and alternative, while he, pushing 60, is unfamiliar with that. But we can talk guitars and music concepts all day. And the cool part is it's like we're speaking a different language than most others around us. 

I got my buddies I talk sports with, others I talk just work and social issues, but my music conversations are really special. My family enjoys music and were responsible for getting me into it in the first place, but we don't talk about it all that much. I'm the only one who listens to rock and blues, and while my sisters and I listen to hip-hop, r&b and pop we have differing tastes in those too. So our music conversations are somewhat limited.

I like the concept of what The Band did where they basically had a fraternity house with a recording studio in their living room. They had a game room, a swimming pool in the back and a den for hanging out, but the living room was full of gear and recording equipment. That's my dream house. Or like what John Mayer did when he recorded "Battle Studies".

Me in a house with recording equipment and just a place to hang out with family and friends and lay down tracks whenever we effing feel like it. That's the life for me. That an a sweet RV.

I know JM bought his Earth Roamer for half a mil with his rich-ass self, but this baby's only $118,000 (check out the floor plan): 
Itasca Sunova

Check out the living area:

Bedroom:

Overall floor plan:

Not bad, huh? I like the idea of just cruising around in an RV for weeks at a time, just with an acoustic, or if I want to go electric I can get a portable power supply (don't want to use up the car battery now). Dreams . . .

I Am A Poor Boy Too, Pa-Rumpa-Pum-Pum

So a guy in a Facebook guitar page I'm in, "Sixstringers", just posted his rig. Very impressive. Got a huge Fender amp, an American standard Strat, and a nice assortment of pedals, probably totaling at least $1,000.

So what do I have, you wonder?

Guitars: 
Sawtooth Strat ($70)

Oscar Schmidt Folk Acoustic-Electric (OG8CE; $180 including gig bag)

Amp:
Vox AC1RV Rhythm Vox ($60)

Pedals:
Zoom G5 ($300)

Boss RC-3 ($200)

Recording:
iPad ($120 used)
Garageband ($5)

Total: $935

That's on a substitute special education teaching assistant salary, BTW. LOL

I was only able to afford the G5 and Rc-3 because I managed to qualify for a Sweetwater Store Card and am paying those off slowly. I do have a lot more gear I'm hoping to get this year, but I'm trying to save for a trip to Hawaii, so I'll have to hold off on a lot of those. Maybe I can spring for another inexpensive guitar and an upgrade to my amp. Of course if I land a job at Guitar Center (fingers crossed) I can get stuff quicker with the employee discount. =)

(No copyright infringement intended with these videos and pictures. Just wanted to showcase the items. Thanks to Anderton's Music in the UK and Sweetwater in the US for making these great videos!)

Is This It?

Didn't even give my last post a day to marinate, but just wanted to update that my I posted a link to my blog on my Facebook group, "Sixstringers", and I got some great feedback.

As mentioned, I was going to get into the Gibson Learn and Master guitar series. I already knew about it, but being as stubborn and cocky as I am, I thought I could do better. Turns out I can't. It's structured very logically, and especially with the Bonus Resources book goes through each topic (or "Session", as they call them) in great detail. Can't wait to tackle it.

I'll use other books for reference and as supplements, but for now I'll just focus on the Gibson series. There's DVDs and backing track CDs available, but mainly because I'm cheap I won't get them. The books should be enough material for now. Besides, when I bought the Guitar System, it included streaming videos and I didn't even use those much.

Time to dive in! (photo courtesy of photobucket.com)

Guitar learning thoughts, material

(sighs in frustration but also relief)

So as I mentioned in my first blog, I've been struggling with this beautiful instrument, the guitar, for several years. I've spent hundreds of dollars on books and different guitar website subscriptions to learn how to play this damn thing. People have recommended private lessons, and I do know a guy who I can get lessons from at a reasonable price (comparably speaking), but even $40 for an hour's worth of lessons is a bit much. I can pay $15-20 a month for all the lessons I want and I can learn at my own pace.

I guess my problem has been information overload. If I could go back in time to early 2011, when I first committed to this instrument, I would have said,"All you really need is to get your strumming rhythm down and learn chords, including barre chords. Then once you get that down, learn chord/scale relationships and write riffs based on that. Learn some legato techniques (hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides), some bending, and since you already learned scales based on chords, use those to start soloing."

Maybe I'll discuss playing in different positions on the fretboard, but since I've already learned barre chords at different positions it's not really necessary.

Just went through my fifth different guitar method (first I tried Hal Leonard's, then Alfred's, then Mel Bay's, then the Berklee Modern Method, and finally Essential Elements. All the same things: chords, some fingerpicking, scales, and some basic solo techniques. I WANT TO PLAY!!!!!!

My Facebook buddy suggested Gibson's Learn and Master Guitar. I've checked it out a few times, but of course in my immaturity (or delusion) before I was like "Too much work; I want to start shredding NOW!" (I sound like Veruca Salt).

I guess what's held me back is I never really set goals for myself. Like do I want to just be able to play tunes for friends and family or do I want to be a kickass guitar god? More of the latter.

Part of that means I have to WORK. But my brain needs structure. I need a step-by-step program. Some methods start okay and then devolve into some smorgasbord of scales and theory and my brain screams for it to stop.

I've been working on some kind of "guitar syllabus". Maybe I can parlay it into paid lessons. We'll see. But for now it's so I can get a sense of how to play this damn instrument. I found a little $3 book on Kindle by some dude named Justin Kregger who wanted to teach his kids to play guitar. It's titled "How I Taught My Kids To Play Guitar in Less Than One Hour! Using A Single String." 

Needs some work on the grammar, but it's an interesting concept. Just using the bottom string (6th string or low E string, whatever you want to call it), he teaches simple melodies. No theory, nothing, just essentially like TAB where he numbers the frets.

It's beautiful in its simplicity.

So after years and all this money spent, I've come down to this (the books are more for reference):

1) Learn melodies string by string in different keys, which involves pitch and rhythm (melodic intervals)
Books:
The Guitarist's Guide to Music Reading (Chris Buono)
Sight-Reading for the Contemporary Guitarist (Tom Dempsey)

Optional: 
Hal Leonard Easy Pop Melodies series
2) Learn/integrate harmonic intervals (2-note up to 6-note), and eventually chords
Books: 
Sight-Reading for the Contemporary Guitarist (Tom Dempsey)

Optional: 
Hal Leonard Easy Pop Rhythms series

3) Learn right and left hand techniques
Books: 
Hal Leonard Guitar Techniques (Michael Mueller)
Ultimate Guitar Technique (Bill LaFleur)

4) Learn about chord progressions (theory)
Books: 
Idiot's Guide to Music Composition (Michael Miller)

5) Create riffs using melodic and harmonic intervals plus rhythm and techniques
Books: 
Riffs (Rikky Rooksby)

6) Learn different styles
Books: 
Chord Progressions For Guitar (Tom Kolb)
Hal Leonard Rhythm Riffs (Greg Koch)
Hal Leonard stylistic series

So where's soloing? IMHO, I feel like if you have a good sense of chord-scale relations, techniques and rhythm, lead playing should come somewhat naturally. There's plenty of material on scales out there to brush up, but a lot of soloing is about the ear and feel. Maybe start with a one-note solo, then progress to 2 notes, then 3 notes, etc. The HL style series has books on blues and rock, too, so there should be some soloing tips there.

There's a couple of websites I like: Guitar Tricks, Truefire and Guitar Systems. While they all attempt to create some sort of order, it's all about just picking and choosing what you want to focus on.

I downloaded the Gibson Learn and Master guitar lesson and bonus resources books as reference (you can get them here at: http://www.learnandmaster.com/lessonbook/, just enter your name and e-mail address and it's instant access), but for the most part above is my syllabus.
While it's nice to have some kind of coherence, at the end of the day it's about what you feel like playing. Maybe one week you're on this blues kick, and the next you want to play some rockabilly or country. I guess my whole point in this crazy post is to find your own path. Keep things as simple and straightforward as possible, but leave room for inspiration and don't be afraid to wander down a rabbit trail. Most of all, while it can be work at times, it's all about having effing fun.

In the meantime, here's a video of someone having fun (fast-forward to 3:26; the whole performance is cool, but that solo at the end is EPIC)

Oh No, I Didn't

So I went and did it.

I bought myself a looper pedal.

I was going to settle for maybe a Digitech JamMan Express XT or Boss RC-1 for the sake of budget, but my Facebook guitar buddy convinced me to splurge a bit on a Boss RC-3, which has 99 banks to save loops on and a USB so you can save those 99 on your computer, empty the banks and make 99 more. 

So why a looper pedal? As much as I enjoy recording duet tracks on Garageband, I have to do one track, then go back and do the second track and it takes a while, but with the looper I can hit the switch, record, play one part, hit the switch to overdub the second part, and it's done.

Feel like it's starting to get serious now. I'm still not a great guitarist or recording master by any means, but I'm starting to get into a nice groove with both, and my goal is to be performing in public by summer. I've gotten some lyrical ideas down and hopefully I can start making my own songs. My sister's wedding in August might be my first real live performance playing guitar, and then from there I'll try and get into some open mics, maybe have some business cards made and try to get gigs at weddings, parties, school functions, etc.

I've played live at church stuff in the past, but the audience tends to be a lot more supportive. When I play at bars, lounges or whatever, who knows what type of crowd it'll be. I might get booed off stage within five minutes. But it's funny how a lot of insight I've gotten on live performance has come not from musicians but stand-up comedians. One of my favorites is Steve Byrne (who I saw live last summer, BTW). He said the key is if you can try new material, bomb and still keep your cool. 

And again it depends on the crowd. Maybe a crowd mostly full of young girls might want something sappy, and a crowd full of, say, bikers might want something more gritty. Fortunately, I like all kinds of music, so no matter what the audience I'm pretty confident I'll be able to cater to them.

Time to get back to work. Got a bit of the carpal tunnel so I bought some wrist supports at Target and they seem to help. I even play guitar with them; I was worried they'd get in the way but it's been pretty smooth.

Here's a great demo video: 

So this is a story . . .

Disclaimer: I did not create the title in order to get more hits. John Mayer really did save my life.

It was early 2011. My beloved aunt had just passed from breast cancer a few months before (the day after my 27th birthday, no less). I wasn't getting a lot of work at my current job, tried to apply for other jobs but going nowhere, was damn near broke, and had fallen into depression and contemplating suicide.

Then one day I was perusing through Pandora and I heard John Mayer do a live cover of Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'". I found out it was part of a concert entitled "Where The Light Is", and I found videos on Youtube. I knew John was a big pop star and had a history of dating beautiful actresses, but not much else about him. But when I watched this concert form beginning to end, I was mesmerized by his incredible guitar and songwriting skill. 

Around the same time I got a call from work about a long-term assignment. I'm not a religious or New Agey kind of person, but it was like lightning had struck. I had rediscovered a purpose in life. 

Side note: One of the last days with my aunt, we were just kind of hanging around the apartment, just the two of us. Then out of nowhere she asks,"Do you still play guitar?" 

It was like a battering ram out of nowhere. I had started playing guitar a few years back but then lost interest, and up until then it seemed like no one even noticed.

So thanks to John Mayer and my aunt, I started on this quest to learn all I could about how to play this wonderful instrument. I went to Guitar Center the next day and bought a $120 Squier Bullet sunburst Strat and a $20 Danelectro mini-amp. I signed up for a website to learn guitar and even got to bring my guitar to work, where to the irritation of my co-workers I dragged my way through basic chords.

I wish I could say I went on to become really good at the guitar and launched my music career, but sadly it hasn't turned out that way. After my assignment was over I actually put the guitar down for a bit. I tried to sell it and make a few bucks out of it, but Guitar Center was being stingy, and on the way home I lost the guitar.

But I bought a Squier mini strat for $100, got a Line 6 Pocket Pod express for about $40 and have since gotten back into the thick of things. I'm still basically a late beginner/early intermediate level player, but the biggest change for me is while before it was all about getting crazy skills as quickly as possible, now it's just fun. I was just at Guitar Center the other day for a job interview, and I ended up staying a couple of hours afterward just trying out different guitars (a Tele, a Les Paul, a semi-hollow and hollow body). Even though I had the audacity to play a basic D chord on the hollow body, I didn't give two shits. I'm just enjoying it now.

I still wish I was better, and I know it's going to be a grind to get to that master level, but it's easier in the sense that when I play now there's no pressure to be this epic player. I'm just having fun, and I know the more I play the skill will come.

Fast forward 4 years: I love JM's music so much now (shout out to my "John Mayer" and "John Mayer Knows Best" Facebook pages), and I've gotten into so many other great artists both older (B.B. King) and younger (Ed Sheeran) thanks to JM's influence. I'm still doing the same crappy job (although hopefully Guitar Center hires me), but I'm getting a lot more work now, and saving up for more gear. I've been able to get a $70 Sawtooth Strat with a maple neck and sunburst (it works great for a cheap guitar), a Vox AC1 Rhythm Vox (complete with built-in drum beats), and I splurged on a Zoom G5 (fortunately I got a Sweetwater gift card, so I've been able to pay it off in increments), and I'm looking at getting either a Jackson JS22 metallic blue Dinky or some kind of Les Paul knockoff. Maybe even a hollow-body.

I'm good with my life now, and it wouldn't have happened if not for a tall, lanky, talented man from Fairfield, CT. Thank you, Mr. Mayer.