Big Update On Things

I've been working incredibly hard the last week and its been a mix of frustration, breakthroughs and inspiration.

About a year ago I learnt Metallica's Nothing Else Matters which I love, at the time I was just trying to learn the notes and play it all.  Now I'm relearning it and it's about timing and attention to articulation because I want it to sound beautiful and clean so it's going to take some real effort to get to a place where I can record.

I've had a breakthrough with Tom's style of funky fingerpicking, I can't do my own yet but I can play the examples he wrote for me and that's a BIG step it's taken me ages to get there.  I'm very excited though because as you know I REALLY want to play this kind of music on the guitar.

I'm writing a new piano song and this one I want to really work hard on because I think it's beautiful, or at least it would be if I could play like Tom but I'll have to do my best with what I've got.  It's another of my mixed key songs but you can see the demo in the video.  I've actually added a few more chords than you'll see including a Bdim which I love to bits.

I'm still working on "It's Never Easy" - I've redone the guitar verses and I'm happier with how they are going but I'm still frustrated at my crappy playing.  But as I'm always saying better is one step closer - always.

On bass I'm still learning "Little Green Bag" - such a cool song!  I'm really pushing hard on getting left hand independence on piano which is going to take FOREVER and is incredibly frustrating.  I'm trying to work on drum rhythms over songs and get my foot working without me thinking - that's also going to take FOREVER.  I'm trying to funk up more on bass - FOREVER and I'm working very very hard on soloing and of course that funky playing style on guitar.

One thing that has really helped is playing over a basic drum beat and either strumming or pick a barre chord for a bar and then noodle for a bar thinking about the chord I'm playing.  I try to focus on using the whole fretboard and to think about rhythms and about connecting the last line to the next one.  In doing that I'm working on my barres, my timing, my rhythm, soloing over chords, soloing within a particular scale, scale shapes and I'm sure many other things.  What I love about exercises like this is that if you think about what you're doing it's never boring because you're improving so many areas as long as you focus on them.  That's cool!

So many cool things about music!  I'll try posting regularly again but it's tough with so much effort going into my Instagram posts and my practice is now insane.  I do think I've had a few steps forward recently though so that makes me feel good.  STILL not being able to play even simple versions of blues, rock or funk songs frustrates the hell out of me though.  Only one solution - work..!  I need to get my head down and figure out out.