Part Three: Guitar dreams and struggles

Guitar is now firmly in my sub conscious as I am having guitar dreams. Last night I dreamt that Graham Coxon was giving me a guitar lesson. I told him that I struggled to change from the C chord to the G chord and he said it was to do with my elbow position. He then got me to play the chords and said it was due to the action of my guitar and asked me if it had been dropped or damaged. Just as I was about to find out more information that probably wasn’t true, the dream changed. I remember trying to force it to come back but that never works with dreams. A similar thing happened a few nights ago when I was playing the guitar in a large room with my guitar teacher and lots of other people that I presumed to be friends of his. I was enjoying this but then my alarm clock went off.

Monday’s guitar lesson was cancelled by Max. He suggested Tuesday but that was Brit awards night, so I said Wednesday. I always watch the Brit awards, even when they’re shit. The worst one was the year Cat Dealey hosted and was introduced on stage riding a bottle of champagne. The Darkness cleaned up that year, even winning a specially invented Rock award, which was soon dropped by the Brits when they realised what I had known since day one about that band – that they were a complete novelty and were destined for long-term failure. 1995 was my first Brits and my musical epiphany, the year Blur cleaned up for Parklife. That night not only changed the lives of the members of Blur, it changed my life and the lives of millions of others too. 17 years later (where do the years go?) they would be collecting an outstanding contribution to music award and I wasn’t going to miss that.

 IMAGE: Cat Deeley rides a giant bottle of champagne at the 2004 Brit awards

Unfortunately, the celebration of their success was spoilt by ITV’s Brit awards producers. Adele’s acceptance speech for best album was cut before she even got to say thank you to anyone, so Blur walked onto a chorus of boos. You could see the shock and determination in the band member’s faces as they were surprised by the reaction but were determined to turn it around. Unfortunately the pissed music industry execs and celebs didn’t sing along, much to Damon’s surprise and frustration. He really gave it everything though, and you could see how much effort he had put in at the end of their 5-song 11-minute set of Girls & Boys, Song 2, Parklife, Tender and This is a Low. The highlight was Tender but this would have been missed by the vast majority of the ITV1 audience, as ITV cut Blur towards the end of Parklife and didn’t announce that they were continuing on ITV2 until the end of a 5-minute ad break. It wouldn’t have happened on the BBC.

The other highlight was some good close-ups of Graham playing his black Fender Telecaster Deluxe guitar. I look closely at guitarists now and try and see what they’re doing and work out what chords and notes they’re playing. I do this with the Covent Garden buskers I walk past every day and guitarists I see on TV. Other than some tricky note playing, Graham was playing quite a lot of barre chords.

I went to Max’s that Wednesday and played one of the simple folk songs I’d learnt that week – Down in the Valley. Frustratingly I didn’t play it as well as I had during the week, but he seemed reasonably pleased with my progress.  I then played him the two-note power chords, which again seemed adequate. I was then shown 3-note power chords, barre chords, some 12-bar blues riffs and  the music  to You Really Got Me by the Kinks. All seemed impossibly hard, but knowing that I had managed to work through the previous week’s work quite well, I hoped that I would continue to make improvements.

This week’s homework has been my hardest and most frustrating yet. In previous weeks I couldn’t play the pieces at first but then got the hang of them as the week went on. This week, however, I have really struggled. It has felt like when I first tried to learn how to play the guitar: My fingers hurt, they won’t stretch far enough, and I can’t get the chords and notes to sound nice. I felt quite depressed as I hit this brick wall. But that’s the thing about learning the guitar, or any other musical instrument, or new skill – some bits you find fairly easy and pick up quickly and other bits you find really hard and take ages to master. 

 I had enjoyed playing the simple folk songs as I picked them up easy, but found the 3-note power chords, blues riffs and You Really Got Me, with its power and barre chords, really hard. But as I wanted to be able to do more than play simple folk songs I had to do something about this. To overcome this frustration, I simplified things. Instead of playing 3 notes at a time I played one or 2 and used my little finger as much as possible in order to strengthen it and harden the skin on it. The little finger on my left hand is hardly ever used, not even for typing, so unsurprisingly I was finding it hard to stretch it to reach the notes I needed to play a few frets down from where my first and second fingers were.

 It also hurt when I pressed down on the strings with my little finger, so I played as many four-finger chords as possible. In the process I learn the C7, G7 and E7 chords, which I enjoy playing as they make a really nice sound and are quite easy to change to and from each other. I wrote a simple riff based on strumming and then picking the notes of these chords. I enjoyed this – the first thing I had ever written on the guitar, and instantly felt a lot better about my progress.

Another development this week was when I worked out the layout of the notes on a guitar. Again, this is something fairly obvious to someone with basic musical training, but something that had confused me and I was pleased that I had worked it out for myself. Play the top E-string open and you will have the note of E; put your finger down on the first fret and you have the note of F (as there is no E sharp/ F flat); put your finger down on the second fret and you have the note of atF sharp/G flat; and so on as you go up the scale of notes – C, D, E, F, G, A and B. The second string of the guitar played open gives you B; put your finger on the first fret and you have C (as there is no B sharp/C flat); put your finger on the second fret and you have C sharp/D flat; and so on up the scale as per before. Each string of the guitar is the notes of a piano, just starting in a different position.

On reflection, despite my frustrations at not being able to complete my homework for the first time, I had learnt quite a lot that week. Certainly family members could notice an improvement. Once again I am pleased with my progress but overwhelmed by the amount there is to learn. I remind myself that I have only be properly learning the guitar for 3 weeks and that what makes the guitar such a fascinating and beautiful instrument is that you never stop learning…

Lessons learnt: 12-bar blues pattern; F chord and barre chords; 3-note E5/E6, A5/A6 and D5/D6 power chords; C7, G7 and E7 chords, the layout of the notes on a guitar; my first self-composed guitar riff.

Part Two: Denmark Street

Lesson two was the following Monday.  I had managed to find my cheap guitar case and carefully placed my guitar in it. Walking to the car with my guitar case in hand I felt that I taken my first step on the infinite guitar ladder. Once again I felt incredibly nervous as I stood outside Max’s house – I could feel my heart beating strongly and I felt sick. I thought about how quickly I could run out of his front room and back into the street if I needed to vomit. I tapped on the door and thankfully my nerves soon disappeared as I stepped inside. I managed to play the simplest piece of homework quite well but messed up the second piece a bit, despite having previously played it well at home. It made me realise that it takes a while to get warmed up. Despite this, he seemed pleased with my progress.

I was shown some fourth string (D) notes, scales, a couple of simple tunes and my first look at 2-note power chords. 2-note power chords are played with the root and the fifth notes of the chord. So the E power chord, or E5, for example, is played by only strumming the bottom E string open and the fifth (A) string with your finger pressed down on the second fret. This gives you the notes E and B – played together you have E5 as B is the fifth note above E – E, A, D, G, and B. Next is the A power chord or A5. This is played by playing the fifth (A) string open and your finger down on the second fret of the fourth (D) string. This gives you the notes A and E – A5 as E is the fifth note above A – A, D, G, B and E. Thirdly I learnt D5.

That week’s practise went well, with at least an hour each day from Thursday to Sunday. The only night I didn’t practise much was Tuesday, Valentine’s Day, where my shortened 5 minutes of practise was met with very disapproving and disappointed looks from my girlfriend. I practised my week one pieces (first, second and third string notes, plus The Long Black Veil) before spending more time on my week two pieces (fourth string notes, E minor scale, G major scale,  Twinkle Twinkle, Danny Boy, Down in the Valley, Red Red Mountain, and E5, A5 and D5 power chords). It was a fun week’s practise and I particularly enjoyed playing the folk songs. Down in the Valley was recognised by Selina and she started whistling along, and whilst playing a power chords piece I was told that I ‘was definitely improving’. Good signs and it’s great to see the progress but it’s quite overwhelming the amount there still is to learn to become anywhere near a competent guitarist.

My guitar time had so far been limited to half an hour to an hour’s practise in the evening, and I wanted it to be a greater part of my life. I thought about finding a guitar shop and playing one of their guitars at lunchtime, so I searched online and found a guitar shop on Denmark Street in Holborn, about 10 minutes’ walk from where I work. The name seemed familiar but I didn’t think of why, and walked there one lunchtime.

 As I reached the street I saw the guitar shop I was looking for. Then I was shocked as I saw another, then another, a couple more, a drum shop, a vintage guitar shop, a saxophone shop, a couple of music shops and some more guitar shops. Denmark Street really is quite a sight. If you are a musician of any level and are in London then you must visit there; it’s quite amazing. Staring at some beautiful guitars in the many shop windows of this small side street I thought about what shop to go into. Most of the shops looked very cool, with knowing people inside, many of who had long hair and facial hair (such a cliché).  Immediately I dropped all thoughts of playing a guitar in any of these shops for a long time yet. I avoided the cool looking shops and went for the one that most looked like a high street store – Music Room. 

 IMAGE: Denmark Street music shops

As I walked into the shop a man was sitting on a stool and very beautifully playing an acoustic guitar. My heart melted. There is no better sound than an acoustic guitar being played well. That moment reinforced my decision to lean the guitar – if I could even come close to replicating that sound then I’d be very happy indeed. I looked at the many music books in the shop and then went downstairs to look at the guitars. They all looked beautiful and I was quite keen to have a go on one of the acoustics but declined when I was offered the chance, having lost my nerve. I bought a basic guitar workout book to supplement my lessons, plus a guitar lead and some plectrums, and then left, quite overwhelmed by the whole experience. That street is an amazing place and holds a lot of history having been the place where Elton John, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, amongst others, wrote and recorded some of their classic songs. But I walked away thinking that I would need quite a lot more guitar practise before I could walk down that street again…

Lessons learnt: 2 note E5, A5, D5 power chords; E minor and G major scales; some simple folk songs.

Part One: Does he know you can’t play the guitar?

Type ‘guitar tutor’ into Google and one of the first results is the Registry of Guitar Tutors. I wanted a proper teacher and this seemed like the place to go. Fortunately for me there was a guitar tutor in Downham Market where I live. His name was Max Elliott – I liked the name, he definitely sounded like a musician - and I called him on Monday lunchtime and arranged my first lesson for late that evening.

I couldn’t find the cheap guitar case that had come with my guitar, so I picked up my guitar and went to leave the house for my first lesson. Just before I left, my girlfriend wished me luck and then asked “does he know you can’t play the guitar?” I laughed and hoped that my guitar tutor would be more encouraging. It was a very cold night so by the time I had walked from where I had parked my car to where Max lived, my guitar was very cold. I thought that this probably wasn’t a good thing. Trying to avoid the snow and ice, I walked up to his door, took a deep breath and knocked nervously.

I sat down on a hard chair in his bohemian front room that was dedicated to music – lots of books, CDs, a decent stereo and a music stand were its key features.  I played my repertoire of chords –D, E, A, G, C, E minor, A minor (I initially forgot to include D7 but then dismissed it) as cleanly and as deliberately as possible. He seemed pleased, which was encouraging, but then it was time to play a tune. I had  previously learnt Three Blind Mice to a fairly decent standard – one which I play all the correct notes and people can recognise what I’m playing anyway – but managed to mess up the middle bit (‘they all ran after the farmer’s wife...’) quite badly and it took me a few goes to get it right.

Max saw that I wasn’t moving my fingers very well as I was using my first finger too much. I was given a piece of sheet music, which fortunately also had the guitar tab, and was asked to play a sequence of notes on the top E string. I then was given a piece for the second (B) string and another for the third (G) string. Then I was shown a simple piece that Max had written and the traditional song Long Black Veil. Long Black Veil involved holding down different chord shapes and then playing some of the notes of that chord. I hadn’t done this before – I had either just played chords or notes - so it took me a little while to grasp this concept.  One of the chords was a new one for me – B7. This involves using all four fingers and leaving the second (B) string open, so can be quite tricky but I was pleased when I got it right first time.

 IMAGE: B7 chord, the first time I've used my fourth (little) finger

I was also given some rudimentary music theory and was pleased that I knew more than I thought – perhaps I had paid some attention in pre-GCSE music classes after all. I learnt that looking at the musical notation was a great help as it explains when to play the notes and for how long. Pretty obvious stuff but not so if you’re used to looking at chord boxes and guitar tab. Despite being quite overwhelmed by the whole experience I found it enjoyable and Max to be patient and encouraging – two essential qualities for a good teacher.

I briefly practised when I got home, with my new expanded guitar mantra of 3 rules: 1. the guitar is a musical instrument, not a toy; 2. I must practice the guitar every day, even if it is for just 5 minutes. 3. I must do all the ‘homework’ I am given.  The third one I had learnt at University when I realised that if you actually do all the work that your teachers give you to then you’ll do well. I struggled with the pieces at first but as the week went on and I continued to practise for about 30 minutes each evening, I was pleased to see that I could play these pieces after all. It made me realise 2 things: 1. there is an overwhelmingly huge amount of things to learn on the guitar; 2. that if you practice you will get better.

  

Pleased with my progress I looked forward to the weekend where I could spend more time playing, unfortunately redecorating our bedroom and hallway got in the way of that. I was anxious and frustrated as I sanded away at the walls and my bad mood was clear to my girlfriend. Thankfully I just about managed to avoid a domestic crisis and sneaked in a couple of hours of practise over the weekend, exclusively playing my homework…

Lessons learnt: Practise every day; do all the homework I’m given; one finger per fret; B7 chord; hold down a chord shape and play notes from that chord; smooth playing is what sounds good, so slow down playing until it is smooth; basic music notation.

Intro: My fourth but first guitar

Conscious of my previously loathed guitars I wanted to make sure that I bought an instrument that I actually liked the look of. It would be my fourth guitar but really my first one as it would be the first one that I would learn to play properly. I wanted an electric rather than acoustic guitar as unplugged from an amplifier it would make less noise as I learnt to play it and would be more tolerable to my girlfriend, Selina.

I didn’t want to go for the Les Paul Gibson or Fender Stratocaster shapes as, for me, these are showy guitars and cheap copies look even worse in the hands of someone who can’t play them. Out of the most common guitar shapes that left me with the Fender Telecaster.  It’s my favourite guitar shape as it is simple, yet beautiful, which is what I am aiming for musically. Its simplicity is its beauty and it is a fantastic design.  Many of my favourite guitarists also chose the Telecaster – Joe Strummer of The Clash, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, Graham Coxon of Blur and…Francis Rossi of Status Quo!

Whilst I was more determined to learn this time, I knew myself well and didn’t want to waste money on something that I might soon give up, so I went for the best cheap guitar I could find. I chose the Encore E-2 Blaster in beautiful sunburst. It may be a cheap guitar in that it cost under £120, but for me it is absolutely gorgeous. Guitar purchased I set about learning properly for the first time, giving myself the rule that this was a musical instrument, not a toy. This meant if I was going to play it I was only going to play it properly and not trash about aimlessly on it.

IMAGE:  My guitar, an Encore E-2 Blaster in beautiful sunburst

I soon picked up my previously leant chords and concentrated on strumming away on A, E and D. I did this for a while, playing but not really practising about once a week. Then unsurprisingly I lost interest again. A few months later I renewed my interest and started playing along to free online videolessons from Justin Sandecoe. This helped and I got as far as playing a slowed down version of Three Little Birds by Bob Marley. But again life got in the way again and I stopped playing for a while.

Then early January this year, frustrated that my very busy life contained nothing creative, I decided to pick up my guitar again, with the determination that this time I would really learn how to play it properly. I learnt to read guitar tab for the first time and to my pleasure learnt some very simple yet instantly recognisable songs including Three Blind Mice and Happy Birthday to You. After years of strumming away aimlessly at chords, I was delighted to discover that it was actually easier to play notes. Being a massive Damon Albarn fan I also learnt the easy guitar parts to the Gorillaz songs Clint Eastwood, Feel Good Inc. and Stylo.

Pleased with my progress I also learnt a few more chords and set about trying to play some more simple songs. But I felt that despite finally putting some real effort in, I was years away from where I wanted to be as a guitarist and decided that the only thing I could do to speed things up would be to take some proper lessons with a guitar tutor…

Lessons learnt: Guitar tab; C, G, E minor and A minor chords; the guitar is a musical instrument, not a toy; get a teacher and have some lessons.

Prelude: Why I want to play the guitar

I’ve wanted to play the guitar for a long time but have never really seriously considered learning it properly until now. I love music and would love to create my own. I have done this to a point previously with a keyboard, drum machine and a computer but have always been frustrated that I couldn’t really play a musical instrument properly. For me, the electric guitar is one of the greatest inventions of the 20^th Century – it is beautiful, sounds amazing and has caused countless cultural revolutions.  I would very much like to be able to play one, so finally and belatedly I am learning how to. This blog is the account of my guitar playing progress, thoughts and experiences.

My first guitar was around my third birthday – I know this because there is a photo of me in my Mum’s house wearing an ‘I am 3’ badge and holding a plastic toy acoustic guitar. Perhaps tellingly, in the picture I am holding the guitar back-to-front. I never made any effort to play it but I probably liked holding it. My next guitar was around the age of 12 – it was a Christmas present – a cheap electric Stratocaster shape in black and came with a headphone amp. It didn’t look very nice – it was and looked quite cheap. Again I made no effort to learn how to play it but I enjoyed holding it and posing with it in my bedroom as I pretended to play along to Guns n Roses and Def Leppard songs. (It was two years before my musical epiphany and my taste in music was very much limited to hard rock). I had a very active imagination at the time and my inability to play didn’t prevent me from boasting to my classmates that I could play the guitar and was going to form a band. I only got found out in the third year of high school when my music teacher introduced the guitar to the class and they soon realised that I couldn’t even play a chord.

Around the age of 16, my friend Rob was in a band and he taught me my first few chords – D, A, E and D7, for which he tried to get me to play along to Columbia by Oasis. That was as far as I got though as I soon lost interest and threw away the guitar.

 IMAGE: D7, my first chord

At the age of 19 I desperately wanted to be in a band. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t play any instrument; I felt that it was my calling in life to be in a band. So I formed one with my two best friends at the time. Mark played bass to an impressive standard – I was amazed when he first played me the bass line to Girls and Boys in full – and had an exhaustive knowledge of music. He introduced me to The Clash, The Doors and The Stone Roses, for which I will forever be grateful. Tom was from quite a musical family and played the guitar. He didn’t know as many tunes as Mark but was a very creative player and I saw him as Graham Coxon to Mark’s Alex James. I wanted to be Damon Albarn but I couldn’t sing and had very little confidence, so I set myself up as the keyboard and drum machine programmer.

Before settling on hitting buttons in the band, I tried to play the guitar and seeing as I didn’t have one I went to a guitar shop in Ipswich and bought one. As I tried out a couple of guitars, the owner quickly realised I couldn’t play a note, so he sold me the worst electric guitar in the shop at a price that was definitely too high. It was a Les Paul Gibson shape but again looked very cheap and had a horrible tacky black colour. Again other than the few chords that Rob had previously taught me, I made no real effort and just strummed away aimlessly. When I soon realised that I could make much better sounds with a drum machine and a keyboard rather than a cheap guitar that I couldn’t play, I soon gave up and sold the guitar to a friend of my brother’s.

Nearly ten years later at the age of 28 it was my brother who encouraged me to pick up the guitar again. My brother Chris had previously been in covers band, where he played the drums to what I saw as a decent standard. I was frustrated that he had given up a musical instrument that he could actually play so I told him to start playing again and he said he would if I bought a guitar. This seemed like a good deal so I set about buying one...

Lessons Learnt: D, A, E and D7 chords.