After my two guitar related experiences this year, both being able to meet Steve Vai in person and my visit to the grave of Randy Rhoads I guess you can say I’ve been more inspired than previously to continue learning the guitar. Both were life goals that actually were able to have a leveling effect on me mentally as to what I wanted to accomplish by playing the guitar and making me realize that it was more for personal satisfaction than to actually do something with it. This shift has helped a lot to relieve the sense of personal failure I used to have every time I picked up the guitar.
However, once I got leveled mentally, the physical world kicked in. Over the last few months I have had more than the average trouble with arthritis / tendonitis flare ups (a problem I’ve had since my mid-twenties), which have made it hard to even think about practicing. So I haven’t been able to do it as much as I had originally wanted to.
This aside though, I’m getting more pleasure out of it now than I used to and decided it was time to start taking snapshots of my progress as I learn new things. I can’t trust myself to keep backup tracks on the GNX4, as I keep doing new takes over the old ones, so I decided periodically to grab the files off of the GNX4 and create mp3’s out of them and put them somewhere.
Now the question is where to put them. I decided it might be a good thing just to throw them up here as a place outside the house where I know they will be backed up. Now, once I do that, I might as well make them visible, just for the hell of it.
So here is my latest project. Since the visit to the Rhoads grave site in May, I have basically been living on steady diet of the Ozzy Tribute album, which has also renewed my awe at the song Mr. Crowley, so I decided to start learning it.
I’m starting with the outtro solo, since that probably one of my all time favorite solos. I currently have the first 41 seconds down in a state suitable as a snapshot of where I am. I hope to do this periodically so that I can come back and listen to them as I progress.
Before you listen to it, let me just say that I know the first part isn’t right. I’ve talked before about how my speed just isn’t where it needs to be, so I took the liberty of modifying the first part into something I can actually play. Rather than the fast triplets on the album, I’m adding an extra note to the end of each phrase, so that I can actually play it.
So, here it is. My first public snapshot of where I’m at. Overall I don’t think it sounds too bad, and am actually quite proud of this one. It’s probably the first time in a long time that I can actually listen to something I’ve done and go “Hey, that’s me!”.
For the record, this was recorded using my Ibanez JEM on the GNX4, again sitting on my bedroom floor. I haven’t mastered the whole punching in / out thing, so this was all done in one take.
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