Saturday, July 18, 2009

The plucky ones

A few months ago, I started a new book with lots of fingerstyle pieces. I've nailed down the two or three that I like and want to know by heart, and started pulling out some of my many other books to find one with pieces that would be fun to work on.

I found one in the stack that I used to play from all the time that's all about Celtic and American flatpicking fiddle tunes. Real nice. There were a bunch that I used to play and that I'd marked in the book and it's been fun going back to these, finding my fingers almost remember them.

There are a few new ones that I've gotten hooked on and those are fun too. I'm noticing that my "guitar memory" seems to have improved. That is, I seem to be better able to memorize lines at a time. I'm also noticing that I'm more comfortable playing tunes with a greater fret range. Where previously I preferred the tunes where I could pretty much anchor my left hand, now I'm much better with moving the left up and down the fretboard.

4 comments:

Eve said...

I heard a comedian say when we memorize, like you do with "lines at a time", it shoots something else OUT of our memory. There simply isn't enough space for everything at our age.

So, here I am, just before 6am on a Saturday, to remind you to play something a little Celtic next time you visit, and I'll easily remember to pour you a little Shiraz.

Mike said...

Ah, if only the Celts made wine, eh?

Eve said...

Every country on the globe makes wine...maybe not the Celts but I would bet you could find something close! Then I want to hear some strumming!

(I'm not getting e-mail confirmation of comments waiting to be moderated on my blog since I got home. They appear when I go to post. Did you change any settings?)

Mike said...

e

Didn't touch any settings.

I'm thinking there's mead, beer, and scotch of course!

The Bretons are Celts though, so there must be wine down there, no?