Sock monsters, picks, and capos

In my quest to learn guitar, I broke down and took my Free To a Good Home guitar in to have it set up to lower the action. If it was lowered, it wasn't by much, but the fret board is much cleaner and they switched it to light Martin Silk & Steel strings. So daily practice has resumed and calouses are coming along nicely. Chords that I can play reasonably well now are G,D,E,C,A,Em,Am,Dm,B7. During my self studies, I have been making use of YouTube, and I ran across this very informative post on how to use a Capo, which warns against the Sock monster. Apparently Sock monsters play guitar and not only take one of your socks, but your picks and capos as well. Watch out people!

Plant Your Hope With Good Seeds

Sometimes I just need to drink in music, and when I do, adding a visual element is wonderful. YouTube is a great place for that, and today I discovered that lots of Game of Thrones fans have been making music videos focusing on Arya Stark. This led me to discovering a new song I want to cover, check it out: There has been lots of daily practice of guitar for me, but it will be many moons before I'm ready to play in front of anyone. I need get a firm foundation first.

Third Time's the Charm...

Around my 14th birthday, or was it Christmas? I got a guitar for my Dad as a gift. It was a Yamaha 6 String and I learned a few chords and played it for a few months before setting it aside to grow my fingernails long. Yup, I was That Girl, all about the makeup and nails and hair and cloths. At some point it got traded in for something or another, I don't even remember what happened to it, to be honest. All I know is that I was not ready to take up the instrument. Both my brother and sister were playing at this time, and they both continue to this day.

Fast forward to my 20's when I was sharing an apartment with my guitar playing sister. We discovered Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions and the concept of a Music Circle. I was enchanted and in love with the whole scene. I love music circles! So I decided to get myself a 12 String Guitar because I had always loved the sound. I loved that 12 string, I played it all the time. But after a year of daily practice, I could only kind of play a couple of songs. Over time I picked up less and less, and I ended up trading it in for a used flute.

My 50th birthday is coming up in a little over 6 months, and I looked at my husband and said that I think I might take up the guitar. He's gotten used to my growing instrument collection since I first took up the Autoharp in 2009. Soon after this proclamation a friend posted she was giving away a guitar to a good home. It's a classical no-name...there is no name anywhere on it. She bought it for her son off the internet, and I'm working with it to learn the guitar. It's a place to start, and I love how the universe provided me a way to learn guitar without having shell out money for one before I knew if I'd keep playing or not. So as I start over from scatch on the guitar, I am looking around for my 50th birthday present. My sister plays a Martin, but I know all that matters is how it sounds and feels in my arms. Here's a little food for thought:

Play Date

Today my mountain dulcimer Mary Ann and I are hopping in my PT Cruiser to go play with my big brother. He plays the guitar, so we are going to have a jam practice together. My sweet Mary Ann turned one year old on April 19th, and I forgot to note it here in the blog. Actually, I forgot to note it in my life, but that's another story. I've had a very busy couple of weeks at work, and so all the home stuff was put on the back burner.

Now I'm ready to put more energy into things like my upcoming music party, hence the play date. We tried coordinating remotely, but my diatonic little lady needs face to face time with other instruments apparently. That's cool, as I love playing with others. This is the third year for my Spring Music Party, and I'm pretty excited about it. The RSVP's have been coming in, and there will be some very fine musicians and singers in attendance. Having musicians in the family is really awesome, and I'm going to take advantage of this perk more often. The family that plays together, stays together. I might just have to put that on a T-Shirt.

Getting Jammed

My annual spring music party has been scheduled, and I was talking with my brother about it the other day. We thought it would be cool to get to know a few of each other's songs ahead of time so we can get a better jam going. He plays the guitar, and I play the mountain dulcimer. So I sent him a couple of my songs, then he sent me some of his. I checked my book of chords for the dulcimer, checked alternate tunings, and I'm missing at least one chord for each of the three songs he sent me to learn. This is very frustrating to me, because I have been a big fan of music jams for years, and it's one of the main reasons I wanted to take up an instrument.

And then my printer died, so I couldn't print out the lead sheets even if I wanted to. This is not what I wanted a month before my party. So much for the internet making things easier! We will have to get together and see what songs in his songbook match up with my chord charts and go from there. It will be good to get together and play a bit anyway. But this brought to my mind the limitations of my instrument. Now I absolutely love the mountain dulcimer, but the local folk music jammers are mostly guitarists. Naturally I have to consider taking up the guitar, again, but maybe the third time will be the charm. But at the moment all my fun money is going into the Dream Autoharp Fund, so there is nothing left over for yet another instrument. I seriously started weighing the options...autoharp or guitar...guitar or autoharp...as I laid in bed last night not sleeping.

Pros for the autoharp:

• I played it for two years and I was getting pretty handy with it - short ramp up to playing more songs!
• A chromatic autoharp can play in multiple keys - just give me the chords and I will be good to go...as long as they are the I IV and V chords and relative minor.
• In keeping with my "all zithers all the time" music theme

Pros for the guitar:

• It's fully chromatic and can play in any key
• Lots of other guitarists to jam with and learn from, including both my brother and my sister
• I love the sound, they are beautiful
• A good guitar is less expensive than my Dream Autoharp by half...

OK, that last "pro" on the guitar is what really has me jammed. What to do?! I had almost decided to get the guitar instead of the Autoharp...almost. After more tossing and turning, I decided the best thing to do is to get a less expensive Autoharp this year, and then get a guitar next year. This is a Big Decision for me, but when I compared the D'Aigle TLC to the Desert Rose, I realized that it has all the features I was looking for. I really don't think I'll notice the difference in woods between the two, because it's still a big upgrade from my old Oscar Schmidt Appalachian model. So unless donations start pouring in over the next few months, I'll be putting down a deposit on the Desert Rose this Summer.

It will be wonderful to have an autoharp again, I can hardly wait! I'll still leave the TLC as my dream harp until I'm ready to place the order. Who knows, I might get lucky and come into an extra grand in the next few months! Hey a girl can dream can't she? Even if that means dreaming about having a dulcimer, kantele, autoharp and a guitar to play. We'll just blame it all on Becca, the multi-instrumentalist who inspired my original autoharp purchase in June of 2009. So I have figured out how to get un-jammed so I can continue to jam with all my guitarist friends. Life is good!

Musically Restless

The other night I had a dream that my sister had left an unusual guitar at my house. It had a very wide and short neck with seven strings. On a whim I picked it up to play, and I immediately started playing some lovely tunes. No such guitar exists, and it is just an indication that I am restless in my current musical endeavors. The Mountain Dulcimer practicing is bearing fruit, but more slowly than my early efforts. Adding chord melody playing, fingerpicking and other techniques adds to my learning time. The mountain dulcimer, like the Autoharp, takes a few moments to learn to play and a lifetime to master.

I think I'm doing pretty well at seven months, but there is so much that I want to be able to do RIGHT NOW...sigh. I actually was considering putting the guitar on my new instrument wish list, but I've come to my senses after last night's lesson. I have a ton of songs I'm learning, it's helping with my skill level, but I really want to get ten or so up to performance level within the next few months. So the guitar is off the list and the Autoharp is back on, and my savings has quite a long way to go before I make that kind of a purchase.

Normally my next lesson would be in two weeks, but 'Tis the Season, so my teacher will be off. This will be a good time for me to get that extra fret added to the dulcimer, and I will then embrace my Kantele to tide me over while my darling Mary Ann is in the shop. But I won't be sending her off until after the holidays, it's her first Christmas with us after all! She should be around to enjoy it. :)

Musings about Music

It seems like a day doesn't go by when I don't find myself contemplating music. Yesterday I put a post up about FolkThyme internet radio. I love having it playing while I write my blog posts, it reminds me how diverse and how meaningful folk music can be. But in this post I want to talk about my love for my autoharp, and about my history with it. When I was in grade school we had both a piano and an autoharp in the music room. This was back in the 70's and I lived in a nice suburb of upper middle class families.

I remember I had the opportunity to take the autoharp home and play it. I laid it out on the living room floor next to the piano, and pushed buttons and strummed away on it. I strummed and strummed with the pick until it leapt out of my fingers and right down the hole in the autoharp. From what I can remember I was pretty upset about this, tried to shake the pick loose, but it just didn't work. So I strummed and strummed some more with my fingernail until my little 9 year old fingers hands were sore from holding the buttons. As I recollect I only had it for the weekend. The other thing I remember was June Carter Cash playing the autoharp on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, holding it upright. When I asked my music teacher about playing that way at school, she told me that the correct way to play the autoharp was with it lying flat.

Remember when I said that I put it on the floor next the piano? Well, my first instrument was the piano, I think I was six when I first started taking lessons. It was fun at first, but later I was made to continue because I had to learn to commit to something. Some kind of life lesson my parents wanted me to know. I finally quit when I was about nine or ten. Then it was time to sign up for band, and I wanted to play the flute, but all little girls wanted to play flute so I was steared toward the clarinet. So for four years I played in band, but it was a small band and the Senior High band members were all also the schools marching band. This I did not want to do. But music was a part of me now, so I joined the choir.

Singing became my main musical outlet, and in my teens my sister and I each got guitars. I struggled with it with my soft girly fingertips. I loved my guitar for at least one whole summer, but I never took lessons, though my sister did. But I kept singing and my guitar collected dust, I wanted pretty long nails, which seemed more important to me. Later in college I flirted with the piano again as an elective class. I really liked it. A lot. But pianos are kind of big and expensive and hard to get up the stairs to an apartment. Then at some point I took up the twelve string guitar because I always loved the sound. I spent a good year with it, but only barely learned 3 songs though I practiced a lot. Again I didn't take lessons.

The next musical transition was trading my twelve string for a flute. Because, you see, I wanted the flute not the clarinet all those years before. This time I did take lessons. It was really fun, and I wonder where my flute music went to. The flute is in a closet somewhere. You would think that I would learn something by now, get a smattering of music theory or something. Well, I can read music for the most part, but there are all kinds of complexities out there that are way above my head. I've got some pennywhistles lying around here somewhere which I have an audio tape and book.

Finally the Autoharp comes back into my life. I saw my friend Becca Leathers playing one with her band Riverfolk. Now, it had been some time since I'd seen live music. It's funny how time passes when you are dealing with trying to be an adult. It was so wonderful, and they are so good, that I fell immediately in love with their music and enchanted with the idea of taking up the Autoharp. That was June of 2009, and I'm still playing my Autoharp. Thanks in part to taking some lessons so I'd learn how to play it properly.

And here I have to say that I feel spoiled, priviledged, and honored to have the opportunity to take lessons from Karen Mueller: 1986 International Autoharp Champion & 2006 Autoharp Hall of Fame. While living in Lawrence, Kansas, Karen took first place in the Kansas State Dulcimer Championships in 1984 and 1985, and was a finalist at the 1985 National Dulcimer Contest in Winfield. She lives here in the twin cities and teaches at Homestead Pickin' Parlor. She travels all over doing workshops as well. And she gave me a mountain dulcimer lesson on her instruments so I could try before I buy. As I said in a previous post, I have signed up for The Dulcimer School due to financial considerations. But I'll take lessons from her again, when I get stuck and need some extra help with either the Autoharp or the Mountain Dulcimer. I'm on my own with the Kantele, but for the book and what I can find on the internet.

A long post, but I just needed to work through the steps in my journey through instruments as I stand on the verge of taking up yet another one. And I forgot to mention the doumbek that I took up for a while. Still have one, they're too fun not to have at a music party.