A few points of musical light
Dec. 4th, 2004 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperAnd because my week hasn't been 100% cranky-making, here now are some words dedicated to the amusement I have been having with my guitar this week. I blame it on the collision of my GBS and Elvis Presley fandoms.
I've been digging again into my Elvis songbooks this week, feeling like expanding the number of songs I am capable of playing on the guitar, and preferably also the number of songs I can play and sing at the same time. This has led me to further work on "Don't", one of the slower Elvis ditties from the '50's, and one of the ones in a range I can more or less still sing without transposing it into a new key (though I may need to play with it some). I really like the chords in this one, though. There are some really good chord progressions that challenge my skill level (D to F#m to Bm7 to Em7, yum!) in the verses, and a nice lead-in to the bridge of D7 to A7 to D7 as well. The bridge will be especially fun, though, with several bits where there are four different chords strummed on the beat of every count in a measure, and several unusual chords as well. F#7. E7. E9. And others.
I've also amused myself playing "Return to Sender", which is written out in C in my songbook, but which Mr. Presley actually recorded in E flat. It took me a bit to figure this out, as I had to first figure out that the chords are a lot easier for me to play if I transpose them to D on the fly, and then I had to figure out where to put the capo. Once I did that, it became a matter of trying to find the right strum pattern to play the thing in cut time.
Some small work in passing with "Don't Be Cruel", as well. Also giggleworthy and fun!
I've been digging again into my Elvis songbooks this week, feeling like expanding the number of songs I am capable of playing on the guitar, and preferably also the number of songs I can play and sing at the same time. This has led me to further work on "Don't", one of the slower Elvis ditties from the '50's, and one of the ones in a range I can more or less still sing without transposing it into a new key (though I may need to play with it some). I really like the chords in this one, though. There are some really good chord progressions that challenge my skill level (D to F#m to Bm7 to Em7, yum!) in the verses, and a nice lead-in to the bridge of D7 to A7 to D7 as well. The bridge will be especially fun, though, with several bits where there are four different chords strummed on the beat of every count in a measure, and several unusual chords as well. F#7. E7. E9. And others.
I've also amused myself playing "Return to Sender", which is written out in C in my songbook, but which Mr. Presley actually recorded in E flat. It took me a bit to figure this out, as I had to first figure out that the chords are a lot easier for me to play if I transpose them to D on the fly, and then I had to figure out where to put the capo. Once I did that, it became a matter of trying to find the right strum pattern to play the thing in cut time.
Some small work in passing with "Don't Be Cruel", as well. Also giggleworthy and fun!