This week we brought out a very cool 12-string song, More Fool Me by Genesis, well really just 2 parts of the band, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford. Since this beast of a guitar was still here spent a fair amount of time today noodling around on it and talking about some classic 12-string tunes, most of which are already lessons here at TG. I also played a bit of Leo Kottke’s take on John Fahey’s In Christ There Is No East Or West.
Since they were brought up on the Forum, I also talked about Gentle Giant, one of the most amazing bands of the 70s progressive bands. They are certainly not for everyone as it can be very demanding listening but the high levels of musicianship, creativity, and virtuosity are rarely found.
The new Target releases this week were the already mentioned Genesis tune from their album Selling England By The Pound, The Avett Brothers’ I And Love And You, Peggy-O by The Grateful Dead, and Al Stewart’s Broadway Hotel, along with a Country Blues Fly On The Wall with Lynn working on Billie’s Blues.
This week the TG Banner landed at TG Central. Thanks and congratulations to everybody involved. It has been a fascinating and exciting trip with the next stop being the International Guitar Camp in September, probably. Today’s News touched on the folks responsible for the Banner saga and I played bits and pieces of some songs that had been running through my head recently. A couple of those came courtesy of some cool uploads in the Busking Channel.
I also brought up something that surprises me every time I let it happen, in a nutshell, CHANGE YOUR STRINGS MORE OFTEN! It will make you play more and enjoy it more.
Obviously the big news this week is the addition of Vanessa as a teacher and IGC staff member. I started off playing a couple tunes in Am (Cm really) that some of you might recognize, if you are old enough. Then got into talking about Vanessa a bit before I went into the new Target releases for the week. These included a review on A Whiter Shade Of Pale, Vanessa’s lesson on Someone Like You by Adele, our collaboration on Al Stewart’s On The Border, the early Rolling Stones’ tune The Last Time, and our latest entry in the Guide To Reading Music, Lesson 4, which consisted of a few more sight-reading exercises.
Aside from that I went into the Banner’s final journey (?), and some comments on cool things happening on the Forum.
Today’s News took on a new feature with the random addition of a couple Work It Out Challenges. It seems like everybody enjoyed the first one, Driving Towards The Daylight, and it should become a regular occurrence, starting here with a couple of old tunes you might recognize. Otherwise I went through the week’s Target releases, Moon In The Water by Dawes, Murder In The City by The Avett Brothers, Play With Fire by The Rolling Stones, a Fly On The Wall looking at variations on Stormy Monday and relationships on the guitar, and a Review on Mark’s excellent version of Ain’t No Sunshine.
I also commented on some of the cool stuff going on in the Forum lately, including improbable tunes, bridge pins, and a bit on Ray Manzarek and The Doors. That was about it
Trying to maintain a little balance this week we managed to work in a Fly and a Review, along with three new Target Lessons. Aside from going over those details in today’s News I talked about a few things going on in the Forum. This included brief comments about pentatonic scales and modes, beat divisions (as seen in the Stormy Monday FOTW), an update on the Banner, a hint on our Driving Towards The Daylight Challenge, and one of the best things I have seen at TG in a while- Bart’s song Castles In The Sand.
The Target releases this week included a very easy sight-reading Study by Fernando Sor, an ear-training/theory lesson on James River Blues by Old Crow Medicine Show, and the hauntingly beautiful Shape Of My Heart by Sting and his long time guitarist Dominic Miller.
