I’ve recently gotten really inspired to do more with music. Growing up, I always played an instrument – piano, saxophone, guitar, drums, etc. I’m playing drums a lot lately, but I’ve started picking up the guitar again and finding great opportunity there. I’ve also gotten a slight bug to really try and address my singing voice, which is lacking due to non-use and humility. Part of the reason, or perhaps part of the release, is that a friend at work and I got together to jam a little bit at a park with our kids. It was hardly jamming, really, but for two old-ish farts like ourselves, it was quite fun to engage in the musical stimulus. Now we’re continuously bouncing song ideas off each other and talking about the possibility of coming together again – possibly in an open-mic kind of way. As he put it, it would take some time for practice which is not something either of us can dedicate a lot of. But until we figure that out, we’re each dinking around with tunes to build some sort of repetoire. This evening, I played through Howie Day’s “Ghost.” Howie Day is a fairly run-of-the-mill singer/songwriter type (think Gavin DeGraw, Damien Rice), but I really dig the acoustic guitar pieces and mellow singing. At least there’s some probability of my adapting his work to my own voice. I have trouble combining voice and hands (strumming, drumming, et al), so I’m working on that. It’s frustrating, but I can look back over the last few weeks and see that I’ve picked five more seconds of several more songs. That’s five more than I knew for the last three or four years while my guitar rested in a neglected corner of the house.
If you want to learn “Now I Be Your Dog” by Iggy Pop I can show you how to play that on the guitar. I’ll even throw in “Smoke On The Water” as well. After that I’m useless….
I’ve had 4 violin lessons. I can now play “Put Your Little Foot”, “Day of Jubilo”, “Ol’ Molly Hare”, “Black-Eyed Susan”, and a part of “Life in the Finland Woods.” I no longer sound like I’m torturing a cat or poking a sharp stick at a small, annoyed, cornered mammal. I am fully in the you-sound-like-crap stage and last night played a song that almost sounded like music. I am probably completely ready to join you boys in the park! Let me know when you want a voilin added to your voices (it’s a great way to improve your vocals).
Love,
Mom
I meant to type “Now I WANNA Be Your Dog” by Iggy Pop. Some mofo be stealing my action verbs.
I think we should start a band. Someone else would need to type up the set list of course.