Lesson 10 (01/16/2006)

Today, I began learing Stairway to Heaven. It's a rite of passage in the guitar world, I suppose. That was the main concentration of the lesson.

Andy also gave me several things to work on. He again stressed just sitting down and attempting to figure out melody lines. Also, he mentioned what he calls his Django exercise. Django only had two fingers. You use the index and middle fingers, frets 1 & 3, respectively. Play all the strings. Move to frets 2 & 4. Rinse repeat. Then try the same sequenece with the middle and ring fingers, then ring and pinky. Youch, those last two hurt a little.

He also talked about harmonizing the scale on two strings, like B and e. Play the root on one string and the third on the other. Do that for the entire scale down the strings.

Lost of exercises out of this lesson. I've got to just put in some time now. I can really feel myself getting better. I would never have tried Stairway a month or two ago. Now I really do know that I can get it, and without a lot of crying either.

Later,

Louis