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Building My Own Acoustic Guitar

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My workbench at Thomas Lloyd Guitars

My workbench at Thomas Lloyd Guitars

Ok, it's been yet another delay between posting here, but this time I have an excuse - You see, I've been down in Melbourne building my own acoustic guitar for the past few weeks. 

I enrolled in the Thomas Lloyd Guitar building workshop, and was guided through the build by master luthier Chris Wynne and his able assistant Bill. 

I actually started a day by day photo essay of the build over at the Acoustic Guitar Forum - the link to the thread is:  

 

In summary, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  I learned so much more than just how to build a guitar.  I learned about how I could go beyond what I thought my limitations were, and after years of self talk telling myself that I couldn't do certain things with precision - when it came down to the crunch, it turns out I got pretty damned close. 

 

An important lesson my son taught me

About a month ago, my 13 year old son came to me and asked if he could learn to play an acoustic guitar piece by Andy McKee called "Drifting".  At the time, he was primarily playing the electric guitar and had not really done much on the acoustic. 

I listened to the original piece on Youtube and I actually laughed at my son and told him that the piece was very complex, with tricky two handed tapping and rhythmic slapping that was well beyond his current skill level on the instrument.

I actually told him to wait "another few years" until he gained more mastery over the guitar before he could even attempt to play that piece. 

Well, he was undeterred, and went off to learn the piece by himself by watching Andy's video over and over, and also by following along with Andy's instructional videos on Youtube. 

Well, not more than a month later, he actually got up in front of his middle school assembly of about 300 of his peers and played the piece in public. 

I stood on the sidelines, my heart bursting with pride.  I will never again make the mistake of underestimating either of my kids.  They are capable of so much more than I *think* they can do. 

Here is a video clip that his music teacher made at the performance.  I actually am grateful that his teacher encouraged him to play this piece at assembly. 

 

2013 Challenge - June

Craig D'Andrea

Craig D'Andrea

Another back dated post here - sorry! :)  This month, I have studied and rehearsed the song "Falling For Twelves (and the B.L.Ts)" by Craig D'Andrea. 

Stylistically different from most of the other songs I have played to date - this one caught my attention because of the unique rhythm to it.  However when I started to learn it, I came across a massive, what I thought insurmountable, problem that had me perplexed for a while.

The main verse of this song actually requires a 'thumb slap' on the strings in the middle of the bar.  No problem, I've done thumb slaps before with no issues.  However, in this piece, the thumb slap was accompanied by a plucked note with the third finger.  A combination that I found impossible to play. 

So, I worked around my limitation.  What I ended up doing was instead of thumb slapping, I slapped the strings with the back of the nails on the index and middle fingers of my right hand.  I made sure that I slapped the string with the note to be played.   This resulted in a slight strum of the string which accentuated the note that Craig intended the guitarist to play.

I think it worked.  Or maybe not.  I'll let you be the judge.

Songwriting Workshop

Last weekend, as part of the Festival of Darwin, a free songwriting workshop was held by Danielle a.k.a. 'Mama Kin' .

Danielle spoke to use about her own musical journey, and the techniques she uses for songwriting these days.  She explained, and got us to do some exercises on 'Objective Writing', where you pick a random object and then do a type of guided 'stream of consciousness' writing to describe the sight, sound, smell, taste, feel, body and emotion of the object. 

It was certainly eye opening to see the sorts of creative juices that a (time limited) objective writing session can give you - it really gives you the impetus and momentum needed to do deep within yourself and write songs that will connect with people because they use these 7 basic senses. 

I don't write lyrical songs at the moment, because I cannot sing myself, but one day I hope to write a song with lyrics that someone else can sing. 

Danielle a.k.a. 'Mama Kin'

Danielle a.k.a. 'Mama Kin'