Midweek Check-in (Week 3)

Hello everyone, and welcome to the best time of the week: Midweek Check-in time! This post will be as minimal words as possible since I want the emphasis to be my progress, not my writing. Enjoy!😃

Additional Song of the Week

While I have enjoyed learning Stairway to Heaven very much, I personally find it a bit boring to just work on one piece of music at a time. In addition to my weekly progress on Stairway to Heaven, I will learn a small part of another, (mostly) unrelated song.

Kashmir

To keep my playing in the realm of Led Zeppelin, I decided to learn the main riff of Kashmir. For any of you guys who don't recognize the name of the tune, it was Chase Utley's walk-up song for the majority of his career. One interesting thing about Kashmir is its tuning. Most songs are played in "Standard Tuning" which from lowest string to highest is E-A-D-G-B-E, which follows the acronym, "Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie." Kashmir, on the other hand, uses the tuning D-A-D-G-A-D, which is pronounced  "DAD GAD." In DADGAD tuning, the Low E, High E, and B strings are all tuned down a full step.

Original Song: Kashmir- Led Zeppelin

Guitar Lesson for Kashmir

 My Attempt at Kashmir

Stairway to Heaven

Now that we got that out of the way, here is my improvement in Stairway to Heaven. I will not spend too much time explaining what I am playing and how I learned it. You will have to stay tuned for the End of Week 3 Post. The post will be out in a few days, so do not *FRET.

Original song: Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin

Improvement

Last week, I learned the song's introduction line, and I got the speed to 58 bpm. I have now gotten it to 70 bpm, which is about half of the speed of the actual song. While there are still muted notes and it isn't as clean as I would like it to be, it is getting much faster and easier to play.

Current Speed: 70 bpm-- Goal: 143 bpm

In addition to practicing the part from last week, I began learning the next section. It is 3x as long as the intro, but all of the lines are very similar to each other. So far, I have learned the first line which will allow me to learn the other without too much trouble. I can play the new part at 80 bpm.

Current Speed: 80 bpm

What I will Know by the End of Week 3 0:00-2:01

New Part starts at 0:25

Other News

I began this journey with about seven guitar picks, yet I found myself with only one by the end of week two. I am convinced that there is some creature in my house that steals them and hides them under furniture, but that's a story for another time. Nevertheless, I was fine with my one pick because it did the job just fine... That is until the explainable happened. I was in the middle of playing Can't Stop by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and my precious child passed away.

Time of Death: 6 March 2019 10:02 PM

I couldn't get a ride to George's Music for multiple days, so I had to pull a Brain May so that I could continue to practice. For those of you who don't know: Brian May, the guitarist for the band Queen, used a sixpence coin instead of a pick because he found plastic picks to be too flexible. Long story short... I used a quarter to practice for two days🤷

I finally made it to the store and I picked up a few of these bad boys. They are Dunlop Tortex .88 mm picks.

Time of Birth: 7 March 2019 7:03 PM

Thankfully, I can now return to normal practicing. Not to throw any shade at Brian May, but playing with a coin might be one of the most uncomfortable ideas to ever generate in the world of rock.

Author's Notes

*"Fret" has a double meaning. It can mean to worry incessantly, but it is also the term for the little metal bars on the guitar's fretboard. When you press the string, it touches the fret causing the string to make a buzzing noise. 

Works Cited

Brown, Carl. “Kashmir Guitar Lesson - Led Zeppelin - Famous Riffs.” YouTube, GuitarLessons365Song, 9 June 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCywaX9q50U.

Led Zeppelin. “Kashmir (Remastered).” YouTube, Led Zeppelin, 24 Feb. 1975, www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzVJPgCn-Z8

Led Zeppelin. Stairway to Heaven Led Zeppelin. YouTube, Led Zeppelin, 8 Nov. 1971, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXQUu5Dti4g

Markey, Michael. “Stairway.” Private Guitar Lessons. Guitar Lesson, 5 Mar. 2019, North Wales, PA, George's Music.

McIntire, Zach. “Brian May's Use of a British Coin as a Guitar Pick.” Long Live Rock, 13 Nov. 2017, crockpics.com/brian-mays-use-of-a-british-coin-as-a-guitar-pick/.