Day 18

Bassists: bad news for you. Or maybe good news.

You're going to need to know more music theory than most people, to be able to play with other people.

Here's a quick, dirty, and oversimplified way to know enough music theory to be able to play along with people.

Other instruments, follow along, because this is useful to know.

When you look up chords on ultimateguitar or the JoCo wiki or wherever you're getting your chords from, you're going to see text and letter names above it. Like

           Em                     A                             Em    B Em  
I've got a regular problem so my standard break from life is in order. 

Where the letter above the word changes, the guitarist changes the chord.
(This is probably review for everyone. just hang with me)

Notes have names. Chords have names. The notes on your fretboard have names. You need to know all of them. Most of them. At least these.

|G|---|-A-|---|-B-|-C-|---|
|D|---|-E-|-F-|---|-G-|---|
|A|---|-B-|-C-|---|-D-|---|
|E|-F-|---|-G-|---|-A-|---|

I hope that diagram makes sense. The |X| is the nut and the open string name and every | is a fret..

So. That's your thing for tonight. Get to a point where you can find all those notes, without having to stress about it. You don't need to be good at it. Just get the idea in your head, or be able to count up those letters. Play it up and down and over and over until you start to remember where the frets with the letters are.

Don't care about theory? PLay it anyway. Up and down and up and down, tose frets, until your fingers fall off.

Guitar and ukulele, keep up with that strum practice from last night. Get really good at that. It'll help you later. Getting really good at switchign between G and Em? Throw in A.
|-0-----
|-0-----
|-1-----
|-3-----

|--0----
|--3----
|--3----
|--3----
|--0----
|-------

And keep up that strum thing until you're really good at changing chords in that half-beat. There's never going to be a time in your life when you go GOD DAMN IT I'M REALLY GOOD AT CHANGING CHORDS IN THE HALF BEAT.
So you have that going for you.
Which is nice.
Sleep well.