Creative Overreach

Published: Fri, 03/03/23

There are worse problems to have, no doubt. But February has just wrapped up, and with it, February Album Writing Month, or FAWM, as it's known to those who take part. Despite its name, and the stated challenge of writing fourteen songs in twenty-eight days, I've never actually considered creating a complete, stand-alone set of album-worthy songs from one February of writing, but the exercise of writing so much in so little time does get my chops humming to the extent that I always wind up with at least a few keepers, and even the occasional home run.

Those keepers do end up on records, but the keen observer will note that I do not crank out the albums on anything like a regular schedule, unless by "regular" you mean "every four or five years." And so some time last fall, Ms. Fretboard pulled out the calendar and said "ok, if you really want to make more records, let's figure out when that's going to happen." Which is how I came to find myself spending the entirety of last week recording fourteen instrumental tracks for a new solo guitar record.

The question is, what was I thinking, scheduling this during February Album Writing Month? Last-September-Me is not around for questioning, but I know a little about how that guy thinks, so I imagine he either thought: "no prob, I'll write my fourteen songs in the first three weeks of February, even though it usually takes me right up to the wire to get it done in four," or "well, I'll be so creatively fired up at that point, I'll just keep writing new songs when I need a break from recording the instrumental ones that are already done."

September Me #2 clearly mistook me for a seventies hard rock band with $450,000 worth of record company money to burn on all night coke-fueled jams at Electric Ladyland; September Me #1 was just guilty of creative overreach. In the end, I scored five out of fourteen for Album Writing Month, but I did get my whole record made in a week, which is still, as Ms. Fretboard has wisely reminded me more than one, pretty boss. After all, even if I didn't write fourteen new songs, I did record fourteen songs, so there's that.

Now, of course, it's back to the business of not just playing guitar, but explaining how it's done. One of the trickiest things about teaching is figuring out how to get to the point while not taking anything for granted. This month in the Fingerstyle Five, we're diving into hammerons, pulloffs and syncopation, while working on the traditional eight-bar blues "Jack 'O Diamonds." I can't think of an arrangement I've ever taught that hasn't included hammerons, pulloffs and syncopation, and yet I've never taken the time to really lay out a coherent, systematic way of approaching those things.

Which is a real oversight, because ultimately, whether we're improvising or playing a tune, we're delivering a melody, and hammerons, pulloffs and syncopation are three of the guitarist's most essential tools for shaping and delivering that melody. We'll be devoting a whole week of lessons and exercises to each of these topics this month in the Fingerstyle Five, but for today's Youtube video, I've created a short lesson on the one most important thing you can do to improve your pulloffs right away. You can find it at the link below:

Fix Your Pulloffs NOW!

You can, of course, always learn more about the Fingerstyle Five, and sign up, over at https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/.

More soon,

David


 
 
david@davidhamburger.com

P.O. Box 302151
Austin TX 78703
USA


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