Nothing says "the kids are nearly through high school" like having a few days to goof off in southern Colorado after teaching at Rocky Mountain Guitar Camp this year. And, shout-out to Ms. Fretboard for thinking this was a totally excellent idea in the first place, and to my host Jan for guiding me to the best views, and best breakfasts, in the vicinity.

While I was cooling my heels in the midst of a couple mountain ranges, an above-average river, regular thunderstorms and the occasional train whistle, I got an email from my pal Hope, wondering if I had time for a little remote session work on her album-in-progress.

Hope is an original member of my Monday night songwriting group, which means we've heard a lot of each others' music over the past four years, but we've never actually met in real life. So when I realized where she was recording, and where I would be over the next couple of days, I replied that I'd be more than happy to play on her record, and how would she like it if I showed up in person?

Now, I have led a pretty sheltered life, so while I've been late for plenty of things in my life, this was the first time I was late for a session because of a washed-out bridge three miles from the studio. Still, Jan and I managed to re-navigate our way, eventually rolling up to the kind of place I have learned, over twenty-four years of living to the left of the Hudson river, not to just reflexively think of as "in the middle of nowhere."

Over the next few hours, with my fellow Austinite Jana producing, we layered maybe a half-dozen tracks of electric guitar in various tunings onto two of Hope's songs, one of which she jokingly described to me as "Hope Tries To Sound Like The Eagles." Considering I'm writing today's newsletter at a Honda dealership waiting room where the playlist so far has included "Behind Blue Eyes," "Against The Wind," "Black Dog," "You Give Love A Bad Name" and, yes, Virginia, "Take It Easy," let me just say, the Eagles should be so lucky.

It was pretty fun to go from a week of teaching tasteful fingerstyle repertoire and technique to playing some loud electric and slide guitar in the studio. I had already been thinking about the value of loudness at guitar camp, where one of the exercises we did in my ensemble involved slowing down and playing as loudly as possible. It's such a simple practice technique, but a surprisingly valuable one, as I explain in today's Youtube lesson:

Three Reasons To Practice Playing Loudly!

(Adverb fiends and Apple billboard critics take note: Yes, I realize today's thumbnail copy sacrifices grammar for urgency. That's show business.)

This week in the Fingerstyle Five membership, we continue looking at playing blues licks over walking bass lines in E. Whether you're interested in learning new songs, starting to improvise or fixing your right-hand coordination, the membership provides a consistent, in-depth way to improve your overall guitar playing and musicianship while building your blues repertoire. Sign up and join more than 700 fellow fingerstyle enthusiasts at:

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/

More soon,

David