Week 7 - Lots Going On

11 May 2010 - Class Seven

This past week had been spent trying to get the triplet to sound right and be able to integrate it into a strumming pattern. I’ve got it to where it sounds fair to me, and isn’t too uncomfortable/awkward to do. Now here is something funny, since I learned what it is and how it sounds, I’ve actually been noticing triplets in the music on commercials, and have been trying to duplicate the strumming patterns.

As for the triplet strum, for the most part I’ve been using the index finger for the first part followed by the thumb for the rest. I do practice the 4-finger strum, but the index finger variant seems more economical and comfortable to me (maybe because I became aware of it first, on one of Ralph Shaw’s videos).

I’ve got to run after class. My friend Dave Koenig is in town for a convention. Dave plays the Jake character from the Blue’s Brothers at Universal Studios (as well as for the House of Blues clubs) and is the official trainer for this. He’s in town doing personal appearances and photos for the trade show. Tonight is our only mutually available night to meet up. On a side note, Dave’s son Matt is the bass player for the band Broadway Calls.

I just hope that I can make it through the night; something hit me about 1:00 PM. Bad ear ache, the whole right side of my head is hurting and I can barely see out of my right eye, and the neck is stiffening up, not good…

I’ll try to catch up and fill in what happens later on.