Toffs And Twangs
Writing Trouble At Toff Towers was an all-consuming task and, since I am now working on Trouble At Toff Towers II – Another Heap (working title), it seems I have time for little else. This is a shame actually because one thing I was determined to do when I gave up (proper) work and moved to Cyprus was pick up my guitar and continue teaching myself to play; despite the fact that my first attempt at this didn’t go all that well…
…I decided I would like a guitar for my birthday and my partner very kindly bought one for me, complete with helpful “Teach Yourself Guitar” and electronic guitar tuner. I was over the moon with myself when I was actually able to tune the guitar. So far so good. However…
…it turned out that the helpful “Teach Yourself Guitar” DVD wasn’t actually very “helpful”. I was not deterred. I simply purchased another “Teach Yourself Guitar” DVD in the hope that this one would be more “helpful”. It wasn’t.
Wandering around Waterstones one lunch break I stumbled upon an interesting book entitled “Teach Yourself To Play All The Songs In This Book Using Only Three Chords” (or something like that). I duly purchased the book and set about learning the three chords at the earliest opportunity. I also purchased and consumed numerous packets of painkillers to deal with pain in pads of fingers and headaches as I practiced the three essential chords.
Feeling quite proud of having mastered the three chords I mentioned to a colleague that I was teaching myself to play the guitar and she offered some advice from her teenage son, “The best way to learn to play the guitar is to practice a song you really like over and over”. This was obviously sound advice so I instantly trawled the internet looking for the music to songs that I liked (containing only the three chords, obviously). Found the music for The Gambler by Kenny Rogers and printed it out with a feeling of growing excitement…
…I had decided I would do a duet with Kenny Rogers! Went into Youtube and selected a suitable clip of Kenny singing The Gambler, picked up my guitar, clicked play and commenced duet. Have to admit that Kenny finished his part around twenty minutes before I finished mine and I only played the Gs.
Went back into Youtube and selected Samba Pa Ti by Santana. Clicked play but did not pick up guitar. After a minute or so my partner called out from another room, “Bloody hell, you’ve improved suddenly”!
The guitar is currently in solitary confinement in the spare bedroom.
…I decided I would like a guitar for my birthday and my partner very kindly bought one for me, complete with helpful “Teach Yourself Guitar” and electronic guitar tuner. I was over the moon with myself when I was actually able to tune the guitar. So far so good. However…
…it turned out that the helpful “Teach Yourself Guitar” DVD wasn’t actually very “helpful”. I was not deterred. I simply purchased another “Teach Yourself Guitar” DVD in the hope that this one would be more “helpful”. It wasn’t.
Wandering around Waterstones one lunch break I stumbled upon an interesting book entitled “Teach Yourself To Play All The Songs In This Book Using Only Three Chords” (or something like that). I duly purchased the book and set about learning the three chords at the earliest opportunity. I also purchased and consumed numerous packets of painkillers to deal with pain in pads of fingers and headaches as I practiced the three essential chords.
Feeling quite proud of having mastered the three chords I mentioned to a colleague that I was teaching myself to play the guitar and she offered some advice from her teenage son, “The best way to learn to play the guitar is to practice a song you really like over and over”. This was obviously sound advice so I instantly trawled the internet looking for the music to songs that I liked (containing only the three chords, obviously). Found the music for The Gambler by Kenny Rogers and printed it out with a feeling of growing excitement…
…I had decided I would do a duet with Kenny Rogers! Went into Youtube and selected a suitable clip of Kenny singing The Gambler, picked up my guitar, clicked play and commenced duet. Have to admit that Kenny finished his part around twenty minutes before I finished mine and I only played the Gs.
Went back into Youtube and selected Samba Pa Ti by Santana. Clicked play but did not pick up guitar. After a minute or so my partner called out from another room, “Bloody hell, you’ve improved suddenly”!
The guitar is currently in solitary confinement in the spare bedroom.
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