My nascent band, The Incestuous Pandas (and high props to Libby, who added the all-important "The"), is coming along very slowly. My band-mate Gary has not been cooperating. Friction in the band already.
First, he doesn't like the name. "The Incestuous Pandas?" he asked scornfully, as if it were not the best band name ever.
"Sassafras Brass?" I calmly replied. (Sassafras Brass was his high school Tijuana Brass knockoff band. I am amazed they were not ritually pantsed.)
Also, he decided to practice his drums loudly while I was trying to learn power chords from a DVD. I needed to listen to the DVD and to listen to the noises my guitar was making, which were sadly not at all like power chords. This made me frustrated with my guitar-playing ability for the first time in the month I have been playing.
I sought help from Kevin, the guitar guy at work. I plopped down on his desk in frustration and sighed, "Kevin, aren't power chords supposed to be easier to use than regular chords?"
"Power cords?" he asked, confused.
"Yeah, power chords. I'm having trouble, and I thought they were supposed to be easy to use. They're awful. My regular chords are even better than the power chords."
"I guess, maybe..." he said with a strange look. "How are the regular cords different than the power cords?"
"Well, it's like they expect me to have eight fingers to use them."
"Ooooookkkaaaaaay..."
"And they sound sick."
"OH. Power CHORDS." He looked relieved. "I thought you meant power cords."
Kevin was able to recommend that for power chords I go against all previous guitar advice and hold my thumb in the prohibited fret-strangling position. It is good to have a guru at work.
I truly hope to be able to post a song soon. However, right now it would sound something like this (feel free to hum along):
"Wake up Maggie, I" (look at hand, change chord) "think I got something to" (look up D in book, versus D7, which is an upside-down D, which is confusing, check hand, get confused, double-check book and then hand again) "say to you. It's" (A's are easy) "late September and I" (Gs, also easy) "really should be" (D, not to be confused with D7, and of course it is and requires double-checking again) "back at school." I won't even get into "Oh Maggie, I couldn't have tried any more" which has an F#m which requires much page-turning and book-research.
Look for it soon. "The Incestuous Pandas: the Basement Tracks."
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