'Teach Yourself Guitar' Article Series Coming Soon
Current mood: accomplished
For anybody interested in the selection of articles I have been writing recently you'll likely be pleased to know that I am going to be making a new series called 'Teach Yourself Guitar.' This is aimed at complete beginners, who have never played guitar before and I am hoping to walk them through a year's worth of learning in just a few articles. I believe eight is the number we're looking at at current.
If you're a self-taught guitarist I urge you to send me a message detailing your experiences within the first year of learning. Perhaps you could expand my list of tabs for beginners and other ideas would be welcome.
Thank you for reading, I hope you look forward to reading it as much as I am so far enjoying writing it.
Here follows an extract from the introduction of 'Teach Yourself Guitar' Part Two.
First, I must apologise for a change in the scheduled lineup. I was planning out the articles while on a train, which looked and felt suspiciously like a bus, to Liverpool. When examining the planned content, I realised that the second and third articles I had originally planned were not only unbalanced, but also rather abstract. So, after a little restructuring, part three became part two and vice versa.
The title of part two will be Working With Your Instrument.
The darkness in the sky would have been all-consuming if not for the tiny snowflakes falling from it. The see-saws and swings of the park were covered in a smooth layer of untouched snow. The previously green grass was now entirely white between the swings and the gates on the far side.
Their hair filled with snow, two small figures sat on the slowly revolving roundabout. Their legs and backs were soaking wet, especially the girl, who was wearing a knee-length skirt.
The boy was holding his head in his hands. As his tears fell to the ground the heat began to slowly melt the snow. The feet of the pre-teen girl, on the ground over the edge of the roundabout, were pushing them along as they turned.
Ally, her blonde hair cut to just above her shoulders, reached over to put her hand on Paul's arm. He didn't look up. Instead, he continued to whimper and cry into his already wet palms.
Seeking to comfort him, Ally talked to him in a calm and soothing voice. "What are they fighting about this time?"
A bitter laugh escaped Paul's mouth. When he spoke, it was with the voice of a boy:
"His mother. Last time it was her mother. Before that it was who's presents got to go under the tree."
"What does Ronnie do?" she asked, attempting, once again, to sound calming. Thankfully, it seemed as though most of his tears had been shed.
"Ronnie sits in his room, puts his headphones on and plays guitar. It's like that stupid piece of wood makes them all shut up. I wish I could have one. Then, when I play, I could block out all the yelling and everybody would have to look at me for once."
"But you don't have a job," Ally added.
Finally, Paul turned to her with a smile. "My job's making sure you know you're pretty," there was a pause, during which then both smiled at each other. "You're pretty."
The sound of shouting drew their attention as the argument of the Taylor family seemed to spill out of the front door. With snowflakes falling onto his nose, Paul looked up into the sky. Nevertheless, their shouts and screams were all he could hear.
TyG7 was originally scheduled to be focused on Being A Balanced Guitarist, however, after careful consideration, I do believe I've mostly covered that already.
We're now going to be looking more in-depth at composing your own music for part seven, as this is a valuable part of becoming a capable musician. The title of part seven will be Creation And Composition.
We're nearly at the end of the line now, only two parts left to go and then I'll only be doing one article a week, that being Disbelief. I'm looking forward to it quite a lot, especially with work rearing it's ugly head, as well as trying to find time to see my girlfriend. After TyG I'm not sure what I'll do. I might do another one or two Writing Tips lessons. I have a few ideas, but Disbelief will be continuing happily.
The steady beeping of the hospital machinery was all-encompassing. Jace felt surrounded by it all and the smell of clinical cleanliness, inherent to every room, was nauseating.
He had a cut above his left eye, but he wouldn't let anybody come near it. That was not why he was here. He had come home from Fuse late and then been sent here quickly after. It was coming up close to five in the morning, or so his watch told him. Undoubtedly he smelt of beer. He was okay with this, but the sneers of the people passing him were far from welcome. He glared at everybody as they went past.
The chair he was sitting on did not feel altogether sturdy. He wondered idly whether it was due to the amount of people who had ultimately sat here awaiting news, or if his growing belly was to blame. Either way, he wasn't planning on getting up any time soon. Things were too blurry at the moment.
He heard the footsteps of his mother before he saw her coming. Her heels reverberated around the corridor. Jace's ears focused in on them, pushing out all the sounds of sharp whispers and beeping machinery. It was only as she came close enough to sigh that he realised his head had slumped down into his arms. He corrected himself quickly to look up at her.
Her stern face looked down at him. The short grey hair, together with the straight, almost pointed contours of her face showed a ruthless and malicious anger quite clearly. It was a look that Jace had learned long ago, but he did not use it now. He was afraid, and he showed it. He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off sharply:
"What kind of idiot are you? Did you even consider the consequences?" her voice came out as something of a hiss, but Jace caught every word.
"It's not like I meant it to happen," he answered, the whine of his youth coming through. He had been using a fake ID that he had bought from college to get into Fuse. Nobody ever questioned it. He was fairly large, both in girth and stature.
"Well it happened didn't it!?" his mother near shouted at him. Several people turned to look, but her stony eyes turned them away quickly. If they had been rodents, Jace could imagine them scurrying away with their tails between their legs.
"I didn't want it to, I promise," Jace said. He stood up now, but the blurred vision and his lack of balance easily overtook him and sent him back to his seat. For a moment he sat and sulked, then the image of his sister lying prone in her hospital bed flashed before his eyes.
"I'll stop. I won't take any more. And I'll do anything I can to help out again, I swear," he begged. "I didn't want this to happen. It won't happen again, I promise."
"You better had mean it," his mother whispered viciously, leaning in close to make her point. "If ever I see you going anywhere near any sort of drug again, you won't have a home to come back to. Anna's thirteen for Christ's sake. It's not on, Jacob. Now get out of my sight: you don't belong here."
Jace didn't question her order. He simply moved as quickly as he could, despite the fact that everything shook. Tears had began to form and fall down onto his cheeks. All he could hear was the sound of his feet as he ran away and the steady beeping of the hospital machinery.
As of today, Friday the twenty-seventh of February, Disbelief will no longer be uploaded on Fridays. This means that part twelve is delayed until I am given a new day for release by a member of the Russian editing team.
The reason for this is the new writing by Nolan Whyte. Zappp decided to give Nolan Fridays as his day of upload, which left me without a deadline and no idea if I was even supposed to keep writing or not. Thankfully, matter has cleared things up a little. He's currently deciding on a new day for me to upload.
I apologise for any inconvenience, but I had no say in the matter.
Now, the day I've ended up with for upload is Tuesday, so later today, the third of March, Disbelief part twelve should be uploaded. From now on the new installment would be a Tuesday thing. Neither Nolan nor I wish to be in direct competition with each other. We both enjoy each other's stories after all.
So check it out. I look forward to receiving your comments and ratings. I need them now more than ever.
Ladies and gentlemen, this blog is to mark the end of the TyG series. Now, here comes the thank you section. I'm just going to send a little gratitude to people who have been inspiring, helpful, or helped me dramatically during the writing process.
tomhess - This may come as a surprise, but it is one of his articles that made a user ask me about how I taught myself. So thank you Tom.
Withakay - This is the user who PMed me asking if I could share some aspects of my experience. I was very flattered and, to be honest, I still am. All of this was for you good sir.
PiCSeL - This would be the gentleman in charge of uploading my work, as well as confirming that it is ready. He's also done a lot of HTML editing before I really got a grasp of it, so I'm grateful for that.
matter - This is our dear Editor-In-Chief, who confirmed that the series would be worthwhile enough to feature not only on UG, but also on the front page. At times it was even at the top of the guest column section.
ZeGuitarist - This thank you is a very well deserved one. For helping me with my work, for inspiring me when I needed it, for reading through my plan to avoid conflicting articles and generally for always reading my work, I am grateful. I love you man. You're my best friend in this place.
Carmel - This is for keeping an eye on comments, reading things over and listening to my complaints when things weren't going my way. Cheers.
blood_and_gold - This would be the biggest piece of gratitude to give out. My editor and my love, who has listened to me plan and complain as well as reading through everything I've ever done. You're one of the few people in the world who can tell me I'm wrong without being punished for it.
And of course, this would not be complete without a large thank you going out to everybody who has ever read even one single line of my work. To everybody who comments and everybody who rates, good or bad, thank you. You've kept me in the job.
Where do I go from here? Onwards and upwards I should hope. Disbelief is still going strong, which is making me a very happy bunny. I'm hoping to do a few more articles too before work starts up full time again. After all, this is not my only job. Keep an eye on me, I'm looking to do a background piece of a rock guitarist some of you might know.
Again, thank you to everyone who reads any piece of my work, or any of my blogs really. Thanks you for reading this exceptionally long blog.
Greetings readers and a big thank you for reading, as ever.
I'd like to guage your opinion on a potential little project of mine. Having read part fifteen you'll note that Paul and Ally don't really get things going. I'd like to know if any of you are saucy enough to be interested in reading an alternate version where there's no phone call.
It would be rated R, and therefore unsuitable for UG, so it would be distributed by e-mail. It also stands a chance of being quite long.
If I have enough people interested I'll begin to write it, then consider distribution. Depending on the length and quality of it, I may be charging up to £1 for the piece, or I may not if I don't think it's deserving of it.
I just thought I'd give a few quick updates and give out some fresh information, so here goes.
1. My article on the life of Ritchie Blackmore has just been uploaded. It will be there for exactly one week and one week only. So be sure to read it. I've tried my best to make it as worthwhile and professional as possible, and I think that comes across.
2. Disbelief is still going strong. I'm almost up to part thirty and I think I've finally introduced all of the major characters into the story. We're ready to actually get started now.
3. The third Disbelief snippet will be done soon. This one will be featuring your very own Edgar Finn, by popular demand.
4. The alternative ending to Ally and Paul's encounter is also almost finished. However, for the sake of ensuring that it gets to a mature audience, I will be charging anywhere from a penny to twenty pence for it via paypal. I'll explain the system when it's done. I'm also doing it this way because it will thus be harder to obtain and hence a rarer piece of work from me.
5. My next series, 'The Modal Approach' is now up to part four of six. So I'm two thirds done with that too.
6. The UG story first piece is also half done. That will be receiving my undivided attention over the course of this week and hopefully it will then be done. It's been a lot of work and I only get paid for it if lots of people rate/comment, so please make sure that you do.
7. I went to see Transformers 2 recently. I loved Jetfire, so I was very glad to see him in the movie. I was also very pleased with the context in which he was used.
8. I will also soon be uploading a tab for the Disbelief song 'Thrillseeking.'
So anybody reading this please rate/comment on my work and read it while it's available. Feel free to leave comments on this blog too. I want to hear from you about what you think concerning my current, past or future works. How else could I possibly improve?
He could still remember the expressions of the four young musicians as they had listened to him play. Their mockery had stung and their eyes had been almost accusing. They had laughed at him.
Walking down the busy street that led him home, his white Fender in its case on his back, the only thing that Ed had to focus on was the abysmal interview that he had just failed.
Many were the people that passed him. Some smiled, some frowned, while some glared at him as though he had just raped their daughter. His carefully practiced expression of neutrality typically resulted in this range of returns.
The band that he had auditioned for were a group of three boys, all aged fourteen, who had been looking for a second guitarist for almost five months. Though admittedly two years their junior, Ed had turned up for the open call. He had said nothing, as usual, but had kept his attention entirely on his playing. He had pushed himself to the absolute limit, running through a hoard of original riffs before making up a solo on the spot. They had laughed at him.
The guitarist that they had eventually chosen, after criticising almost everything that Ed had done, had impressed them by playing the Blitzkreig Bop.
Silently seething with every step, Ed was quite surprised that the fake self that he presented to the world was holding. Inside, he felt beyond furious.
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Colohue's blogs, last updated : December 12, 2009
