one trick pony
‘Show Pony’ - Orville Peck (2020/Columbia)
came across this album review while looking for liner notes. stopped to read through – appreciate the perspective.
watched the music video for “No Glory in the West” last year, sometime toward the start of the pandemic lockdowns in the states. i liked it, a lot; and then didn’t listen to it again until earlier this year. this song shakes something up in me and is the reason why i picked up guitar again. far beyond wanting, i needed to play this song. so i learned it; and it’s the one song i know how to play front to back – my parlor trick.
‘Ride ‘Em Cowboy’ - Paul Davis (1974/Bang Records) art direction by Eddie Biscoe, embroidery by Michele, photography by Nick Rietz, packaging by James Flournoy Holmes & David “Worm” Holmes for Wonder Graphics
titular track “Ride ‘Em Cowboy” is a standout – “i started in New Mexico, must have been a thousand years ago…”
with country western on the mind it would serve me well to return to a record vaguely mentioned before – one that needed “proper” photos taken.
hadn’t heard of Paul Davis before coming across his album ‘Ride ‘Em Cowboy’. the packaging alone is a home run. embroidered western wear? yes please! the album jacket feels like a shirt with embossed denim and embroidery textures, and “unbuttons” onto a saloon scene with track listings in cowboy lasso type. pulling out the liner reveals another layer: the undershirt and hankie of the denim wearer. really into the visual narrative of this album, and it was only a buck – wins all around.
fretwork
i think i’ve already mentioned here that i’m getting back into guitar – pretty sure i’ve mentioned it… anyway, set it up nearby and it’s been what i turn to when i feel distracted and need to focus. noodling on the guitar has felt better than picking up my phone to thumb-scroll into a dissociative fugue. comparing those two things is absurd, i know; but i’ve recognized a marked improvement in well-being since trading phone time for guitar time.
spent the last couple months dusting off the few songs i’ve learned over the years, and learning one new song. i wanted to finally learn and play a song all the way through, and i have! 22 years after picking up a guitar for the first time and i’m actually learning how to play it. wow…
i realize that playing one or two songs doesn’t amount to knowing how to play the guitar, so i’m doing some exercises to learn the natural notes of the fretboard. i can poke around and make stuff up, but i have no idea what i’m doing or any of the notes i’m plucking away at. that’s no good. found a couple helpful videos from Music Theory for Guitar and Redlight Blue that encourage getting to know the fretboard and provide some pointers, and that’s just what i’m setting out to do.
although the internet has endless diagrams mapping out the fretboard, i felt i’d get more from the exercises if i started out making my own (this was also in an effort to keep my wheels from spinning into distraction and overthinking elsewhere). made the fretboard diagram in Illustrator and made each GIF in Photoshop. set the GIF frame durations to 1.5 seconds, an approximation to match the 40 bpm i set my metronome app to for practicing. here are each of the notes on the fretboard isolated out from A to G, moving from the sixth to first strings:
like i wrote earlier, i know this is procrastinating from actually doing the exercises. i just thought making my own diagrams would help connect the dots. i think it has, and will. nevertheless, this was a fun diagrammatic exercise and a good distraction. there are plenty of other things tugging at my attention right now, getting in the way of work and thoughts. so annoying…
time to get back to it – lots to do.
ok, bye bye!
pick up
from left to right: first pick from around 22 years ago, Fender tortoiseshell pick from ???, second Fender tortoiseshell street find, unknown tortoiseshell pick from today
second pick from the left in the image above but taken with my phone. the scanner doesn’t pick up the gold foil. i think the sparkle helps these stand out when i find them on the sidewalk.
i keep finding picks on the ground. i’ve found a couple over the last few weeks. one is similar to a Fender tortoiseshell pick i already had (second from the left) and, come to think of it, i don’t know how i got that one either. i can’t remember buying any guitar picks other than the purple Dunlop one purchased with my very first electric guitar 22 years ago — it’s a thick one, unbreakable almost — and a thumb pick that i just can’t get the hang of… a friend gave me a yellow New Orlean’s Jazz Fest pick in middle school. wish i’d kept a better eye on it, don’t know where it got off to.
i don’t even use picks when i play but i can’t help but pick them up when i see them on the ground. i don’t yet have the confidence to play with that much articulated amplification, i’m still very much in the learning and noodling phase. besides, i like the soft tone of strumming with my fingers.
i found another pick today on my way to see a friend for lunch. it’s the last one on the right — nameless, but with the same tortoiseshell pattern as the Fenders. again, couldn’t just walk away from it. it’s a little thinner and lighter than the others, so maybe it will be the Goldilocks “perfect pick” when i finally reach for one. not there yet, but this growing collection leads me to believe i’ll be ready when i do.