I am slow, oh so slow on the uptake. Especially with this business of the guitar. I keep stumbling in trying to learn a 12 bar blues--specifically the single note backbone of "Rock Me Baby," the BB King classic. I'm getting the mechanics down. It's a 1-4-5 song. 4 measures of the one, 2 measures of the 4, 2 measures of the one, 1 measure of the five, 1 measure of the four, 2 measures of the one as a turnaround, and then everything repeats.

A lot of guitar stuff is about knowing where to go. But, more than that, doing so seamlessly without unnecessary pauses.

Intervals are everything, Jim says.

I'm still working on dexterity, learning the fret board, learning how to play up and down the neck. Learning to play with speed and feeling is what I'm gearing toward. But the dexterity issues are huge right now. I still can't negotiate barre chords and just don't have the ability to absorb everything I'm shown at a glance. Especially when it's upsidedown from me and being played at a quick tempo.

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Appearances proceeds apace. I'm quite fond of the last few sections, but they're coming exceedingly slowly. Which is frustrating. I'm coming up on the 2 year anniversary of having started this project. Probably another year to go.

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