Dale Chapman rocks!

Picked up my guitar again the other day and both my fingers and voice let me down – vocals were weak and fingertips sore! I am proud to say that my calluses are well on their way back however my voice is still sounding pathetic. It’s not because I was that good to start off with – I’m still a beginner really. I’ve got all the basic chords down and I play around a bit with the strumming and some finger styling. My playlist gets old quick however, especially as I’m only really happy about 3 songs – all the rest sound really basic. So I decided to learn some new songs.

The first is Fast Car by Tracy Chapman – who by the way had a thing with Alice Walker back in the 90′s!! Proof here. Anyway, I found a really good set of tabs and an all right video tutorial – together with the recording the song’s pretty easy to learn, just takes a wee bit of practice and I haven’t quite figured out how to sing and play it simultaneously!

The second is Drive by Incubus. There are a few video tutorials out there - this was the best one. Found some really good sheet music as well.

Then I discovered Dale Campbell, percussive guitarist. I’ve been absolutely amazed by Justin King and although I joked about wanting to play like that I never actually thought it a possibility. Then I came across Dale’s lessons on how to play percussive guitar. He’s an excellent teacher and he’s put a good amount of effort into his videos – with a bit of work I might actually be able to rock it! This guy is just awesome – his cover of Billie Jean says it all. Might have to check out his albums on iTunes.

I see ridiculous amounts of time being spent playing guitar rather than writing thesis…