Band Meetup #2 Tonight

So, it's been a week since 'the band' got together for the first time. This meetup's all about seeing where we've got to with our preliminary song list, talking directions, influences and so on. Hopefully we'll narrow the songs we're going to play to 4-5 so that I can have them nailed by next week.

A surprise addition to our scheduled 'first jam' songs was Bryan Adams' "Summer Of '69". Not exactly the vibe we're going for, but our drummer was keen as he already knows it, or at least that he had the tabs and it looked easy. I set to learning the guitar part last night. Got most of it down. Still some work to do before I can stand up and pretend like I know what I'm doing. The bulk of the song is just a vamp on open D and open A, followed by a quick Bm-A-D-G turnaround and a couple of open chord noodles, lifting off or adding fingers to give sus2 and sus4's. There's a key change near the end, then repeat. Close eyes. Think big '80s hair. Chug, chug, chug.

I've not really heard anything from the other guitarist, which is a bit of a surprise. Hopefully tonight we'll be able to come to some agreement as to who transcribes the songs, who plays rhythm on what, who plays lead. Most of the stuff we've picked so far is primarily written for one guitar, but that doesn't mean it can't be arranged for two.

It's good to see that we're all still keen to do this. Rich, the organiser has procured a bass guitar which was supposedly cheap but decent. He's also 'done himself a mischief' by tearing a muscle but apparently pain killers and beer will sort him out, so he's still coming along tonight. Gold star for effort!

So, beers, tunes and let the good times roll!

Oh, and tomorrow evening is WAES Rockschool Week #2. I think I've done pretty well with 'homework'. I am now the master of the A-string! Spent some time mentally calling out a chord, playing it open then finding the alternative voicings up the neck. To anyone who knows the low E but who hasn't learned the A-string... get to it! Makes forming those A-shape barres much more intuitive!