Melody

Had a nice practice last night with our other guitarist/vocalist/mandolin player. A great player and a great friend. Went over some rock and roll tunes. His forte is leads while mine is rhythm. Gave him some jazz chords to work on while I picked his brain to learn soloing. Although he uses patterns, I believe that he is mostly a player who relies on playing his instrument a lot and his ear to come up with his leads. While I can probably play or at least fake my way through lead playing of 50's and 60's rock and roll, when it comes to playing leads over standards and slow songs, my skills are sorely lacking.

Was tempted last night to go yet another direction. Was tempted to just learn some patterns and practice playing solos over backing tracks using patterns and my ear. Probably not a completely bad idea. But then I changed my mind yet again.

Decided to go back to my original "Easter Challenge." (See my April 20, 2014 post). I think the Fewell book, while it will be challenging, will might be a really good source of helping me to play solos in a melodic way. I never really liked leads that sound like (to my ears, anyway) random notes. I am a sucker for a melody. 

On a side note, there is definitely something wrong with the rhythm side of the pickup selector on my guitar. For the second time since I've owned this guitar, this particular setting just stopped working last night. Now it's working again. I hate to shell out money to get these things fixed. Will hold off. 

Donating a guitar amp that needs work to charity tomorrow. It's for a place that helps kids with music. I may get a little cash, but it just end up being a donation.