Pablosguitar

Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Beeker has taken to sleeping right next to my feet regardless of the hour, morning, noon and night. Yesterday, the 27 th I played my first 12 bar blues with my music teacher, Jimmy Kershaw.   Only a few minutes, he played lead and I played rhythm, then we traded back and forth a few times.   Maybe about 5 minutes as most.   Played in the key of  "A" using the pentatonic scale that he was teaching me. First blues as 74, what a hoot.   Learning to play through the chords, not just over them.   See, there are different ways to play a song using chords.  One way is to play the melody using the notes in the chords.  The other is to play the notes around the chord, the way jazz and blues musicians play songs.  Start out with the melody and once that is established, start to improvise by playing notes not necessarily associated with the melody or notes in the chords making up the melody. At the same time keepi...

                             MY DAD WHISTLED My dad whistled.   For the life of me, I can’t remember the tunes he whistled, only that sometimes when he was in a good mood he would whistle while working around the house.   Having him around the house at the same time we kids were home and awake was not a common occurrence.   He worked shifts and would sometimes sleep all day. The times he worked nights and slept during the day the house was very quiet, and we would walk around on pins and needles afraid to wake him, afraid to hear him yell, “quiet”.   Sometimes he would come home at 4 in the afternoon, others at 8 in the morning. Sometimes he would be home for three days straight in the middle of the week.     As a small kid, it was hard to keep track of his odd working schedule, kind of confusing. So, when he was around the house and whistling, it was good.   You see ...

 The other day I was browsing my YouTube files and came across a Joni Mitchell interview from a few years back.  There is so much I don't know about her, but back in the day I bought her albums and enjoyed her music.  I've since given those albums to my daughter-in-law Leah.  I miss them even though I don't listen to records anymore.  Sometimes it's nice to have things close by just in case you want to look or touch them and relive why you got them in the first place. The interview was long and expansive.  At one point the interviewer was drilling down on her songwriting. Joni was sitting on a couch, cigarette in hand, I didn't know she smoked so much, and she started talking about the Magdelena Laundries.  This is truly a dark tale, that shatters illusions about the country of Ireland, and a horrible chapter in its complicated history.  To make a long story short, you should do your own research about this tragic time, the laundries wher...