So I guess part of the reason for this post is to apologize for how pompous I sound in that other one. Some of what I said I do still stand by though. Like how I'm still bothered by what I perceive the public perception of guitarists to be. But what I've realized is that it's my own problem that I'm bothered by that. I suppose I just over-think my role as a guitarist and ponder the larger issue of image when I should just be focusing on what I play and how well I play it.
But mostly I'm writing this post to say that I've actually been having fun playing guitar again lately. For my FAWM album, I started to get into chord voicings. I had first gotten into chord inversions during 50/90 last year, but back then, I was just finger-picking everything. For FAWM, I was strumming inverted chords, which made a huge difference, not only in overall sound but also in what types of chords I can play. During FAWM, I learned how to play minor elevenths, and just yester-day, I figured out how to play minor ninths. Also significant is that I started using a pick and my other fingers simultaneously. A few years ago, I saw Greg Lake doing this in a video of "The Sage" from ELP's Pictures at an Exhibition. I think I tried it, but it was really difficult at the time, and I thought I would never be able to do it. And now I'm doing it, and it's loads of fun.
That other post is just one that I wrote when I was sort of stagnating in pushing my musical horizons (that sounds like a cliché). I even acknowledged this cycle in that post, but I was too arrogant or pompous or something to realize that, by combining things I already knew, there was still more that I could learn. I am still sort of frustrated that I'm so much better at guitar than I am at keyboard instruments, but I suppose I just have to practise. I've been playing guitar over five years now, and keyboard instruments only two or three and I've not been practising them as much as I've been practising guitar. I just have to put the time in.
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