Comment from Graham Tappenden
Time: October 25, 2007, 10:38 pm

Such as a blog on blogging? ie. a blog on how it is to write so many blogs at once?

Comment from ValenciaSon
Time: October 26, 2007, 1:05 am

Is this the anti-blog blog? Blog embargo: Emblogo?

Comment from quickcrimson
Time: October 26, 2007, 6:28 am

Graham, sounds like a metablog …!

I think it’s brave of you to blog about new beginnings, Ben

~Louise.

Comment from ryan
Time: October 26, 2007, 10:23 am

I think your nuts! But very brave! I’m not as good at making a fool of myself. Good luck and I’ll be watching!!!!!

Comment from ryan
Time: October 26, 2007, 10:24 am

Correction I’m very good at making a fool of myself, just not very good at publicizing it!

Comment from Chiny
Time: October 26, 2007, 12:56 pm

Hmm… although I notice the RSS feed for notesfromben.com has gone, I shall leave my bookmark

Unless you turn up at “Bloggers Anonymous” with “My name is Ben Curtis and I am addicted to blogging”.

Comment from luke
Time: October 27, 2007, 7:01 pm

So I slept in the hobo jungles,
Roamed a thousand miles of track,
Till I found myself in Mobile Alabama,
“At a club they call Big Jack’s,
A little four-piece band was jammin’,
So I took my guitar and I sat in,
I showed ‘em what a band would sound like,
With a swingin’ little guitar man.
Show ‘em, son”

Comment from Ben
Time: October 28, 2007, 1:39 pm

Ha ha, yes, it’s the blogaholic here… Luke, where does that come from?!

Comment from luke
Time: October 28, 2007, 5:24 pm

Ben, Think curling lip, shaking hips … think the King.
‘Guitar Man’ - Elvis.

Comment from leftbanker
Time: October 28, 2007, 8:51 pm

I have just started to get back into playing piano after a couple of years off. I also started very late. I taught myself to read music and then started taking lessons. I was sick of experiencing music on a virtual level like so many other things in our modern lives.

I was pretty dedicated for a few years, then I got bored and discouraged, and then I didn’t have a piano for the last two years. My new place has a piano (very out of tune which I need to correct). I’ll be happy to get back to the point I was at when I stopped playing.

The key is practicing every day. The great jazz musician Sonny Rollins said that if he misses a day of practice he notices it; two days and his band members notice; three days and the audience notices. I’m pretty terrible but I really love to play and it always makes me feel good to work through a piece. I just found the music for Chopin’s waltz #19, a fairly easy piece but it is quite beautiful. I used to play it rather well.

Find ways to keep motivated. This is difficult at first since you aren’t able to play many things. I like finding new music.

I have been thinking about taking up the accordion so that I can be a street musician—to me the coolest job in the world. Kind of difficult when you play piano. I hope to see you on a Spanish street corner someday soon.

Comment from Ben
Time: October 28, 2007, 10:13 pm

lb - good, a fellow ‘late starter’! You are right about finding what keeps me motivated… I’m still trying to work out just where I want to go but I’m really enjoying these first steps!

Comment from Jon Hundt
Time: October 29, 2007, 6:43 pm

the key is indeed as leftbanker said, practice every day. But if you are doing it right, you won’t think that you’re practicing… you’ll think you’re enjoying yourself playing the guitar.

Here’s my rule number 1 for beginners: put the guitar case under the bed, and put the guitar in a prominent place in the living room. Better yet, get a few guitars and keep them all over the house!

Some people think their new guitar is a beautiful piece of craftmanship, and they want to protect it from the dangers of the real world by keeping it cased. Well, you can’t play a guitar in a case, so every time you want to play you have to go through all that rigamarole. Result: you don’t play!

I keep a guitar in the bedroom, in the guest room/office, and in the living room by the table. When I drink my coffee in the morning and read the paper, I play some stuff. When I was young and single I could not watch the TV without playing along… but that is starting to drive my wife (of 23 years) crazy!

Comment from Ben
Time: October 29, 2007, 8:03 pm

Jon, I do try to leave it out all the time, but occasionally it goes back in the case! I’ll put the case under the bed as you suggest!

Ben

Comment from pfarnac1
Time: November 18, 2007, 7:59 pm

hey Ben, congrats on starting guitar. I’m self-taught and I started about … 3 years ago? I’m definitely happy with where I am although it does sometimes get discouraging.I recommend buying a book of music of one band you like (I learned 90% of my chords through a Beatles book) and tear through until you get sick of it. After that, maybe head toward a site like ultimate-guitar.com which is a great source for accurate tabs and such. Also, don’t be afraid to play around with creating your own chord progressions/songs.

And another thought; a lot of my friends who are also self-taught and aren’t that good yet usually lack good strumming above other things. I’d recommend finding a good site on how to properly strum as that makes most the difference between a good sounding song and a newbie butchering a tune. Buena suerte

Comment from Ben
Time: November 19, 2007, 4:36 pm

Thanks for the tips, I have a book of chords and am currently hammering away at ‘Blowing in the wind’!