Friday, October 14, 2011

dressing and chords shapes

My mother commented on my post from two days ago. She reminded me of the dressing at school. :-)

When I was in Grammer School (what they call Elementary now), I was going through the lunch line and Mrs. Melba asked me if I liked the dressing. I told her it was good, but not as good as my mama's. She NEVER forgot that and even told my mom one day, so that's been a running joke between the three of us.

This past Sunday, we got out to do some errands and since it wasn't too busy at DJ's in Halls, we stopped to see what their hot lunch was. Chicken & Dressing. When I took a bite, I told Vanessa it was good, but wasn't mama's. :-)

Also - I never did go back and tell where I found that Joe Diffe song... People that know my listening habits know I tend to not listen to the plain radio. I prefer podcasts, so I can pause, rewind, etc. There's one I stumbled on that I can't find right now, so I can't tell you the name of it, but it was a "live" thing recorded somewhere in Nashville. It started out pretty good with lots of Bluegrass but after a few episodes it started dropping off. I got to where I'd just skim it. But when Joe was there and talking about "Homecoming" (his new bluegrass album) he did that song. WOW.


Last night Vanessa and I met James & Phyllis and Steve & Elaine for some music making. We had a good time with me on picking rhythm, Vanessa on bass, Steve on rhythm and James on mandolin. James chooses not to sing, the other three of us carried the vocals while Phyllis & Elaine talked quilt making. 

I wanted to touch on two specific things... First, it was almost like old times having another guitar to carry that part of the rhythm while I did some picking. In other venues, there might be another guitar, but mine is still so strong that it carries the rhythm. Not with Steve! He's a great strummer and had no problem carrying it and letting me do some extra picking or even experimenting with chord shapes... 

Which leads me to number 2 - I played around on a song that was in D... I made a normal D but when it came to the A, I made it as if it were an F on the 5th fret, only I left the bottom string open. I liked the "ring" that it gave, so I tried it on the G on the 3rd fret, only this time leaving the third string open. It had a good "ring" to it I thought, and felt good to experiment.

Looking forward to the next time!!!

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