I used to play bass guitar for a fairly well known Punk or Streetpunk band until
damage to my right hand prevented me from playing bass and I had to leave or go into retirement as I put it.
The damage wasn’t bad enough to stop me playing completely but enough to stop me
playing what I loved in a live situation - my bass.
Frustrated at the thought of not playing again if it got worse, I went to the Doctors showed them what was wrong and what caused it and the result was that there was nothing they could do. It was not bad enough to have an operation on it to sort it out, until it got worse. I didnt want it to get worse, it was bad enough as it was. No more live bass for me - I was gutted.
I was miserable as sin not playing my bass. After a week or two I started messing about on an electric guitar I had at home and found that I could sort of play a normal guitar without the damage getting worse, which was a result, so I set
about learning to play one properly.
Not being able to play guitar very well in the first place was one of the factors in me picking up a bass many years ago. The other was the fact that I had a one thrust in my hand, told I was shit at guitar and I was playing bass in a band whether I wanted to or not - seemed like a good idea at the time, so I did.
Many years later and I'm back where I started, playing guitar very very badly.
Basically, I know how to tune a guitar to play it with one finger and plenty of distortion to cover up my inadequacies and had managed to play second guitar in a band for a while before it came to an end but actually playing proper chords was a bit alien to me.
I set about learning some basic chords in Summer 2013 and to make life difficult for myself, decided I was going to learn the whole lot on an acoustic (as averse to an electric) guitar. I didn't have an acoustic guitar and not being able to afford to buy one, I did what any musician in my situation does ... I blagged one.
Having never picked up an acoustic before, I was a bit surprised when I worked out the shapes fairly easily, moving between them tho, that was going to be the bugger. I have rather large hands that are used to a bass guitar, 2 less strings and I only had to use one finger at a time, now I had to use all of them together and on six skinny strings and a smaller guitar neck, I figured the easiest way of learning how to play proper chords would be to write a song.
I have been writing lyrics on and off for years so that wasn't going to be a problem. I knew how to construct a song as I had learned that in the few bands that I have been in so it wasn't all alien just the chords and moving between them bit.
I had also recently started using a new bit of music software, or D.A.W. to record stuff onto so it was going to be a whole new learning curve from start to finish. So I set about writing some lyrics and tunes. Very clumsily and very very basic. E, A, D, F, C, G were the chords I learnt first and badly - I still cant play the F or C or change between them very well, the E generally turns into Em (one less finger you see) and the A gets barred (1 finger instead of 3) but i struggled on for a month and it started to get easier but only a bit.
This song is the result of my first efforts and this was
recorded in August 2013.
Please feel free to download this or any other track from the soundcloud page. If you use this in a radio show or podcast - please credit me and and let me or Urban Fallout know - Thanks Russ Crimewave
This was and is the start of a different journey for me which I am going to share from time to time.
I will be sharing songs, lyrics, photos, pictures, thoughts, ideas and basically anything that I think is relevant along the way. If you want to praise, heap ridicule or just say something then either comment or don't. Cheers
