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Day Fifty Seven (Year Four)

Sometimes it's the little things that make the whole day.  Two of those today, actually.

1) Got that chord change ironed out that had been giving me a bit of grief the last couple of days.  All it takes is consistent work for things to get better.  I know this, on an instinctive level, but every so often, it's nice to have it proved to you all over again.  I can tell you what's different about this time than all the previous times, too.  I'm getting in the studio every day for at least a little while.  There's something about having an actual space for it that makes that easier to get done.  Maybe it's not feeling like you're taking up the whole living room when you sit down to practice.  Maybe it's being able to close the door and concentrate without interruption, I don't know, but either way, it's working.

2) Figured out something tonight regarding octaves and note names that I had either never taken the time to notice, or never had explained to me before.  Essentially, if you learn the notes on the 5th and 6th strings, everything else can be broken down and figured out through octaves off of those notes.  The shape is different for notes on the 2nd string, but the idea is the same, and the notes on the high E string are the same as those on the low E string, so that takes care of that.

The following diagram, from guitarlessons.com, illustrates the point:

http://www.guitarlessons.com/media/guitar-lessons/chord-charts/understanding-octave-centers.jpg

The pairs of notes on the 3rd & 5th frets are octaves, as are those on the 10th & 12th frets, and so on and so on.  The pairs of notes on the 8th & 10th frets are octaves, as well as those on the 12th & 15th frets.  It also follows, then, that the system is the same for all of the #'s and b's.

That small bit of knowledge alone is really going to open things up for me, personally, because from there I can see how scales tie in.  I hesitate to go so far as to say that this was the "missing link" for me, but it definitely feels like a light bulb moment.

A good day of music stuff.  Some good practicing and some learning.  It's all a win.  More tomorrow. 

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