Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

It is a new year and time to recap where I am learning the pedal steel guitar and what is planned for the new year. I have spent the last six months learning the Jimmy Day arrangement of Coconut Grove. While I have learned the basics of the song, I am still a long way off from being ready to perform it before an audience. Needless to say I am tired of going over and over the song. It is time to mix things up a bit and continue to learn. One of the frustrating things for me is I can't remember more than three songs at a time. Over the last four years I have learned the following songs:

E9
Steel guitar Rag (E)
Blue Hawaii
Sleepwalk
Amazing Grace
The Old Rugged Cross
We Could
The Last Date
Together Again

C6
Kansas City
Walking After Midnight
How D'Ya Do
Coconut Grove

Now my instructor has told me I need 15 songs for a set. I needed to come up with 3 more songs for my first set. Then we would start with the E9 neck and review each song from the start. So I came up with three additional songs. So my first play list looks like this:

E9
Steel guitar Rag (E)
Blue Hawaii
Sleepwalk
Amazing Grace
The Old Rugged Cross
We Could
The Last Date
Together Again
By The Time I Get To Phoenix

C6
Kansas City
Walking After Midnight
How D'Ya Do
Coconut Grove
I'll Remember You
Beyond the Reef

The plan is to start with Steel Guitar Rag and jog the memory and polish it up a little and move on down the list while I also keep playing Coconut Grove so I do not forget it. The first lesson where we started this process, I told my instructor I do not remember the song. He told me that I do remember, I just forgot where I stored it. As we progressed through our lesson, I started remembering the song. We then moved on to Blue Hawaii and my instructor left me with the first couple of measures. Finally, we went back to Walking After Midnight and went through a couple of measures. My practice between now and the next lesson was to practice all of this.

As I sat down the next day to practice, I started with Coconut Grove and went through the entire song. I then went to Steel Guitar Rag and something surprising happened. As I played what my instructor showed me, I started remembering how he taught me the song. It did not take me long and I was playing the song as I was originally taught. I then moved on to Blue Hawaii and played what my instructor showed me. After practicing for a while the next section of the song came back. I then moved on to Walking After Midnight without any revelations I experienced with the other songs.

I am looking forward to my next lesson as I will get more of songs back.