hubcap diamondstar halo

got together with some friends last night to play music. my guitar skills have really fallen off in recent years, due in part to lack of practice and also to playing bass and therefore not having to deal with bar chords all that much. i've never had that kind of strength in my fingers, and i've always kind of cheated my way through. we started sounding good after a little bit, but it took me a long time to get warmed up and back into form.

when i was a lonesome high school kid i would sit in the basement for hours and play, fool around with pedals and alternate tunings, teach myself how to play my favorite led zeppelin and neil young songs. i don't remember a lot of the riffs anymore, and i find it frustrating that i can't seem to come up with anything good of my own that hasn't been done before. my guitar teacher at tri-c turned me onto funkadelic and jazz standards so i got a lot of good pretty chords out of that, but there's so much i used to know that i know i've lost upon picking up the four-string and delving into punk rock in my later teens.

that's going to be my other official summer goal. i need to get the strength back in my fingers, sit on my porch and learn how to play again, how to use those jazz chords, remember standards and old favorites and maybe try to see what else i can come up with. i'd love to start making music with other people again as well. i find i do best that way when i've got someone else to add my ideas to and bounce things off of. i'm not going to try to be everything at once, i'm just going to try and get the groove back, if i ever had it to begin with.