Gipsy swing and guitar straps

Need to take my mind off things this morning so decided to bury myself in the blog. Had a heavy session at the dentist and can't feel my bottom lip, so feeling very sorry for myself - can't even have a cup of coffee for the next couple of hours as I'd probably scald myself.

On the bright side I'm enjoying my new guitar, even more so now I've been for a couple of lessons. Although I've been playing guitar for more years than I care to remember, I felt I was in a rut, playing the same old pieces and definitely not moving on. So now I'm learning pentatonic scales (something I really should have done years ago, as any serious guitarist knows), which hopefully will give me more confidence to join in with other musicians and also to improvise and play lead guitar.

But my second lesson was the one that set my heart a-flutter - I'm learning gipsy swing!♥ This type of music is so joyful and uplifting, it makes me smile from ear to ear just hearing the opening bars. I've got a long way to go but I've got the form and the time, so it's just a matter of getting comfortable with the chords, then I can practise some lead with the backing track.

It's going to take more practise than I've been doing in recent times, but it feels like I'm exploring a new universe - potentially it'll broaden my musical horizons exponentially.

Hendrix belt

Also planning to knit a guitar strap for the new Martin. And as it happens I have just the pattern in my upcoming book. Hendrix is a versatile design which can be knit as either a guitar strap or a woman's belt.  It's knit in Rowan Creative Linen to make sure there's minimun stretch and both versions are adjustable to fit. I always imagined the belt was destined for the Hers chapter in the book, but P reminded me that it might encourage the more flamboyant male guitarist to keep his trousers up when out gigging!

Hendrix guitar strap

Off to practise a few more bars...