Hi folks,

well, things have been way too quiet here - and if we want to keep the
group going I guess we should actually use it once in a while, assuming
there are still people out there reading and I'm not just going to be
hearing the sound of my own voice echoing...

So what's everyone been up to guitar-wise lately? for myself I've been
making great leaps forward in terms of technique, have finally mastered the
dreaded barre chords or at least enough of them to tackle more complex
songs, and have been working on singing and playing various old Simon &
Garfunkel standards. I've also been writing music, got a little song worked
out in DADGAD that's being added to as inspiration strikes, as well as a
rather nifty fingerstyle piece I came up with in the "americana" style,
sounds a bit like Richard Shindell stuff to me, though not quite in his
league.

Besides that I've been busy trying to teach my fingers to play the banjo
correctly and not keep reverting to guitar techniques just because its
strings and frets! I've also been trying to record my playing, though not
got very far as my wee palmtop studio gizmo, a Zoom PS-02 works great for
laying down tracks with the supplied backing, but I can't figure out how to
turn the backing off to just record acoustic stuff - its keeping me
occupied, with much cursing!

Blue