This another piece of the "what I was doing a year ago" thread. According to this post, I was trying to learn the guitar, but abruptly stopped for some reason. Now, one year on, I find myself in the same position - although I haven't stopped just as yet. Voices of self-doubt crop up every day or so, yet I've somehow managed to keep it at it for almost a week. Not that there any perceptible improvements in my technique or playing - at this stage, there are simply days when it all works, and days when it doesn't.

What strikes me as fascinating is the concept of melody and catchiness, and how it can be measured and analyzed. In particular, one of the exercises that I'm currently pursuing is to play some of the more memorable rock riffs, just to increase finger speed and strength (and, of course, to serve as some motivation to continue!). In a riff with multiple repititions of the same note (for instance, the riff of "Five To One"), even omitting a single one of these repeated notes can make the whole thing sound completely different, and in fact makes it sound far less memorable. Perhaps this is an obvious fact to some, but I was truly amazed when I tried this out and found that I couldn't just "appropriate" the riff, I had to play it note for note if I wanted it to sound "right", as though it were complete and the way it was meant to be. What also puzzles me is how some riffs can be so simple yet so unforgettable. Taking "Five To One" again as an example, the riff is probably the easiest you can find, yet when it comes on at the end of Waiting For The Sun, it's positively chilling! And, like any good riff I suppose, it's something that just lodges in your head forever. (Funnily enough, I saw an ad in a cinema once for some sort of perfume, where they used this very riff...hmm, so was the point to emphasise "They got the guns, but we got the numbers?"!?!) These sorts of questions make me want to learn more about the theory of music, and see whether others have figured out just what makes one piece sound melodic, and another just like noise.

But I also wonder where I want to take the playing of this instrument. Do I just want to be able to read up tabs and chords on the internet of various songs and learn how to play 95% of them? Or do I want to go further than that? Truth be told, I get the impression that going further is usually paired with the playing shifting from a mere hobby to something serious (playing gigs I suppose). Going a bit deeper into the theory of it all sounds quite interesting, but I doubt that I can fathom most of it. Maybe I just think too much, it's far too early to make such long term decisions; I can't even change chords!