Hmmm…

Let’s add to the archive:

(10) – D note.
(8)- G note.
(12)- G note.
(10) – C note.
(0) – only if you want to.
(X)

Maybe just a bit of light strumming for this chord eh?

Then a bit of riffing:

(0)
(0) 15(b^), 12(b^), 12(b^)—s-down(10)—-slide down(8)
(0) 12, 14,
(0) 14,
(X)
(X)

or

(0)
(0) 15, 12
(0) 12,
(0) 5 (slide with index all the way to 12) – 12
(0) 7,
(0)

It all kind of jives together when you let your mind absorb it and hear it.

Sorry, we need to find a setting or function that adapts or allows for soloing tablature to be written on WordPress.
Is there an App for that?
I’m sure you audiophiles won’t have any issues with it.

Where the heck did the coffee go?

Matthew R. Polkinghorne

To your voice.
That thing, whatever it is, wherever it comes from, is ethereal.

Here’s my own self-study for the day and a contribution to the archives of cyberspace (cyborg space to Dr. Yucek):

(0)-E
(12)-B
(14)-A
(12)-D
(10)-G
(0)-E

G,D (play together 2 downward strokes). Single pick on A-note. Then single pick (12),b-note. Then single pick 12, d-note. And single pick 12, b-note.

Then:

(0)-E
(10)-A
(12)-B
(11)-C#(Db)
(12)-A
(X)

Continuous downward strokes on this chord, casually.

Try a counter-echo effect with this chord shape:

(5)-A
(0)-B
(4)-B
(5)-G
(4)-C#(Db)
(5)-A

And this one:

(5)-A
(3)-D
(0)-G
(0)-D
(X)-muted
(5)-A

And this one:

(5)-A
(3)-D
(5)-C
(0)-D
(X)-muted
(5)-A

Let counter-echo ring as true as possible.
These 4 chord positions and moderated picking technique in the 1st chord shape are enough, I think, to build a song.

Matthew R. Polkinghorne

I got a coffee headache.
It’s one of those good bad ones.

I’m going to do something I don’t want to do; share a idea (s) in the Key of F.
When I fiddle around in the Key of F, something ain’t right.
Nonetheless, it’s a 3-4 chord progression that moves through a nice spectrum of emotions.

Try to start with a modified F-chord:
(1) – F
(1) – C
(0) – muted
(3) – F
(X)
(X)

Pick the 4th string F one time and then stroke up the other F,C a couple times. It’s sets the sombre tone nicely. Then drop the ring finger F to an open D and hammer on the A-note on the 3rd string (play open D and A together).

(1)-F
(1)-C
(2)-A
(0)-D
(X)
(X)
This progression brings you right back up. Couple downward strokes on the D,A and then a couple upward on the F,C. It’s very pretty and opens up the possibilities of life. Then I like to drop it right back down again to the emptiest kind of sound.

(0)-E
(1)-C
(0)-A
(2)-E
(0)-A (only if you want to).
(X)
This really brings the mood right back down. Kind of like “Oh God…I just want this to be over”. Sure, add the ring finger to complete the major-C if you’d like and then back a half-step on the 5th string back to the B-note (to slightly mimic Strange Days). Then, however, bring the mood right back up by going back to the original F on the 4th string.

It’s a quite simple and nice 3-4 chord progression.
Thought you might like it, even if it’s in the dreadful yet elegant Key of F.

Oh Lordy, time to open the fridge to see what Aunt Roberta made. For the love of God Aunt Bert, the casserole is dry. I’ll have to make the spaghetti and meatballs!

Somberly yours in the Key of F,

Matthew R. Polkinghorne

I don’t find you funny, in the slightest.
Do you have any feelings (I sound like a woman right now)?
Do you think I don’t know?

People have feelings and needs.
Some people need to get paid? Are you kiddin’!?
Some people need to get laid too (I sound like a woman again).

Do you think that I don’t know what your thinking as you think it before you think it as your ready to broadcast your thoughts?

I don’t care if you cooked with corn. The corn was cold and unsavory. I need it piping hot! (I sound like a woman again).

Excuse me while I go cry myself to sleep.
I don’t know what to say…I….I…I…I’m crying inside (everything is wrong with my life).

And she said it with her eyes,

Matthew R. Polkinghorne

There’s nothing I can do about it.
I finally got it.

I want to know how.
I’m not here anymore.
I almost don’t have to think about it.

Forget you!
Fine, I’ll drink the wine just as long as you know something…

Matthew R. Polkinghorne

Stretch those fingers. This one hurts. The sound though, can’t be compromised.

It’s a 4-string chord (all fingers depressed on the fret board), playing with the pinky finger again. It’s a simple one-step backward movement with the pinky.

Put your middle finger on the 4th string (14th fret), E-note. Index finger on the 3rd string (12th fret), G-note. Ring finger on the 2nd string (15th fret) – D note. And the pinky finger on the 1st string (17th fret), B-note.

Here’s how I believe the melody should progress (single pick for each note in succession). Feel free to do what you want with it:

14 (E), 12 (G), 15 (D), 17 (B), 15 (D), 17 (B), 17 (B), 12 (G), 17 (B).
Drop the pinky one whole step to (A) – 15th fret to continue the melody.
14 (E), 12 (G), 15 (D), 15 (A), 15 (D), 15 (A), 15 (A), 12 (G), 15 (A).
This riff is more than enough to build an entire song around. Use it as you see fit and how you want to build the strong. It’s a very strong foundation and will, I believe, please and entertain your ear.
If you want add this for complexity or timbre (close to overkill yet not so).
Shift the conventional D-chord in the standard position up 12 frets (with open 4th string – D).
O (D), 14 (A), 15 (D), 14 (F#), 15 (D), 14 (F#), 14 (F#), 14 (A), 14 (F#)
One more riff to complete the lullaby (drop the ring finger and use the index 1 full step down the 1st string).
O (D), 14 (A), 15 (D), 12 (E), 15 (D), 12 (E), 12 (E), 15 (D), 12 (E).

And repeat back to the 1st riff. Make it as simple or complex as you want. Drop some of it or add something to it.
It’s all good for the ear, the mind and your spirit.
And my lullaby to you if you need a lullaby.

Matthew R. Polkinghorne

I like to contort my fingers into awkward positions on the fret board. In some strange way it creates a sense of relief. I like to move my hands around on the fret board to feel the strings and smell the wood. I don’t know how hard Mahogany Dreadnought is but it sure smells good and I hear the sounds of strings move beneath my fingers.

And so I contort my fingers and find the very essence of my soul. The place where I get to go and the place where I get to find my real self in the midst of a squall.

The conventional D-chord with an open 4th string just doesn’t cut if for anymore. I like the sound. It’s familiar yet I need more from the guitar. And so I wince in slight agony and push my ring finger up to the 6th string on the 3rd fret and drop my pinky down to the 2nd string on the 3rd fret and play the rest of the strings open. Ahhh…I feel the hollowness of it all. I can’t hold this in for one more second. I don’t want to always be or sound hollow though…so I add my middle finger to the 1st string on the 2nd fret and my index goes to the 3rd string on the 2nd fret. The 5th string is muted with an open D-4th string. I strum it all and let it ring true. Then I pull off the index and middle finger(s) simultaneously.

I leave the ring and pinky in there place, strum it open and then hammer-on and add Asus2 and pull-off just like that. Ok good. Repeat. Now let’s move toward a power chord. Middle and ring finger both on 3rd fret (5th and 6th string), index finger 2nd fret (4th string) with pinky on 3rd fret on the 1st string. Let all other open strings ring true. That’s a hearty sounding power chord. Now slide up the pinky to the 5th fret, 1st string and drop the index finger to the 3rd fret, 2nd string (while playing 3rd, 4th and 5th strings open with 6th string muted). It takes me and Chris Hadfield to the Moon every time.

Now slide up one more time, put the index finger on the 7th fret and 1st string with the middle finger on the 8th fret, 2nd string. Let all other strings ring open with the exception of the 6th string. Hear it ring open and true and then resolve all the way back to the modified and full 4-string G-chord.

And then contort again back to the original nearly impossible position and interchange with the 4-stringed Asus chord. It don’t get much simpler and levitating than this.

See you on the moon. I’m taking a Creemore Springs with me. It’s the only way I fly a space shuttle straight.

Matthew R. Polkinghorne

The guitar that is.

Are you ready for you hand to ache?

I am.
Bar (no not the local watering hole) the 5th fret with your index finger, leave the 6th string open and don’t play it. At the exact same time you bar the entire 5th fret (minus the 6th string), place your pinky on the 7th fret, 2nd string and your ring finger on the 7th fret, 3rd string (at the same time). Strum the entire chord, full. Just one downward stroke and then another and then in 1/8′s; however you want to play. Hold your hand in that position until it turns to concrete on you want to cry. Then drop the pinky, only with the ring finger left on. Strum it out and let it ring. Just drop that pinky off the 7th fret and add it on. It’s unmistakable.

Now here’s the hard part. And it’s only half way to the real soft spot. After you play with it for a while (those 2 chord positions), we’ll need to do some plucking. Go to the B-note on the 6th string (7th fret). Pluck it. Then go to the D-note on the 5th string (5th fret). Pluck it. Then go to the A-note on the 4th string (7th fret). Pluck it. Make those 3 successive plucks (or picks), then add the pinky finger to the 7th fret (3rd string). Play it as a 4-string chord and leave the E and B open on the bottom 2 strings. Strum out all 6.

I don’t know the name of this chord but it’s a beautiful one. And it gets me every time.
You may need to inject your hand with some morphine but don’t fret the recovery time for learning how to hold this chord isn’t too bad.

I’m sorry I don’t know the names of these chords. I have listed the finger positions and how to sound each one out. I sincerely hope you may find some value and peace in each one.

It’s the softest I know how to be. And it’s only half way there. No wait, it’s not even close to half-way there. It’s a start though and we need to start somewhere and get off on the right foot.

There’s too many chords aren’t there?

Be good to your fingers.

Hum-drum, I like to strum, searching for bread-crumb and a glass of rum,

Matthew R. Polkinghorne

At the age 13 my ear was permanently snagged by the vibration of sound. I am most certainly not an audio engineer and I wouldn’t pretend to know what to do with all the dials or miniature levers that shift up and down. I would like to guess that the technical experts will handle that sort of thing and ensure something that resembles perfection.

Fuel and Simple Plan were just 2 bands that really picked up my spirit. I liked to sing along with the singer of Simple Plan and these days I subtly add the baritone for all their songs just for kicks. I’ll do the falsetto too, but when they whale on those power chords with fury, I throw in the baritone.

Fuel, to me, is a bit of different story with a much darker sound. I finally figured out what it takes to emulate that guy’s voice when he really loses it during parts of the songs. And then I gained a new respect for him and all the rest of the members of the group. The number of bands a bunch of us listened to are too numerous to recall. There were a lot. Nowadays, I am slightly more influenced by Women singers and songwriters paying very close attention to pitch or range of notes.

Then one day, out of unresolvable frustration, I picked up the guitar and began to try and play. I attended handfuls of music lessons and have stuck with it on and off for a long period of time. I don’t know how many breakthroughs I’ve had yet it’s when I’m on the verge of a breakdown that I reach that next level of skill and understanding. Playing with chords and notes, combining all of them; it does something to me. It resolves an internal tension that nags at me time and again and releases a positive energy that, I believe, lifts.

Sometimes I drop the pick and just play with my fingers in a desperate attempt to hold on to myself. Yeah, it’s a last resort. Or sometimes I’ll just riff the blues as I think about the times I was lucky to have with my 2nd teacher of music. And if I absolutely hate myself beyond explanation, I will attack pillows without guilt or remorse and settle for creating my little blues rhapsody on guitar. Who needs a piano when you got a guitar eh?

I got so sick of hearing “Oh…his fingers are to little”. Until one day I just began strangling the neck of the guitar with my left hand. Problem solved. All I have to do now is make sure my fingernails are properly trimmed as to not create interference between strings.

This morning I brewed coffee. Yeah, I found a silly little mug. I guess I like mugs. The handles are so cute and neat. Within half and hour I was beside myself again and absolutely disgusted with myself. Ok, I have to create something fast or I’ll jump off a cliff. So I diddle around on the fret board, experimenting with open strings, long slides, pull-offs, hammer-ons and all that good stuff until I find something that pleases my ear, perpetuating a sigh effect. Alright, temporary balance.

Sorry to drabble on. It’s been a hard morning.

I’m experimenting with something cool right now. C9 and Em make up the verses with muting effects. Then a variation of hollow-G, 3/4 of a G7 without the depressed F-note and a modified C-chord for the chorus. A lot of playing with individual fingers throughout it. It sounds so neat, like I’m being transported from the Starship Enterprise to the planet’s surface. You know what I mean? The chorus of the song makes me feel like I’m dematerializing and re-materializing while traveling through time (no not a black hole in the space shuttle yet something along those lines). I don’t know how to explain the feeling; the chorus just carries me through and I hear it echo through my head, sporadically.

I’ll always share all this stuff openly because I like to share thoughts and ideas and I like to learn together. I’ve gotten up on stage a couple times and it was a lot of fun, painful as it may have been for the audience/listeners. I don’t mind the stage yet most of the time I like the limelight to be cast on someone else. To see the light shine on another person.

To some degree, all of this stuff just kind of comes to me. From inside and from the feelings of the people that are around us. I like to share it in the hope of moving forward, creating something new, and expanding together.

I just don’t know who to share it with and maybe that is something that doesn’t need to be figured out or solved. I guess this writing forum is good enough for me but I’m also reaching out the best way I know how, despite the arrogance I project through the festering of deeply-knit anger.

And that’s why I need you. I need you because you heal me. Or, at least, you may be willing to heal me. I think I healed you in the best way I knew how. I hope I healed a part of you and it was never my intention to do opposite or otherwise. We collided. We loved. We fought. We made up. We added a new life to this world.

I don’t think I need to say anything else,

Matthew R. Polkinghorne

So there you were…with family on a vacation to an Island.
Some of the people you knew and some of the people you did not.
The weather was nothing short of spectacular with not a cloud in the sky. Boats skipping across the water and people floating on inflatable rafts.

You preferred to walk alone and run your toes through the sand. The crowds were a bit overwhelming with too many beer bottles scattered across the beach.
People strutting around; flashing their muscles and skimpy bodies.

You felt that old familiar feeling…like you didn’t belong and the social scene just never seemed to add up. People looked at you but never in the way you’d like or prefer.
You took your chance on a girl…you thought you’d throw your line out there against your better judgment. She was full of life…energy and had a smile that could light up an entire room or your life if you felt the life in you.
She wasn’t like anyone you had ever met. She did strange things and acted atypically. You didn’t know if she was coming or going.

Yet you still decided to take that chance. You still decided to throw your line out there because you know in the pit of your stomach and at the edge of your soul that is was worth the chance; worth the risk. She responded only to rejection and relished the challenge of winning you over to eventually help you see things the way she wanted you to see them.

She helped you to see the stars and admire the big dipper because that was where you wanted to cast your eyesight. She even pointed to the stars with you and smiled. No matter how drunk that girl was…no matter what she said she wasn’t drunk and she wasn’t high and she paid close attention to your every move.

And at one point…when the feelings grew strong enough, you were finally able to welcome her into your arms and give her a small piece of trust that you didn’t want to give. And it is hard to give that trust when you feel like she is mostly not there. No matter how hard you try to feel her…she was mostly not there. Yet you welcome her in anyway.

You lay beside her after she wanders in during the early hours of the morning; drunk, wasted and high. She is lifeless in the physical sense but still invited you in with her spirit. You feel your stomach churn because something doesn’t feel right. You can’t put your finger on it and something doesn’t feel right. How come this girl is laying beside you anyway? And what the heck does she want with you?

You try and move closer to her and feel the anger of her breath. Her breathing is a signal and lets you know to be careful. Something is wrong and she is very upset about it. Intuitively and without any prompting you ask “Do you have a sexually transmitted disease?” Yes I do, I have herpes Ma…..

Your stomach sinks a little and a lump forms in your throat. With reluctance you move closer and reach one of your arms out to put it around her. She makes a sound that faintly resembles being comforted but she isn’t comforted and maybe she never will be. But there is a feeling of touch and that is a feeling you haven’t felt in a long time. The touch isn’t comfortable yet it is still touch and it makes you feel like you are connected to another human being that thinks, talks and breathes.

You fall asleep together and wake up. The sun shines in through the curtains. You lay there lifeless wondering what’s going on. Someone is beside you and you don’t have a clue what is going on in their life. Yet you feel the warmth of their company beside you. You turn over in the bed to look out the open window and swallow. She is still sleeping as the breeze blows in. She is not like anyone you’ve even seen before and her skin is different too. You lay there and continue to wonder who is laying beside you. You stare at the ceiling fan as it revolves in a circular motion. The ceiling fan doesn’t make you any happier but it moves in a non-stop circular motion and that is enough to get the day started.

Now you have aged and grown a little bit as a person. You look back on the time you had with her. You begin to think of the memories and of the times you had.

And only one question comes to mind and only one question remains…What hurts more?

What hurts more? Did it hurt more that it didn’t last and the times you had together were limited?
Or does it hurt more that that Woman was never laying beside you in the uneasiness of your arms?

And I have to ask myself; What hurts more?
Does it hurt more that it didn’t workout or does it hurt more that that Woman was never beside me in that bed in my arms?
What hurts the most is that I was always in that room alone staring at the ceiling fan, alone. And as I lay there absolutely lifeless, I turned my head to look out the window in the filtered light of the curtains. To see the sunshine come in and feel the breeze. And as I turn my head back I can only look up and stare at the ceiling fan in mesmerized amazement.

I just booked my ticket tonight. It’s a one-way flight to an Island. There’s a room waiting there for me and it has a ceiling fan. The window is half way cracked open. The curtains are drawn slightly enough to let the morning light in. I am there, alone. Utterly alone.

Now you tell me…What hurts more?
I promise you…I won’t say a word and I won’t understand.

There is that Woman again. She isn’t there with you, she is there with someone else and tomorrow you will wake up with the ceiling fan and so will I. I’ll look out the window see the light and try to think of a reason to get up.

I won’t say a word. I won’t understand,

Matthew R. Polkinghorne