Idle Hands

The devil's work is usually what I turn to when there is a break in proceedings. I can be found engaging in idolatry with several graven images on the go at once. The neighbour's wife has barely sat down from work as a speech pathologist before I am coveting her(and hello Jane if you are reading). Building pointless tourist wheels in the docklands in an inept fashion, privatising natural monopolies and vital public infrastructure, and specifying IP based phone systems are all devil-sanctioned pass times that often fill, for me, the interregna in hot rock.

However, the only slightly fallen angel that is Mrs Tedium kindly organised for me a guitar lesson as a Fathers' Day gift. So, while the hot rock stays on a gentle simmer, I have begun honing my craft with Patrick (yes!) who lives two streets away. This very evening he took me through some natty exercises that involved barre chords in formations other than E and A. The idea, as Patrick tells it, is to encourage slightly different, or differently emphasised, harmonies and even chord fragments in place of chords.

When asked what I would like to work on I suggested that doing that neat bass and melody at the same time trick that Richard and Tommy, in a nod to Dilky's erstwhile didact, do so very well might be nice.

I shall, as people who are busy doing the devil's work say, keep you in the loop.