Silver Bells

I started playing random Christmas songs while I was playing my guitar tonight. I don't know what's come over me. I love Christmas all of a sudden. Came up with multiple ways of playing Silver Bells...

I still have exams and crap I don't want to deal with tomorrow - I don't have much to look forward to, either. I just am "in the mood" for Christmas this year. Weird.

Anyways, I developed a great way of learning to play a version of anything. If you begin to play like a child hitting single notes on a piano, you can eventually find the key something is in, and switch the single notes for chords that contain them. Finding appropriate ones isn't as difficult as you would think it would be; it's much easier than playing piano, anyway.

So get out there and learn to play some Christmas songs! I don't care if you play piano, guitar, flute, clarinet, or a tuba or ukulele for crying out loud! It's Christmas time, and there are good songs out there. Yes, many have been played too often and are irritating. Some of them still have their charm, though, and should be sought after.

It's Christmas Time!!!

In honor of the Christmas holiday approaching, I've changed my blog background to a cool red and green.

I might just make a permanent restructuring of font, color, background, and style after New Years. We'll see, though. I want the back to be something to last, not flashy, but comfy.

I'm excited for the holidays. I hope to incorporate Christmas into all of my sundry hobbies - and Photoshop is no exception. I need to go look up some good Christmas-themed brushes.

Hopefully I'll have a whole showcase of Christmas works by the time that day comes.

If anyone with photoshop wants links to the brushes I use, I'll be leaving links.

New Words and Kanji

I have a new word I've picked up.
It's it's music, ongaku.

音楽
The kanji are sound (on) + music/comfort (gaku).

Take note there's a homophone here, which occurs (very!) often in Japanese.
gaku is also learning, or 学
so gaku ≠ gaku if we're talking 学 and 楽

Keep also in mind that in general, 音読みis for pairs and 訓読み is for individuals.
Why?
alone, 学 is gaku, and
alone, 楽 is raku. gaku is the chinese onyomi for pairs for 楽.
(See Kanji - the Chinese Characters for further explanation.)

I'm hoping to get more words like this lodged in my brain once school is over and I have time... It's going to be sad when it ends, though... I'm going to miss all of my friends...

Picking Up New Sounds

I've been looking to broaden my range in every conceivable interpretation of those words. For one thing, I need to work on my singing. For another, I need to learn to create more varying tunes on my guitar, and I need to find some new stuff to listen to.

I think I'm going to attempt I'll Be that Lee proposed. That might help with vocals.

The current song I've been working with has made my hand all cramped in new places... Ultimately, that means I'm doing new things, which is a good sign of improvement.

The new thing I'm looking into is Dashboard Confessional. Some of their songs are easily recognizable - though I didn't know I liked them. Kyle, a friend in a class mentioned them as a place to find songs to learn... sounds like a plan.

However, my main concern is getting new things to play, and I still don't feel like I've found success, even though there's lots of songs I'm still working on... it's some kind of loopy desire I seem to have all of a sudden to want to be able to play anything... even though such a thing isn't feasible.

Does anyone have ideas for Christmas songs to learn? Piano or guitar, I'm in the mood.