Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh

Category: Music/Guitar

Music of my kind. My self-education of playing the guitar including learning the chords, reading tabs, etc.

Guitar Tab for Animal Instinct by The Cranberries
As Henry W. Longfellow has once said, “Still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and wait”, my self-education of guitar playing is still in progress. It takes willpower and perseverance to achieve dexterity in changing chords flawlessly and keeping rhythms while playing the guitar. Every famous guitarist including Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, who were also self-taught, has gone through the same phase I am in.

When I practice, I play guitar tabs easy to play with chords, such as G, A, Em, Dm, D7, D, Am, A7, C, E, E7, and G7, all of which are used in most of popular songs. And “Animal Instinct” by The Cranberries are composed of such chords as follows. The tabs herein are posted by the courtesy of www.guitartab.com.
```
Em         Am                     C
Suddenly something has happened to me
            D
As I was having my cup of tea
 Em         Am               C
Suddenly I was feeling depressed
        D
I was utterly and totally stressed
 Em    Am                C    D
Do you know you made me cry
 Em    Am                C    D
Do you know you made me die
 Em                       Am
And the thing that gets to me
 C                      D
Is you’ll never really see
 Em                        Am
And the thing that freaks me out
 C                       D
Is I'll always be in doubt
 Em       Am                  C
It is a lovely thing that we have
          D
It is a lovely thing that we
 Em       Am                  C
It is a lovely thing, the animal
           D
The animal instinct

So take my hands and come with me
We will change reality
So take my hands and we will pray
They won't take you away
They will never make me cry, no
They will never make me die
And the thing that gets to me
Is you'll never really see
And the thing that freaks me out
Is I'll always be in doubt

The animal, the animal,
The animal instinct in me
It's the animal, the animal,
The animal instinct in me
It's the animal, it’s the animal,
It's the animal instinct in me x2
```
“The Peanuts” jam!

I can sing the song while playing the guitar. It’s such an exhilarating sensation to actively and tangibly participate in a musical activity!

And I love this song! Dolores of The Cranberries is a superb singer.
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November 22, 2015
Comment te dire adieu – Francoise Hardy
I like Francoise Hardy a famous French singer in the 1960s. Her songs are about what I would call “romantic loneliness”. Despite her beauty, intelligence, and sensitivity, she always seems to sing a song about her lover leaving for another woman which I can associate myself with. As a matter of fact, the singer herself is an intelligent woman who attended at the prestigious French national university Sorbonne. Her shyness and uniquely simple but elegant fashion style in her prime time were what distinguished her from her fellow chanteuses. I see no other female singers as elegant as Hardy to this date. And this song is one of my top list of songs I like.
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November 21, 2015
Yoshi’s Guitar World and his Finess
Today I would like to introduce to you all my colleague and accomplished guitarist Mr. Yoshi Hiraoka and his fine demonstrative playing of the new awesome Takamine electric-acoustic guitar. What a smooth operation! Mr. Hiraoka is also a lead guitarist of his band “The Spinal Crackers.” Moreover, he suavely inducted me to finally possess a guitar (which is electric-acoustic Fernandez “Ferdi” guitar) and to play it myself. Many kudos to Yoshi-san 🙂

My brother Joe in Korea.
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November 19, 2015
My Guitar Practice – “As Tears Go By” by The Rolling Stones
My electric-acoustic guitar “Ferdi”

This song is in my repertoire for learning to play the guitar. Today I am posting “As Tears Go By” which is appropriately easy to play for a beginner like me.

The set of the chords are major, the movements of the chord changing can be smoothly achieved. Now the only thing I should master is to change the chords more swiftly and dexterously so that I can keep the rhythm of the original version of the song.

I sing the song while playing the guitar, and I love it! The chords for this song are: G, A, C, D, and Em as shown with the lyrics below:

Let’s play it!

(G) It is the (A) evening of the (C) day. (D)
(G) I sit and (A) watch the children (C) play. (D)
(C) Smiling faces (D) I can see, (G) but not for (Em) me.
(C) I sit and watch as tears (Em) go (D) by.

(G) My riches (A) can’t buy every (C) thing. (D)
(G) I want to (A) hear the children (C) sing. (D)
(C) All I hear (D) is the sound (G) of rain falling (Em) on the ground.
(C) I sit and watch as tears (Em) go (D) by.

(G) It is the (A) evening of the (C) day. (D)
(G) I sit and (A) watch the children (C) play. (D)
(C) Doing things I (D) used to do (G) they think are (Em) new.
(C) I sit and watch as tears (Em) go (D) by.

(G) (A) (C) (D)
(G) (A) (C) (D)

Keep on rollin’ because indeed practice makes perfect.
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November 13, 2015
No Milk Today by Herman’s Hermits
I like 60s music because of easy and simple but catchy tunes and unscrupulous lyrics. Accordingly, one of my favorite song is “No Milk Today” By Herman’s Hermits. The guitar chords are relatively easy to play, mainly comprised of Em, B7, A, and G. Then again it’s all about the finger dexterity that matters. I know the chords and where to position my fingers, but the swiftness is a mountain I have to climb and conquer. One day I want to hoist a flag of achievement on the top of the mountain!
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November 6, 2015
Chords for my daily guitar practice.
I’ve got an electro-acoutstic guitar that I bought from my colleague at work, a guitarist in a band, 2 months ago. Since then I have been practicing the guitar whenever I have free time in hope of playing the songs I love without mistakes by changing the chords swiftly in keeping up with the rhythms.

I have read books on guitar lessons for beginners on Kindle. My impressions on these lessons are threefold; (1) memorizing the fretboards is a must; (2) practicing chord changes on a daily basis; and (3) consistency and perseverance as the keys to becoming a good guitarist.

For me number 1 can be done a little later, and number 3 is what I believe and adhere to. However, the issue is number 2. Yes, changing the chords promptly without hesitation seems a bit challenging to achieve at the moment. According to Dan Thorpe in his Lightning Fast Guitar Chord Changes, there are some methods that can help me develop hand dexterity and muscle memory.

Of all the recommendations, my selected are: (1) pivot method, placing a finger on a lowest string first before changing a chords; (2) diamond method, strumming a chord four times and then changing into another chord to play another 4 times; and (3) blast method, without strumming the chords just placing the left fingers on the assigned fretboards until the fingers by means of muscle memory move to press the correct chords seamlessly. I have practiced my chord drills according to the aforesaid methods, and they are indeed helpful. I know I can get there anytime soon.

The chords I use for drill practice are as follows:

G-Em-C-D-G

G-Em-Am-D-G

A-D-E-A

Am-E

Am-Dm-E

G-C-D

G-Em-Am-D7

C-Am-Dm-G7

Simple as they seem, these are great chords to practice and effective to develop muscle memory. Surely, memorizing the fretboards is a must and will benefit me from reading the notes and playing the guitar flawlessly, but at the moment what I should master is a rapid chord changing.
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November 6, 2015