Mild Thing, You Make My Strings Sing

I was somewhat reluctant to go to my lesson Thursday night. I was supposed to have been working on a simple chord change in "Horse With No Name" and it just wasn't coming, even though I had been banging away at it with great diligence and ardor for quite some time. I keep hearing that chord changes are all about developing the muscle memory but apparently my muscles have a serious short-term memory problem.

Part of the problem may be that I'm taking a one-step-at-a-time approach. Maybe it's a typical beginner's attitude but I seem to look at each chord (sometimes even each strum) as one specific phase of a song, rather than as a connected element of a larger piece. After I've hit a chord, I want to take a break, congratulate myself for managing to get my fingers in the right place at the right time and acknowledge the applause of my non-existent audience.

Anyhow, I slunk into my lesson like a kid who hadn't done his homework and either I wasn't as bad as I thought or Mark was being overly generous. He said it was sounding greatly improved and that I was doing fine. Because of that, I decided not to run over the guitar with the minivan.

Next comes "Wild Thing," which sounds much more tame and melodic on an acoustic, at least when Mark plays it. It was written by Chip Taylor, who used some of the trillions of dollars he pulled on "Wild Thing" royalties (as well as "Angel of the Morning" and "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder) by Janis Joplin) to become a professional gambler before teaming with Carrie Rodriguez to make some sweet Americana music. His other claim to fame is being Angelina Jolie's uncle and Jon Voight's brother.

"Wild Thing" is a good choice for me because there is a slight rest between chords -- very accommodating for someone who plays it chord at a time.