A friend of mine shifted and locked up her blog due to harassment by some strangers. Apparently when u get too popular/notorious, things happen. Makes me wonder how much i changed myself to cater to the opinions of other people.

I've always been proud of the fact that i'm fiercely individualistic, but apparently it doesn't quite work in this world isn't it? Sometimes society dictates that you are not supposed to say certain things (like how i flush my toilet). Sometimes society dictates that you are not supposed to act a certain way (like wearing a T + berms to Orchard).

Oh well. Good luck girl, hope u find peace in your new blog hideout.

I shall just leave this blog as it is. I blog for myself only, it's just that there are many stalkers around. Like Joseph perhaps? ;)

Speaking of digital stalking, i seriously think it's nothing wrong. Everyone does it at some point in their lives. It's just to satisfy the voyeuristic instinct in all of us. And it's also a 2 way street, cos you can easily make your profile private. But of course u also never know when ur friend is stalking u either.

Anyways, i dun really care la. Everyone is free to read my blog. Stalkers, and non-stalkers alike.

Oh and here's another review on my daily 1 hr blues lesson, with myself :D

Lesson 7: Release Bends

Ah... release bends. I believe i hardly use this technique at all in my playing. One thing i find really tricky is when the release bend is in the middle of a mish mash of notes. It's kinda hard to prebend the string first then play the release bend, while keeping intempo with the song, especially when the song is a fast one.

A way to overcome this issue is to play a preceeding bend note first, hold it, then play a release bend. But it makes it kinda predictable somewhat isnt it?

The lick presented in this lesson was somewhat funky. Something that i would play also, due to the small intervals. I tend to prefer smaller note skips and simpler finger positions, so that's something that has to be worked on more too.

There's also a "rolling" example, which frankly speaking, im not a big fan of the rolling technique. Which is also why i can't really sweep chord shapes cleanly. I cheat abit by doing something else and fortunately for this particular example the rolling is probably not so important. Oh well, rolling too much gives my fingers cramps you know.

Overall thoughts:

I played at 72 bpm today, cos 60 is too sleep-inducing. 72 gives a little swing to the licks too, so it's more enjoyable today. Not to fast, and not to slow. I practised every lick starting from the key of A, and using the circle of fifths, worked through every key till i get back to A. Keeps my mind thinking about the next fifth, and works abit on my fretboard knowledge as well.

A little discovery: Consider the root minor pentatonic shape in key of A. The fifth, which is E, gives the location of my 2nd favourite pentatonic shape. Brilliant, there's no need to trial and error anymore for the elusive 2nd shape.

Another way to look at it is the A Aeolian scale. The fifth will give u the Phrygian scale, but usually i look at it like a Mixolydian shape, or a Dorian shape.

Oh well k tt's enough "theory" for the night.