Justin.

I had a friend once that owned an Epiphone Les Paul like the one pictured above.

His name was Justin.

Of all my friends I feel like Justin and I had the same love of 70's rock music, taste in beer and wine, video games, cooking and pipe tobacco. His blue Les Paul had this big square Led Zeppelin sticker on the top, behind the bridge.  He took it off later, and it left this big faded square there.  He ended up sanding the finish and kind of destroying the guitar lol.  We used to be out under the garage, him with his guitar and me with my bass, and we used to noodle around a bit.  He did teach me to play a version of Sunshine in Your Love once, probably the 2nd song I learned on any instrument.

Justin passed away a few years ago.  Every single time I feel like I'm getting better at guitar, my heart hurts, physically it has pain.  Every time I pick up my guitar, I feel one of the only regrets I have.  I want to play guitar with my buddy so badly, but I can't.  I have dreams where I meet him and show him that I'm learning.  In my dreams, with him watching, is the only time that I can play 100% perfect.  I know he would have bought Rocksmith as soon as it came out, I"m sure of it.  He would have had so much fun with it, and I know he would have came over and we would have played the multiplayer stuff in game together.

I used to give him so much shit about liking the band KISS.  I am not a huge fan of KISS, they're just not my thing.  A bit theatric, and they had a disco album.  We once watched a live concert of KISS while having a few beers, and Paul Stanley came up and said his famous line "You wanted the best, you got the best" and I mimicked that except I said "You wanted the best, but all we have is KISS!" and I used to say that all the time to Justin, just to give him shit, and laugh.

He got the last laugh though.  Because one day I'm going to have a Les Paul style guitar in blue.  And every time his birthday comes around, I'm going to play a new KISS song in his memory.

Day 59

Just a practice day.  Nothing new to report.  I"m playing around with staying in the same key, moving from minor to major Pentatonic.  I feel like I need to look up some suggestions and advice on doing so.  I feel like I'm on the edge of where i need to seek out advice in general too.  There are things I see players do, or things I hear them do, in their jam sessions that I really need to learn.  Its hard to learn such a thing unless you're there.  Its hard to articulate what you're asking unless you are there and they are playing and you say "that, that right there, show me how you did that".  Search engines are kind of too ambiguous to be able to do that.  The best you can do is look up "tricks" on youtube and hope the thing you want to know is one of them.

Saw something on Rob Chapman's channel today.  If you read this frequently, I talk about loving to play in the key of G, and how I really think the G chord sounds great to my ears.  Chapman put up videos about the new Gibson 2014 line of guitars, and in it he says to Cap-10 "I swear, maybe I'm crazy, but I swear that G sounds the best on a Gibson SG", which is the guitar I use.  So I wonder if I would have liked G so much if I had been playing another instrument instead?  I just think its weird that this comes up weeks after I first said I liked G.  Makes me think maybe I have a better ear than I thought?  Who knows.

Tomorrow's post will be my 60 day recap.  I don't really know what I'm going to write, but I'm assuming I'm going to outline where I'm going on my blog in the future, if I decide to continue it.  The blog has helped me keep at it as much as having Rocksmith itself.  Anyway, tomorrow, whole post dedicated to my 60 day challenge ending.