I enjoy playing tunes on the guitar. People around me probably don’t appreciate the out of time and out of tune nature of my playing as much as I do, but that is their loss.
There are a few chords on the guitar that are easy to play, and these include A, Am, D, G, C, E, Em. There are other common chords which are harder play, especially bar chords including F and Bm.
So the trick when looking for songs is to find songs which use the simple chords, and hold them for at least a few beats each. Some tunes change chords so quickly that it is hard to keep up!
Here is a jumbled list of some tunes that I sometimes play, and if I can play them they must be simple.

Christian Tunes

Check out http://www.eileenjahna.com/worship/

• Indescribable
• Be thou my vision
• I could sing of your love forever
• Here I am to worship
• God of Wonders
• Lord I life your name on high
• My eyes are dry
• The heart of worship
• Everything that has breath
• Blessed be your name
• As the deer panteth
• How great thou art
• Come, now is the time to worship
• Open the eyes of my heart
• Every move I make
• O, Sacred king

Random Tunes

Check out http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/

• Country Roads :  John Denver
• The town I loved so well : Phil Coulter
• The Fields of Athenry
• Everything I do : Bryan Adams
• Radio : Corrs

Since my exams I have had a lot to do, but much of it has been general admin stuff: not really inspiring. However, in the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to consider what really inspires me, and a few people have helped me through the thought process.

Last week I went to a meeting of Christan entrepreneurs which considers the role the church can play within running successful and ethical businesses. There I talked to a gentleman who works with business startups in Birmingham about the book ‘Now discover your strengths’ and the associated online strengths finder test. He took the test a while ago, and although finding no startling revelation about himself, it did allow his to reassess his priorities in light of what he enjoyed.

I recently talked to an old friend on the phone, who explained to me how since her term had finished she had been learning all the world’s countries and their capitals. This struck a cord in me, because since organising my trip to South Africa I decided that I should know all the countries in Africa and something about the geography of the area, and have been trying to learn them.

In the past few days, one of my housemates has started playing the guitar. I have still not been able to overcome my first hurdle (spelling guitar!) but I have been inspired to give it a go. I have no idea how long this attempt will last, but time will tell. I’m currently on the lookout for songs that I know that consist only of A,C,D,G and E: Bryan Adams and The Corrs are scoring highly, although both have nasty bar cords in them occasionally.

Many people do not admit to like schooling, but I love learning, I like knowing things and look forward to a challenge, and I don’t think I am alone.

I have been trying to pick up the trumpet again this term, and attempting to learn to play the keyboard. My major sticking point is reading music. I can read music slowly, and almost understand the lengths of notes and rests, but when I try to put it all together it sadly goes wrong.

Practise makes perfect they say, but practise require patience, which I guess I must learn first. In a world were speed is the essence and we are used to fast food and next-day delivery, patience and perseverance are becoming lost arts.

Joining the beginners brass society at Warwick means I at least get one hour a week practise, and I now have some music books so can start to have a blast on the trumpet at home when all my housemates are out.

At the end of the first term, Me, brass Dave, Hazel and John played three Christmas carols at the rev cabaret. I lost the melody at times, but I think it still sounded half decent. Hopefully that will spur me on to continue next term and beyond.

I have come to realise that having a CD and DVD boxset is quite a cool thing. When you play it on your computer it doesn’t pixalate or need weird codecs to work. Oh, and its not normally illegal to own a CD or DVD.

Some (read much) of my music collection was not strictly mine – it had been collated over the years from genuine friends, and some not quite so genuine ‘friends’ on file sharing networks, most notably DC++ whilst on campus at university.

So the time had come for me to delete all the music that was not mine. The issue was forced when I needed to formatting my desktop hard drive, and not being bothered to fill 25 DVD’s with my collection that I never listened to or watched.

It pained me to do it. All those simpsons episodes and films, all that music, but I guess it was the right thing to do. My hard drive is much ligher for it, as is my concience – But now I must start to buy some of the stuff I liked.

I have added a music and video section to my wishlist to try to list the stuff that I want, but If you have any ideas of music that I should buy & try, please tell me!

When I was much younger, I really wanted a trumpet. I saved up my hard-earned cash for a while until I could afford a basic trumpet and eventually bought a lump of correctly twisted brass.

Over the next year or so I had lessons through school, but was never disciplined enough to keep up the practice I should have done at home. The teacher soon disappeared, and I was left with a lack of motivation to play and noone to point me in the right direction.

Occasionally I would get my trumpet from its case, oil its valves and have a blow. I didn’t understand sheet music, and all the peices I played in my lessons had the notes pencilled in below them. However, I do have some basic sense of tune and so could work out the sequence of notes in songs that I was familiar with – mainly Christian worship songs. I would write the notes down on scraps of paper and leave them in my trumpet case.

Over time and occasional playing, my sense of tune became better, and I began to be able to play tunes I was familar with without having to write them down. Just thinking about the next note enabled me to start to ‘play by ear”: Is it higher or lower than the current one? is it a lot different? does it sound like a natural note in the current key?

I have by no means cracked playing by ear, but I am often able to run through a song that I am familar with and get the basic tune, so that anyone guessing would be able to tell what the song is.

When I first came to uni I decided that I wanted a keyboard. They looked easy to play – there is no blowing involved, its just like typing on a computer keyboard, right? My sister in law had just got a new one, and so I inherited an old Yamaha.

Like on the trumpet, I became familiar with the notes and could play melodies to lots of songs which would at least be recognisable, and then didn’t bother looking into it any further. Numerous times I have attemted to understand chords on the keyboard, but my left hand often doesn’t do as its told, and even if it did my brain would not know what to tell it to do.

After my trumpet has sat there for so long doing nothing, I have decided it is time for action – I have joined the beginners brass band at uni. Over the next few weeks hopefully I will remember how to blow through the mouthpeice and have some vauge recollection of the fingering.