Ever find yourself somewhere on the web and you wonder how you got there? Happens to me every day and often I can't retrace my steps. But often I like to take the time to see the connections. In this case it's pretty easy.
As you may know if you frequent here regularly, I'm learning to play the guitar. In the list of "awesome things that have happened to me because I post stuff online" this ranks right up there. Brandt Schneider a music teacher from Connecticut is having his class teach me. That's right, my own personal instructors. Here they are:
Brandt's faced a few issues getting the entire site public but I've been able to watch a few of their videos and it's been outstanding. I look forward to learning more with them and will certainly tell their story in more detail later. File that under "awesome".
The song I'm trying to learn is "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young. it's actually a law that every Canadian learning guitar has to learn that song. I was watching a young Neil performing the song from 1971 on youtube and listened to they way he set up the song.
I don't know as much about the man as I'd like and for whatever reason went to the Charlie Rose site to see if he'd been interviewed. Sure enough there was an interview from 2008 where Young talks about his writing process. I found that fascinating as he seems able to churn out songs in a very short period of time. Contrary to many writers who labor for a long time as they craft a song, Young seems to live off the inspiration and energy of the moment.
As I continued to listen he began talking about his desire to do something about his convictions about peace and for him in comes in developing a vehicle that uses alternative fuels. Listen to the way he describes collaboration and the power of the internet.