Play Guitar with theJo

Everybody else is doing it, so why wouldn't I?

In these glory days of VLOG's and YouTubes, it's everyone's responsibility to contribute to the community by bringing their opinions, life experiences and "talent" to the table. Guitar and vocal covers performed by regular Johns are -as we all know- hence all over the place nowadays.

Even celebrities like Katie Couric are now jumping on the bandwagon of Internet show-and-tell. As a segment of her new daytime talk show, the American journalist and author recently took the opportunity to show off her amazing, hidden talent as a pianist!

Katie Couric Plays Piano Like A Pro! (Parody)

I picked up a cheap-ass electric guitar on eBay a few years ago, myself. And I did so without even knowing the first thing about music theory, chords or fancy picking techniques. Hell, I had never even held a guitar before! ...Well, apart for my 5 minutes of guitar archery* on an acoustic, back in high school, that is.

(* That's what happens when you try to finger pick without knowing how to pick a string in the first place - ergo; you yank the string and release it like a bow and arrow.)

Thefakesoundofprogress

Anyway, ever since I started arseing about with my very own Flying V copy, I've been recording my tone-deaf attempts at making my noise sound anything the slightest musical. Every now and then I make videos as well. Here's an old one I made back in April, 2011:

Me trying to play some Therapy?

Recording as a means of learning

Kitty's getting it right. - Are you?

Even though you don't plan on ever becoming a YouTube celebrity, recording stuff is extremely useful tool for advancing in anything; whether it be singing, playing an instrument, or even doing your morning routine! Just by listening and observing yourself from a distance, helps a lot to hear what sounds right and what doesn't. It also makes evident if anything in your technique looks dodgy. Maybe you're playing with your knuckles instead of the pick? Maybe you're muting the strings with your thumb without knowing? Maybe you're toasting buttered slices of cheese and brushing your teeth with your grandma's hairbrush every morning? Recording yourself helps you discover all of this, and more!

As a bonus, you'll end up with hours and hours of random, everyday footage in your little video camera cellphone telephone! All this random crap you can dump on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, as well as every blog, forum and comment section you ever come across in your life! Advertised as original, quality "VLOG" content, of course.

But most of all - recording s#!t is FUN! So good luck with that, kids!

Mo' half-assed Guitar videos!

If you're interested in my "progress" as a "guitarist", as well as videographer, here's a couple of more videos of mine, from my blip channel at blip.tv/thejo:

Placebo - The Bitter End cover March 2012

Lambretta - Bimbo cover September 2012

Find all my guitar videos here!

Feel free to bribe, subscribe, like and share my videos, and yada-yada.
Thanks for watching, kids! See ye laters, ye feckin' gators!

Cheers! /theJo