{"id":563,"date":"2020-04-12T09:15:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-12T13:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/?p=563"},"modified":"2020-04-12T09:15:29","modified_gmt":"2020-04-12T13:15:29","slug":"easter-greetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/2020\/04\/12\/easter-greetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter Greetings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

He is risen. He is risen, indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my church, this is how we greet each other on Easter Sunday. Today is the most unusual Easter, since everyone is self-quarantining due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Easter services will be held still however, thanks to the advances in technology. Online is better than nothing, but it still doesn’t replace the experience of face-to-face gathering. Which brings me to the purpose of this post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having given my Easter greeting, I find I am still sitting at home, sheltering in place, and today is just like the day before it, and the day before that. I actually put “Saturday” on my to-do list to remind me what day of the week it was yesterday! Thus, it was a bit of synchronicity that I received an email. And acted on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back story: Almost nine years to the day, I subscribed to a web site, JazzGuitar.be<\/a>, a site for and by jazz guitarists. I have downloaded lessons and songs, and I receive periodic emails, but I’ve rarely followed through on any of the information I’ve received. That all changed a couple of days ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I received an email with a lesson on Duke Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” a song I have a passing familiarity with. I looked at the music sheet and tabs, and thought, I think I could actually play that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Arranged by Dirk Laukens, of jazzguitar.be<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I was first learning guitar (self-taught), tab — or tablature — did not exist. Or, at least it wasn’t formalized, so I had to either learn from chord charts or by reading scores (sheet music). But I saw this piece and said to myself, “I can read — and play — this tab!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is what I’ve been doing. Between yard work and routine chores, I have found that having a guitar on my sofa makes it easy to pick it up whenever the mood strikes. And the mood has struck often these days! In two days, I have gotten to the point where I can play the main portion of the song all the way through, without mistakes! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jazz guitar. Just before I broke my elbow at my daughter’s fourth birthday party, I was studying and practicing jazz guitar using Mickey Baker’s “Complete Course In Jazz Guitar”<\/a> (volumes I and II).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Mickey Baker’s Complete Course in Jazz Guitar<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But the injury caused me to stop playing, and for a long period of time, never touched a guitar. When I finally picked it up again, I felt like I had to go back to my “roots” and start playing the songs I’d taught myself at the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The circle has been completed. I’m now back to where I was when I was “guitar interrupted.” In fact, I’m further along now, thanks to lessons I took, and the availability of online resources that didn’t exist back in my early days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, now not only can join in Easter services with my church online, I can also learn and participate in playing guitar with people online I’ve never met, and can only share my experiences in a virtual space. “Social distancing” may not be the most fun in the world, but thanks to technology, it doesn’t have to mean isolation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He is risen. He is risen, indeed. In my church, this is how we greet each other on Easter Sunday. Today is the most unusual Easter, since everyone is self-quarantining due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Easter services will be held … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guitar","category-music","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions\/564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfna.org\/rfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}