I’m playing the piano version of Let It Be. My dad loaned me this book so I could learn more guitar, so of course I’m getting my piano on.

I now see why everyone and their dog plays guitar, this would be a lot easier if I only had to switch up between a few different open chords. A lot easier. (Most guitar parts are written up as a series of chords, and you can get by just strumming those chords and it’ll still sound pretty nice. Pianists don’t have that luxury. I have full on sheet music, and then a second bit of sheet music for my left hand, and a fair bit more to both than just the same five chords. Seriously, you can play most guitar parts with five chords or less, and the arpeggios thereof. This probably explains why rock keyboardists are either “one finger wonders” or Doug Ingle.)

On that note, if you’re looking for some kickass organ playing, check out Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida for the aforementioned Doug Ingle, and Emerson Lake and Palmer for Keith Emerson, Brain Salad Surgery is a pretty awesome album.

On that note once again, Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls is a damn good pianist. But you should already be listening to The Dresden Dolls anyhow.

Getting back to Let It Be, I’m learning about chord inversions. Awesome concept, damn useful, my hand fucking hurts now. It’s a bit of a stretch after doing almost nothing but vanilla major and minor chords.

Similarly, my left hand hurts. The sheet calls for jumping between octaves of the same note, generally the root of the melody’s chords. I’m still wrapping my head around playing rhythm at all, much less stretching my hand over a ten inch span.

In other news, the least prolific cartoonist on the internet is bitching, moaning, and not getting anything drawn. I got some ideas, just not motivated to put pencil to paper. I mean, my keyboard is like right there.