- Six Strings - After I Stopped Paying Attention

 (After I Stopped Paying Attention - Mirrored Insight)

I'm going to break with tradition here and talk about the video itself before I get into the content inside of it.  What you're hearing here is the result of double-tracking.  I recorded audio on my iPhone, but I also captured it using a condenser mic next to my amp's speaker.  Playing the two of them together in sync produced a really neat shimmer that I found on accident, so...it stayed in the final product.  The keen-eyed observer will see my DAW open in the background on my monitor.

Anyway, now that's out of the way...

There's this series of DVDs called 'Classic Albums' where this company called Eagle Vision interviews bands that came out with all time greatest albums of their genre.  Wonder of wonders, they did one for Metallica's 'Black Album'.  Anyone familiar with the genre or the artist will know exactly why.

For everyone else, well...let's say it was kind of a big deal.

Anyway, part of this interview is James Hetfield discussing the genesis of one of the album's greatest hits called 'Nothing Else Matters'.  Hetfield talks about how he was sitting on the phone talking with someone, idly plucking at a guitar when he suddenly realized what he was playing was more interesting than the person he was talking to.  He ended the call and promptly started paying more attention to the instrument in his lap.

At the risk of sounding...something?  I'm not sure what this sounds like, but the fact of the matter is that's pretty much exactly how this tune came about.  I was sitting on a conference call absently plucking strings on The Persian when I suddenly stumbled onto the opening strains for 'After I Stopped Paying Attention'.  

Now you understand where the song's title came from.

I love the D Chord.  It was the first chord I ever learned and is the backbone of the first song and fingerpicking pattern I ever learned.  It will always, ALWAYS be important to me.  I come back to the D Chord and its sustained variants whenever my mind wanders as I play.  There's just a bonkers amount of things you can do with the D Chord, its variants, and the chord shape itself.  Move that sucker up and down the neck and you'll find any number of surprises waiting for you no matter what strings you're holding down.  I think it may just be the single most versatile chord and shape in the book for standard-tuned guitars.

Anyway, that thing I mentioned where my fingers wander back to the D Chord when I noodle?  Yeah, that's totally what happened here.

As for the conference call...I'm not entirely sure what it was about anymore.  If it's any consolation to the host, I'm pretty sure this was more important.

Oh, and I'll put my guitar notes up here, but I changed like...the last half of the song on the fly when I recorded it because it felt right, so... yeah.

D6sus2, E7, D6sus2, E7

CMaj9, D6Sus2, CMaj9, D6sus2

DSus2, E7, DSus2, E7

CMaj9, D6Sus2, AmAdd9, E

HC, Bb11, A, HC, Bb11, A

HC, Bb11, A, HC, Bb11, A

D6sus2, E7, D6sus2, E7

CMaj9, D6Sus2, CMaj9, D6sus2

DSus2, E7, DSus2, E7

CMaj9, D6Sus2, AmAdd9, E

FMaj7, CMaj7, FMaj7, CMaj7

FMaj7, Am, Em

Am, E7

D6sus2, E7, D6sus2, E7

CMaj9, D6Sus2, CMaj9, D6sus2

DSus2, E7, DSus2, E7

CMaj9, D6Sus2, AmAdd9, E

HC, Bb11, A, HC, Bb11, A

HC, Bb11, A, HC, Bb11, A