In Austin, I usually rely on friends, live shows and Pandora Radio to discover new music. The first two hold true here quite wonderfully [For all Radiohead-loving Austinites, check out the cover of “Karma Police” by Easy Star All-Stars ft. Citizen Cope. (courtesy of Deniz)], however Pandora doesn’t work in Turkey. When I try to access the site, I get a message that says it’s restricted to the US and they believe from my IP address that I’m in Turkey, so no go. However, grooveshark works here. Problem is grooveshark doesn’t make suggestions. I’ve gotta know the name of the band I’m looking for. Kind of hinders the whole discovery process.
That being said, I’ve been listening to a lot of really chill music lately. I rediscovered my love of Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Okkervil River and Andrew Bird. I’ve had “Golden” by My Morning Jacket stuck in my head for a while and I really want to learn how to play it because it’s absolutely beautiful, but that leads to more complications. I’ve been borrowing a guitar every so often from a friend, but it’s really difficult to catch him at home. It’s a beautiful Spanish guitar. If I knew how to restring Spanish guitars, I’d clean it up a bit for him. It’d really give the guitar a crisper sound I think. Maybe he likes keeping it a bit worn tho. I know some people who get so used to the same strings that changing them can be kind of traumatic. Sometimes you buy the wrong brand and the guitar just never sounds the way you want it to anymore. Even if I catch him at home tho, "Golden" also requires a capo and he doesn't have one. One of his roommates was joking that he'd keep his finger on the 4th fret for me in lieu of a capo. I'm not so sure that'd work tho.
I’m kind of kicking myself over the whole capo issue. I was about to toss mine in my bag before I left Houston, but of course I over thought it, figuring that anyone I could borrow a guitar from would have one. No such luck. The only reason I ended up bringing a pick here is because I didn’t realize it was in my jeans pocket when I got on the plane. Amazingly, it’s an Austin Metro pick that they gave out at Austin City Limits a few years ago. I didn’t realize till I got here how reliant I am on capos. A lot of the songs I like to play are in a key too low for my voice, so I use the capo to make the song suit my vocal range. When I think about it, the fact that my main usage of the capo is because of my vocal range, kind of explains why it's not as common for guys to use capos. Maybe not tho. Other songs, like "Atlantic City" simply require a capo on the 4th fret. I could transcribe the chords to make them work on an open fretboard, but that just leads to really awkward chord transitions. It's easier on the fretting fingers if there's a capo involved.
There are a bunch of music shops between where İstiklal Caddesi ends and the Galata Tower so I think I’m going to head down there tomorrow and pick one up after class. I'm going for real this time, unlike the last two weeks that I've been telling myself I'd do this. Hopefully I’ll be able to borrow the guitar again soon. I really want to take it out over to campus this weekend. There’s a spot with some benches that overlooks the Bosphorus where I usually eat my lunch and I think it’d be a really amazing experience to sit there passing the guitar around and watching the boats go by. One friend also suggested, perhaps jokingly, that we take the guitar out to a grassy park with a bottle of wine. It's finally warm enough for this to be possible. I think this is something that's too tempting to resist.
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