After a long slog I finally have every single CD I own ripped and into iTunes along with artwork on every item :)

Anal I know, but hey I like CoverFlow!

After the initial freebie lesson I’ve now had my first hour session. I’m very comfortable with my teacher and happy to practice at home etc but I am still not sure if I am going to actually be any good at what I am learning.

The main comments and findings from today’s lesson are that I should try to slow down, slow and correct is better than being faster and wrong. I have problems changing chords which is to be expected, but by playing slower I should give myself more time to change and also I should be looking ahead at the music to see what chord is coming next - there is no need to look at my strumming hand or fret hand once I’m playing the chord.

Another biggie from today was hand positions of the fret hand, my fingers seem to bunch up towards the index finger when playing scales so I need to consciously make sure that I keep them spread between the four frets I am working on. It sounds simple but seems hard in practice and it does make the scales easier to play so I need to persist.

Practice for the coming week now includes:

12 bar blues rhythm.
The blues scale (first, second and third position).
Soul Asylum’s Runaway Train but with accents on certain down strokes.
The chords for Limp Bizkit’s Behind Blue Eyes.

Finally after six years of owning a guitar I have found a teacher and am actually learning to play properly.

Today was really just a trial lesson, a free 30 minutes where I could decide if I liked the teacher enough to attend ok a regular basis and pay 94 bucks an hour for the privilage. While being rather nervous the time passed by rather quickly and I was quite surprised at what was achieved in such a short length of time.

I’ve come away from the lesson with a music sheet containing a basic A blues rhythm, the A blues scale 1st position and the rhythm and chords for the song Runaway Train by Soul Asylum, all of which I need to learn and practice ready for my first proper lesson next Thursday.

What is really cool is that along with the music sheet I also have an MP3 recorded onto a USB stick with Tsering playing all of the items that I need to learn so that I have a reference to listen to when ever I practice, it’s a nice touch and one that I think will be very helpful going forward.

So why am I telling you all this? Well I figure that I should keep some form of log of my lessons and practice so that I can refer back at any time in the future. If I can ever work out garage band I may even upload an MP3 of my practice on a regular basis so that I have a more concrete reference of what I hope will be improvement over the next months.

If your around the Zurich area and looking for a teacher, I’m with Tsering at Guitar-School.ch and if you’re an ex-pat like myself don’t worry he speaks fluent German and English.

Wow, nearly three months gone in the blink of an eye and a lot has happened in that short period. One of the better things is that we have finally found and bought a house and it is not that far away from where we are living now. The next few weeks are going to be a little hectic we try to sort everything out and pack before moving on April 1st but I have the next 10 days off work and am set to go on Monday morning.

Now that things have calmed down a little at work, ok so they are still not that calm as it is 7am on Saturday morning and Im preparing to head to the office, I’ve been looking at my someday maybe list and thinking about what I can study. I’ve decided to go for the CISA and followed by the CISM or CISSP, at the moment I’m waiting for the study guides to arrive before I decide if i chance a June exam or wait until December.

Thanks to everyone who has been writing with encouragement and offers of information and assistance for my dissertation work.

Towards the end of 2007 I took on quite a large project at the office (actually I had no choice, it was urgent and needed and therefore had to be completed within the time frames set). Between normal work, the additional project, home life and work on the dissertation things got a bit too much and something had to give. Unfortunately the only real way forward at the time was to withdraw from the dissertation process with the full support of my family, friends and most importantly my employer.

Withdrawing from the final module was literally a weight off my shoulders, looking back now it was certainly the right thing to do and although I can not complete the MSc ISM degree with the University of Liverpool, as I have exceeded the time requirement, I have come away from the course with a lot of experience and knowledge gained from the course topics and my fellow students take on things, as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Information Systems Management that theoretically I can take to another institution to carry out the dissertation component. The learning an experience gained during these studies is certainly paying off within my working life.

I will be leaving all of my posts regarding my experiences with the MSc ISM modules online for people to reference, if you have any questions regarding taking this degree etc. please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Last weekend saw the completion of the research methods training. By my calculation I should receive an overall A grade for the module which is great considering it makes up 10% of the overall dissertation grade.

The last couple of weeks saw me slacking on the proposal document, partly because I’ve been busy at work and knackered in the evenings and partly because I was a little lost within the process. Today I took the day off work to really concentrate on getting the proposal out of the way and this evening I submitted a full draft for review by Geoff by dissertation advisor. Hopefully I will get some feedback on the draft by the weekend and will then be able to submit a reworked, final proposal on Saturday or Sunday.

Technorati Tags: Dissertation, Masters, MSC ISM

Jobs pulled the rabbit out of the hat with the new iPod Touch at today’s presentation and I have to admit I’ve been clicking the Swiss Apple store ever since :)

The store came online a few minutes ago and I managed to get an order in (it was dog slow), now all I have to do is bide my time until the delivery date at the start of Oct :(

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod