I started this music gig  as a guitar player. My goal was to not sing. I was going to play guitar only. That worked out fine until I needed more songs to fill up a show. This led to finding easy songs that I could sing. I sure wasn't going to sing Bohemian Rhapsody like Freddie Mercury of Queen. I decided I would play it safe and sing Bob Dylan songs. Bob is not famous for his singing ability. His songwriting was his ticket to success. I started writing one song for each upcoming gig to help fill up space. This  worked  great because I could make the songs (more) sing able for me. 

     This week I had some free time so I decided to learn a new guitar song. It is hard to pick a new song to learn. You would think that I would learn a song by one of my favorite bands or artists. Maybe and Eric Church song like Record Year or Monster, maybe I would learn a new Luke Combs tune like Beautiful Crazy or a fun song like When it Rains it Pours. Or I could learn a Red Dirt song off of a Jason Boland album. Did I do that? No!  I am almost afraid to admit this. I learned a Justin Bieber song. The song is Love Yourself.

      This song has some finger picking in it and I like to finger pick. I also need to practice my finger picking so what few skills I have learned don't disappear completely. This song has a nice finger picking pattern in the verses and the chorus is really catchy. My favorite lyric of the song is- My Momma don't like you and she likes everybody. That line is so honest and straight forward it shocks you when you hear it. I love it.

      I have played that song for the last three days and feel comfortable with it. It has been fun learning a new song. Sometimes when you learn a new song, bits and pieces of it find their way into the songs you are writing. Maybe you use a different chord change from the song you learned has. Or maybe a note interval that you sing is cool and it is part of your new song. I don't know how this song will affect my upcoming songs or if by singing this song I will have a sudden urge to get a tattoo. Time will tell. 

      Have a good day and love yourself.