wayne on July 16, 2008 

You might ask, what the hell is Wayne doing now?  You'd be right to ask that, especially in light of the title of this post.  There's a reason I am referencing Walt Disney's Mary Poppins song that may cause people to fail spelling if it were included on a test.  Read on and I'll explain everything.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

You might know the song already, and there is also an entry at dictionary.com that says it is "a nonsensical word meaning fantastic".  I can agree with that, I don't really have a choice though either.  When would you ever get to reference such a word in a blog post?  If you read the lyrics to the actual song from the movie, one might agree that it was quite clever to include such a long word in the movie.  It created a hook, and sometimes that same concept can be used in blogging too.

Creating Hooks in Blogging

I have read many articles on how one should write a post.  Most are filled with many ideas and approaches to writing blog posts and the importance of each varies by who you are reading.

Some of the ideas and approaches I've read are:

1. Research and write informative posts.  Meaning, study, research and then fill your post with as much detail about a central theme, idea or concept that can be done.  Touch on all the angles, but leave the reader wanting to know a little more.
   
   
2. Never give the entire story.  Why not?  You should give the reader something to look forward to.  Giving away everything in one shot doesn't give them much of a reason to return.
   
   
3. Along the same lines as number two, never be the end all of knowledge and never put that into your posts.  You might have the best post ever written, but if there isn't any room for comments other than the 'nice post!' comment, you are leaving less for the reader to contribute.  I believe people like to help, so leaving a little bit out allows others to hop in and fill out the blanks. 
   
   There is also a little psychology behind that.  If a reader feels you left out an important aspect of the topic, I think they would be more inclined to add to the conversation by throwing it into a comment.
   
   "Hey dope, you forgot about..." - well, perhaps not so harshly, but you get my drift.
   
   
4. Tell your readers what's coming.  If they have an idea of what to expect, then they might be more likely to subscribe to your blog to hear what you post on later.
   

There are many reasons why you might create hooks in your posts, and they would all be perfectly valid, but do you intentionally create hooks in your writing?  I think this is a very important aspect of blogging if you are looking to grow your community of users. 

The Real Reason

The real reason for this post is to explain a little more about who I am and what I am into.  Years ago I acquired a 5-string Ibanez Bass Guitar and have been meaning to learn how to play it, but just haven't found the inspiration, nor the time.  Ok, I could make the time, but I just wasn't motivated.

I recently met up with a few co-workers, one who plays the recorder, and the other plays guitar.  I happened upon them one day tooling around on their instruments (oh...don't even go there...) and I poked my head in.

I told them that if they learned an Irish drinking song that I would lead the sing-song over a few pints (of course).

Well, that never happened, but what did happen was that I decided to offer up my lack of bass playing skills to help them sound atrocious.  :)  I have never focused on learning the bass, even though I wanted to, so here is my chance.  I hopped on board.

I dusted off the bass, and began looking around the Internet for lessons, music tab, and ultimately found StudyBass.com.  The site has well put together lessons, and I'm seeing big improvements in my abilities from the lessons on StudyBass.com.  Perhaps I will get into more bass playing stuff in later posts.

Our get together's for practice usually last about an hour and we practice a few easy songs.  Some of the songs in our repertoire so far are:

• House of the Rising Sun - Animals - Easy to play this on bass...I like this one...makes me feel good about my playing abilities so far.  :)
  
  
• Greenfields - The Brothers Four - Another easy song, but stretching my ears to really get the rhythm from the original song.  Bass can be hard for me to hear sometimes.
  
  
• Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - Yes, see, I told you I would explain the title.  One of our other co-workers daughters plays the violin, so we invited her in so she can learn more about playing in a group and get some practice on the violin, which I'm sure her mother is proud of.  So we added Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Chim-Chim Cherie into our "set list".  It's a faster, more 'jumpy' sound, so once I get my fingers to do what I want them to do, it should be a fun song.

I'm still learning so much about the bass guitar, how to read music and translating that to the bass frets and strings.  My finger work needs serious help, but I'm taking it slow and trying to ensure I don't create any sloppy habits.

I practiced last night for about 90 minutes and my fingers are killing me now.  My index finger is completely numb in the tip and it feels weird to type with it like that.  But you know what?

It's Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, like, for sure!

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