The Song

The “Money For Nothing” intro has one of the most epic guitar solos that I have ever heard. And despite the fact that I started playing guitar specifically because of this song, I had never bothered to learn it.

Several years ago I attempted it, but was never able to get far. The subtlety in guitarist Mark Knopfler’s playing (staccato plucking and unusual harmonics on the 4th fret!) made it just a bit too difficult for me to fight through.

What’s Spaced Learning?

I first heard about spaced learning from my friend Clay’s article – How To Memorize Anything Fast. Clay writes:

Spaced learning is a simple system developed by memory researcher R. Douglas Fields, and is in use at Monkseaton High School in England. It’s a relatively little-known system, but has worked very well for me. It involves three eight-to-ten-minute sessions learning lots of information with ten minute breaks of unrelated material inbetween.

What Exactly Did I Do?

I studied the rhythm and the tabs 1 hour per day for 7 days. Each 1 hour session was broken into 8 minutes of playing and studying followed by 10 minutes of doing something completely unrelated (studying Spanish, writing, etc.) So each session had a total of 24 minutes of study and practice.

The Recording

I recorded the song on the 7th day using my FS100 video camera and then through GarageBand. I apologize for the tones. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time tweaking.

Conclusion

It had been awhile since I played electric guitar – about 8 months in Central and South America kept me away so my guitar fingers weren’t exactly ‘warm’. Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the speed in which I learned the song.

I definitely could have learned this song in fewer days. But I don’t believe I could have learned it putting in the same amount of hours. Spaced learning helped me utilize my practice time better. Pretty sweet.

Here’s a quick guide to Cali, Colombia.

Cali is like Disneyland for drunk people. There are bars everywhere and people in chivas drinking. I wasn’t exactly productive while I was in Cali…

What to do during the day?

There’s not much to do during the day besides a zoo and a mall to look at fake boobs. People will tell you about fake boobs in Cali and you’ll think, “Yeah, yeah.” Then you get here and you’ll see that it’s an understatement. Colombia is a plastic surgery hot spot and Cali is mecca.

Where to party?

The club area is known as Manga. You pretty much can’t go wrong on this side of town. I went to Lo Las (there’s a gay club with a similar name LuLu so be careful) and Mangos. Both were pretty solid. If you’re staying at a hostel make sure you negotiate with the cab driver before going and coming back from the Manga area. It’s 10,000 or nothing. Don’t let the cabbies screw you over.

There’s a cool bar called Bourbon St. that’s closer to where the hostels are. It’s a gringo hang out but there were a ton of gorgeous women here. A live band plays all the Western world ‘hits’ several times a week. It’s a lot of fun but a bit expensive for Colombia.

Note: If one of the bartender girls comes to a sing a song or two with the band, stick around. Her voice is incredible. Also tell her that I’m coming back to marry her.

Where to stay?

I stayed in two different hostels while I was there – Casa Blanca and Pelican Larry’s. I loved the people who worked at Pelican Larry’s but Casa Blanca was definitely cleaner and nicer.

Where to work?

Both the hostels I stayed in had fast WiFi. Even though I usually recommend against working in hostels, I didn’t get an overall feeling of comfortableness in Cali, so I left the laptop behind whenever I went out.

Hot Tips

1. Salsa is required. Seriously, if you’re staying here for awhile get salsa lessons. Everyone is dancing and if you know a few basic steps and turns you’ll have a much better time.

2. Make sure you befriend the guys that are with girls you want to talk to. I usually try to talk to them first and have them introduce me. Otherwise your life will be threatened – this happened to me twice in Colombia. In Cali, a guy, who had his own girlfriend, got pissed that I was talking to the girls with him. He shoved my friend and the security guards had to break it up.

You need to befriend somebody in a group in order to get access to the table. Most people are sitting until they get up to dance salsa. Conversation topics? Colombian guys love to talk about getting drunk and women.

Final Thoughts?

Cali, Colombia is great stop over city but make sure you do it on the weekend. I couldn’t imagine spending time there during the week. Get in, party, get out.

+++++

photo ‘Chiva’ by mixedboi
photo ‘Cali Tower’ by adeodoato