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Guitar stuff

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Buck, Aug 26, 2009.

  1. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    Have you ever felt while you're playing like there's a benevolent spirit living inside the wood? I am serious about this.
     
  2. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    I can't say I have. I'm not the spiritual, hocus-pocus type.
    But a lot of people find some kind of spirituality in music.

    I do enjoy getting to know the character of different guitars. Each one has its own tonal and mechanical differences.

    I love taking cheap, junky guitars and learning them well enough to make them sound good.
     
  3. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    Buck, don't think of it as traditionally spiritual so much as an experiential mysticism. (No, Fart doesn't do drugs.)
    It's not hocus-pocus when you feel a deep and abiding sense of contentment when you have that guitar in your hands.
    Our society needs more music education- not smelly fukin hipsters who think they know about music theory and mechanics.
     
  4. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    Well I certainly enjoy playing the guitar. It is my favorite activity.
    I find it relaxing, and I do experience contentment.
    I guess I just don't associate those feelings with spiituality.

    As for education, I think theory and mechanics are important for anyone learning music.
    However, I am self-taught. I wish I had a formal musical education, that my techniquie was better and that I had a more effortless grasp of theory.

    I have always loved music, but playing music came hard to me.

    I also never had a music class through elementary or high school.
     
  5. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    That's where you atheists seem to be missing the connection.
    When I was a boy, I loved sorting my baseball cards more than trading them or selling them.
    I have more fun dicking around with that guitar than what serious instruction could offer me.
     
  6. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    I've been playing about 27 years, and I've consistently enjoyed it more and more as I've learned more and become a better player.
    I love to noodle for hours, but I also love to learn new stuff.

    As an example, I can strum first-position chords in the key of G and make of little songs. It's simple and I enjoy it.
    But last year I decided to work on the klezmer scale, learn some songs in klezmer and write some songs using the klezmer scale, and that was even more fun.

    I'm just not spiritual or religious in any way. I don't believe in that, so I don't connect those elements with music or playing the guitar.
    However, I still love to play. It really is my favorite thing.
     
  7. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    I don't reason with atheists.
    We're good on everything else, let's keep it at that.
    There's hope for you and Fart.
     
  8. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I bought a guitar right after Christmas and have been spending 30-60 minutes a day with it. I played a little bit in college, 15-20 years ago. But just campfire chords and a few riffs. ("Listen, can you totally tell it's the intro notes to 'Alive'???!")

    I'm really hoping I can make a go of it. I'd love to be able to play blues and alternative country stuff. The chords came back pretty quickly, and I've been working on the pentatonic scales and then, of course, a few recognizable songs and riffs just because you've got to have a little fun, too.

    The trouble with the pentatonic stuff is that when I go online to try to learn, a lesson usually goes something like this: "Slowly play the first position pentatonic scale in Am. OK, great. Now here is the second position. Work on that. Great. You've got the hang of it. Now, watch, as I use those to play the solo from 'Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)'!"

    (*Online guitar teacher starts wailing Hendrix. Dick Whitman places his guitar back on the stand and backs away from the iPad.*)
     
  9. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

  10. Mr. Sunshine

    Mr. Sunshine Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the link.

    Got a guitar for my birthday and five minutes into the first video on "easy" chords to play, my fingers appear too fat to play an A.
     
  11. Mr. Sunshine

    Mr. Sunshine Well-Known Member


    My brother posted a video of a 9-year-old killing it on the electric guitar playing blues. I won't even click on it. Too depressing.
     
  12. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    The comparison I keep coming back to is typing. I can type without thinking about it and without looking and do so very fast. I'm sure we all can. I bet that's what it's like with guitar, once it clicks.
     
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