Tag Archives: guitar

Just a quick update and a few chords

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I have started reading from the site “The Art of Nonconformity,” written by Chris Guillebeau. It’s giving me lots of exhilirating and terrifying thoughts and feelings. Chris is all about the “can.” I so dig that, man, and it’s scary to think that whatever you dream of doing you can accomplish if you put your mind to it. At least it’s scary for me, because I have some big dreams, and they may very well require me to make some big changes in my life and do some things that are not exactly the most comfortable for me. More on this later.

As a quick note (for realz, yo!), two days ago on 4/6/11 I played eight chords on the guitar without looking at any sort of tablature while doing so. I also was able to identify each chord in my head as I played it, so I know how to play them and what they are as well. This is good stuff. I’ll doubtless be as good as Steve Vai within a week, for sure.

Actually, while there is some question as to the attainment of my Vai/Hendrix/Vaughan/insert-name-of-your-insanely-good-guitar-hero-here status, I can say that it is a leap for me. It proves I CAN learn to play some guitar if I put my mind to it, which is something I used to flat out deny when I was in college, and something that I questioned for many years following college. Seems I was wrong about me. How about that? Maybe there are some other things in life I thought I couldn’t do about which I may have been wrong. Just what in the heck might possibly happen if I stop believing that I’m incapable of things?

What would happen to you if you stopped thinking you were incapable of things? Career change? Taking up pottery? Learning to dance? Forming a great relationship with someone special? Getting out of debt? Running a marathon?

Feel free to list some positive thoughts on achievement in the comments section. I’d love to hear from you.

Affects and Side Affects

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RAM chip, chord book. Totally related, right? Well they are, sort of. Here on the blog where we are all about creativity, it’s no surprise that both of these are linked to my creative growth. Well, that, and I ordered them both off the interwebz, if you need one more obscure way they’re related. I know the mail media link is a thrilling one, but let’s put that aside and look at the whole creative thing, since that’s pretty much why I write on here all the time.

The RAM I hope is going to be a huge help with my photo stuff. You’ve no doubt noticed that the photo posting has slowed until it seems as if it has stopped altogether. It has not, I assure you. I’ve still been taking photos (almost!) every day. I have all of them either on my hard drive or on my camera. However, processing all those photos gets ridiculously time consuming, particularly when I have over a hundred to go through and I want to switch back and forth among five or six of them and pick the best one. Right about the time I start doing that, the virtual memory in my lappy kicks on, and then everything…slows……..to……….a………….crawl. It can take me two hours just to pick through ten photos. Granted, I’m a perfectionist, but the slowosity of my hardware isn’t helping things any.

Enter my brother, who informs me that the whole slowness thing is caused by this virtual memory issue, and that if I got more RAM I could whip through dozens upon dozens of pictures as well as run iTunes, Word, and my web browser all at once and never have a hiccup. This sounds like more than a good deal to me, so I only kind of reluctantly shell out money I don’t really have to get this stuff which should perform what is really an invaluable function: that of making my creative efforts more easily accessible and enjoyable. This is pretty key stuff, as in the past I’ve hamstrung creative efforts by trying to get by with the minimum. Then I’ve been unhappy with the results, and then I’ve called the whole thing a failure. I’m pretty much done with working against myself these days, and I realize that my creative efforst are important enough and valuable enough that I actually DO deserve to spend money on them.

This sort of thing – purchasing the RAM – is the sort of side-effect that working toward a goal has. I didn’t set out to update my computer when I decided to take more pictures, it’s just something that has come with the territory. I didn’t set out to learn more about how my computer operates, but it happened. The same thing was the case with my outboard hard drive – just happened as a matter of course. It’s really interesting to see how all this stuff comes about when I pick up on something and go after it.

The same sort of thing has happened with my drawing stuff. I started with a handfull of pencils that a friend had given me. Now I have a whole box full that I’ve bought for myself. I also have a sketch book and some regular lead pencils for other types of drawing. I’ve been hanging out a lot more with a friend of mine, because she likes drawing. I’ve been noticing visual art more and taking a greater interest since I started drawing. There are some other projects in the works related to this subject, and I hope I’ll have some other developments to report on in the coming months. It looks like I’m going to learn matting and framing in the near future as well – not that I planned on that, it…just happened. I think there’s a trip to the art museum coming up as well related to “refilling the well” as the Artist’s Way puts it, and that will be an outgrowth of all this drawing stuff too.

The guitar chord book – well, that’s kind of obvious, now isn’t it? I…didn’t really plan on buying that, but they guy who is teaching me things, he said that’s the book he first used over forty years ago. I wanted to learn a few things, so I’m going to give this a shot. Working on guitar stuff has led me to listen to music differently and led to new conversations with new people. This interest was also responsible for my nephew getting a ukelele from me for his birthday this year, in a weird sort of related twist. The people who are being affected by my interests are not just me, which is a cool thing to note. (If my nephew ever ends up on Youtube singing Jason Mraz tunes, I’ll be sure to let you know.)

Now, off to work on some photos or guitar or whatever the heck else…

Unbeatable Basics

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I ready this fabulous post somewhere on the web once that said, “If the Army ever issued guitars, they would issue Telecasters.” The point was that the Tele was a simple, durable piece of gear that would endure tons of misuse and abuse and still perform a myriad of duties with aplomb, that it was a very basic item, but it had the capacity to cover a number of duties that could be asked of it.

This here is Fender’s reissue of what the Army might have issued – the ’52 Telecaster. It’s paired up with an amplifier that’s an original of roughly the same vintage, a National amp probably from the late 40s or early 50s. Together this pairing is unbeatable for all kinds of traditional music. Anyone from Bob Wills to Muddy Waters to Jimmy Page could get what they wanted out of this setup. On the night this was taken, this combo did itself proud.

Passionate Relic

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This. This is fantastic. This is an admittedly rather lame pic of something fantastic. Maybe I’ll revisit this in the future and try to come up with some good lighting and whatnot, but I wanted a shot of it, and in the limited time that I had available, the dining room table worked as well as anything.

Remember that post from a couple of days ago with the cute little lady holding the Eko bass? That was the day of the guitar show, the day I wandered around looking for…something. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, although I was hoping I might find a replacement for my 80s Fender Telecaster. Yes, I could have kept using that same guitar and not suffered an physical ailments or infirmities, but I wanted something different. At the very least I knew that if I didn’t replace that guitar I’d have to put another pickup in the bridge position, because the stock one was lame.

I didn’t have my heart set on anything, really. I didn’t go there with a handful of cash, shaking and babbling and just dyyyyying for new gear. I went with the knowledge that, if I did come across something, I could make some trades or sales of my current gear and make something happen. I knew two guys who wanted to buy two different guitars of mine, so it seemed like a pretty good idea to make two things into one thing. How often do you have two buyers lined up like that, anyway? Seemed like a good opportunity.

I got to the show, and wasn’t inside the building more than fifteen minutes when I ended up at the booth of the vendor who was putting on the show. He had a nice 2002 reissue of a ’52 Telecaster. It looked gorgeous, and my bandleader/guitarist was there to act as pro counsel on any possible purchases. I took it down and looked at it. Price wasn’t too crazy on it. I could afford it if I found some more stuff to sell. I was sitting there goofing with it when a mutual friend appeared from out of the crowd.

“What are you doing?” he asked me with some surprise. (I’m never really seen with a guitar.)
“Trying out this guitar.”
“Are you thinking of buying it?”
“Well, yeah.”
“I’m selling mine. It’s out in the car.”
(In my head: “Oh, reaaaaaally?”)

I knew that guitar. It was “the red one.” My friend is always buying/selling/trading one thing or another. He’d picked up this red ’63 Telecaster Relic about a year ago. The first time I saw it I thought, “That’s one damn cool-looking guitar.” I’m not even that into red, it just looked good, and I’d heard him play it, and it sounded good. Plus, he always buys good gear, so I knew this wasn’t some whack job that had issues.

To make a long story somewhat shorter, I went out and looked at it, and my bandleader stopped his conversation with my friend at one point while I was noodling to tell me, “That’s a really good guitar.” I took that as a sign that I would have no regrets in buying it, but I held off. My friend suggested I go through the building and look at all the other stuff just to see if there was anything else I liked. I did, and I found one other thing I liked…except that it was a custom color green ’71 Tele, and it was priced at a for-me-staggering $8,900!

After I left the show I called my friend. “I’d like to buy your guitar,” I said. “And if you don’t need all the money today, I’d like to get it right now.” Lucky for me, he didn’t need all the money that day. He brought it over straight away. I think I’m starting to see how people can get all moony-eyed over their guitars. This thing rules! Just looking at it makes me want to play!

Bridge to Paradise

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I love closeup detail shots like this one. If I had the proper lens I could *really* do some cool stuff…but I don’t. Maybe I should find a way to afford one. Hmmm…not sure how to do that. A new one kind of like what I want costs about $800. The one I *really* want costs something like $1500. Yeah, somehow I always get interested in things which bring high prices of entry. Bah!

Anyway, for those curious, this is a closeup of a mid-80s Fender Telecaster. The black thing with the dots is the pickup, the sorta rusty things that the strings go over is called the bridge, hence my clever little blog title. I do love the Teles. Wish I had an older one with some vintage cool to it. Wait? What’s that? You say there’s a vintage guitar show coming up this weekend? Hmmm…what can I sell?

Lens or guitar…lens or guitar…