Hey Guitar Guys v2.0

[CMRivdogs]

5 minutes ago, pfife said:

My $.02 is you cant practice them too much.    If you think you know then its time to practice them a different way 

You're right. I'm a sax player, also didn't start playing til my mid 50s. When I do play now I rely too much on sheet music, can't improvise to save myself. It's probably because I was trying to play catch-up in a couple of community bands.

[romad1]

4 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

It's a lost cause if she's not being encouraged. And it's a fine line between encouraging and nagging them to practice. Maybe she's past the Barbie Doll stage. In the end if it doesn't work out you can always sell the guitar.

My 40 plus year old son took lessons for a while, then stopped in his later teens. He still picks it up once in a while. I didn't pick up the sax until my late 50s. Dental issues an COVID got in the way in recent years. I still pick them up occasionally, unfortunately there is not the plethora of community bands around her that I found in SE Michigan.

Michigan is unique in this regard.  If you search zillow in SE michigan you will see a musical instrument in every gd house.  In Northern VA, nobody has time for such pursuits.  

[CMRivdogs]

OK now you guys are making me decide to make use of the piano in the other room

[CMRivdogs]

3 minutes ago, romad1 said:

Michigan is unique in this regard.  If you search zillow in SE michigan you will see a musical instrument in every gd house.  In Northern VA, nobody has time for such pursuits.  

I also think (at least on the community band side) that there a number of older Michigan and State grads that continue to play into their later years. And I think many came from areas, including Detroit, where the primary and high schools had some very good band programs. Same for community orchestras. Many of them have been around for more than 30 years. It's the culture.

Edited October 3, 2024 by CMRivdogs

[romad1]

7 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

I also think (at least on the community band side) that there a number of older Michigan and State grads that continue to play into their later years. And I think many came from areas, including Detroit, where the primary and high schools had some very good band programs. Same for community orchestras. Many of them have been around for more than 30 years. It's the culture.

When dad is working in the powerhouse at Livonia Transmission and a session musician lives across the street, you might be pulled into the world of music as a way to not be in the powerhouse at Livonia Transmission.   

I used to hang out with guys who played and had bands and i was always just the guy hanging in the back of the bar watching.   No talent or affinity.  I will encourage her to pursue as far as she likes.  Even if its just to provide memories for later in life of when she was young and had the balls to get up on stage. 

[CMRivdogs]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

.  I will encourage her to pursue as far as she likes.  Even if its just to provide memories for later in life of when she was young and had the balls to get up on stage. 

Without getting deeper into the woods, my wife had a blog several years ago called Midlife Musicians. It chronicled our getting back into music in our 50s after participating when we were much younger.

She had a major role in founding a community orchestra in the Farmington Hills/Birmingham area. I got involved with a group for older adults. One of my best experiences was a week of band camp at Interlochen. 

[Biff Mayhem]

J’tadore (or however it’s spelled)

[chasfh]

On 10/3/2024 at 12:31 PM, pfife said:

I've got about 30-some years into the instrument now too..... and I've long thought if I had to do it over again I woulda/shoulda played piano/keys.    That said, if it's too late to call the audible....

We grew up with a piano in the house and none of the seven of us kids bothered to learn to play it. As a result, even though I’m very musical, I’m not a musician.

My wife bought me an electric Casio full piano with heavy keys for Xmas some years ago. It would sit for months untouched until I got a song in my head and I would sit down to pick it out, then that would be it for another long stretch of time.

In the past year, I was at my brother’s for Thanksgiving. He has a piano (again, doesn’t know how to play it) and some of the kids were plinking around with it. I joined for a couple minutes but couldn’t do anything with it. Earlier that year I’d been at a resort hotel, saw a piano in the lobby, and really wished I could sit down and play something, anything. I felt embarrassed because, again, I’ve had a damn piano in my place of residence for probably most of my life.

So this year, I made an actual New Year’s resolution to learn to play five songs on the piano, so that whenever I would see one out in the wild, I’d be able to sit down and confidently play something at least halfway decent, and play it at least halfway decently.

And so, after committing to the work, I can now play “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” (i.e, Cheers theme song); “He Gives Us All His Love” by Randy Newman; the piano part of “Great Gig in the Sky” by Pink Floyd; and almost all of the piano part of “Layla” by Derek and the Dominoes. For my fifth song, I am currently working on completing “Fred Jones Part 2” by Ben Folds Five.

All these songs are quite simple and rather short, but they are, to me anyway, very beautiful-sounding songs that I think people might be at least a little impressed seeing someone play them.

I can’t play them all with zero mistakes yet, but I’m far enough along I feel pretty confident about going to my brother’s this TG, playing the songs and surprising some people who’ve known me for six-plus decades and would swear on a holy bible that I can’t play piano, same as them.

And moral of the story is: it’s not too late to call the audible.

[CMRivdogs]

3 minutes ago, chasfh said:

We grew up with a piano in the house and none of the seven of us kids bothered to learn to play it. As a result, even though I’m very musical, I’m not a musician.

My wife bought me an electric Casio full piano with heavy keys for Xmas some years ago. It would sit for months untouched until I got a song in my head and I would sit down to pick it out, then that would be it for another long stretch of time.

In the past year, I was at my brother’s for Thanksgiving. He has a piano (again, doesn’t know how to play it) and some of the kids were plinking around with it. I joined for a couple minutes but couldn’t do anything with it. Earlier that year I’d been at a resort hotel, saw a piano in the lobby, and really wished I could sit down and play something, anything. I felt embarrassed because, again, I’ve had a damn piano in my place of residence for probably most of my life.

So this year, I made an actual New Year’s resolution to learn to play five songs on the piano, so that whenever I would see one out in the wild, I’d be able to sit down and confidently play something at least halfway decent, and play it at least halfway decently.

And so, after committing to the work, I can now play “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” (i.e, Cheers theme song); “He Gives Us All His Love” by Randy Newman; the piano part of “Great Gig in the Sky” by Pink Floyd; and almost all of the piano part of “Layla” by Derek and the Dominoes. For my fifth song, I am currently working on completing “Fred Jones Part 2” by Ben Folds Five.

All these songs are quite simple and rather short, but they are, to me anyway, very beautiful-sounding songs that I think people might be at least a little impressed seeing someone play them.

I can’t play them all with zero mistakes yet, but I’m far enough along I feel pretty confident about going to my brother’s this TG, playing the songs and surprising some people who’ve known me for six-plus decades and would swear on a holy bible that I can’t play piano, same as them.

And moral of the story is: it’s not too late to call the audible.

Congratulations, keep up the work. A few years ago after a trip to Ireland where we discovered Barry Douglas and Camerata Ireland my wife decided she needed to get back into music. She had played violin thru high school and college but life intervened as it almost always does.

She got the violin out of the closet and joined a local orchestra. That lead to the founding of another orchestra (Spectrum Orchestra in the Farmington Hills/Birmingham area). For a while she had a blog called Midlife Musicians chronicling the return to music in late middle age.

The result of her efforts led me to take up the saxophone (I played clarinet in high school but drooped it soon after) I had always wanted to try the sax so when she decided she wanted a grand piano I got the sax. Which led me to lessons and search for a group to play with.

The first group was part of an organization called New Horizons for Music, founded by a professor at Eastman School for Music in NY. The program caters to older adults who either played or wanted to learn to play an instrument (mostly concert bands nationwide). Because of New Horizons, I got to attend "Band Camp" at  Interlochen , and a couple more places.

A combination of dental issues and COVID has reduced my playing time along with a dearth of concert bands in our new area. I plunk a bit on the piano we have (nice that the electronic ones have headphones) and play the sax a bit in the garage. Maybe I need to spend time there working up some stuff for the holidays,

[pfife]

4 hours ago, chasfh said:

We grew up with a piano in the house and none of the seven of us kids bothered to learn to play it. As a result, even though I’m very musical, I’m not a musician.

My wife bought me an electric Casio full piano with heavy keys for Xmas some years ago. It would sit for months untouched until I got a song in my head and I would sit down to pick it out, then that would be it for another long stretch of time.

In the past year, I was at my brother’s for Thanksgiving. He has a piano (again, doesn’t know how to play it) and some of the kids were plinking around with it. I joined for a couple minutes but couldn’t do anything with it. Earlier that year I’d been at a resort hotel, saw a piano in the lobby, and really wished I could sit down and play something, anything. I felt embarrassed because, again, I’ve had a damn piano in my place of residence for probably most of my life.

So this year, I made an actual New Year’s resolution to learn to play five songs on the piano, so that whenever I would see one out in the wild, I’d be able to sit down and confidently play something at least halfway decent, and play it at least halfway decently.

And so, after committing to the work, I can now play “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” (i.e, Cheers theme song); “He Gives Us All His Love” by Randy Newman; the piano part of “Great Gig in the Sky” by Pink Floyd; and almost all of the piano part of “Layla” by Derek and the Dominoes. For my fifth song, I am currently working on completing “Fred Jones Part 2” by Ben Folds Five.

All these songs are quite simple and rather short, but they are, to me anyway, very beautiful-sounding songs that I think people might be at least a little impressed seeing someone play them.

I can’t play them all with zero mistakes yet, but I’m far enough along I feel pretty confident about going to my brother’s this TG, playing the songs and surprising some people who’ve known me for six-plus decades and would swear on a holy bible that I can’t play piano, same as them.

And moral of the story is: it’s not too late to call the audible.

Thats awesome man.   Believe it or not i did call the audible.   Working through this guy, started prolly a week after the post you quoted.

[Biff Mayhem]

4 hours ago, chasfh said:

We grew up with a piano in the house and none of the seven of us kids bothered to learn to play it. As a result, even though I’m very musical, I’m not a musician.

My wife bought me an electric Casio full piano with heavy keys for Xmas some years ago. It would sit for months untouched until I got a song in my head and I would sit down to pick it out, then that would be it for another long stretch of time.

In the past year, I was at my brother’s for Thanksgiving. He has a piano (again, doesn’t know how to play it) and some of the kids were plinking around with it. I joined for a couple minutes but couldn’t do anything with it. Earlier that year I’d been at a resort hotel, saw a piano in the lobby, and really wished I could sit down and play something, anything. I felt embarrassed because, again, I’ve had a damn piano in my place of residence for probably most of my life.

So this year, I made an actual New Year’s resolution to learn to play five songs on the piano, so that whenever I would see one out in the wild, I’d be able to sit down and confidently play something at least halfway decent, and play it at least halfway decently.

And so, after committing to the work, I can now play “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” (i.e, Cheers theme song); “He Gives Us All His Love” by Randy Newman; the piano part of “Great Gig in the Sky” by Pink Floyd; and almost all of the piano part of “Layla” by Derek and the Dominoes. For my fifth song, I am currently working on completing “Fred Jones Part 2” by Ben Folds Five.

All these songs are quite simple and rather short, but they are, to me anyway, very beautiful-sounding songs that I think people might be at least a little impressed seeing someone play them.

I can’t play them all with zero mistakes yet, but I’m far enough along I feel pretty confident about going to my brother’s this TG, playing the songs and surprising some people who’ve known me for six-plus decades and would swear on a holy bible that I can’t play piano, same as them.

And moral of the story is: it’s not too late to call the audible.

That’s awesome! Keep going!

[chasfh]

27 minutes ago, pfife said:

Thats awesome man.   Believe it or not i did call the audible.   Working through this guy, started prolly a week after the post you quoted.

Oh my god, I think I remember that book from the 1960s! My cousin had tried to give me piano lessons at my mom's urging but I was a special ed kid and I couldn't pay regular attention and my cousin was not equipped to deal with that so it ended fairly quickly. But I seem to remember having to do drills using this book.

[romad1]

Daughter's Fender Squire arrived.  Signed her up for lessons.  It is not easy to find a young woman to teach a young woman guitar.  Did find one who is college student so right up her alley.   I assigned the son the job of buying her picks that he thinks she'd like.  That might have interesting results.  

[CMRivdogs]

2 hours ago, pfife said:

Thats awesome man.   Believe it or not i did call the audible.   Working through this guy, started prolly a week after the post you quoted.

My wife picked up the Piano Note courses a while back. I may think about trying it out again. My biggest problem is thinking in both treble and bass cleft at the same time and hands doing different things. Unlike wind instruments where you mostly think linearly. 

[antrat]

I've got 23 guitars. Some I spent way too much money on. The one I play the most? A cheap Yamaha FG800 that I spent 200 bucks on. It actually sounds decent and It is the only guitar I leave out all the time. I don't give a crap about dings or scratches and it is always within grasping distance in the evenings when I'm kicking back and relaxing.

I'm kinda' like grandma with the good china in the cabinet that no one is allowed to eat on.

[Biff Mayhem]

On 11/16/2024 at 1:59 PM, antrat said:

I've got 23 guitars. Some I spent way too much money on. The one I play the most? A cheap Yamaha FG800 that I spent 200 bucks on. It actually sounds decent and It is the only guitar I leave out all the time. I don't give a crap about dings or scratches and it is always within grasping distance in the evenings when I'm kicking back and relaxing.

I'm kinda' like grandma with the good china in the cabinet that no one is allowed to eat on.

Hoarder! 😎

I had a similar situation where I had 19 guitars at one point. I was really only playing a couple of them so I sold 15 of them. 
 

The four that remain are my Heritage which is the guitar I have waited my whole life for, my Epi Les Paul special which punches WAY above its weight, a gold top that my brother bought for me and a chibson that serves as wall art. 

[antrat]

6 hours ago, Biff Mayhem said:

Hoarder! 😎

I had a similar situation where I had 19 guitars at one point. I was really only playing a couple of them so I sold 15 of them. 
 

The four that remain are my Heritage which is the guitar I have waited my whole life for, my Epi Les Paul special which punches WAY above its weight, a gold top that my brother bought for me and a chibson that serves as wall art. 

Yeah, I really need to sell some as well. But I get really attached to them. I have a sunburst Hummingbird that is a freaking piece of art. But I never play the damn thing.

[VegasTiger]

Mom and Stepdads wedding. Summer '71

[Biff Mayhem]

16 hours ago, antrat said:

Yeah, I really need to sell some as well. But I get really attached to them. I have a sunburst Hummingbird that is a freaking piece of art. But I never play the damn thing.

I had a few like that. One was a rare Japanese Hamer copy that was absolutely gorgeous. I didn’t play it. Sometimes I kick myself for selling it because it was rare and beautiful but now it’s in the hands of someone who plays it; which is its intended purpose.