I am a poser as well, but I am still having fun!!
And now I have better gear than before, at least the tones I am capable of getting!
Cheers Mitch
Where are you at ..music playing wise ??
- Thread starter BFT Gibson
- Start date
And now I have better gear than before, at least the tones I am capable of getting!
Cheers Mitch
OP
BFT Gibson
Ambassador of Originality
your a legend !! already
Sp8ctre
Ambassador of Steel
You are no poser! I on the other hand am very close to being one! The thing that keeps me from being a poser is I don't claim to be a good musician or
guitar player. I play for the joy of learning something I've always wanted to learn. It's tough, but it's fun and I'll never stop no matter how loud the dog
howls or how hard the cat tries to claw my speakers up...
Well said...Me too...
OP
BFT Gibson
Ambassador of Originality
i think of times of when ..knew some..not too much...could play..but played for shear enjoyment....never loose that !! today..on 4 hours...1 or 2 riffs..a verse & chorus....am going bonkers..a/b ing for next song////borderline madness at this point...but ..it will be worth it in the studio next week..now tonight..have to free jam..just put a drum loop on & wail..no thinking..the gear dont matter as long as it makes some noise....can get so caught up in the lil stuff..forget to enjoy...funny thing is ..think its a sickness...almost always go back to the first guitar & amp that i thought would work for song..but do it anyways...last week on Country Mile..i pulled a tele out...it just was too twangy to build on..335 got the spot..so i guess my cycle is write a song..find the gear for it & go to studio. & record..hopefully able to work on putting a band together...house bound..so it has kept me focused but i feel it needs to go live again to feel a sense of accomplishment...
Thanks guys I appreciate the compliments 
SG John
Ambassador of Cool Guitars and Amps.
Let's see.... Just to make this boring, and to give you a bit of history, I started out on violin at age 7, but really wanted to play fiddle. I loved listening to the old Gypsy, Celtic, and country records my mother had. I just didn't bond with classical, but the school system teachers required me to learn Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, Mozart, and all the classics. When I was 10 ('72), I asked about having my violin electrified because I started hearing hearing newer music I hadn't heard of (Traffic, Uriah Heep, and others). Everyone was aghast with me. By then, I was already listening to Jimi Hendrix, The Allman Brothers, Jerry Reed, and Roy Clark, so I wanted to ditch the violin if I couldn't learn what I wanted, and switch to guitar instead.
A bit of back story on the violin: my grandfather played as a violinist in the Boston Symphony, and several other orchestras when he was younger. As a result, we had several violins in the basement that I was fascinated with when I was a little kid. I am also a descendant of Michael William Balfe, the Irish composer. He wrote the "The Bohemian Girl" and several operettas.
So, I'm given a terrible Garcia Classical guitar when I'm twelve. I try my best to learn on my own. I got the Ed Sale Guitar lesson books mail order. Learned to play "Ghost Riders in the Sky." But, I'm still frustrated... At fifteen, I bought a nice Japanese Epiphone Coronet, and start taking proper guitar lessons. A year later, I bought my '68 SG Junior and also my '65 Ampeg Gemini II amp. The next ten years, or so I'm more concerned with motorcycles, girls, weed, and acid, so I play guitar when I can and pick up a few more guitars and finally a nice Marshall. Started playing in "real" gigging bands in my late twenties. All through my thirties and forties, I was playing in power trios, and recording and gigging all the time, along with racing motorcycles (and doing all the necessary related work to go with it).
At that same time, I was also playing mandolin in a band that did Celtic acoustic cover of punk rock drinking songs. Imagine the Clancy Brothers covering G.G. Allin, Black Flack, Gang Green, The Yobs, Sham 69, Sex Pistols, The Ramones, etc... Pete knew I was a violinist at one time, and wanted me to play mandolin with them. I did much of the arranging, and it was funny to see me doing windmills with a mandolin.
About 2012, I stopped gigging all the time, and just jammed more to have fun, and maybe do three to five gigs a year. That started dwindling too, as It turned into maybe one or two gigs a year, until I found out I had cancer in 2015. In 2017, I found myself traveling all the time, and actually looking at a guitar was like this oasis in a fantasy world that didn't really exist.
So, fast forward to now, and to answer the question........
I'm in maintenance mode, at best. I was thrilled to play the gig with Meat Depressed in Providence a few weeks ago, as it forced me to learn a dozen songs in one week, then play them live. We had a fun night, and I found that I could still do it. I'll play with my regular band one night next week to keep woodshedding our old set lists. As I get settled into my new job, I hope to start getting back into a regular practice schedule, and start developing callouses on my fingers again. Since I'm in the process of re-configuring my cellar, to have a nice work shop, practice area, and home office, I am really excited that I may finally have my own space to have my amps set up, a few guitars on stands, and maybe the computer set up with mics and other stuff for writing and recording. It's been something I have never been able to have. I'm almost done with the framing, wiring, insulation, sheet rock, and paint. I have to take things in sections, as it's tight quarters in the Bungalow basement, with all the wife's junk I keep asking her to thin out. I've thrown out all of my stuff that isn't needed anymore and am pretty lean these days.
So, if I actually will have a schedule where I'm home most of the time at night, can start a regular practice regiment, write some new songs, and not feel that my playing sucks... I hope to be back at wanting to play out a half dozen times a year and maybe record another record. I feel that I have one, maybe two more in me. It depends on the other guys, and how my bank account looks. In the meantime, I just want to be proficient again and play at a level that I expect from myself. I have all this cool stuff that I spent years trying to find, and would really like to play with everything more often.
A bit of back story on the violin: my grandfather played as a violinist in the Boston Symphony, and several other orchestras when he was younger. As a result, we had several violins in the basement that I was fascinated with when I was a little kid. I am also a descendant of Michael William Balfe, the Irish composer. He wrote the "The Bohemian Girl" and several operettas.
So, I'm given a terrible Garcia Classical guitar when I'm twelve. I try my best to learn on my own. I got the Ed Sale Guitar lesson books mail order. Learned to play "Ghost Riders in the Sky." But, I'm still frustrated... At fifteen, I bought a nice Japanese Epiphone Coronet, and start taking proper guitar lessons. A year later, I bought my '68 SG Junior and also my '65 Ampeg Gemini II amp. The next ten years, or so I'm more concerned with motorcycles, girls, weed, and acid, so I play guitar when I can and pick up a few more guitars and finally a nice Marshall. Started playing in "real" gigging bands in my late twenties. All through my thirties and forties, I was playing in power trios, and recording and gigging all the time, along with racing motorcycles (and doing all the necessary related work to go with it).
At that same time, I was also playing mandolin in a band that did Celtic acoustic cover of punk rock drinking songs. Imagine the Clancy Brothers covering G.G. Allin, Black Flack, Gang Green, The Yobs, Sham 69, Sex Pistols, The Ramones, etc... Pete knew I was a violinist at one time, and wanted me to play mandolin with them. I did much of the arranging, and it was funny to see me doing windmills with a mandolin.
About 2012, I stopped gigging all the time, and just jammed more to have fun, and maybe do three to five gigs a year. That started dwindling too, as It turned into maybe one or two gigs a year, until I found out I had cancer in 2015. In 2017, I found myself traveling all the time, and actually looking at a guitar was like this oasis in a fantasy world that didn't really exist.
So, fast forward to now, and to answer the question........
I'm in maintenance mode, at best. I was thrilled to play the gig with Meat Depressed in Providence a few weeks ago, as it forced me to learn a dozen songs in one week, then play them live. We had a fun night, and I found that I could still do it. I'll play with my regular band one night next week to keep woodshedding our old set lists. As I get settled into my new job, I hope to start getting back into a regular practice schedule, and start developing callouses on my fingers again. Since I'm in the process of re-configuring my cellar, to have a nice work shop, practice area, and home office, I am really excited that I may finally have my own space to have my amps set up, a few guitars on stands, and maybe the computer set up with mics and other stuff for writing and recording. It's been something I have never been able to have. I'm almost done with the framing, wiring, insulation, sheet rock, and paint. I have to take things in sections, as it's tight quarters in the Bungalow basement, with all the wife's junk I keep asking her to thin out. I've thrown out all of my stuff that isn't needed anymore and am pretty lean these days.
So, if I actually will have a schedule where I'm home most of the time at night, can start a regular practice regiment, write some new songs, and not feel that my playing sucks... I hope to be back at wanting to play out a half dozen times a year and maybe record another record. I feel that I have one, maybe two more in me. It depends on the other guys, and how my bank account looks. In the meantime, I just want to be proficient again and play at a level that I expect from myself. I have all this cool stuff that I spent years trying to find, and would really like to play with everything more often.
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Sp8ctre
Ambassador of Steel
That is a really great story! Thanks for sharing it!
steveb63
Ambassador of the Capacitor
Been playing since age 11 +/-, same band 1997-2019 on hiatus? Yeah, me too lol.
Just started recording and writing.
That's what's up with all the questions ha!
Great band of brotha's here, and appreciate the wisdom!
I'll happily go deeper, but don't have the patience to type all that junk about me.
Just started recording and writing.
That's what's up with all the questions ha!
Great band of brotha's here, and appreciate the wisdom!
I'll happily go deeper, but don't have the patience to type all that junk about me.
Vox AC30
Well-Known Member
I'm not even sure, but it might depend on who is listening. Me I'm just as happy sitting home playing as I am with 1, 100, or 1000 people listening or no one, reason is every time I pick it up I learn something new! It just never get's old, it always something new. Been playing since I was 12 and when I start playing it's still like I'm 12, always learning new things on and about the guitar , amps , effects and recording. Every opinion or thought I thought has evolved and continues to. Oh, and I also started with a Classical guitar. Lessons from the gym teacher who I hated because of the gym army like regimentation, as I thought like every other subject, you learn from the beginning taking steps leading to more learning. Not back then it was about hittin someone you don't really know in the face with the dodge ball. I thought, like other subjects you took the lesser and taught them coordination, how to dribble a Basket ball! , nope you were either good or bad. Well that was my first guitar teacher. After a couple of month's he say's you just went thru every Mel Bay book one a month and no one has ever done that, I had no clue, as usual, what he was even talking about, an then he goes all I can do now is teach you jazz, I was like, Whatever, I still don't know what your talking about. Lasted another 2 years had still had no clue, just that I could play whatever and as much as he cared to teach me …. still learning mid 60's songs by myself. He said when I first saw you taking lessons I did not think we were even going to get along. I listened to 45's at 33. I put pennies on the arm of the of the record player to slow it down so I could pick out parts! Once we put a band together of like minded friends all that sports 
e went out the window and due to "coming of age "n attracted more women, of the opposite sex! Youser! Played 2 gigs every weekend thru high school, worked in a music store, buying and selling used gear as well as new. But the used gear I made $$$ on too. Round 72' there was a battle of the bands for a recording contract, well I said to the boys lets try goin at it as a Horn band, what the hell. We won it and recorded 6 songs but w/o the horns for RCA but all the companies said " Not commercial enough " I thought it was commercial as hell buy what do I know. Next thing we became house band for Queens collage and traveled all over as the band on their trips. BY that time I had an 61' SGLP, plexi stack, and XKE Jaguar, I would say I have everything I want in life< I don't need anything else But I made my $ nut in the day time, not the night.
To Be Continued If anybody cares .... as it 1:15 AM n I just unloaded a truck to flee the east coast of FloriDuh due to a Caine' the blew 75 miles to the east, thank god, and never happened. Even the show band I played in for 3 years, w a traveling seamstress to make the stage attire.
e went out the window and due to "coming of age "n attracted more women, of the opposite sex! Youser! Played 2 gigs every weekend thru high school, worked in a music store, buying and selling used gear as well as new. But the used gear I made $$$ on too. Round 72' there was a battle of the bands for a recording contract, well I said to the boys lets try goin at it as a Horn band, what the hell. We won it and recorded 6 songs but w/o the horns for RCA but all the companies said " Not commercial enough " I thought it was commercial as hell buy what do I know. Next thing we became house band for Queens collage and traveled all over as the band on their trips. BY that time I had an 61' SGLP, plexi stack, and XKE Jaguar, I would say I have everything I want in life< I don't need anything else But I made my $ nut in the day time, not the night. To Be Continued If anybody cares .... as it 1:15 AM n I just unloaded a truck to flee the east coast of FloriDuh due to a Caine' the blew 75 miles to the east, thank god, and never happened. Even the show band I played in for 3 years, w a traveling seamstress to make the stage attire.
RVA
Ambassador
You are not giving yourself enough credit. We tend to be tough on ourselves, you and I.
Learning the fretboard for improv is not easy. It takes a lot of work and repetition. I spend a chunk of time every night on pure memorization. Keep it up brother
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RVA
Ambassador
I started guitar around 13. I had a guitar around in college for noodling. Self taught and a fair rhythm player, no lead at all. I never had any lessons, but took music theory as an elective in HS. I stopped after college and did not really start again for almost 20 years. I started again 9 yrars ago, but only seriously for the last 6. I am working hard to improve technical skills and knowledge of applied music theory (not just from the books, like before)
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I started late I was 18 when I finally learned how to properly tune the instrument, but with the help of some very patient, and positive people, I managed to mangle every thing we played as a band , but all that taught me was how to become a better person, and player
Cadorman
Ambassador of the Catocaster
I started playing at 20 while I was in college. Before that I did the whole choir/band/swing band thing and had music theory electives in high school as well. Never have had any real lessons, but I pick things up quickly with experience from other instruments and reading music. I did get lucky having a metal head Japanese friend that lived across the hall from me that would teach me all sorts of stuff back then. I have pretty much played consistently other than about a 3 year streak when I had to sell my LP Standard to pay rent. Now I play almost every day for several hours. Lots of repetition to teach my hands memory (wife doesn't get it) I have started messing around with writing some and really would like to record some completed songs at home with my computer. Ultimately, I would like to play in an original rock band, but probably won't happen. I love to tinker with the guitars, build and modify amps. There is just so much available to learn it really is amazing. I think the only thing I regret is not being able to type since I can't feel the keyboard with my right hand. Yes I am a lefty.
Cheers,
Chris
Cheers,
Chris