I signed up for guitar lessons today.

[RABid]

I've had guitars on and off for years. Learned to play a bit in college but never really followed up with it. No formal training at all. While gigging regularly in the 1980's our guitarist left abruptly and I had to move from keyboards to guitar to fill in for two weeks. What an awful experience. I was good enough on guitar that the club owners said "No problem. Go with it." But, I also knew that I sucked. Sold my guitar after that and finally bought some back a few years ago. I've probably got more guitars than Dave Bryce. Tried the online lesson route but could not stay motivated. So today I stopped by the new music store in my small town, asked about lessons, and signed up. $20 per half hour is not bad, and every other week I will switch between guitar and bass lessons.

 

So why at 62 am I signing up for guitar lessons? It is mental, and I mean that seriously. I truly believe that learning helps keep the mind young. After 6 months I may drop guitar lessons and switch to banjo. Wonder if anyone around teaches harmonica? Bottom line. My mom had dementia. Half of her siblings had dementia. It worries me so I do everything I can to keep learning. I watch a lot of YouTube and subscribe to The Great Courses Plus. Been going through courses on chemistry, calculus and anything to do with physics and space. But I really believe learning music will be one of the best exercises for continued brain health.

 

So is anyone else learning new instruments late in life? Right before I retired I really did buy a banjo. Hope to learn it some day.

[KuruPrionz]

Awesome! I am 66 and yesterday we tried to fumble through The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. The bride at a wedding gig we are playing on Saturday wants to sing it. We all know her and love her and want to do the best we can but that tune is a tricky beast! She can sing, that part is good. Last night after our failure I surfed YouTube and found tutorials on playing it correctly. The original off the Rumors album is tuned to Double Drop D and capoed on the second fret so it's in E. While the chords are fairly straightforward, the shapes Lindsey Buckngham used are anything but and they sound beautiful.

 

So I have 2 days to cobble up something resembling the original, learn some of the words and harmony parts on vocals (another interesting orchestration) and go do what I can for my friends and their wedding day. We are the first band of 3 so most folks won't be drunked up yet either.

 

Music keeps my brain alive!!! I'm with you, I moved home years ago to help Mom take care of Dad, he died of Alzheimers and it was not pretty. Mom lost her short term memory near the end but she could always hold a conversation and told me detailed stories about her childhood exactly the way she told them when I was 6. Both my sister and my brother struggle with clarity and I have momentary lapses of cognition myself. It's scary and music is my grip on reality, a way to exercise the brain.

 

And, a few years back I scored a Bell Banjos Boucher banjo kit, the first factory made banjo in the US. A fretless model, long scale and nylon strings. 5 string, as all "real" banjos should be. I am sort of getting the hang of it but do not spend enough time with it. Still, it is an interesting and unique sound, an important link to the history of American music.

[Anderton]

Wonder if anyone around teaches harmonica?

 

I play blues harmonica pretty darn well. The secret is NOT playing in the key of the song, but a fourth above - e.g., for a blues in E, you want an A harmonica.

 

Harmonicas are great. You can fit them in your shirt pocket, and get souful in under 10 seconds. They're also one of the few instruments where you can blow and suck.

 

Can't recommend it highly enough!

[Greg Mein]

Wonder if anyone around teaches harmonica?

 

I play blues harmonica pretty darn well. The secret is NOT playing in the key of the song, but a fourth above - e.g., for a blues in E, you want an A harmonica.

 

It's all about the flatted 7th!

[KuruPrionz]

I will chime in about harmonica, both post above are good.

 

You can bend the notes by changing the pressure, draw notes might be easier. I found myself changing the shape of my mouth (the inner part) and blowing and drawing in different ways until I found what works.

 

I haven't played in a while but I used to play parts in a few songs here and there. It's fun and it's part of blues and rock and roll.

 

Don't try to play like Stevie Wonder, he uses a chromatic harmonica and is one of the best in the world. Pretty high bar.

 

Try to sound like Little Walter, on the early Muddy Waters records. Still not easy but you can get close a lot sooner.

[Mike Rivers]

Wonder if anyone around teaches harmonica?

 

I play blues harmonica pretty darn well. The secret is NOT playing in the key of the song, but a fourth above - e.g., for a blues in E, you want an A harmonica.

 

Harmonicas are great. You can fit them in your shirt pocket, and get souful in under 10 seconds. They're also one of the few instruments where you can blow and suck.

 

There are many different types of harmonicas - not all of them work like that. The most common harmonica is the diatonic harmonica like the Hohner Marine Band model, designed primarily for playing European folk tune. We can thank country and blues musicians of the 1920s for developing the "cross-harp" concept of playing in the alternate key and developing the overblowing technique for bending notes and playing notes that are in the cracks. Bands that featured the harmonica like jug bands played in just a couple of keys but folky harmonica players in the 1960s carried a box of instruments in different keys (I think it was Tony Glover who used an ammunition belt to keep them handy) to go with the singers. Back then, a Marine Band harmonica cost about $5 - I don't know what a new one or equivalent costs today. Howard Levy (at least he's the first one I know) extended this technique so that he could (and did) play in any key on a single harmonica, with each key having its own characteristic "almost right" notes sometimes called "blue notes."

 

There are chromatic harmonicas with a button that shifts every hole by a half-step. And harmonicas that are a foot or more longer with an extended range.

 

Keep sucking!

 

 

[RABid]

Wonder if anyone around teaches harmonica?

 

I play blues harmonica pretty darn well. The secret is NOT playing in the key of the song, but a fourth above - e.g., for a blues in E, you want an A harmonica.

 

It's all about the flatted 7th!

 

Wow. Good information. I got a complete set of harmonicas, all keys. Also bought a couple of individual harmonicas of a bit better quality. Found a couple of decent YouTube channels for harmonica.

[GovernorSilver]

 

So is anyone else learning new instruments late in life? Right before I retired I really did buy a banjo. Hope to learn it some day.

 

you totally beat my record.

 

I was over 30 when i started taking viola lessons - still a child by comparison.

 

Howard Levy inspired me to try harmonica. I was never able to get the hang of the overblow technique that he uses to turn just about any diatonic harmonica into a chromatic one, although even he acknowledges there are some limitations compared to using a chromatic one. He went into some detail as to why he preferred diatonic over chromatic, even for bebop lines with lots of chromatics. I read an interview in which he said he used 3 harmonicas (3 different keys) for his melody lines/solos on a particular Flecktones tune.

 

My latest new instrument is an electric mandolin I got on sale. I finally listened to all those fiddlers who said they double on mandolin - you can work out some things on mandolin without having to worry about that darn bow.

[KuruPrionz]

Mike Rivers is correct but there's more.

The Lee Oskar series of harmonicas has a huge variety of tunings, minor tunings and many others. Lee was the fantastic harp player for War, I saw them and he killed it.

 

Then there are the Echo harps, which have 2 reeds for each note, one tuned slightly sharp or flat (I don't remember) to make a more accordion like tone.

The Hohner Comet (I have one) has 2 reeds per note tuned in octaves for a bigger sound.

 

There are probably others, MIke mentioned the chromatic, I referred to Stevie Wonder who plays one. Listen to the harmonica solo on For Once In My LIfe and you will hear it in action.

Good luck sounding like Stevie, he is truly one of the great harmonica players.

[Mike Rivers]

At least as many kinds of harmonicas as there are kinds of guitars, but a beginner today probably will initially be inspired by James Cotton (blues) or Doc Watson (country), both of whom played diatonic harmonicas, as opposed to Toots Thielmans or Stevie Wonder who play chromatic.

 

I had a little giggle on the shuttle bus from, I think a Summer NAMM show in Nashville to the airport. I was sitting across the aisle from a woman who was hounding her seat mate (obviously not a companion) about how popular the harmonica was getting, being played by inexperienced players who were always too loud. Her seat mate was explaining that this can happen with any instrument and the harmonica could be well played at any volume. As they were getting off, she asked his name. "I'm Lee Oskar. I make and sell harmonicas."

[Anderton]

Diatonic harmonicas are way easier to play than chromatics. I don't even have a chromatic one.

[Dave Bryce]

I've probably got more guitars than Dave Bryce.

We talkin' just electrics now? If so, I'm up to eight: Tele, Strat, SG, Epiphone Dot, Epiphone Les Paul (humbuckers), Gibson Melody Maker Les Paul (P90s), Gretsch 5655 and Dan Electro short horn.

 

Add in my basses and acoustics, I think I'm at seventeen.

 

dB

[Nowarezman]

Back to the original topic (usually I'm the thread derailer, so no pride here) -

 

It's not quite the same as taking up a totally new instrument, but in my mid-60s I started working on the classical guitar technique for my right hand. That's the strumming/picking hand for non-lefties (altho' in most respects I am left-handed.)

 

It was YouTube that enabled this change - there are so many good instructors, and a few outstanding ones. Watching a variety of instructors is very helpful - where one is vague, another is clear. Where one is misleading, another is clarifying. And you get to see where they all seem to disagree to some extent or other regarding certain gray areas.

 

I still use my old fingerstyle right-hand technique. The classical thing is just another mode to go into depending on the song. I will say this - the classical technique is the way to go for getting the biggest, best tone out of a nylon-string guitar, no question. But it's very very slow going - unlearning and re-learning. However there is this unexpected benefit - I've got all sorts of new material for song-building out of the exercise. It's gotten me out of some very old ruts and into new grooves, however gingerly and tentatively I proceed.

 

It is a youth-making sort of thing, I agree. Feels like when I first started teaching myself acoustic guitar in the dorm room, copying Cat Stevens and James Taylor and Leo Kottke in 1973.

 

nat

[GovernorSilver]

I've probably got more guitars than Dave Bryce.

We talkin' just electrics now? If so, I'm up to eight: Tele, Strat, SG, Epiphone Dot, Epiphone Les Paul (humbuckers), Gibson Melody Maker Les Paul (P90s), Gretsch 5655 and Dan Electro short horn.

 

Add in my basses and acoustics, I think I'm at seventeen.

 

dB

 

Dang, you win, sir!

 

My guitar + bass collection is half that size

[johnchop]

Been teaching myself guitar (slowly) for the past 6 months, but I'm at the point where I need direction to really improve. Way too much on the plate currently to invest in a teacher.

 

Meanwhile, there are some good folks online (Justin Sandercoe ftw) + a couple of books, so I've got enough to work on for the moment.

 

At first it felt 100% alien, but I'm far more comfortable after 6 months. Many "lightbulb" moments.

 

It's especially fun digging into Amplitube and Guitar Rig, using vibrating strings instead of samples for the input. RAWK!

[KuruPrionz]

I've probably got more guitars than Dave Bryce.

We talkin' just electrics now? If so, I'm up to eight: Tele, Strat, SG, Epiphone Dot, Epiphone Les Paul (humbuckers), Gibson Melody Maker Les Paul (P90s), Gretsch 5655 and Dan Electro short horn.

 

Add in my basses and acoustics, I think I'm at seventeen.

 

dB

 

I lost count at 20, sorry Dave...

I am including a fretless banjo and a lap steel.

 

If I pull everything out of the closet I'm sure I have at least a couple more plus some work in progress...

 

All of them are different, there are fretless and fretted basses, a baritone Tele, a Gibson 335, another Gibson - late 50's early 60's Melody Maker that is boogered and will soon be sporting a freshly rewound at TV Jones authentic vintage Gretsch Supertron pickup, a franken-Tele, a franken-Strat with scalloped fretboard, an Ibanez Gio Mikro in Nashville tuning, 2 Rainsong acoustics, one 6 string and one 12, a Yamaha nylon string, a 58 Dano U2, an early 60s Silvertone Dano dolphin nose, a requinto, a small acoustic guitar my brother made from scratch, a converted Harmony archtop with a crushed mirror candy apple red finish and a replica of the Gretsch floating bridge, soon to be outfitted with a pair of TV Jones Filtertrons and and and and......

[KuruPrionz]

Back to harmonicas. I owned a couple of chromatics but I was not worthy and sold them.

 

I also owned a "Marine Band Orchestra" model with was 4 echo harps in C, G, A and D all in one absurd gigantic harmonica. I might still have it but I think I sold it.

And some other harps, some of them pretty nice and some of them not very good. I'm saving the not very good ones for recording solos where the harmonica will probably never be the same again and I can toss it in the trash without feeling bad about it.

[RABid]

It's a tie for now, but I am going down instead of up. In the past year I sold my Martin acoustic, Gibson Les Paul Studio, and the first Fender Bass that I bought when I started to learn. Right now I have...

7 electrics including 4 Strats. I'm not as varied as DB. The collection tops out with a nice PRS, but my favorite is a Jeff Beck Strat in Seafoam green.

5 acoustics, including a high end Taylor 814CE DLX

5 basses. again not a lot of variety. I have the Ibanez SR1400 in 4, 5, and 6 string versions. Also have a really nice Fender and a short scale Gretsch.

 

Also have a banjo, ukulele and two hammer dulcimers.

[Dave Bryce]

I am including a fretless banjo

Now that's cool...

 

If I pull everything out of the closet I'm sure I have at least a couple more plus some work in progress...

 

All of them are different, there are fretless and fretted basses, a baritone Tele, a Gibson 335, another Gibson - late 50's early 60's Melody Maker that is boogered and will soon be sporting a freshly rewound at TV Jones authentic vintage Gretsch Supertron pickup, a franken-Tele, a franken-Strat with scalloped fretboard, an Ibanez Gio Mikro in Nashville tuning, 2 Rainsong acoustics, one 6 string and one 12, a Yamaha nylon string, a 58 Dano U2, an early 60s Silvertone Dano dolphin nose, a requinto, a small acoustic guitar my brother made from scratch, a converted Harmony archtop with a crushed mirror candy apple red finish and a replica of the Gretsch floating bridge, soon to be outfitted with a pair of TV Jones Filtertrons and and and and......

 

Gimme time...I'm working on it...

 

dB

[KuruPrionz]

I am including a fretless banjo

Now that's cool...

 

If I pull everything out of the closet I'm sure I have at least a couple more plus some work in progress...

 

All of them are different, there are fretless and fretted basses, a baritone Tele, a Gibson 335, another Gibson - late 50's early 60's Melody Maker that is boogered and will soon be sporting a freshly rewound at TV Jones authentic vintage Gretsch Supertron pickup, a franken-Tele, a franken-Strat with scalloped fretboard, an Ibanez Gio Mikro in Nashville tuning, 2 Rainsong acoustics, one 6 string and one 12, a Yamaha nylon string, a 58 Dano U2, an early 60s Silvertone Dano dolphin nose, a requinto, a small acoustic guitar my brother made from scratch, a converted Harmony archtop with a crushed mirror candy apple red finish and a replica of the Gretsch floating bridge, soon to be outfitted with a pair of TV Jones Filtertrons and and and and......

 

Gimme time...I'm working on it...

 

dB

 

You will get there, I have faith. I've had more, and less. I spent 3 or 4 years with just a well worn Martin D-35. And at one point I was a collector instead of an accumulator. My focus now is "will this be fun in the studio?" and "do I already have something like this?" If not, it stays.

 

By the way, if Bill Evans ever comes to your area go and see him!!!! It is 137% his fault I own a fretless banjo. It sounded so good when he played his, but.. well... ummm.... yeah....

[GovernorSilver]

You guys are pros. I think the only string instrument I'll be adding in the near future will be a bass guitar. I haven't had a decent one since I sold my Fender Geddy Lee to a friend who needed a bass more than I did.

 

I miss just being able to vibe like this

 

[video:youtube]

[KuruPrionz]

You guys are pros. I think the only string instrument I'll be adding in the near future will be a bass guitar. I haven't had a decent one since I sold my Fender Geddy Lee to a friend who needed a bass more than I did.

 

I miss just being able to vibe like this

 

[video:youtube]

 

That's awesome! I love playing bass, I'm not as good as he is but I can drive a groove. If the dance floor is full you got it.

[Nowarezman]

Ok, here's my guitar collection FWIW......

 

Martin OM-18V. I played a big Guild dreadnaught for decades, but sold it and bought the Martin from a friend. Can't imagine needing another steel-string here on out. It's so balanced and sweet-toned.

 

Pavane TP-30 classical guitar. Bought it from the builder - Tom Prisloe in upstate NY. This one is my all day sucker. To upgrade I think I'd be looking at the $4K and up range.

 

Rickenbacher ACE lap steel. That's not a typo - it's old enough to have Adolph Rickenbacker's original name spelling on the label. It's a 40s or early 50s model, made of bakelite with the famed horseshoe pickup, hot as a firecracker. Sounds like Lindley's lap steel on the old Jackson Browne stuff - rich and soulful.

 

Epiphone Elite Casino. Lollar P-90s. Super note definition, oh so Beatle-like, and has a lot of soul. Love the thing.

 

And a real oddity - I picked up a Floyd Rose HSS Strat knock-off that Guitar Center was blowing out years and years ago for about $150. You have to use proprietary strings on it (bullets on both ends to fit the Speedloader system) - which are not manufactured any longer. I have ONE extra set of strings. But this is the truth - the strings I have on it now are the originals from about 16 years ago. Never a broken string and they are still shiny, clean and clear sounding, and not a speck of tarnish or rust. And the dang guitar sounds really good! But I do hate the Speedloader system I must admit.

 

If I ever get a new electric, I'll probably spring for the PRS Silver Sky strat.

 

nat

[KuruPrionz]

Ok, here's my guitar collection FWIW......

 

Martin OM-18V. I played a big Guild dreadnaught for decades, but sold it and bought the Martin from a friend. Can't imagine needing another steel-string here on out. It's so balanced and sweet-toned.

 

Pavane TP-30 classical guitar. Bought it from the builder - Tom Prisloe in upstate NY. This one is my all day sucker. To upgrade I think I'd be looking at the $4K and up range.

 

Rickenbacher ACE lap steel. That's not a typo - it's old enough to have Adolph Rickenbacker's original name spelling on the label. It's a 40s or early 50s model, made of bakelite with the famed horseshoe pickup, hot as a firecracker. Sounds like Lindley's lap steel on the old Jackson Browne stuff - rich and soulful.

 

Epiphone Elite Casino. Lollar P-90s. Super note definition, oh so Beatle-like, and has a lot of soul. Love the thing.

 

And a real oddity - I picked up a Floyd Rose HSS Strat knock-off that Guitar Center was blowing out years and years ago for about $150. You have to use proprietary strings on it (bullets on both ends to fit the Speedloader system) - which are not manufactured any longer. I have ONE extra set of strings. But this is the truth - the strings I have on it now are the originals from about 16 years ago. Never a broken string and they are still shiny, clean and clear sounding, and not a speck of tarnish or rust. And the dang guitar sounds really good! But I do hate the Speedloader system I must admit.

 

If I ever get a new electric, I'll probably spring for the PRS Silver Sky strat.

 

nat

 

You have some lovely things, would be fun to hang out and try them all. I LOVE a fine classical guitar, I need a hybrid electric so that's what I have but nylon strings are a special sound I'll always love.

The rest of them sound fun too!!!!

[The Real MC]

I'll just leave this J Geils harmonica workout here...

 

[video:youtube]

[The Real MC]

Being an accomplished piano player with a solid foundation of music theory, I learned guitar on my own out of necessity to have something to contribute for songs that have zero keyboard parts. I'm a much better rhythm player, my fingers are just too dumb for lead guitar. I'm WAY better on bass guitar.

 

My forte is my discriminating analytical ears... I seem to have a knack at picking good sounding guitars and amps. I have good Les Paul, Strat, Tele, and Martin acoustics. Good jazz bass (fretted and fretless), and six string Alvarez.

 

Mostly vintage amps... an old British Selmer, old Fender Harvard, Marshall 50w, Fender DSR (head version of Twin Reverb, exact same amp). New stuff - M/B Lonestar, Vox Tonelab SE, Vox Valvetronix (blueface version). Plus a variety of speaker cabinets with different speakers.

 

Between varying the amp with the speaker cabinet with the guitar, I can get a pretty vast permutation of sounds. Settled on that collection a few years ago and haven't acquired anything else. Just don't need it.

 

Lately I'm focusing more on keyboards than guitar, once I close on the house and can get my studio back together.

[KuruPrionz]

I'll just leave this J Geils harmonica workout here...

 

[video:youtube]

 

Somebody just ain't right in the head is what. Wasn't that Magic Dick on the harp?

 

Bo Diddley told us a joke about Magic Dick during dinner before we backed him up.

 

"A husband was going on a business trip and the wife was worried she couldn't hold out as long as he was gone and she didn't believe in cheatin'.

So she went to the Hoodoo Man and told him of her troubles.

Hoodoo Man said "I've got just the thing for you, Magic Dick."

"Magic Dick, what's that?"

 

Hoodoo Man said, "You'll never see him or hear him but you will feel him. Just say "Magic Dick, my p***y"" and he will take care of you while your husband is gone."

So she paid to have Magic Dick and took him home. Magic Dick worked just as she had hoped and dreamed he would. She found it easy to be faithful to her husband.

 

One day, she needed satisfaction and started in with Magic Dick. Her husband came home to find her writhing around on the bed, moaning.

Husband said "Explain to me exactly what is going on here."

Wife said "Oh it's just Magic Dick taking care of me while you were gone."

Husband said "Magic Dick, my a**."

[Mike Rivers]

Diatonic harmonicas are way easier to play than chromatics. I don't even have a chromatic one.

 

That's why they became so popular. As a common school yard instrument up throuth the 1950s, they have now been replaced by cell phones, Sad.

[RABid]

While we are talking about various instruments... ... ... I've been thinking about getting one of those plastic trombones off of Amazon. Does anyone have any experience with them? I always wanted to try trombone. Just to play around. Nothing serious. Are they usable?

[RABid]

Had my first lesson today. Not sure how I feel about it. At one point the instructor did say that he uses the first lessons to figure out how much the student already knows, but it was very unstructured. We started a bit late because as the only worker there he had to open the store, yet he kept looking at his phone to make sure we did not run over in time. Not sure why he was so concerned because there was no customers and no other students waiting for a lesson. I asked for a recommendation on a beginner book and he told me that he does not teach from a book. He finally mentioned a book on chords that he likes, Guitar Chord Bible by Phil Capone. I left having been shown alternate chord structures that are easy for switching chords quickly, but with no reference to refer to at a later time. When I took piano lessons my instructor had won a scholarship at Julliard and was very structured. We used three books even as a beginner and I knew exactly what I was supposed to practice between lessons. I'm not sure what I am supposed to practice this week other than the chord progressions he showed me, if I can remember them. Next week we do bass. I'll see if it goes any better.