Share how bad you were when you started out on guitar ...

My dad would bring something home from work every day. One day a light, one day a switch. Over a number of years, he built a car. No - wait, that was Johnny Cash.

a classic. i guess. i do love a johnny cash xmas special — i only wish i could have spent some of it, or the 80s, in the hated north amongst such fine company as yourself.

waig you are where they have pittsburgh cheesesteaks right?
 
a classic. i guess. i do love a johnny cash xmas special — i only wish i could have spent some of it, or the 80s, in the hated north amongst such fine company as yourself.

waig you are where they have pittsburgh cheesesteaks right?

Yes, but Philly is the place generally known for cheesesteaks. Around here, there are some really good ones and some really not good ones.

But we do get these beauties...

our-food-sandwich.jpg
 
Yes, but Philly is the place generally known for cheesesteaks. Around here, there are some really good ones and some really not good ones.

But we do get these beauties...

our-food-sandwich.jpg

yeah yeah, this sandwich started a huge argument between me and my special lady, and i lost. and: my only issue is it isn’t pan fried.
 
I wanted to play guitar really bad and my parents could not afford a guitar. Someone gave me an acoustic with a busted neck and two strings...I played the crap outta that thing. It only had the 5th and 6th string and i had to use a power chord but it worked out well 8 months later i finally got a functional guitar. You can imagine what an bad intonation power chord playing sound I must have had.
 
I learned to play in the 4th Grade. I probably still play at a 4th grade level. I can not read sheet music for guitar, tabs are useless to me. I self taught myself to finger pick, I probably only know 6 or 7 chords, 2 of which are actually the same thing but called something different. I have played rhythm guitar with a 3 piece country band. They didn't hate me afterwards, so I got that going for me which is nice. I self taught myself Bass as well. Guitar has always been something I've wanted to do since listening to my first John Denver record.
 
If I'm not in walkabout on a lead... Basically, if I'm in front of a microphone playing rhythm, I'm most likely tapping my foot out of pure reflex motion and years of habit. I don't have to, but it naturally happens 99% of the time unless I'm going on or offstage antics. I can keep time without it, but when not moving around it just happens.
 
I understand that certain timings other than 4/4 could throw this rule off. However, for the bands I’m in and the genre we play (uh, not DT), the ability to tap your foot to 4/4 is a big plus. Also, I’m confident that Jordan can, and I know first hand that Paul Gilbert can and does. I’m also confident that Mike Mangini could drum to 4/4 before expanding his horizons.

I didn’t mean anything negative at all. I do it myself sometimes. I was only laughing about the time Jordon made a joke about trying to tap your foot to unusual and odd meter timinings
 
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I didn’t mean anything negative at all. I do it myself sometimes. I was only laughing about the time Jordon made a joke about trying to tap your foot fo unusual and odd meter timinings

I am with 11top. Odd meters are rare, but guitarists who cannot play in time are not. I feel fortunate that I played in a band that had a bassist who had previously played only funk when I was still young. He was a very good bassist. Not only did that experience improve my ability to play in time with simple and compound meters, it taught me how to play syncopated against the beat. I find playing playing syncopated rhythm parts as enjoyable as pulling off tasty single-note stuff. Being part of a heavy danceable groove is a blast for me. I guess that is why I appreciate the work of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. Nile does not play anything sexy, but there is no denying that he, Bernard Edwards, and Tony Thompson were one of the best rhythm sections in the history of modern music. You can hear how much influence Bernard Edwards had on bassists such as Flea. The crazy thing is that Tony Thompson never used a click track to set the meter.
 
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I was shown 3 chords by a friend and played them straight of the bat. I strumed to George Harrison's My sweet lord in half an hour ( In a fashion).But soon came the dreaded bar chord ( Oh B*****ks). I went through the whole of the Beatles complete song book for months dodging the satanic shape.!!! Moving forward I played mainly rythm in bands and the best thing i did was beat that obsdacle. Probably used that shape more than any other.!!!

Soon after acquiring my Gibby SG, a buddy who was much more proficient and played in his own band showed me a descending/ascending pentatonic riff the length of the fretboard. Although I knew nothing about pentatonics at the time, I practiced the riff ad infinitum until I could use it with aplomb. My buddy also showed me the "Hendrix chord," the familiar 7♯9 chord shape that was popular in blues-based rock.

My buddy was into Neil Young at the time (1976) and encouraged me to expand my musical tastes further by collecting LPs. This occurred for a time until CDs became the preferred platform, and I then collected CDs and would listen to them. I would practice to LPs or CDs until my ear had appreciably understood what I was listening to.

I was an early fan of The Who & Led Zeppelin as both made it to radio airplay. I recall hearing both Pinball Wizard and The Immigrant Song in my formative years, and both had a profound effect on how I'd view music later in life. Brit Rock seemed to be what I gravitated to, until rock evolved in the U.S.

Although the Beatles were popular, there was less radio airplay than one might imagine locally. Therefore, my inclinations were not so much towards the Beatles, but other Brit Rock bands of the day.

In time, my CD collection allowed me to practice a variety of musical styles and genres. Although my practice habits were not the most efficient nor desirable, they allowed me to play by ear what I thought was acceptable, though seldom note-for-note. And perhaps that allowed me to be content with my guitar practice, since I realized that my practice would never be of pro guitarist quality, but only became my signature personal style. Doing so prevented me from comparing myself with others and thereby avoiding being envious of better players. While a certain style might be something to aspire to, it was never pursued nor copied to the same degree the original guitarist had practiced.

While many of my guitar heroes were whom my signature style was comprised of, I can't accurately say whom all of my musical influences are. They are numerous and diverse, some of the fathers and grandfathers of blues rock, some more contemporary who have become popular in recent decades.

Has my playing improved? No, if anything my chops are not what they once were when I played live each week at our local blues jam. Once the music scene improves and open-mics occur more locally, my guitar practice will likely be relegated to home study and recording, with less emphasis on live performance until my chops are up to snuff again.
 
I am with 11top. Odd meters are rare, but guitarists who cannot play in time are not.

So am I. Always was. Remember, I started my musical life as a classical pianist. I had a metronome going constantly during all technique practice. (I still have it in my music room, because it was my mothers). In fact, the main reason I couldn't stand to play with many other players when I was younger, was this very thing. I had many friends that played guitar, a lot of which weren't very advanced. A couple really weren't bad at all except for this one thing, and for me, it ruined playing with them. We'd play a verse and chorus and they'd be fine. I'd launch into a lead and suddenly "what just happened?" LOL I had to constantly remind one friend of mine that if you miss a chord or note, you CAN NOT go back and try to get it again and pick up from there! You have to stay on beat and get to the next chord or note at it's time. That seemed very common... I've seen many guys who would miss a chord, and then go back to get it and suddenly were a beat behind the count.

In fact, to go further with what I mentioned earlier, I figured out that (for me) you had to be precise before you could "get loose" or bend the feel with "vibe" or whatever. Because you have to also have precision in how you do that as well. And if you can't keep time, you probably can't bend it either. And you ABSOLUTELY can't get loose or vibey unless the rhythm section holds down the beat. I had one friend that was a solid rhythm player until I started playing leads. When we played together I started putting him on the other side and my amp pointing nowhere near him. If I started playing a bluesy lead, he'd start to get off time because he'd follow my slow bends or whatever. When I'd start bending and playing notes off the beat, he'd drag and try to come to where he thought I was, instead of staying on the beat so I had someplace to land. But If I played something faster or trickier stuff, he'd get lost from listening to me, instead of sticking to his part. One time (while playing for others) he looked at me during a solo and said "oh yeah" but while he did it he got off time. LOL I had one drummer I played with at college that was the same way. Let him play along with an album and he was really good. But when playing with others, instead of locking down and saying "this is the beat. You stay with me." He'd get to listening to others and wander off beat.

But yes, it was ingrained in my as a child "play in time or else." LOL I had a hard time even accepting that it was OK to bend those rules. A Jimi and a Jimmy showed me the path to enlightenment.
 
Truth be told, I did not attend college straight out of high school. I spent five years in the United States Navy as a computer jock before earning my undergraduate and graduates degrees. I played in bands in my free time. Here is a photo that was shot on the Italian island of La Maddalena during the summer of 1981. I am playing the Les Paul on the right.

CeFpSLa.jpg
 
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I saw that!

It was impressive, wasn’t it? LOL. I told Mrs. DTR to pose for the pic and she said “what do you mean, pose?” I said “show em your guns.” She thought I meant something different than I did, and that’s what she did.

:D:p:D:p:eek::p
 
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