Let's see your guitars

[Twangbanger]

Yeah, it's my right shoulder. Just got shots in it a couple of days ago and it still hurts.

I have a small amp that works fine with the ultra-light. I like the sound of an acoustic, but I have to go with what works best for me.

That sounds tough. We are in similar boats but it sounds like yours is more serious. Hopefully the electric can keep you in the game until a more permanent solution can be found. Some companies have "acoustic emulator" pedals on the market, but I've never used one.

 

[Leo]

That sounds tough. We are in similar boats but it sounds like yours is more serious. Hopefully the electric can keep you in the game until a more permanent solution can be found. Some companies have "acoustic emulator" pedals on the market, but I've never used one.

I have a Boss acoustic emulator, it is a little fiddly to get set but I can get a good acoustic sound from a Telecaster. A guitar with low output humbuckers works pretty good too, with different settings. A hot pickup heavy metal guitar like an Ibanez really does not do so good, the fat pickups go from weak and muddy straight to blasting through with nothing in the middle.

 

[Snapdragon]

Since it is your strumming hand, have you ever thought about just finger picking? A rolled up wash towel between your wrist and the guitar would support the weight so your fingers are free.

I have a resonator guitar that I like to play on my lap. I use a slide steel or a glass slide and fingers. When my shoulder was messed up I bought an electronic keyboard. I hope you can work out your guitar problems, but if you cannot, there are other ways to make music. A beat up old trumpet and be found for $50 at rummage sales, there is always something.

Wishing you the best of luck

Thanks. I do have my flute and piccolo from high school band...

 

[mammynun]

Maybe one of these would work? I know Fender makes an acoustic Tele, but they're about $2k...

Thin acoustic guitars.

 

[Snapdragon]

I was actually considering the Yamaha APXT2, but I didn't want to get out of the frying pan and into the fire. Still got it in my Walmart shopping cart. Free returns.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/seort/27970554

 

[phylodog]

Not specific to a guitar necessarily but still thread appropriate in my opinion. This is what I love about music, most of the time there are no egos involved. It's 100% about the music to these guys and it's pretty cool that the drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers can apparently play some mean Niel Young.

 

[Frosty]

I picked up a little $50 acoustic to try my hand at, learned some chords and a couple little intros, unfortunately haven’t done much with it, it’s tough to practice when both kids are trying to pluck your strings! My two year old does seem to really love playing with it, so I’m hoping when she gets a little older she will pursue playing. I never had much interest in learning music in school so most of it is over my head lol.

 

[Leo]

I picked up a little $50 acoustic to try my hand at, learned some chords and a couple little intros, unfortunately haven’t done much with it, it’s tough to practice when both kids are trying to pluck your strings! My two year old does seem to really love playing with it, so I’m hoping when she gets a little older she will pursue playing. I never had much interest in learning music in school so most of it is over my head lol.

It is good to keep an instrument around, you never know when a curious kid will have a blast of natural talent. Plus, you also never know if you are going to be laid up with a sickness or injury, and the instrument will keep you sane.

 

[Frosty]

It is good to keep an instrument around, you never know when a curious kid will have a blast of natural talent. Plus, you also never know if you are going to be laid up with a sickness or injury, and the instrument will keep you sane.

My little one shows a real interest in music, more so than my son or oldest daughter ever did, she seems drawn to it, she loves to sing along to her nursery rhymes, well, as well as a two year old can.

 

[phylodog]

I've always been curious if my brain was wired differently than most or if it is common when it comes to music? As far back as I can remember I memorized music without trying. I only needed to hear a song five or maybe six times and I'd have the main melody, rhythm and lyrics locked in somehow. To this day I will have songs pop into my head that I haven't head in 30 years and was never fond of to begin with but I will unwillingly hear the entire song in my head repeatedly for days or even weeks. Rod Stewart's "Do you think I'm sexy" is a regular popping up three or four times a year thanks to the "So I married an axe murderer" movie.

Anyone else experience this or am I a freak of nature, never to be understood????? Lol, it doesn't bother me. It actually comes in pretty handy when I can memorize numerous Tool songs on the guitar which are 10 minutes plus long. I always kind of felt like it was my little micro/worthless superpower. The world doesn't revolve around me so the curriculum taught when I went through school wasn't super easy for me, unless the teacher put what I needed to know to music.

I remember being in High School and going to an away basketball game (for some reason) out at Avon HS. I had attended Avon elementary for a couple of years and had an english teacher who used music to to teach. She was seated in the stands and when I saw her I immediately recognized her after 10+ years. I couldn't remember her last name so I asked if she was an english teach and she said yes, I told her who I was and I could see that she remembered me (not for good reasons I assure you). I then recited all of the adverbs to her utilizing the melody she'd put them to when she taught us. I don't think I knew I had them memorized until I recognized her face and they were suddenly there..."Am-is-are, was-were, have-has-had, do-does-did, be-being-been, will-would-shall-should-can-could, may-might and must". By the time I'd finished that short routine she was absolutely balling. They're still locked in there, worthless as could be. I don't think there has ever been a single instance in my almost 50 years that I've needed to know what the adverbs were. But it was put to music so I'll apparently (hopefully) never forget it.

Sorry for the babbling....

 

[Twangbanger]

I've always been curious if my brain was wired differently than most or if it is common when it comes to music? As far back as I can remember I memorized music without trying. I only needed to hear a song five or maybe six times and I'd have the main melody, rhythm and lyrics locked in somehow. To this day I will have songs pop into my head that I haven't head in 30 years and was never fond of to begin with but I will unwillingly hear the entire song in my head repeatedly for days or even weeks. Rod Stewart's "Do you think I'm sexy" is a regular popping up three or four times a year thanks to the "So I married an axe murderer" movie.

Anyone else experience this or am I a freak of nature, never to be understood????? Lol, it doesn't bother me. It actually comes in pretty handy when I can memorize numerous Tool songs on the guitar which are 10 minutes plus long. I always kind of felt like it was my little micro/worthless superpower. The world doesn't revolve around me so the curriculum taught when I went through school wasn't super easy for me, unless the teacher put what I needed to know to music.

I remember being in High School and going to an away basketball game (for some reason) out at Avon HS. I had attended Avon elementary for a couple of years and had an english teacher who used music to to teach. She was seated in the stands and when I saw her I immediately recognized her after 10+ years. I couldn't remember her last name so I asked if she was an english teach and she said yes, I told her who I was and I could see that she remembered me (not for good reasons I assure you). I then recited all of the adverbs to her utilizing the melody she'd put them to when she taught us. I don't think I knew I had them memorized until I recognized her face and they were suddenly there..."Am-is-are, was-were, have-has-had, do-does-did, be-being-been, will-would-shall-should-can-could, may-might and must". By the time I'd finished that short routine she was absolutely balling. They're still locked in there, worthless as could be. I don't think there has ever been a single instance in my almost 50 years that I've needed to know what the adverbs were. But it was put to music so I'll apparently (hopefully) never forget it.

Sorry for the babbling....

Music has a way of ordering things in your head, so that you can remember "what comes after what." It's a thing, a survival skill for musicians, but it's a wonder more isn't made of it in other fields.

I always have been a huuuge memorizer. Sight reading was my weakest thing. I am a pretty fair music reader, enough to get things off the page, but nothing more. Once it's off the page, I have no use for the notation.

My band director in high school had us audition for chairs by playing outside his office door, around the corner so he couldn't see who it was. He'd give us something to sight read, and I remember struggling a bit in the beginning of a piece one year, then I realized I had heard this piece before, and bam! It was off to the races. I banged out the rest of it barely looking at the sheet, and he called me by name around the door and said that was the damnedest thing he'd ever seen. Some people are just wired that way. It's not a good thing or a bad thing, it's a thing-thing and you just have to work on whatever your weakness is.

I took violin lessons for a couple years just for the hell of it (bad idea), and everyone teacher in that line is a "First you have to learn classical, then you can do what you want" type. I totally wore out my first teacher. I remember in one lesson, I was playing something and she grabbed the music off the stand and said, "Oh Jesus, you're a MEMORIZER!" Like there's something wrong with that. We parted ways soon after, and I got in with a "fiddle teacher" who didn't care about anything except how many songs you had memorized. We got along famously.

Use your superpower, it's the greatest thing to have. Really, reading music is only important if you're in a job where you have to learn things quickly off paper or need it to audition for a part. Or if you write music for others to play. And even for people who do that, I think all the software will eventually remove most of the need because it will even transcribe for you. And of course if you're a guitar player, anything difficult almost requires tab because there's so many ways you can finger something.

 

[chezuki]

I've always been curious if my brain was wired differently than most or if it is common when it comes to music? As far back as I can remember I memorized music without trying. I only needed to hear a song five or maybe six times and I'd have the main melody, rhythm and lyrics locked in somehow. To this day I will have songs pop into my head that I haven't head in 30 years and was never fond of to begin with but I will unwillingly hear the entire song in my head repeatedly for days or even weeks. Rod Stewart's "Do you think I'm sexy" is a regular popping up three or four times a year thanks to the "So I married an axe murderer" movie.

Anyone else experience this or am I a freak of nature, never to be understood????? Lol, it doesn't bother me. It actually comes in pretty handy when I can memorize numerous Tool songs on the guitar which are 10 minutes plus long. I always kind of felt like it was my little micro/worthless superpower. The world doesn't revolve around me so the curriculum taught when I went through school wasn't super easy for me, unless the teacher put what I needed to know to music.

I remember being in High School and going to an away basketball game (for some reason) out at Avon HS. I had attended Avon elementary for a couple of years and had an english teacher who used music to to teach. She was seated in the stands and when I saw her I immediately recognized her after 10+ years. I couldn't remember her last name so I asked if she was an english teach and she said yes, I told her who I was and I could see that she remembered me (not for good reasons I assure you). I then recited all of the adverbs to her utilizing the melody she'd put them to when she taught us. I don't think I knew I had them memorized until I recognized her face and they were suddenly there..."Am-is-are, was-were, have-has-had, do-does-did, be-being-been, will-would-shall-should-can-could, may-might and must". By the time I'd finished that short routine she was absolutely balling. They're still locked in there, worthless as could be. I don't think there has ever been a single instance in my almost 50 years that I've needed to know what the adverbs were. But it was put to music so I'll apparently (hopefully) never forget it.

Sorry for the babbling....

My wife has joked that I have some sort of radio in my head playing a huge library on shuffle. I will randomly start singing songs I haven’t heard in years, and often that aren’t even in a genre I really listen to. Somehow I know all the words and melodies.

 

[Snapdragon]

My wife has joked that I have some sort of radio in my head playing a huge library on shuffle. I will randomly start singing songs I haven’t heard in years, and often that aren’t even in a genre I really listen to. Somehow I know all the words and melodies.

Same-ish. I could probably sing you Girl from Ipanema even though I haven't heard it since about 1972.

 

[phylodog]

So I'm not alone!!!!!

 

[phylodog]

Use your superpower, it's the greatest thing to have. Really, reading music is only important if you're in a job where you have to learn things quickly off paper or need it to audition for a part. Or if you write music for others to play. And even for people who do that, I think all the software will eventually remove most of the need because it will even transcribe for you. And of course if you're a guitar player, anything difficult almost requires tab because there's so many ways you can finger something.

I've pondered how to use this to possibly earn an income but I've never come up with anything viable. I'll just keep on using it to playing and learning guitar, not a lot of things make me happier than learning a song or a riff I've had in my head for 30+ years but never thought I would be able to play it. Right now I'm hung up on the opening for Van Halen's Drop Dead Legs. It has always been one of my favorites and brings tons of good memories with it and I can actually play it. Not perfectly (yet) but it's been a long time since I accomplished something just for myself.

 

[Snapdragon]

I've pondered how to use this to possibly earn an income but I've never come up with anything viable. I'll just keep on using it to playing and learning guitar, not a lot of things make me happier than learning a song or a riff I've had in my head for 30+ years but never thought I would be able to play it. Right now I'm hung up on the opening for Van Halen's Drop Dead Legs. It has always been one of my favorites and brings tons of good memories with it and I can actually play it. Not perfectly (yet) but it's been a long time since I accomplished something just for myself.

I will sometimes have a song or a part of a song going through my head all night like it's stuck in a loop. It doesn't have to be a song I like.

 

[Leo]

So I'm not alone!!!!!

No, you are not alone. In the summer of 1967 I got a transistor radio. It was never far from my side unless I could not scrounge enough money for another 9V battery. I found what was called a pillow speaker at a garage sale. Stuff the 3 inch flat disc under your pillow and you could comfortably listen at night without bothering anyone else. The majority of what was played on 890 WLS is permanently in my mind. Often I can hear the first note or the first drum beat and know what song will play. With headphones and a record changer I kept that up until my 20's.

Sadly, some of the stuff in my head is garbage. For example, I can recite all the lyrics from the Frank Zappa "Over night sensation" album. Who needs that? So many songs of my youth all the way to the present that have some truly interesting guitar work with captivating intervals and rhythms. Unfortunately they lyrics that run counter to my value system.

PS, I like Jazz and some bossa nova stuff, I just played "Girl from Ipanema" yesterday. <grin>

 

[Snapdragon]

I listened to WLS (and WCFL) on one of these.

 

[mbkintner]

I've pondered how to use this to possibly earn an income but I've never come up with anything viable. I'll just keep on using it to playing and learning guitar, not a lot of things make me happier than learning a song or a riff I've had in my head for 30+ years but never thought I would be able to play it. Right now I'm hung up on the opening for Van Halen's Drop Dead Legs. It has always been one of my favorites and brings tons of good memories with it and I can actually play it. Not perfectly (yet) but it's been a long time since I accomplished something just for myself.

Just "heard" the entire song in my head.

 

[chezuki]

I did a thing….

Pics when it arrives.