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Hendrix little wing and chili's under the bridge
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04-25-2017 05:26 PM
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I've been holding back, not sure whether to contribute to this thread. Here's why:
My father was a jazz saxophonist in Dundee, Scotland. But he became an alcoholic and drug user. Fifty years ago he tried to teach his heavily asthmatic son how to play the saxophone. I couldn't get a note out of it, and he beat the crap out of me. He never spoke to me after that, and he eventually left home and became a tramp. He died on the street, and his entire possessions amounted to one tenor sax, which I inherited.
I do recall that a friend of the family donated a guitar to me when I was eight, but I was so traumatised by my experience the year before, I couldn't bring myself to play it. But I do remember it was actually an archtop, very dark, f soundholes, etc, but it was probably not very good. I used to just stare at it. I've no idea what became of it.
When I inherited my father's sax I immediately sold it and bought a guitar. Now that he was dead, I got into music. In fact the flood gates opened. I played blues, a little jazz, some experimental stuff. Then I heard Segovia play Bach, and I ran off in that direction. That led to the lute. All the while I was playing guitar.
So, these days I have a classical education, but a burning memory of jazz from my youth. I've been trying to reconcile the two ever since.
Do I hate my father? No. I feel sorry for him. His sister recently told me a story about him when he was 19. He spent all his money to get a flight to the US. Once there he hitchhiked to the Mojave desert - he wanted to hear his sax in the desert. People found him a few days later, starving and with no money. They took him to San Diego, where he stayed for a while before heading home. I recognise that spirit.
Intense stuff. I still often just stare at the fingerboard of a guitar, and hear music come out of it. It transfixes me.
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LOL! Sorry, guys, that was a bit intense
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No need to apologize, Rob. That was real, and moving. And i'm sure I'm not the only one here who can relate. I miss my parents, and learn more from them now than when they were still here, if you know what i mean.
Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
LOL! Sorry, guys, that was a bit intense
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That's one of the best posts I've ever read, especially that last sentence. I'm just sorry you had to go through all that to be able to write it. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
I'm wondering why you feel the need to 'reconcile' classical and jazz - or, rather, why you see a dichotomy between them? They're both complex and technically demanding but they're certainly not the same.
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I began guitar by default too, naively heading off to Charing Cross Road /Tottenham
court road in London , with the notion of buying a Baritone saxophone , with no idea
of the cost ! ( Gerry Mulligan was my childhood hero ) and there it was, standing
majestically in the window of Selmers in Charing Cross Road ( where John Mclaughlin
eventually became the guitar repair man ,) The cost, astronomic, so I went inside
the guitar boom had begun, walls abounded with guitars, and there sat an older
man playing Jazz guitar !!!! on a Hofner Verithin. This was for me..... with my
measly few quid I bought it. Not a clue how to even begin to play. I eventually found a
tutor but struggled for a year or so, joined a covers band playing blues /pop and
continued for years virtually self taught and making no real progress. Then by good
fortune many years later found my Jazz Tutor , a friend of Joe Pass and just about
every other major league guitar player. Quizzed on whether I could read the dots
I pretended , which lasted only two minutes. " Do you want me to teach you to read"
came this fearful threat. Very patiently he taught me, very soon giving me three Jazz
Chordal arrangements weekly to learn. I sweated blood but slowly came to grips with it
no cheating here, these were the Tutor's own arrangements. But I am eternally grateful
for that tuition, also having met players of the calibre of Martin Taylor, Louis Stewart,
etc., But as we all know too well it is a perpetual learning curve, and for some of us
less blessed, a lifelong quest.
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For many of us, hobbled though we might be, it's a calling, no? My friend, my lover, and my therapist. Originally Posted by jazzyjackrabbit
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Beethoven was a great choice for a 9-10 years old kid. Especially the 3rd, which is extremely easy to understand, plus a really happy listening material. :-) Anyway, it worked, and that what matters :-) Originally Posted by grahambop
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Really, now you were saying it's something I vaguely remember my therapist mentioned about playing the guitar :-) Originally Posted by Thumpalumpacus
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Originally Posted by ragman1
Good call. Reconcile is not the right word. Combine would be better. I'm at the stage today where it's all just music. I must say I'm very happy these days with music and the guitar. I've been playing Bach on my Aria D'Aquisto, and very much enjoy doing so.
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Well, a few players have combined them, of course, like Jacques Loussier. On the whole, though, classical players aren't very good at jazz. But jazzers can often do classical. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
I think what a lot of jazz players like is the 'freedom' to improvise and play what they want. I used to do classical and enjoyed doing well-known pieces. After a while, though, it gets restrictive, especially as one matures. There is something liberating about playing jazz because it gives play to the emotions, although the same could be said about any improvisational art.
Absolutely. I don't think it matters what we play as long as it has musical merit.I'm at the stage today where it's all just music
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John Lennon. I always tell people that he was my biggest influence. The first time I heard the Beatles, the guitar became a calling. Jimi Hendrix made want to be a great guitarist and Wes Montgomery made me want to be a great jazz guitarist. Joe Pass made me want to be a great solo jazz guitarist and Django Reinhardt made me want to be a great acoustic jazz guitarist. But it all started with John Lennon.
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Yes I think they were both lucky choices. Holst's Planets is so colourful and imaginative, and I was fascinated by the rhythms in 'Mars'. Beethoven's 3rd always made me think of some heroic figure (I probably read the sleeve notes about the dedication to Napoleon), and the funeral march is so powerful. I think they both fired up my musical imagination. Originally Posted by jazzyjackrabbit
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When I was around 30 i lived with a guy who picked up a guitar and could make a decent sound quite quckly playing Dylan covers and the like. I started to try and learn old fingerstyle blues, but the music I loved was jazz, but not really guitar. Then My dad gave me a Wes album, California Nights. It was quite schmaltzy but in the middle was the song "Angel" which contains a very short solo. On the strength of that I checked out his other stuff. You can imagine my life has never been the same since!
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I was leaning against a wall in 1975 minding my own business when my friend Scott walked up to me and blurted out "hey man, David is gonna give me guitar lessons but he doesn't want just one student, you want to come too"? They're both the best friends I've ever had, though 1300 miles away now. If you call Scott, you will be on the phone talking about guitar stuff for at least an hour.
It's good to have old friends.
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Here is the long short story, hope you don't fall asleep
My father used to play guitar semi professionally for local social events with my mom and other relatives.
He introduced me to acoustic guitar playing but at 7 or 8 my hands were too small and it was painful to play so I gave up. I wanted to play electric but my dad insisted I learn on an acoustic.
In my early teen my interest switched to drumming as I had 2 cousins who were one of them playing with the family band. My idol was Neil Peart and Rush was my favorite band at the time.
In parallel I was also starting to listen to some metal like Iron Maiden.
I had not even a drum at home but played with knitting sticks on everything in the house driving my parents crazy sometimes lol...
Then came the time in school when friends want to setup bands and it was not different for me. A friend was already playing drum and had one so I could not, his brother tried the guitar but had no musical talent.
So I did what was logical, I got back to the guitar since my dad, who was not playing anymore, offered me his 1974 Les Paul Signature and a Peavey Renown 400 amp with the only rule I don't sell or trade them.
Had fun a bit with both playing first some '50 rock and roll and trying to play Rush but it was not what we were into anymore.
All that time I was also listening in parallel to progressive rock bands like Genesis, Yes, Gentle Giant, King Crimson and so on, but would never have thought attacking that scary stuff on the instrument...
Someone came home with Master of Puppets from Metallica and we immediately decided we would now play more metal. One thing however, who wants to play metal with a gold semi acoustic looking like grandpa's guitar? I told dad I don't want that Gibson anymore and bought a cheap Ibanez rhoadstar II plank with an EMG 80 and that started my metal shredding years ending up in Thrash, Speed and Death Metal...
Dad traded the Gibson for a Kawaii Keyboard in the meantime, without me having any regrets (at the time).
Then my taste for playing in metal bands was not there anymore so I sold everything.
I bought back a Randy Rhoads style guitar for a short time trying again my extreme metal chops but musically my taste were slowly going somewhere else...
I went back listening to a bit more to progressive rock King Crimson and Robert Fripp becoming my obsession. About the same time John McLaughlin and Mahavishnu Orchestra opened my ears to more jazzy stuff.
I was still a student at the time working part time and since I already could have paid a used car being very disciplined, dad offered to sign again for me at the bank so I could buy a "real instrument" this time.
I was regretting badly not having kept the 1974 LP signature but it was too late for sorrow, dad told me get yourself a Gibson Les Paul you will not look back.
I sold the spiky plank and got myself a brand new 1992 Gibson Standard in Ebony Color
I wish I could have afforded the Black Beauty Custom like my heroes, but it was already awesome and still is, I will never part with it...
Then my interest in jazz increased more and more, got to know about Wes, Joe, Tal and many others, Archtops were my new interest but I could not afford anything more than an Epi Emperor II Joe Pass which was OK. Swing and Bebop are pretty much my favorite music styles these days.
Thing is since the early '90s, I still love all the music styles, playing alternatively, rock, metal, fusion and jazz.Last edited by vinlander; 04-29-2017 at 08:14 AM.
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Beatles and Stones - like all of us back then. It was in 1965 and was 13 when I got my first guitar as Christmas present from my parents - a cheap Musima from East Germany. A few years later I got a Hofner 456, bought at a bric-a-brac shop for a low price. They were not collectable back then. I was 21 when I got a Gibson 175 which I still have though I don't play it much anymore. It sure needs a refret after all those years.
Edit: Don't know what happened to the typography above. Sorry.
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At about 8, around 1955, the private catholic school I was going to started to run piano lessons. I subscribed immediately and had a few lessons which I enjoyed. Didn't tell my parents, they didn't listen to music, there were no record player at home. One month later, I brought the bill for the first month of piano lessons, so my parents became aware... They immediately said "no way we can have such a big and noisy thing like a piano in our flat".. My early start was brought to an end,
7 years later, I heard Apache by the Shadows played on the radio. I immediately thought "guitar isn't a noisy and big instrument and it can fit my small bedroom". Grabbed all my pocket money accumulated over the years and bought an Egmond guitar so I could learn to play it. Not long after that, I heard the Nivram jazzy song by the Shadows and loved it, more than Apache, and it became my favorite tune as well as my intro to jazz music. This time my parents agreed to pay for guitar lessons and I started to learn the guitar more properly. Soon discovered players like Baden Powell and Wes Montgomery, whom I loved while being totally unable to play their music. Started to play in rock bands of the time. Ended up buying a Stratocaster in 1963 to play with these bands. I particularly loved to hear Arthur Smith's Guitar Boogie played during parties we played for, but couldn't manage to play the faster sections of that tune.
Stopped playing with rock bands when I started my pro life as a computer specialist. Some of my band partners became pro musicians playing with locally famous people (Gilbert Bécaud, Magma, Michel Fugain). Sold my 63 Strat to buy 2 acoustic guitars, a classical and a Martin (found out not too long ago how much 63 Strats are now worth !! much more than my 2 guitars I still own).. Took classical guitar lessons along the years and learnt to play various things, classical, finger picking, brazilian. All of that in a very sparse way. When I approached retirement about 10 years ago, I knew that playing music would be my main retirement activity. Since I haven't been using a pick during about 40 years, I set myself the challenge to use it again and play that Guitar Boogie tune, which I transcribed and practiced intensively over 4 months, until I could record myself playing it at 180 bpm.
After that, I went to a Music School near my place, so I could learn Music Theory, have private Jazz Guitar lessons, and play with one of the School band. Started playing the electric bass with it, since improvising a bass line over a chord chart was easier and I could enjoy feeling and driving rythm and harmony better than what I could do with playing the guitar.
Now I keep telling people how much hard work it is to learn playing jazz music nicely, which isn't that obvious to guess when seeing people playing with (apparent) ease while smiling and tapping feet.
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When I was 4 years old, the lady next door had a guitar leaning against the wall. I reached out and plucked that big E string. I still remember the thrill of that sound! Eventually I got a guitar of my own, and have now been playing for 50 years. Still gigging every week.
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What got me into jazz and then into jazz guitar was when Beck released the Blow by Blow album. I was into rock guitar players and bands and I played a little basic folk guitar (but I did play the violin in jr. high). When I heard Blow by Blow I decided to check out instrumental guitar music. I went to the record store and asked what was a good starter album. I was given George Benson Body Talk. After playing along to that album by ear (but only hacking single lines), I decided to take lessons. It still took me a few years to discover that for me the gold in jazz is the harmony; learning to play nice sounding chord progressions instead of as fast as possible single lines.
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Those are the posts that forums are made of. Had to take a lot out of you to type it, much less post it .... but you laid it on the line and that commands respect. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
LOL! Sorry, guys, that was a bit intense
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Forgive my disagreement, but the fact that it's a lifelong quest, never to burn into embers, is what keeps me at it. Originally Posted by silverfoxx
As much as my late jazz teacher Raj taught, the point that resonates most of all wasn't about the dots. He said, "The beauty of guitar is that it is easy to learn, but impossible to master."
Those words keep me going when I'd otherwise want to turn the thing into firewood.
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Great stories! I already said it was Jimi who inspired me to play guitar. But jazz? That happened much earlier than when I was 13 and being bowled over by Hendrix. As some here may know, Charles Mingus was a relative. We had most of his albums up until 1960 something. And it was actually a lot of albums. After my father died he stopped collecting his first cousins records. We had a thick collection of classical records Mingus records, other jazz records. You know, the usual Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson. A lot of music in the house. Opera. Schumann. Wagner. Berlioz.
So by the time I picked up the guitar, I already knew I wanted to play jazz and rock and roll, and funk. It was just rolling around in my noggin. So when I started playing the guitar, Btches Brew had just come out. And I was really into it! I loved it. I also loved Black Saint in the Sinner Lady. And I was in the eighth grade. Maybe the seventh grade. I was a little advanced for my years. So my first lessons were for classical guitar, and then jazz guitar, by the time I hit high school. But when I was taking jazz guitar lessons and in the stage band, I had already been playing "Jazz" for a year or so. Actually from the beginning. I was just trying my hand at it. Those were also the days of early John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell. The early fusion guys. A lot of chops. And that was what I was into back then.
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Because it was there.
I had been to music school learning violin and later cornette, and always tried to play keyboard instruments when I got an opportunity.
My older brother had a guitar and I had played some melodies on a single string (something anyone who has played melody on other instruments can figure it out), and asked him to tech me some chords.
It wasn't until I was 13 and started to have some interest in strumming chords, and I started to play my brother's guitar a lot. He was still at a sensitive/developing age and I had to ask him if I was allowed to and it would depend on his mood if I could. I also played it a lot when he wasn't home.
I remember wonderwall by Oasis and Killing me softly (Fugees version) was among the first songs I strummed. Labamba and twist and shout were also among the first ones. I learnt barre chords (somthing my brother found too advanced until he saw I could it) playing I want to hold your hand (Beatles).
I bought my first guitar a few months later.
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My dad would sit me down and put on Page & Plants Unledded album when it first came out (both of us are huge Zeppelin fans!) - particularly "Gallows Pole." It was the coolest thing I'd ever heard, and probably still is to this day!
Then Oasis's "Morning Glory" and Blur's "The Great Escape" dropped and the whole country I was living in wanted to play guitar!
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