About Guitar Play

Hi. I am Paul. Great to have you here on my blog.
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TURN – TURN – TURN

(The Byrds)

One of my favorite memory-lane song
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Lyrics

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time to love, a time to hate
A time for peace, I swear its not too late

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By the way, I started playing guitar way way back in 1965 out of my deep
interest in this wonderful thingy.

Since I have my free and spare time I decided to blog it, share whatever I
can about it and looking forward to learn more myself.

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Is it difficult to master the guitar?
What type of guitar should I buy first?
What should I learn first?…. so on, so forth.
How long does it take a beginner to play the guitar confidently and smoothly?

These are some common questions I usually get from wannabes.
Bless them.
*******************

My encouragement to them has always been that it is actually quite easy
to learn and play the guitar if one is really keen. With proper guidance, lots
of practice and determination he or she will be there one day for sure. I can
guarantee you that. As long as you don’t quit.

So, how good is good? one may ask when referring to playing the guitar.

How good that is, is left entirely to the liking and admiration of the listeners
at large. Never about how we smell ourselves.

The thing about being ‘good’ has all to do with one’s personal challenges
which will eventually lead to the development of individual styles and skills.

To be able to just enjoy playing the guitar to yourself or taking part playing
in some small sing-along groups is actually very easy. A couple of months of
consistent practices (sufficient guidance) should take you there.
Not much sweat.

Being able to play and blend well in a band or group is another and to be a pro
is yet another level.

In this modern time, (lucky you) the internet offers numerous great free
guitar lessons for beginner and intermediate players alike. As one progresses
(in whatever guitar style) it can only get easier and easier. You must possess
and maintain the “never-say-die” interest.

It will help tremendously if you could get few of your friends with similar
guitar playing interest to practice or play together once or twice a week.
Better still if someone with more experience is willing to join in.

If you could afford it, go take up some short 3 to 6 months guitar lessons for
some fundamental guitar techniques and later decide whether to continue
or go by your own.

During my sec school days back in 1965 (that’s really some years ago) I had
many wonderful and memorable years of guitar playing. It was a marvelous
and exciting era of the “60s’ teeny-poppers’. A time when music was going
in a direction that many were yet to really understand.

During those days the Beatles and Rolling Stones ruled the stage and music
scene so to say. We also have great bunch of guys like the Beach Boys, the
Animals, Manfred Mann, the Who, Hollies, the Byrds (to name a few) competing
the pop charts. Not forgetting icons like Elvis, Cliff Richard, Ricky Nelson,
Tom Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Simon and Art Garfunkel and the rest.

Later came Led Zepplin, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Uriah Heap, Pink Floyd,
Jetro tul, and the huge list went on.

Back then (from where I came from) Guitar playing was not a popular hobby.
Perhaps there was complete lack of encouragement around. For that matter,
music.

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As a 13 year boy, I was totally fascinated with guitar playing and especially
with the kind of sound it can produce apart from the inspiration from pop
and rock groups alike. I kept pestering my mum for a guitar and one fine day (1965)
I finally succeeded. 🙂

Bought my first (a nastily made Chinese model) so-called acoustic guitar the
following afternoon from a book shop (as there was no music store around)
and brought it home on a bicycle! Can you imagine that?

The “day one” thrill made me lose all my senses of touch and feel. It was
heaven really.

Actually, I got very disappointed with it only from day 2 because I realized
I bought a bad guitar! Very unplayable, high bridge height, very broad neck,
high frets, high string tension, in fact, everything was high including the
price 😦

Fortunately, my interest was so strong that I stuck with it for the first two
years as I could not afford another (more comfortable) one.

Problem was I went and bought in haste. There was simply no one I
knew back then who was experienced enough to advise and guide me. So,
as an extremely excited innocent wannabe with a budget, I went and happily
grabbed the cheapest guitar at the book store thinking that “a guitar is just
a guitar”. I was that naive. Turned out I bought a wrong guitar.

Anyway, and fortunately (due to my deep interest to learn that thingy) the
poor playability of my guitar didn’t stop me from practicing and learning.

I can vividly recall the only two cord positions I knew then was the simple
3 finger ‘C’ and ‘A’ minor at the lowest end of the frets. Using these basic
chords (C and A minor) to expand to more chords.

My favorite practice song was the ever famous “House Of The Rising Sun”
by the Animals. In fact, during that time, it was a popular pop song which
almost every beginner guitar player used for practicing or for showing others
that one can play some chords on a guitar.. he he.

Occasionally, I would observe other players closely and memorized as many
chords formation possible. Once in a while some kind souls shared what they
knew (though not always precise) but mostly are selfish. So, my first year of
learning didn’t get me anywhere at all.

Later, I had the opportunity of copying and sketching various chords from
pop song books that I borrowed. And with lots of practice, I improved.

To short a long story, I upgraded to electric the following year because I was
starting a Band. 🙂 Again, due to limited resources I settled for a black and
white Hofner. Couldn’t afford better ones like Fender, Rickenbacker or Gibson
made.

And for amps? I managed to have a friend constructed a cheap one for me
with exposed tubes sticking out like naked thumbs from an alluminium base
and with only three fat control knobs; volume, treble and bass. Period.

Somehow, managed with those for a year.

When I became more experienced a year later, I got a Fender Jaguar from a
close friend and bought a brand new Fender Twin Reverb (Blue tubes) amp
in 1968 to suit the pop styles I was playing and later when I switched to rock
styles in 1971 during my college days, I got myself a Fender Strat and a
half stack Marshall amp.

There are so much to recall and write but I am sure it is more than enough.

My biggest challenge I could remember was transiting from pop to rock
and heavy metal playing styles. From Beatles style to Rolling Stones, Led
Zepplin and Uriah Heep styles.

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Please feel free to share your experiences here.

These days I love playing country western and chicken picking.

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J O H N N Y – H I L A N D
Great picking

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Cheers.
Paul