Amish Guitar

I thought I'd share a bit about what I did with my dad on Father's day and how near tragedy brought us closer together.

I had no idea what to do for dad on FD and decided to really go out of my comfort zone. Dad loves horses. He raises Belgian draft horses just for the fun of it. So I decided to take dad to a place where we could "rent-a-horse" and go for a ride.

Now, understand that I do not like horses. Getting up that high on something that can buck you off and kill you is not my idea of a good time. But dad was pretty excited when I suggested it so I knew I had painted myself into a corner.

We got to the place and paid our money. I just hoped the beast I got was a tame and gentle killer. Little did I know it wasn't my animal that I needed to worry about. We got going at good pace when it happened--dad slipped out of his saddle and got his foot caught in the stirrup. This, of course, spooked his horse and she just took off. I was helpless as I watched my 62 (63?) year old father being pulled along by this powerful beast. No matter how much I tried I could not get my horse to go any faster and catch up. I just chased after him and hoped for the best.

I had no idea what to do. My heart was in my throat and I started tearing up a bit. Dad was screaming for me to help him while flailing around to catch the saddle horn. I've never felt so helpless.

Luckily, the manager from the K-Mart came out for a smoke and saw us. He unplugged the machine and told us we were to old for this kind of crap and to "get the hell away from [his] store." I got dad's foot untangled and we went to Applebee's.

And that's how I spent Father's Day with my dad.

I've been back from the family reunion for almost a week now and I did want to take some time to write about it. My brother in law and I did finally find some time to jam. I'm the one with the acoustic, naturally. We were playing a diddy I call Caitlyn Starlight with is nothing more than a chord progression that I like to play:


G D C (x2)
G D Em Am
Em C D
Am7 Em
Am C D

Of course it means little with out the rhythm, but it's one that I've noticed people start bouncing their heads to when I play it. So, I started playing it and BIL started playing a melody. I was impressed. He told me that what he was playing was variations on the Gm pentatonic scale, which is the scale I mentioned in my previous post. It was quite cool.

I had never paid much attention to all the different modes of scales except for the Major and Minor scales of course. Turns out that a lot of melody, riffs and blues played on guitar is based on the minor pentatonic scales. BIL took the time to show me what he was doing and it seemed to me to be such a simple shape. I can't really explain how it works in written words, so I'm going to let the guys at rockongoodpeople explain it better:



Just a plug here for the guys at rockongoodpeople. They have over 350 videos on youtube for guitar instruction--mostly samples from their commercial products they self produce and sell at www.nextlevelguitar.com. I've not ever bought one of their pay products, but they share a wealth of information in their free videos. One reason I like their videos so much compared to other "instructional videos" on youtube is they teach while so many others just "show." Check 'em out.

Video embedded with permission from rockongoodpeople.

I have really been neglecting AmishGuitar lately. I've not had too much to say, to tell the truth. Real life has kind of taken over the last few months. I haven't really had any new experiences with the guit-fiddle to write about, or tried something new to report on. In fact, I've not had much time or reason to get the blasted thing out of it's case for much more than a quick noodle in what seems like forever.

Right now I'm writing from a family reunion to which I was able to bring my guitar. My brother in law had said he'd bring his out as well, but much to my surprise he brought an electric and a small amp. His is a Yamaha Pacifica and a Roland Micro Cube amp.

Now, I've always eschewed the electric and written about the simple pleasure of the acoustic. But. Me likey. I'm not a loud, in your face, heavy metal slasher type guy, so I've always said to myself that I'd have no interest in an electric, but I was very surprised to find out how much I enjoyed playing it. I still don't like a lot of distortion, but it was a pretty sweet sound that I was able to produce from that tiny amp. Don't think I'll be getting one anytime soon, but it's nice to know I am no longer afraid of the idea.

My BIL and I haven't had much time to play together. We brought our instruments only to learn that we're at very different levels of skill (he's been playing for, what, 15 years?) and I don't know a lot of the songs and artists that he knows. But we've had time to chat about guitars and playing and that's been nice. He did a really nice blues riff and I noticed that he was just playing a scale on the 5 and 7 fret. I'm hoping we have time that he can show me what he was doing, but the house is VERY busy most of the time.

I'm hoping that real life will settle down soon.

Well, it's been a long week in the AmishGuitar household. I've been recovering from a nasty head and chest cold and have just realized I didn't post a guitar lesson for this month. I'm afraid, dear readers, that this week the lesson must give way to my pounding sinuses. One is either very clever or not clever at all when one is taking NyQuil.

I did get my Yamaha back from the luthier and the results are . . . adequate. He was able to adjust the neck angle with a truss rod adjustment. He lowered the saddle and tried to lower the nut but cutting the grooves. This, however, proved to be problematic since the nut just disintegrated when he took the file to the plastic. Luckily he had salvaged a nut from a Taylor that fit almost perfectly, so he did not have to construct a brand new nut from bone for me (that would have been $$$ I did not have). He did say that he would not be able to lower the saddle any more than it is now, so any future adjustments would mean a neck reset. That, of course, has already been ruled out as being too expensive for this instrument.

It plays well enough, I suppose. I do find that it is better at fingerpicking that strumming. Fingerpicking brings out the bell like tones, but strumming just sounds all muddled. The action is real easy now at the first few frets, so the kids have been having fun playing around with it.

I've not had much opportunity to play lately. That is, I haven't felt like playing. I haven't been to church for a month now, owing to many factors that are beyond the scope of this blog. Home has been hectic as my wife recovers from her illness (she's healing fine). Frankly, I feel too worn out by the end of the day to do anything but veg out. And then, of course, I've been sick these past few days.

No matter, this too shall pass. I do plan on being at church on Sunday and be in the praise team. That always seems to get my mojo going again.

It has been a long week. An incredibly long week. I've spent the past 10 days taking care of house and home by myself as my wife recovers in hospital from a sudden illness. Well, lets say a lingering illness that suddenly got worse. At any rate, it's been a long week.

Tonight, however, and with my wife's blessing, I spent the evening with a friend playing guitar and cracking wise. My in-laws came to town and, naturally, they wanted to see their daughter at the hospital. Quite honestly, I was pleased for the break. My parents took the kids for the evening leaving me free to spend time with Doug.

Doug and I have been trying to get together to play for over a year now. Just never seemed to work out. As it was, I couldn't have asked for a nicer time. We sat in his kitchen playing songs, drinking beverages (him:beer, me: Diet. Dr. Pepper--but I really wanted a beer--damn low carb diet) and just generally catching up with each other. It isn't often he gets an evening away from his family either, but his daughter had a swim meet in Indianapolis and he couldn't get away from work obligations.

It was a good mix. I can't play to his level and he can't sing to mine, so we either sounded great or we sounded like crap. But we had fun.

And I feel so much better.

I'm sitting in my cousin's den, stuffed to the gills with turkey and gravy and faux-tatoes. I've much to be thankful for. My health, my weight loss, my wife and kids and my extended family are at the top.

However, I was just served an unexpected compliment that I am also quite thankful for--especially given my recent musical angst.

About 10 minutes ago, my cousin's son (a moody 17 year old) walked up and asked, "Did you bring your guitar?"

No, said I. I didn't want to annoy anyone.

"But it was cool when you played at camp out," he said.

Are you funnin' with me? I asked.

"No! I liked it. Bring it to Christmas."

And then he sulked off.

And I'm walking on Cloud Nine.

*edited to correct spelling. Gravey?

Fall has gripped my little slice of Northern Indiana with a beautiful weekend and mild temperatures. I wish I had time to enjoy it. It frightens me how quickly this year has passed by and can scarce believe October is around the corner. Cross country meets, church business, work, homework, housework, diet, exercise, family obligations, money, money, money. It's all taking a toll. Well, that sounds rather drastic. I'm just feeling pulled a hundred different ways and none in the direction I want to go.

One of the things shoved to the side by these bulldozing aspects of modern day life has been time spent with my guitar. I just haven't had the time to really play. I get a few moments at work with Patrick, but precious little at home with Jane. I look back at my calendar and I have had meetings or work every evening for the last three weeks. When I get home, I'd rather spend time with my kids and wife. Silly me.

Tonight I got out Jane, sat by an open window and played to my heart's content. I asked my youngest daughter to choose a song book for me from the piano room. She brought me two books of Broadway tunes. Hmmmm.... it had been awhile since I cracked those two volumes. They were too advanced for my skills at the time, about 6 months ago. But, I was in a good mood for a challenge and jumped in. Now, most tunes I don't even know, and the ones I do know are still too advanced with keys in sharps and flats. Sorry, I don't have the Bbm7add9 fingering down yet.

Still, two songs that I found impossible 6 months ago seemed very easy tonight. The first was Memory from Cats. I've written about this before, but this arrangement is much more challenging than that. The second was Try to Remember from The Fantasticks. Not a difficult song in terms of chords, but I could never get the rhythm before (plus I struggled on a few of Major7 chords). Both were so much fun! And my evening was so relaxing. Just me, sitting by the bay window as the sun set.

Ah, summer's end and autumn's birth in Northern Indiana. It is my favorite season. I want time to slow down so I can enjoy it like this as long as I can.

When you buy an accessory for your guitar or music making, either tell your significant other before you purchase or don't say anything about it afterward. Especially when you've recently told your significant other that the family is cash poor.

I've just returned from another weekend long campout/family reunion at my parent's farm This time around it was my father's side of the family. And, like last time, I took my guitar with me to noodle on. Now, dad's side is not anything like my mom's side. I love them dearly, but I never really feel like I fit in while growing up. It is a sports oriented family and I just didn't know how to relate to them. While they played sports, I read books and did my own thing. Now that I'm adult, it isn't so bad.

But vestiges remain.

I spent some time just noodling around, trying to find a chord progression that could be adapted for a song on my mind. I had several of my cousins and their offspring sit and listen or ask questions that were kind of cool. But I also had people shooting off their mouths "Don't you know how to play anything?" "That's not how that goes!" "Play Stairway!" I was just waiting for someone to shout "Freebird." I had one uncle walk up to me and say "I used to wish I could sing, but now I pray you don't." Nice. He's also the one who said "you ain't no Roy Clark, but you sure is as big as him." Nice again. At least that's what I think he said. He didn't have his teeth in at the time. I found it all quite frustrating.

In the end, however, I did my own thing, like I always do, and that's just fine. I was heartened when one of my cousin's children asked me to get my guitar out. She said "Why aren't you playing? I like to hear you play." Now that was nice

A few weeks ago I blogged about wanting a new beach guitar as my current 2nd guitar was so horrible. It had high action, hard to keep in tune, poor intonation down the neck and so on. Well, an honest look at the family finances made it pretty clear that a new guitar was out of the question. I did decide to have a local luthier give it a proper set up. Wow. I now have a guitar in my office instead of a guitar like thing. The luthier adjusted the truss rod to correct the neck relief, then sanded down the saddle to lower the action. The result is a guitar that plays easy, has very tolerable intonation (my ear can still hear slight problems) and very good tone. I am quite pleased. In fact, I'm pleased enough that the kids and I decided that this guitar deserves a name. Instead of having the OTHER guitar at work, I now have Patrick hanging on my wall.

I've been able to sit outside on the front porch and noodle away the evening. In fact, that sparked a little conflict with my oldest child. He is approaching his teen age years when everything his parents do is specifically designed to embarrass him. He was so afraid someone might hear me play that he threw a small tantrum. I just giggled at him when he glared through screen door. When I started singing along to my playing, he slammed the door. I am just twisted enough to have enjoyed his embarrassment.

Beyond that, I really don't have much more to write about. I'm still feeling quite comfortable where my skills are at this point. I've not played in church for the past few weeks as I've done other duties during the worship service. I am thinking of setting one of my favorite passages of scripture to song, Psalms 13. But, I'm gonna have to think about it for a long time.

PS. For those who might be interested, Patrick is an Oscar Schmidt OF2 Folk guitar.

Yeah, I haven't had much to say lately. That's not to say I haven't been thinking of what I might write. Truth is, life has been busy around the old Amish Guitar homestead. Daughter number one has started playing alto sax, son has started training for Jr. High cross country. Daughter number 2 is off for the week at camp.

Me? I've been playing, but nothing has happened worth noting. I'm still quite happy with my progress this summer. It's quite remarkable how far this obsession has brought me. Usally I go through my interests with blazing intensity then leave before the coals cool to ash. But, guitar has found a home.

Here's to more summer evenings playing guitar on the front porch sipping lemonade or, better yet, a nice microbrew.

I spent the weekend at mom and dad's farm where mom's extended family held their annual camp out. We've been doing this for nearly thirty years. We tried camping at a campground once, but somehow it moved to mom and dad's sizable yard. This year there were 47 relatives and 5 generations (if you count my late grandparents as the first, which we all do). Sadly, mom and dad are downsizing, selling the farm and moving on a smaller plot of land in their front meadow. So, this was the last reunion at my homestead.

This is also the first year I dared to bring my guitar. My mom's family is very musical. And can be very critical. It is a joy to sing with my family, but I also know what it is to sit through their criticism. It is a family I don't always feel like I fit in. But that would be a subject for another blog. I wasn't sure I wanted to take my guitar because I wasn't sure I wanted to put myself out there for judgement.

In the end, I decided to take along my guitar. If it wasn't well received, I would just play for myself and forget the rest of them. But, to my delight it was very welcome. I played quietly as everyone visited and conversed. Just noodled, or strumed a few simple songs. Afterwards several cousins came to tell me they appreciated my music as a kind of background to the relaxed evening.

Today, then, after the big family meal, we had a traditional hymn sing. My mother wanted the song "They will know we are christians." To my surprise everyone called me out to get my guitar. It is a song I do know how to play, and play well if I may say so. Unfortunately, I had decided to leave my instrument at home for the day (we live down the road and usually don't actually camp--give me a queen size bed any night). So I couldn't oblige. But it felt good to have my family, who I know to be musically discriminating, clamor for me to get out the guitar. It was another kind of affirmation--the best kind--the one you aren't looking for.