94 replies to this topic

[Severian]

wishing I had a piano again. :(

 

This the longest I've gone without having an instrument ever. Gotta make it a priority to buy a guitar soon as I can afford it.

[Coopdog]

Trying pretty damn hard to get back on top of my guitars. This injury really stole a lot from me. 36 weeks of physical therapy, and finally some of the nerve connections are tying in again, and today I started occupational hand therapy to work on my fine motor skills and build some hand strength. The hand works now for making chords, but I fear I will never have my dexterity back at this point. Hand strength is slooooowly improving, but the difference from right after my surgery to now is not a whole lot. I can make some pretty chords, and might have to content myself with that. Been trying to commit The Allman Bros "Melissa" to muscle memory so I can learn to sing it. That is one I should have had in my pocket 38 years ago, but somehow had the impression it was about screwing Sweet Melissa over, and I didn't want to learn it for that reason. It's not a hard song to play so should come along fairly well once I get the chords in order. Losing my music was the hardest thing about this injury by far. 

[rockyfungus]

Jerry Garcia, Tonny Iommi, Django Reinhardt, and I'm sure many others. All had to relearn with what they were dealt. Maybe learn slide guitar?

Edited by rockyfungus, 30 August 2021 - 09:32 PM.

[Severian]

Trying pretty damn hard to get back on top of my guitars. This injury really stole a lot from me. 36 weeks of physical therapy, and finally some of the nerve connections are tying in again, and today I started occupational hand therapy to work on my fine motor skills and build some hand strength. The hand works now for making chords, but I fear I will never have my dexterity back at this point. Hand strength is slooooowly improving, but the difference from right after my surgery to now is not a whole lot. I can make some pretty chords, and might have to content myself with that. Been trying to commit The Allman Bros "Melissa" to muscle memory so I can learn to sing it. That is one I should have had in my pocket 38 years ago, but somehow had the impression it was about screwing Sweet Melissa over, and I didn't want to learn it for that reason. It's not a hard song to play so should come along fairly well once I get the chords in order. Losing my music was the hardest thing about this injury by far. 

 

Ahhhh. hearing about your injury pains me. I sympathize. I recently managed to somehow tweak some nerves in some form of entrapment in my left hand during excercising; it's the first real nerve injury I've ever had- far less serious than yours, but enough to relate. I hope you're physical therapy produces rapid results beyond your expectations.

[rockyfungus]

Wife instantly picked the drums up. I've put in 4x the effort and time and can't even get a basic drum beat down. Trying to be better then my younger self and at least figure out a basic 4/4 rhythm. Damn, guess my coordination rhythm hasn't improved much. In a month if no progress that's what a good dose can unlock IME.

[FLASHINGROOSTER]

haha man I would be the worst person to help another learn drums, can barely tune them myself. Something I have been kicking myself lately for ignoring practicing. When I started trying to play, I would listen to songs and try to drum with my headphones on. I remember someone gave me some sheets of basic drum beats and I think I tried to use them once, not my learning style. 

 

Then finally learning to play with a buddy was the big step. He played guitar and we tried basic beats like white stripes to get my feet wet. That's what really accelerated the whole thing

[Oldpunk]

Yo ROCKY!!!

Right hand tic your high hat 1 2 3 4 - 1 2 3 4

Kick drum on 1

Snare on 3

On the fourth time through hit the splash on 4

[rockyfungus]

Meg White and a few drummers are what I'm picturing. I like simple. All about it. Seven nation army is easy haven't played it since they stole that lick from every guitarist in the world LOL

Gladly put my guitar through my fuzz pedal (IIRC). 

[Direct Link]

[Direct Link]

Hah though these were easy. Then listened for a minute. Maybe Ringo Starr beats? 

 

Bro, that's all I've been doing for like 2 days. No splash. Just 4 count on hats,  kick on 1, snare on 3. 
Also tried 4 on hats, 1, 3 kick, 2,4 snare. 

Just classic jazz setup for now. I'm going to just ummm work on bass once my wife can get a few more beats. Shit is humbling. 
This shit goes back to teachers at a young age avoiding rhythm, not forcing me to use a metronome. Playing with a drummer always helped. For albums guitarist recorded some of my bass parts because click track messed me up. 

Ughh, keep at it and I'll get it. 

 

Polyrhythms on guitar is where my mind just melts too. I've been focusing on rhythm guitar more now. I played bass and lead for the rhythm guitarist. My bud was pure rhythm and I always taught him licks/leads. He couldn't get me to hold any steady rhythms on guitar and would get pissed. So we looped me lol

Edited by rockyfungus, 31 August 2021 - 08:29 PM.

[FLASHINGROOSTER]

I think most people would be hard pressed to actually play with a metronome. I remember watching a documentary about Dave Grohl and I think it was the never mind album, saying he was embarrassed that he couldn't play with the metronome, but when it clicked it really helped things out

[GORF]

Almost 20 years with saxophone mostly and trombone too. Can kick around a keyboard in basic blues scale jams and rock a country bass line. Just never mastered any of it. FIL was a drummer and I can lay a basic beat now too, just never seemed to have time to do it up right. Needed to pay rent and car and eat. Eating was important. I like eating.

Otherwise, I now spin on a couple of old-school Panasonic DJ disc players. Loop samples and other audio effects. And again, I dabble. Not a master of anything, just good friends with'em all.

[xXHeathenXx]

Wow man that is a very nice guitar brother. I am so damn pleased you have stuck with playing! I can't tell you how much positivity that will bring to the entire rest of your life if you stick with it man. It's the music that is the best gift I have ever given myself. Remember last time we visited I had been playing daily for a long time, well I still do, although my level of skill somehow doesn't seem to reflect that lol. I wish it did, but maybe we are our own biggest critics.

I have expanded my skill set to include 3,6,12 string guitars, Mandolin, Ukelele, Bass and even some violin lol. The thing about that is they all tune differently so each one has it's own learning curve. It keeps me from getting stagnated with one or the other.

I would sure like to hook up again sometime soon bro. I will never be a Pro, but I accept that and have fun with what I can work out. If I find myself down and bummed, learning a new song always seems to make life better. I had to find something to do with myself after I quit smoking and growing and guitar just kinda became that. It's a daily routine for me, and I am still strumming that same Ibanez $200 12 string 80% of the time. Not sure I can find a pic of it on here, but I will try! :)

You heard and saw my favorite one that day. I have gone out to buy a $2-3,000 guitar a few times, but cannot seem to equal the beautiful tone of that $200 guitar. Until I DO I will keep it. Here;s a picture of the beautiful Mandolin I got a while back, and my 3 12 strings and my favorite 6 string, which is an old school Dean B. Zelinda before he sold the company and it became just Dean guitars. My favorite players here.

I tell my wife I need three different 12 strings because I break so many strings retuning between the 4-5 different tunings lol. So by that line of thought I still need 2-3 more! :) Glad to see you are still at it brother.

Check out the new schecter guitars. I'm 41 and I've been playing since I was 12 or 13. I've had dozens of elec guitars and even a 2k $ kirk hammet signature series. But the schecter I had was my favorite!! The sound and easy playability is unmatched by any guitar I've played man.

[Coopdog]

Heathen, I love Schecter guitars, and the Keisel guitars that branched off from them. Very well made and beautiful guitars. My brother is a big fan of the Schecters. Haven't actually played any of the Jeff Keisel guitars but I follow them online because their stuff is just so damn pretty looking. Always felt that Gibson's are almost homely by comparison. If ever I go out and buy a high end guitar it will be an Emerald carbon fiber 12 string. If you have not heard of Emerald guitars, look them up. They have a very unique look and tone to them that somehow just dovetails with what I love in a guitar. 

[pokemania]

i'm playing an mpc live II and having a fun time at it.

[Oldpunk]

Sweet!!
I've got a MPK mini keyboard with 8 pads but I've never figured out how to get them set up the way I want. Currently been lacking musical motivation or spare time. I like the MPC standalone factor. Having to go midi to my computer to change sounds gets me confused.

[pokemania]

I sort of went in on the standalone, which is nice for brewing on the couch in the strange am hours, but there is a lot of friendly interaction with mpc beats, like being able to load up vsts that aren't where they'll work on standalone, or effects/eq.  Honestly, after enjoying working with it connected to the laptop, I would sort of have wanted to look into the mpc studio to start on rather than one of the standalone models.  It's nice, but tethered is probably just about as good.

 

(edit): also, that touch strip looks like fun!

Edited by pokemania, 07 June 2022 - 10:13 PM.