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Greetings Active Melody Community!
I am still trying to catch my breathe from consolidating all the awesome challenge submissions! You guys rock! I am so proud of you all for taking the plunge, accepting the challenge, and sharing your playing with the group. It helps all of us learn more and become better players.
I had an interesting weekend. Of late, I have been religiously attending a weekly Saturday blues jam in a quest to continue to improve my playing and get out of my comfort zone of playing at home. I have met many local musicians that have been extremely supportive and encouraging over the last 8 months.
So this Saturday one of the local musicians brings in one of his friends (who is legally blind) and his friend’s original 1951 Fender Nocaster to the jam. If you want to read up more on the Nocaster and why they are so rare see this article. Apparently, the Nocaster belonged to the visually impaired gentleman’s grandfather and now he has it. Although, he doesn’t play guitar himself, he let anyone who bought him a pint play it that night. I did not get a chance to play it on stage but I did off stage briefly and I have never played a better playing guitar in my life. I thought I understood the expression it “played like butter” but apparently not until I played that guitar. It practically played itself. It sounded phenomenal as well. (They are only a measly $35,000 – $65,000 USD since less than 500 were made. @gnlguy: Can you float me a loan?) Here is a picture of it:
This was also the first time that my wife and daughter have seen me play outside of the house. She was able to take a video of me playing. After my set, I got to own the dance floor with my 5 year old daughter. It was fun.
And as luck would have it, my friend Richard who used to run the Saturday jam had a last minute gig at a local dive bar (and I mean D-I-V-E bar) and invited me on Sunday night to play a set with his bar band. I knew none of the songs but they kept them simple for me. And although I made mistakes, the 4 people in the audience did not seem to mind. He kept throwing solos at me throughout the set. Sometimes two a song! We did a lot of country which is not my wheelhouse but I hung ok (sliding the minor pentatonic scale down 3 frets to major = my country solos). The last song of the set was the blues song Linda Lou. We have previously played it together. Richard and I just had plain fun trading solos and making up for lost time since we have not played together in the last 6 months. I recorded this on my phone. At 4:20 we start trading licks.
https://soundcloud.com/bryce-akguitar/3-way-split-jam-with-richard/s-taLrt
My point of sharing this with all of you is, if jamming with others is your goal. Make it happen. Take baby steps to doing it. If you go to jams, even if just to watch, introduce yourself to people. It is easy as going up and saying, “How is it going? I am <Insert Your Name>.” You might meet other people that want to jam but are not ready for the stage. You guys can work on stuff together THEN take it to a jam together. I am blown away by the sheer number of people I have met this last 8 months doing that. Then I start seeing the same faces at different jams, concerts, etc. Then one day you get a phone call and end up at an impromptu jam session with a friend at a dive bar.
I hope you are all well and making progress on your journey! Happy Picking!
-Bryce
Anchorage, Alaska -
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That was great viewing and listening, when I took up guitar this time round I was quite happy to just think about learning a few tunes and singing some songs, I am glad you guys & girls here on A.M. side tracked me…cos “I want to be doing that”.
Superb stuff Bryce, oh yeah. and I did read someone saying that a mistake when playing guitar is only a mistake if you do it the once…
..Billy..
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@Bryce-akguitar, I’m impressed with everything about this adventure of yours but what really impressed me was the well crafted structure of your longer solos. Your progress is amazing.
John -
Hi Bryce, that was really great! Way to go, man! It’s so delightful when things like the Nocaster situation happen. Man! Oh! Man! Were you lucky there…just to see the photo was exciting. I’m happy for you.
You played great on “Caledonia”! I haven’t made the time to listen to the other one yet, but I will.
Thanks for sharing!
Don D.
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Very good jam, Bryce. Well done
Very interesting too to hear about the Nocaster. I am fascinated by old guitars and how opinions differ about how good the good ones are compared to modern versions. In the 1990s I bought a 1965 Fender Jazzmaster, which is really sweet, has a lovely neck and plays beautifully. The sound to my ears is a bit like a warmer and more mellow Strat.
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Congratulations my friend, awesome stuff…..are you ready for the big time? NOthing like playing live, your playing has progressed significantly…very happy for you!!
Roberto
Roberto
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