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Try No Doubt and Barenaked Ladies for ska.  Punk is something I don't have much use for either (sorry Ken if you are lurking). 

- Zurf

Well here's the thing about music - the music that endures tends to be pretty good.  When we hear 70's music now, it's Neil Young and the Alman Brothers and Jimmy Buffett and some really good stuff.  But if you had a radio in the 70's, you were a whole lot more likely to hear Lips Inc. or Bee Gees (but only post Staying Alive, none of their good early stuff like Trafalgar).  I think the same with the 80's.  All I remember from the 80's is hair bands (they weren't originals or revolutionary, they were expansions on Van Halen which is a 70's band and that was a modernization of Louis Prima's act limited to four power chords) and a pop apocalypse of The Bangles and Oingo Boingo and Banarama and the Thompson Twins.  That was all Blues chords with electronic drums, sort of the unholy love child of blues and disco (God save us all).  But you're right, there is some 80's music that has endured and it's pretty good. 

If you want the modern music revolution, you can get it with Indie groups.  The internet has freed music from the tyranny of the studios - but not the radio stations.  The radio stations don't play good stuff.  Turn to Pandora.  Send me you're e-mail address back-channel and I'll send you a terrific station of mostly modern EXCELLENT music.  Todd Snider and Old Crow Medicine Show and Dirt Road Truckers and Guy Clark and others.  Good stuff.   Edit to add: Cross Canadian Ragweed.  If there's a decent follow-on to the Grateful Dead, they're it.  I know, I know, Phish.  Yes, they've stood in the gap.  But CCR (not THAT CCR, the new one) is ... is...  well, just give them a listen. 

Pete - get with the program.  Ska is a repeat of big band music with electric instruments.  It's great stuff.  I'll join you in the anti-Rap room, though, and drink a toast to The Outlaws with you.  Maybe some time I'll have to tell you the story of how liking The Outlaws kept my brother-in-law and I from getting shot. 

- Zurf

If you are 18 and just beginning to experience life more fully as an adult, it is absolutely normal for your tastes to change. 

Also, most modern Country and all current pop stinks.  So it's good that you recognize that.  However, all Country is not bad.  Good country just doesn't get much air play.  Except Brad Paisley, it seems.  Why Kenny Chesney and other artists who have good songs can't get THOSE on the radio, I don't know.  Anyway, there's terrific country out there, but it's called "Alt Country" or "Americana".  Why it is "alt" when it's far closer to the real roots of Country than the pop-ish trash that gets air play, I have no idea.  All that off-key screeching is horrendous.  Check out "Old Crow Medicine Show" and "Zak Brown Band" for starters. 

Now, Classical is amazing so it's good that you are learning to enjoy it.  If you like Classical, you may also want to check out some classically trained jazz artists.  George Benson, Al Jerau (not spelled correctly, pronounced Jerr-oh) and some others. 

80's music stinks out loud.  Avoid it at all costs.  There were a few redeeming acts (REM and U2 and other "moan rock" bands come to mind), but there's a ton of bands that were duplicates of one another.  Poison, Ratt, Guns'n'Roses.  I think they were actually all the same people with different wigs and makeup. 

Folk is where it's at.  You're going to hear some outrageous acoustic guitar being played.  I could put names here, but it seems that the best pickers don't make it huge.  Check out local music scenes when you can.  That's where you're going to hear some guys that keep day jobs but like getting out for gigs.  They're going to play things you've never heard and will make your jaw drop.  There's a guy in my area who was doing a gig with his girlfriend, who had been gigging professionally for 16 years, so she was no slouch.  He was playing a song that got faster each go 'round.  She was playing rhythm guitar and eventually just had to drop out because she couldn't keep up, and he started playing the rhythm part TOO.  As in IN ADDITION TO THE LEAD AND SINGING.  Yeah.  There's some hot folk pickers out there. 

But if you want to hear the most amazing pickers I've heard, not folks just doing arpeggios really fast really far up the neck, but real amazing pickers, then go hear some live Bluegrass.  If you can't get out for some live Bluegrass, then check out Doc Watson and Ricky Scaggs.   Ricky Scaggs started his professional musical career at six years old because a producer heard him playing mandolin backstage and he was outplaying the stars.  Doc Watson and Ricky Scaggs will throw out some flat-picking licks that will have you rewinding the video to try and count the notes played per second.  And their hands barely seem to move. 

Edit to add: Here's Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, and Ricky Scaggs all on the same stage more or less jamming.  They don't get really rolling on this one, but it's an example of the sort of quality musicianship you can hear in a lot of Bluegrass.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxiligIJ … re=related

- Zurf

Yes.  Unfortunately, that was my one and only time in Seattle, so my likelihood of buying his CD is slim and none.  He was an amazing musician, I remember that much.  He really rocked. 

There were two other guys busking guitar, banjo, harmonica and vocals on the stairwell outside the second level I think.  (It's a big landing with enough room).  Those guys were jamming on some good bluegrass fingerpick stuff. 

I'm not much for cities, so we only stayed in Seattle for a few hours.  We took in the aquairium (incredible) and Pike Place Market (most excellently cool).  There was a LOT of live music all over the place.  I was wishing that I had more cash in my pocket to drop in the kitty. 

But we quickly tired of the city and headed north to the Cascades for a few days of hiking and then over to Yakima Valley for a few days of wine tours. 

- Zurf

You can convert about any song to the right key, so long as it is in the right feel. 

The only other song I know in Am is "Ain't No Sunshine", but I think you could probably work Neil Diamond's "Solitary Man" into it which makes heavy use of Em and Am. 

- Zurf

My practice life has been slight lately.  I sometimes squeeze in a few songs per day.  When life is less hectic, I like to practice at least 1/2 hour per day and then play for however long I feel like.  In practice time, I split it half and half between something new I am working on and something that I have recently learned but have not yet incorporated to playing.  Right now my goal is to learn scales.  I will likely spend more than fifteen minutes per day on those.  Most recently I practiced bass runs using full chords, like C - C/B - Am7 - G  Or G - G/F# - E and things like that.  I don't really know the chord names of what I played.

I differentiate between practice and playing.  Sometimes, if you really study and work on particular transitions and stuff, playing a song can be practice, but practicing remains different from just playing through no matter how badly.  That's my opinion anyway. 

- Zurf

Get a bone saddle, and when you're shaping it and filing it down just file it down a little less.   You'll get the exact height you desire and a bone saddle to boot. 

I should note that I know next to nothing about making adjustments to a guitar.  Right or wrong, that's just what I would do. 

- Zurf

Well that story wasn't nearly as titillating as it promised to be. 

Speaking of broken things... Upon reaching the end of a hike to a waterfall, a buddy decided to rock hop through the stream and to the edge where you can see the water fall down to the stream below.  I wasn't sure about it, and he encouraged me to go anyway.  So then a five year old kid hopped the rock and I had to do it.  I slip, smacked my shin on the rock and fell face down on the large rock (boulder really) that I was supposed to land on.  I scrambled up and did make it to the edge, which was pretty.  After sitting still for a while, the leg began to hurt more, but I figured it was just a scrape.  So we hiked back out.  Then I proceeded to play tennis three times per week for the next two weeks.  At the end of the third match on the second week, my tennis partner and I went back to my apartment for some cold waters and a little relaxation.  My wife was there and we were all catching up and having a nice time when I said, "You know, usually a smack like I took on that rock would feel better by now, but it's actually hurting worse than ever."  So my tennis partner, a veterinarian, runs her hand over the contusion and frowns at me.  "You idiot.  That leg is broken, and now you've waited long enough that it's infected too.  Get to a people doctor."  My wife was laughing at her stubborn husband for hiking and playing tennis on a broken leg.  So the people doctor asked why I came in after two weeks, and I told her about my vet friend.  The people doctor laughed and said, "Well, vets know legs.  Their patients have a lot of them.  Let's take a look."  She took an X-ray and confirmed my tennis partner's diagnosis - my shin was cracked lengthwise and it was infected.  I got a soft cast, some antibiotics, and a cane to use for the next four weeks, along with instructions not to play any more tennis matches on a broken leg.  All that because I couldn't make a jump that a five year old did with confidence.  The good news is that now I can tell you when a low front is coming three days in advance. 

- Zurf

If you figure it out, you're doing better than me.  Good luck with it.

Oh, that is so cool.  My nine year old paddled out in a kayak on her own over the weekend, but I had to go rescue her from the wind.  I didn't encourage her or anything.  She said, "I want to paddle," so I rigged her up with a life jacket and a paddle and kayak and let her go.  Going out she did great, she got turned on her own, but the wind kept blowing her coming back so she couldn't steer.  A guy on shore let me borrow his kayak to go fetch her.   It's so great when we get to share our hobbies and interests with our kids. 

- Zurf