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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by Zurf
True enough Ken. But on the one hand, you're endeavoring to take on a challenge to the nature of people you haven't even met, and expecting them to know things about a site they've just entered. On the other hand, you're recognizing that they're out there and using your experience in what they're going to do to be prepared for them and making them feel welcomed in Chordie, which I like to think of as a really, really big living room full of friends (including some we haven't met yet).
- Zurf
Portugal sounds like Virginia in the U.S. I can remember when we had unseasonably long warm spells because of El Nino. I was cutting the grass at my house, while my neighbor across the street was decorating for Christmas. Summer lasted all the way into early December that year. And I remember how good the fishing was too. I went fishing New Year's Day that year, and had no trouble with my kayak, though some of the side creeks were frozen.
- Zurf
I pumped it out the back window of my house. Literally. Two weeks into summer vacation, after our first of what was to be many long weekends away having fun, our house was flooded by faulty plumbing. We have been remodeling since, and probably will be through the Fall as well.
- Zurf
There is no monetary compensation to account for what he's lost and to what he's been subjected. There is one thing that can help, and help quite a lot. And that is an apology. In this case, an apology will probably be as valuable to Tater as compensation he receives. And he'd better receive quite a lot. The way the government is throwing money around these days, a whole big sackful of it ought to land on his feet. I'd never complain once if he got enough tax money to leave the house each morning with a wad big enough to choke a horse and come home each night with empty pockets, just to do it again the next day, even if he lived to be 1,000.
In the meanwhile, I am eager to see the news that he has taken his first breath of fresh, free air under the sun. I just hope that he can stay free of his slavery to booze that you mentioned earlier. Freedom is freedom, and it will be far more valuable to him than any of us who haven't been behind bars can imagine.
- Zurf
Way to go. They say that Grandma Moses was 80 when she started playing harmonica. No, wait, that wasn't it...
Anyway, it's a fun instrument. Mine have been sitting idle for a long time, but I've got some goals on guitar I want to reach and then there's this fiddle that has been pestering me. I'll get back to them some day.
- Zurf
Not here. Not with good sound. I can sing with pretty good volume, and that will have to do.
- Zurf
If you don't have the resources page or the sticky, then you can't reference anyone to it. Sometimes the value isn't in avoiding the question, but in having an answer prepared for the question before it's asked. In that way, a sticky may be valuable even if no one reads it until having asked the question and being referenced to it.
- Zurf
So, a condenser mic for my guitar. How about my voice? Would I also use a condenser mic for my voice? As I understand it, condenser mics are highly directional and dynamic mics pick up noise from a broad area. If so, then I'd think a condenser mic for my voice too, or it will pick up as much of the guitar as the guitar mic would.
Thanks for the answers so far. Very helpful.
- Zurf
What kind of microphone would I use if I wanted to just mic it instead of plugging it in? There are so many different kinds. Imagine me on a barstool (real stretch huh?) with a guitar and an amp that has a couple plugs/channels. If I wanted to mic my voice and another mic on my guitar, and try to keep them fairly separate, what mics would I use?
Is this the right place, or should it be in one of the other forums? Hard to say. It's here. If it needs to be moved, sorry.
- Zurf
So I was messing around last night at Guitar Center, having fun with different guitars. I had played them before and thought they were kind of nice, but now that I'm actually beginning to know what to expect from a guitar and how to make pretty noises with one occaisionally, I played one again and couldn't believe my ears!
One what?
A Seagull S6.
$399 (available at the Guitar Center sale now at that price, and no I do not have any association with Guitar Center beyond being a rare customer). Amazing sounding guitar for $399 (American, that is).
But, it doesn't have a pickup and the action is just a skooch high, and I want my next guitar to be an acoustic/electric with fairly low action. Now, I know the action can be adjusted by any skilled guitar tech, but what about the pickup. I know there are soundhole pickups and piezo pickups, and Detman101 even rigged something out of bubble gum and bailing wire that works well. But I was wondering about how hard it is to put in something like a Fishman pre-amp with tuner.
Any ideas?
- Zurf
I thought this was a site for musicians.
I'm an amateur musician.
- Zurf
When I was 16 or so, I was playing upright bass professionally in a playhouse orchestra. I was trying to decide what to do with my life, or at least what to learn in college. It was down to a career in music or a career in business. After a few cast parties and wrap parties, where I saw people in their 30s and 40s getting totally hammered, snorting cocaine, smoking pot to the point of complete indolence, I decided perhaps business was a better way for me. I enjoy taking a drink, but not being around people who are hammered frequently. Despite my previous comments in this thread, perhaps there is something that desires the wild and uncontrolled experience of life in performance artists such as musicians and actors.
- Zurf
SongsforSarah - That's just the way I did it! Between 18 years old and 40 years old, I picked up guitar and put it away I can't tell you how many times. I can't tell you how many videos and books and instructional CD's I bought over the years, but I've got more money spent on those than I have on guitars (how sad is that - and I have four guitars now and have given at least that many away over the years when others expressed an interest during my not so interested periods).
So, yeah, I know right where you're coming from.
I can't say whether it will help you or not, but what helped me is having a goal. When we were dating, my girlfriend asked me to serenade her. Back then I played tuba and trombone. So, um, I didn't actually know any lyrics. At all. Well, last year we celebrated our 20th anniversary. So, at about 18 years into it I started to learn a song to play for her as a serenade on our 20th anniversary. I identified each chord change D to G, G to D, G to A, A to D, E7 to E, E to A, A to A7, A7 to D. I started by learning those chords so that I could go straight to them from my fingers off the strings and relaxed. D! Relax. D! Relax. D! Relax. Do this about 100 times in a row. Then G! Relax. G! Relax. Of course at the start it was more like, well OK the middle finger goes here and then, no wait, I think, hmmmmm, where's the picture, ok, here, then g. Soon it was G! So and so forth for each chord. Then I worked on the transitions. Then I worked on the transitions with a steady 1, 2, 3, 4 strumming just down strokes. Then I worked on singing the song while just doing downstrokes on 1, 2, 3, 4 and going smoothly to the chords. Then finally I started learning bass note and alternating bass notes strumming and including upstrokes.
This way, by knocking it down into the very smallest pieces, I could hear and feel progress on a day to day basis. Because each day, all I worked on was a very, very small thing. By the time of our anniversary, I was playing the song so often and confidently that my wife had heard it a million times and so I had to pick a different song to play. By then, it was easy to play almost any Country song in G or D or A. I like Country music. I had also learned some finger picking patterns to make things bouncy and fun.
Then, after two years of preparations, on our 20th anniversary I had laryngitis and couldn't sing a note or speak a word.
- Zurf
Strong. Strong, unpasteurized beer. Plus, I really, really like ice cream.
- Zurf
When I was about fifteen, I was allowed to move into the attic bedroom from the one in the front of the house.
Once I left home, I travelled a bit, but I am still jealous of those of you with a more worldly perspective. I have only once spent the night outside the country, and in fact my entire international travel experience is going to Canada for a camping trip (the one time I overnighted outside the country) and another couple times for dinner. My wife and I used to cross into Windsor, Ontario from Detroit, MI for dinner. There was a pub there that we liked, and then we'd take a walk from the pub down to the waterfront park with a stop at an ice cream shop on the way. It was very mellow and pleasant. Some while later, I mentioned that we used to go to Windsor and then all the sudden the person gets a wicked grin and starts telling baudy stories of strippers. Ends up there is a side to Windsor that I never knew existed let alone visited. However, mention "going to Windsor" and people immediately think you're going to strip clubs. Not my style. Not even CLOSE to my style. I just liked the strong, unpasteurized beer and the cheap ice cream.
- Zurf
I got the amp sent off by a Guitar Center to their subcontractor, but talked to the subcontractor directly. The Guitar Center guy who was writing up the instructions left the last "s" off from "assess" in "assess for insurance." There was too much truth in the statement for me to attempt to correct him.
The technician at Guitar Center's subcontractor understood what needed to be done. Seriously, it's not like I'm trying to commit some sort of fraud. You can look at the case and see clearly that it is swollen and that the cover is coming off. The cover can be glued back on, but the MDF in the case will ALWAYS be swollen, and the manufacturer doesn't sell replacement cases. Further, the paper cone (did you catch that PAPER cone) did not react well to be wet, so the fidelity of sound is lost. Fortunately, this technician said he could identify the problems with it (as did my four year old) and that he was willing to put down in writing that the amp could not be repaired. That's all I needed. The true and legitimate facts so that I can present them to the insurance company.
My local guitar shop doesn't sell or service this brand of amp, so they couldn't do this for me. However, I'll be buying a replacement amp (and maybe trade my solid-body electric on an acoustic/electric guitar to go with it) at the local shop.
- Zurf
"The Paddle" by Dirty Ed. On second thought, I'm glad he wrote it because it's perfect as it is. I'd have been sure to over-elaborate or over-think something.
I did write a song the other day. It was completely improvised based on a line in a song my eight year old daughter was writing at the time. Her song was "Boys Stink." It's hard to argue, because we do stink. There was a line in it about boys losing their hair. Which line I immediately stole and turned into an improvised song "I Ain't Got No Hair." I wish there had been a tape recorder running, because we were all laughing and having fun with it and I can't remember a bit of it right now but the title. My daughter, ever wiser than I, was writing her song down. Boys Stink, based not too loosely on my daughter's father, shall live in infamy while "I Ain't Got No Hair" was an ephemeral phenomenon. Sad too, because I'm sure it would have won an Emmy.
- Zurf
The problem with fame is that a person reads the newspaper and begins to believe his own press releases.
We are all people. None better than another, or worse, just differently gifted. In God's eye, we are all equal. Knowing that, not just having heard it but really, sincerely knowing it to the root of your core is a sure protection against the damages of fame. Many people do not have that firm foundation of understanding, and begin to think that they really are something other than human.
Either that, or because they were self-destructive to begin with. We've all known unfamous folks who were self-destructive. Perhaps it isn't the fame that drives them to self-destruction.
- Zurf
It was more fun with reel to reel tapes. I never got any secret messages, but I had a lot of fun.
- Zurf
Well, just back from the follow-up exam with my general practitioner. It may be gastro-intestinal. We're going to try a medicine to see if it helps. After a month, if it doesn't help, it's yet another stinking endoscopy. He considered doing an endoscopy, but I've had it up to here (hand raised really, really high) with endoscopies. So we're trying a less invasive and less painful route.
As far as blood work: done, done, and done. They drew enough blood I accused them of using me as a donor for a covert transfusion. Not this, that, or the other where blood is concerned.
So, I've been under a ton of stress lately and expect that the stress is making my GI problems shoot into overdrive. You know it's crazy in your home when the hospital seems like a nice restful, quiet place. I slept like a log, in between blood draws and vital statistics checks, and medicine distribution.
I thank you all for your well wishes and good thoughts. However, my room mate got some bad news while I was there. Anyone who is of a mind for prayer I'd ask you to pray for Zurf's room-mate's help. The Lord will know what that means. It's not right for me to give out his name or personal information and so I won't, but I can say that he is in need of prayer. Rest on the promise that the Lord knows what you mean even when you pray only in groans too deep for words.
- Zurf
So Saturday night I was out to a movie with my wife, looking forward to a dinner without the children, when I started feeling bad pain in my chest. I thought it was an allergic reaction to a hot dog because I am allergic to soy and some makers use soy as a filler.
So I get to feeling worse and worse over the course of the day Sunday, and by the afternoon I can't stand up straight, I'm weak, I'm sweating heavily from extremely mild exertion, and it's time to call the doctor. I do. She says to go to the Emergency Room. I do. They think I'm having a heart attack. I'm not. The heart attack meds don't help at all. They gave me morphine (which in addition to treating pain also reduces inflammation) and a heavy duty inflammation reducer - ahhhhhh. That's relief.
They admit me anyway because I had pretty much all the classic heart attack symptoms, except dieing of course. No heart attack. Confirmed three different ways. I stayed overnight in the hospital and awoke Monday feeling ready to go on a hike or a good paddle on the river or something. The cardiologist wanted to do a stress test, but was going to do a chemical one and I told him to forget it, I was ready for the treadmill. So we did the treadmill. I'm more fit than I was six years ago the last time I had an intensive treadmill stress test. No pain at all. No shortness of breath. My legs got tired and my heart rate was high, but I was still able to carry on a conversation breathing wise. Piece of cake.
So, no one can figure it out. Why was I incapacitated Sunday afternoon, and the next afternoon I'm running on a treadmill feeling great? Wish I knew.
If it's not one thing, it's another.
- Zurf
Perpetually. My last name begins with "Z". I think whenever I'm in a procedure or process that my file is at the end and either the bureaucrats are tired, drunk, or both. My school lost my file THREE TIMES. I had NO classes whatsoever, no school, nothing. Same school district the whole time. My mother knew the district superintendant and got things straightened out each time, but how frustrating is that to be such a non-entity that even paper files forget who you are.
- Zurf
Computers have been out to take over the world of music ever since someone came up with MIDI.
- Zurf
Congratulations.
I believe that long engagements lead to long marriages. Gives you time to think thinks out and get used to the idea of whether this is REALLY your exclusive mate to get through times together.
Way to go.
- Zurf
Very professional productions on both vids. Kudos on a very important subject. How old are your nephews? cause they do good work.
They got my vote.
Last week it was announced that the H1N1(swineflu) has jumped to turkeys in I think it was Argentina. Although they don't seem that concerned about it cause it is not airborne and they have it contained, I for one will hold a healthy skepticism.Nothing wrong with being informed.
Kenny
My nephew is in his late 20's. Whatever he puts his hand to, he does with purpose, intent, and skill. He pitched at the Little League world series his first year playing baseball. He was a professional "extreme" athlete (roller blading) when he was 14 years old. By age 12, he had run through his school's mathematics curriculum and was taking architecture courses at Carnegie Mellon. I have rarely met people whom I find more likeable than he. While he is what I consider to be a modern renaissance man with gifts and talents in matters of intelligence, athletics, and the arts, he is truly humble and both outgoing and compassionate to all manner of people. He had a difficult childhood but took it on like any challenge he's ever faced. By the time he was 12, he was more man than I'll ever be.
- Zurf
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by Zurf
