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Clearly, you are a mutant.

You and Russell, and probably a few others around.  I am so stinking jealous (well, kind of, mostly I just stick in a B7 or a Bm).

- Zurf

Scales.

Also, try using your fingers.  I tried playing by ear, but my poor lobes just never got calloused enough to get a good well-defined pluck.  I've found my fingers much easier.

Sorry for the silliness.

Scales really are your answer.  You need to learn scales.  Practice them, and also arpeggios (which are the individual notes of a chord played in a row) and inversions (which are the individual notes of a chord played out of order).  By the time you practice them a bunch, 'hearing' the relationship between notes in a song isn't hard.

Or so I've been told.  I am terrible about taking my own advice.   Figuring out how to play the right notes by the sound of the lick is not something I"m good at either.  It takes me absolutely forever.  I am terribly jealous of folks who have a "quick ear" (as I call it). 

Good luck and have fun.  There's always tabs. 

- Zurf

Depending on how it's measured, there's a strong argument that stock car racing is America's #1 observation sport and tennis is America's #1 participation sport. 

That said, it's football and college basketball that get's the die-hards going nuts and spending cash.  Using a measurement of most money spent, I'd have to think that NFL (National Football League) beats them all, though NASCAR (something something Stock Car something Racing) probably comes close and may actually win out. 

The thing about NASCAR that is appealing to me has nothing to do with the cars.  Every event is like a party.  It's three days of tailgating and camping and loud, obnoxious entertainment.  While I've not done that, I do like tailgating and camping and sometimes (though not often) like loud and obnoxious entertainment.  Nothing about NFL appeals to me.

To answer one of your questions, it is sometimes an honor to be selected to sing the National Anthem at the start of a game, or to play at half-time.  Mostly it's considered a good money-making opportunity or good exposure.  By the time you get to the NFL absolutely everything is tainted by marketing and money.  Everything.  NFL is much more about business than it is about sport.  My opinion.  Your mileage may vary. 

While the numbers are down, baseball is still considered "America's Sport".  I guess.  It's fun to go to the games, but I'd rather do just about anything than watch it on TV, or worse yet be forced to play.  Softball, now there's a sport for the masses to play.  I can remember playing softball with beer kegs at first base and third base.  That was fun.  I don't think we even kept score.  We were doing well to count all the way to three to know when to change innings.  Baseball?  It's much too serious.  It's kind of like fly-fishing.  There are people who are very, very serious about perfection in every aspect, and then there's people who just want to catch fish.  Except, I haven't yet met the baseball guys who just want to play baseball and have fun. 

- Zurf

Ohhhhhhh we are going to have fun. 

I listened to that little jamm you did on your YouTube page with your Squier 51 and I had bass riffs running through my head. 

Hey, you play guitar pretty good for a bass player.  :-)

JEROME - You play bass for the same reason as everyone else NO ONE WANTS TO!!!!  Son, I've got some folks to introduce you to.

Good to know Jerome.  Thanks for the encouragement.

- Zurf

Nice RavenLady.  I wish I could get my wife to play or sing along.  She's got a beautiful singing voice and has a seamingly innate sense for music.  She had two years of piano lessons she didn't want when she was a very young lady, but the lessons of timbre and pitch and rhythm have lasted all these years.  Sometimes when she's had a couple glasses  of wine and the friends are around the campfire in the back yard, she'll sing along.  I love that.  My little girls have started to sing along.  I love that too.  They ask for the same lullaby every night -"Featherbed" by John McCutcheon.  I must have sung that song 10,000 times now.  Each of them asks for it every night.  They've been memorizing it, and now they sing it with me.  With the eldest, I've started taking in my guitar and accompanying.  It's awful to hear from the perspective of anyone outside the room, but the two of us in there think it's the sweetest music ever made. 

Detman - I hope I can live up to your expectations.  I approach music as a fun hobby.  I'm not a serious player, but I do love getting together with other musicians and seeing what we can do.  My acoustic doesn't have a pickup, so if we're going to record anything we'll need some mics, which is something I haven't got.  Even for our own benefit, I think playing back what we did for the purpose of critique-ing ourselves would be an exceptional learning opportunity.   

I'll send you an e-mail.  I've got a young family myself, so my time is not my own, but with adequate planning I'd like to think we can get together soon.  I'm about to start lessons later this month after three years of teaching myself bad habits and letting myself off the hook from good practice technique.  Goodness knows where that will lead. 

I'm more likely to be able to help you with your bass playing than your guitar playing.  There was a time when I was actually half-decent on the bass.  That time has passed with my concentration on the guitar.  While my execution is rusty, my knowledge is still in there somewhere and I'd be happy to share.  If you were playing weekly in a band for four months, I'd guess that you got pretty good. 

- Zurf

Just ignore them.  There is nothing more hurtful to the media than to be ignored.  And nothing better for your peace of mind.

Just grab those things and put them on a hook.  My dad used to pay me $0.02 per grasshopper.  We'd go to our favorite fishing hole and I'd run all around a big field grabbing grasshoppers and crickets and stuffing them in a paper sack to be used as bait. 

- Zurf

Wow.  First off, your guitar is not your ex.  With a little gentle treatment, your guitar will make you happy and sing like a bird.  We men are not quite so simple as that. 

Second, action can be adjusted.  If you really don't like the guitar, it may not be worth trying.  Trade it on something you'll play.  Guitar playing is far too much fun to let residual ook from an ex get in the way. 

Third, I love the concept of a face on a guitar.  Make it a happy face, though.  Wilson.  Funny.

Fourth, I really shouldn't go to four because three is just such a natural number for bits of things to say.

Fifth, One lesson per fortnight is not too few.  Weekly is probably too often, but it does help guitar instructors to pay the bills, which is not an easy thing for a guitar instructor to do otherwise. 

Sixth, Six?  I surely can't that many things to say.  Let me think.  Oh yes!  Christmas was just a few months ago.  You shouldn't be good yet.  If you were, you'd make us all jealous and angry and stuff.  Instead, we're all sympathetic and want to be helpful.  A friend of mine who teaches guitar said this about progression of most students.  After a year, you'll be getting the hang of it.  People might not run when you pull out your guitar.  After two years, you'll feel pretty good and you'll sound pretty good.  By the time you're solidly into your third year, folks will ask if you brought your guitar with you.  Four months?  Piffel.  You're doing great.  Keep up the good work. 

- Zurf

Snakes don't have legs either, but they still climb trees.  It's just WRONG.  What's unusual or un-natural about an animal with fangs biting stuff?  Nothing at all.  But something without legs climbing trees?!  That's just freaky. 

- Zurf

I don't know Marcalan.  It seems like an ineffective alien who wanders about Earth is a good role for Keanu.  If the alien surfs, so much the better.

- Zurf