6,626 Reply by Zurf

(6 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

I've been fortunate to meet a few famous folks.  Some were gracious to their fans and grateful that they had given them a career.  Others were not. 

I wish I could recall who the artist was, but I recall the incident.  It wasn't a headliner type artist, but he was locally famous.  The artist had come out to front to shake some hands of folks in line.  He had a security guy with him, I suppose provided by his record label.  Anyway, some of the folks in line were pulling out cameras to get their pictures taken with him and the security guy was saying, "No cameras.  No photos."  The artist looked at the security guy and said, "I've got a job because these folks want to hear me and pay to come see me.  You've got a job because I do.  Pictures are fine with me."   Prince could take some lessons. 

You know, now that I think of it, it might have been Livingston Taylor - not a local guy at all but a real, honest-to-goodness big shot. 

- Zurf

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6,627 Reply by Zurf

(12 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Something's loose and rubbing with the vibration.  That's my inexpert wild guess.  Sounds to me like it's time for a luthier who is used to dealing with electronics to take a look at to see whether it's an inexpensive or a pricey repair. 

Here's hoping it's inexpensive. 

- Zurf

Go to forum: Acoustic

6,628 Reply by Zurf

(3 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Well I sure like kissing anyway. 

I can recall one company Christmas party I was forced to attend and I wore mistletoe attached to the tail of my sportcoat.   One of the singers from the hired entertainment later told me I had the mistletoe hanging on the wrong side and I removed it (the mistletoe) at that point.   

- Zurf

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6,629 Reply by Zurf

(10 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

I was told again just about twenty minutes ago that I reminded someone of Nicolas Cage, particularly with my voice.  In that I am neither buff nor covered in tattoos I'm not sure how that can be, but there you have it.  So, I guess Nicolas Cage would play me.  He'd have to put on some weight, though.  Pizza and beer diet for a few months ought to do it.

Theme some is easy: Rich Kid Doctor by Ken "Dirty Ed" Willis. 

If you haven't camped out by a smallmouth river in West Virginia, you probably haven't heard it.  BUT if you'd LIKE to hear it, check out my buddy Dirty Ed at this site:
http://www.michaeldsawyer.com/DirtyEdclickpage.html

The song Rich Kid Doctor is on the Hell or High Water album.   

The albums were distributed free to friends with the following disclaimer, "Recorded in a spare bedroom on a cheap microphone while under the influence of adult beverages."   Mike has permission to post the songs.  Play them, enjoy them, just don't sell them.  Any money that can be earned from the songs goes to the Dirty Ed beer fund, which frankly requires substantial funding. 

- Zurf

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6,630 Reply by Zurf

(27 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Try a fingerpick beginner's book called "You Can Teach Yourself to Play Fingerpick Guitar" or something very similar to that.  It's a Mel Bay book.  The cover art makes me think it was intended for a 12 year old, but I'm 42 and finding it extremely useful and challanging.  It comes with a CD.  It is written with clear instruction and progresses you slowly with exercises intended to teach one very minor aspect at a time.  You work at your own pace.  Anyway, if you've got the $20 American, it's worth it.  Should be able to find it on Amazon or some such if your local music shop hasn't got it.

- Zurf

Go to forum: Acoustic

6,631 Reply by Zurf

(8 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Rarely have I heard a negative thing said about a Taylor guitar.  That's a very popular model.  I expect anytime you've got a lot of something out in the marketplace and negative comments can't be found that the product is quite good.

I played a Taylor 210e once and liked it quite well.  I couldn't afford it, but I liked it real well. 

- Zurf

Go to forum: Acoustic

6,632 Reply by Zurf

(7 replies, posted in Songwriting)

You're so close, I hope that we can get together and jamm some time.  Perhaps by a campsite in the Shenandoah National Park next Spring, eh?  If we ever do, this is a song that I want to hear played and sung the way it was intended. 

When I was a youth, Father & Son by Cat Stevens resonated with me.  Now that I am solidly in middle-age and have children of my own, it resonates still but for different reasons.  My children are still young and haven't left home yet, but I have a feeling that your song will do the same thing when I get to experience it from both sides. 

Very well done.

- Zurf

Go to forum: Songwriting

6,633 Reply by Zurf

(29 replies, posted in Acoustic)

alvee33 wrote:

Or even the way you hold the instrument all together. I recently had to check myself and found I had started to hold it ALL wrong. had to get back into good habits. Made a bg difference in barring as well as everything else.

Me too.  One of our regulars, I think it's 25Frankster, keeps recommending careful thumb placement and posture.  Well I finally heeded his advice and it has made quite the difference.  I had to make adjustments on the songs I already "knew", but now they are coming out much cleaner and chord changes are far easier.  I'm getting a good, clean F#m in rhythm about 1/3 of the time now and a clean F about 1/4 of the time (with poor timing).  This is a huge improvement for me that I attribute directly to 25Frankster's advice.   

- Zurf

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6,634 Reply by Zurf

(13 replies, posted in Acoustic)

alvee33 wrote:

No such thing as a stupid question.

Oh sure there is.  But that wasn't one. 

- Zurf

Go to forum: Acoustic

6,635 Reply by Zurf

(77 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Daggone right we do!  Just look to our foreign policy for confirmation...


What I don't understand is the fascination with gore movies.  Horrible, gut-wrenching depictions of extreme - I don't suppose you can even call it gore - just flat-out meanness and pathological hatred.  Sick.  I wonder what message that sort of film presents and how it trains the minds of those who indulge in it frequently. 

- Zurf

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6,636 Reply by Zurf

(77 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

U.S. mid-Atlantic.  Slogging through life in the suburbs of Washington, DC. 

That Office Space guy was a nut.  But the funner exchange was this one.

Bob1: "I see you've been missing a lot of work lately."
Protagonist: "I don't think I can say that I've been MISSING it."
All laugh
Bob2: "This one has got management potential." 

- Zurf

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6,637 Reply by Zurf

(20 replies, posted in Acoustic)

So long as it isn't the entire rattlesnake, leave it in as a cultural oddity and a tip of the hat to the older gentleman's mojo.  It can't hurt. 

- Zurf

Go to forum: Acoustic

6,638 Reply by Zurf

(17 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Very useful thread. 

For a Country strum I use a bass note, down, down, up, skip, up, up, down pattern.  For everything.  I'm not real creative.

- Zurf

Go to forum: Acoustic

6,639 Reply by Zurf

(77 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

TheFatPainter - I don't paint, but I am kind of fat, so we've got that in common.  I don't know what chipolatas are, but if you can play guitar with them - then more power to you!


Last_Rebel - We've got a guy in our office that used to be a CIA black ops guy.  The employees who report to him say that they really don't quibble much over their performance ratings with a guy who knows how to make them disappear.  I think that's a real sensible approach. 

- Zurf

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6,640 Topic by Zurf

(0 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Well, I'm trying to learn a couple of songs the "right" way using paid for and approved Tabs, chords, etc.  Well, they're right on target, but those pro guys sure do use some wicked chords with some wicked fast changes.  Trying to get songs "right" sure is hard.  I was feeling pretty good about being able to strum along or maybe keep a fingerpick pattern going.

My hat is off to those of you who can work through a song quick and get it "right."  Sheesh.  I'll keep at it.  I'm hoping it'll be like the strummed chords thing where after doing three or five songs, it got a whole lot easier for getting additional songs.

Wish me luck. 

- Zurf

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6,641 Reply by Zurf

(4 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

No Orange amps for me.

Congratulations on your new purchase.  Play it until your fingers beg for mercy.

- Zurf

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6,642 Reply by Zurf

(10 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

All there is is character.

Without it, trouble.

With it, still trouble but you've got a better likelihood of coming through.   

I suspect that the hippies and the punks with "sand" (as the old-timers used to call it) did just fine.  The ones without it probably live their glory days over and over in their minds and wonder what happened to the world that they could not longer live as they choose.  Nothing wrong with the world.  Well, actually there's plenty, but that's not what is causing problems for those folks. 

It does make you wonder, though, sometimes. 

I did hear one humorous comment that I believe was from Sid Vicious - "Heavy Metal is what happened when the punk rockers learned to play their instruments." 

- Zurf

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6,643 Reply by Zurf

(77 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

It's hard to imagine someone telling the whole story from all perspectives when representing themselves regarding an arrest. 

- Zurf





p.s.  Or, um, you know.  So I suppose.

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6,644 Reply by Zurf

(9 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Well done.  A difficult topic gently and honestly treated. 

- Zurf

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6,645 Reply by Zurf

(2 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

That's because they figure the rockers in the electric forum are already getting plenty and don't need to look at it on the internet.   :-)

- Zurf

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6,646 Reply by Zurf

(14 replies, posted in Acoustic)

alvee33 wrote:

I don't look at it as learning chords all over again but as learning different ways to play the same chord.

I'm pretty much of the school that thinks that acoustic sounds better with open chords. That's just a personal opinion. But of course there are times you just can't get away from barre chords. And sometimes it's easier to move from one chord to another if you use barres or a mixture of the two. For instance, I love to play Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong and in the key I play it in one of the chord progressions is F#m, G back to F#m. This is made so much easier by barring the G instead of barring the F#m then moving to open G and back to the barred F#m again.

I hope that all makes sense.

It makes wonderful sense.  But as far as I'm concerned "knowing a chord" means that my fingers know where to go and how to get there without me thinking about it.  If I've got to retrain my fingers, then I've got to relearn the chord.  Just a different way of looking at the same thing.  It would help if my fingers would cooperate now and then.

- Zurf

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6,647 Reply by Zurf

(14 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Beautiful Scrimmy.  I will give that a go.  I'll have to learn chords all over again, but so be it.  Life's too short not to play barre chords.

- Zurf

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6,648 Reply by Zurf

(15 replies, posted in Acoustic)

I know nothing about the Myspace hacking problem.

However, I may be able to help a little on the publishing issue.  Myspace and pretty much any other public media that record time allow one to prove that they published a song at a certain time.  Now, there can still be an issue of who wrote what when, but for the most part if you put something up even here on Chordie's Songwriting forum claiming it as your own, the date/time data more or less allows one to claim it as their own as of that time.  If someone uses it without permission, there could be repurcussions under Copyright and other Intellectual Property laws.  (So Selso, Last Rebel and James McCormack, I surely hope that I have your opinion to use your songs from the Songwriter forum)  If you're serious about it, though, I sincerely recommend that you get a formal legal opinion from an attorney knowledgeable of Intellectual Property law in your jurisdiction. 

- Zurf

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6,649 Reply by Zurf

(8 replies, posted in Songwriting)

I like it.  I always have liked story songs and songs about strangers and songs with advice from old-timers.  This one has all that going for it, plus it's just well done.  I like the part about folks forgetting about life for a while when dancing and the part about tipping your hat to the ladies. 

- Zurf

Go to forum: Songwriting

6,650 Reply by Zurf

(8 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Don't fret Rumble-Doll, I started when I was 41 years old as well.  And I am now the ripe old age of 42, so I haven't been playing long at all.   It is an awful lot of fun, though. 

- Zurf

Go to forum: Acoustic