(Re)Finding My First Guitar

This weekend, I was rummaging around the storage lockup under our house, and I came across my very first guitar stashed under some boxes and other debris.

It was an old Som D'Ouro classical guitar that I got back when I was about 15.  My high school guitar teacher, Ms. Dunlop, picked this one out for me, and I have played it and loved it for all of my life since then (over 30 years!). 

Sadly, a few years ago, the bridge came off it, and I put it away in storage intending to fix it 'one day'.  Well, it had been sitting underneath stuff and exposed to dampness and dust for years, so when I found it again, it was in a very sad condition. 

The top of the guitar seems to have swollen and split, and I think I can hear some braces rattling around under the top too, so I don't think it will ever be playable again.  I decided to give it a bit of spit and polish to see how it cleaned up. 

(Note: Virtuoso Cleaner and Polish really is wonderful stuff.  I wish I had taken some 'before' pictures). 

A Proud Dad Moment

Last Friday, my son was asked to give a short performance in front of his middle school assembly in order to promote the talent quest at his upcoming school fete. 

I helped him set up his rig, and was fortunate enough to be able to record his warm up/rehearsal session.  He elected to play Eddia Van Halen's "Eruption" solo, as he is a big fan of EVH. 

This was definitely a milestone event for me, watching him play a piece of music that came out more that two decades before he was born! 

2013 Challenge - May

David Essig

Ok, I am starting to ramp up again with the monthly challenge, after going MIA for a short while.  This month's piece proved to be a fairly challenging from a timing and 'feel' perspective. 

I chose Don Ross's excellent transcription of the David Essig classic called "Berkley Springs".   A beautiful piece, but it needs a fairly subtle touch, and there are tiny timing changes in some sections which are hard to nail down at first.

This was also a chance for me to record my brand new beautiful Taylor Grand Symphony BTO guitar that I had just bought.  All my other recordings here have been on my Maton ECW80C, so it was nice to have a brighter guitar for this particular song. 

The tuning is actually higher than standard - to F.  The shorter scale on this guitar also made the job easier as the string tension was not too high when tuned up like this. 

Brian May On The Creative Use Of Delay...

One of my earliest influences on guitar was Brian May, of Queen.  His playing was always different from the standard pentatonic runs of most of my other guitar heroes.  I was always intrigued by his melodic runs and use of amazing harmonies. 

Today I came across this video in which he shows us how he uses a delay pedal (sometimes more than one delay pedal) to achieve some great sounding harmonic runs with just one guitar.   Very inspiring.