The delivery came today, not bad. But it did come from a warehouse pretty close to me, so one day is still excellent. LOL
So here is the opening shot of day one! The wife is filming, and Savannah Rose & Delta Rose are the color commentators. (Dixie Rose & Scarlett Rose are in school, and Georgia Rose is in the crib asleep.) I know I look like hell, but if my stage presence is going for the 'Walking Corpse" look, then I have it in the bag already! You know Iron Maiden's "Eddie" must be jealous... But seeing as today is "Halloween", I can always play it off as, "That was the look I was going for."
Registered the DVD's at RHM, and the guitar with Taylor, and commented at AMS on the received products. Time to start on the first DVD. C-Ya 2morrow with the results of the first lessons!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Ground Zero
Thursday, October 30, 2008
And away they go!
Well, the order was made today, and we are currently awaiting the shipping number.
So how is it that someone like me, who claims to know nothing about Guitars, ends up with a $1,200.00+ order, not knowing what he is buying???
And that will be the theme of our weblog: "From Ground Zero To Guitar Hero." It sounds lame, but it markets well, so shut up with the sarcasm. I get enough of it from my wife and oldest daughter. And for the record, my oldest daughter has quite a lot of nerve... She loves 80's hair/glam metal with a passion, (Thanks to me of course) but loves to pop off on how they used dinosaurs instead of tour buses back then.
I live in a very "rural" area, and with our village being a little over 300 in population, and the nearest music store over 90 minutes away, I had no other choice but to rely on the internet, a few choice friends back in Southern California, and basically the opinions of those I do not know personally. So I hung out at different forums, read different articles and weblog posts, asked a few questions here and there, and then decided.
My first question was "Acoustic or Electric" to start with, and the majority of the folks I talked to all agreed that Acoustic was the way to go. I am an old man, with no where to go in any hurry, so taking the slow, tried and true, traditional route, was to be the road best traveled.
A lot of names were thrown out at first... Martin, Gibson, Taylor, etc. And after a while, it came to narrow down to those three. So my first lesson in Guitar came rather easily.
Lesson #1. "All guitarists have an opinion, most will share it whether asked or not, and most will never agree with each other." Sounds like a lot of drummers I have partied with. LOL
After numerous threads of watching people argue with each other, one fellow sent me a PM that read...
"Hey Bro! Fuck those jokers. What you need to do is go to the manufacturers websites, find the area where they list the artists that use their guitar, and choose the guitar that the artists that you like are using. If you like their music, then it stands to reason that you will like their instrument. Gotta go, there is a bong rip with my name on it."
It sounded logical to me, so Taylor got the nod.
Now on to RHM. (Rock House Method)
That one was even harder at first. Everyone had something to tout, and had reasons why not to go with the others. Most told me to go to my local music store to find a teacher, and try out different guitars, but as I had got tired of telling them. "The closest is 90 minutes away, and I know nothing about guitars, so what am I supposed to be looking for you fools!"
But in the end, four things sold me on RHM.
- It was a combination of book, audio, and visual. (I need all the media types I can get for being %100 ignorant on the subject to be learned.)
- AMS (American Musical Supply) had it in stock, so it went on the "Payment Plan" easy enough.
- The wife said... "Go with the blonde guy, (John McCarthy) he is hot. Hot guitarists MUST know what they are doing, or they wouldn't be hot."
- Enough people recommended it to make it good odds on a coin flip.
The "Accessories" were basically "Hit or Miss". I will have to see over time whether they prove to be good or not, through my own experience.
So in a nutshell, for those who find themselves in my situation, there is the route I followed to make the choices.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Might as well start here...
Waiting 40 plus years to pick up a guitar and start for the first time may or may not have been a good idea, but it seems that this is the timeline I am stuck with, so might as well work with what I have got!
I spent my life from 1975 to 1998 doing everything I could to use and abuse myself, others, and whatever substances I could get my hands on. And of course, living in Southern California, liking 80's hair/glam metal, and having the right connections certainly did help with that lifestyle...
The best years were the 80's, and that of the "Hollywood Thing". Gazarri's, Rainbow, Whiskey, Roxy, Troubadour, etc, both in people and substances both liquid and solid. I took up the drums early on in life, and never really went anywhere with them, because I was never really committed to them. They got me who and what I wanted for that particular moment, and nothing more, because I wanted nothing more from them.
And now, years later, with those years catching up with me, I find myself suffering from many different illnesses that keep me from using my feet, which in turn knocks the high hat, and bass drum out of my life, as well as the ability to sit and move effectively, which in turn brought an end to that a few years ago.
After a decade of pouting, getting married, and having five lovely daughters...
- Dixie Rose (15 yrs. old)
- Scarlett Rose (5 yrs. old)
- Savannah Rose (3 yrs. old)
- Delta Rose (2 yrs. old)
- Georgia Rose (4 mo. old)
Music.
A close friend of mine suggested I take up the guitar, something I had toyed with, but had shot down because of my age. I have always been under the impression that "If you didn't start the instrument in childhood, then you are burned."
That I found, after much discussion with him, and others on the internet, was an incorrect mindset to have, and was just another reason to continue to pout over a place in life that I brought on myself.
So here we are, back in the saddle again, starting from the ground floor, taking responsibility for our own life, and actually living it, instead of telling stories about what it used to be.
My goals are simple.
- Buy an Acoustic.
- Play & learn it.
- Buy an Electric.
- Play & learn it.
- End of story.
Whether or not the method works is not relevant because I have decided that it is going to work whether "it" likes it or not! Ergo, I have already succeeded, I just haven't got to the finish line yet.
The goal here at this so-called "Blog", is to chronicle my learning process, in the hopes of somehow letting others who might be waffling on whether or not to start an instrument at such a late point in life, that it can be done.
So I spent last night setting up this weblog, and a You Tube channel for future uploads. Now all that is left is to start right here, at the first post.
I am at "Ground Zero", I have no idea what I am doing, but I do know why, and that is all that is needed.
And as for the name "Rose Garden"... How hard is that to figure out? Just scroll back up and read the list of their names...
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