The good old days

[Bobbie Dier]

On the "High Lonesome" video Mac Wiseman said "when I got my first guitar it came in a cardboard box....... I had to wait till a traveling preacher came to town to tune it" That's paraphrasing it a little. What I'm trying to ask here is what are your music lesson hard luck stories? Some of us or a lot of us folk on here are older 40-80? When I wanted to learn a tune I had to play the LP over ond over until I could get the break or tune. You never could get that needle in the right place,just had to start at the beginning again. I've heard some friends say they had to learn off of the radio so they only got one shot at it till the Opry came on next Sat night. One friend said he would boil his strings in alcohol so he could put them back on another time. What did you guys have to do to learn in the olden days back before computers?

[Michael H Geimer]

I got myself a paper route to pay for my guitar lessons. Nowadays kids don't get the routes, they're handled by adults in autos. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

Used to learn stuff off LPs, too. It once took me two-weeks to get through a classical guitar piece I couldn't get in notation. That record never did recover from the constant dropping of the needle. LOL!

But then, I grew up watching Sesame Street .. so what do I know about hard times, eh? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Scotti Adams]

..I boiled strings also..wore out stereo needles...tape decks....from the constant stopping and starting...used to sleep with the mando next to me. One time I got grounded from the mando..grades were lacking..for six weeks..thats when I learned to play the guitar..the folks said I couldnt play the mando..didnt say a thing about the guitar..

[John Flynn]

When I was 12, I wanted very much to learn to play the guitar. My Mom took me to a music store and got me a "beginner guitar," Mel Bay Book 1 and signed me up for lessons with the store owner. I know it is a cliche', but I actually played until my fingers bled. The instructor and Mel #1 did nothing to help or to even to make it interesting. I quit after a while in frustration. It was just too hard. I didn't take up the guitar again until I was 20, taught myself to play and never stopped.

Later, when I had been playing for several years and I was good enough to be in a semi-pro band, I found that original guitar in the basement. I couldn't believe it. It was the worst guitar imaginable. It was a nylon string configuration: Wide, flat neck, slotted headstock, mile-high action, etc, but it had heavy steel strings on it! I tuned it up and even though I was now a decent player, I still couldn't play that POS! I don't think anybody could! That store owner/instructor had ripped us off and in my mind, I got cheated out of about 8 years of playing. I always wonder how much progress I could have made in those 8 years. Oh well...

[Billy Mack]

When I was in 3rd grade I had been bugging my folks about a guitar. They wouldnt oblige. About 1 week before Christmas that year my appendix ruptured and I found myself in the Hospital operating room. On Chrismas Day, Dad (Santa) showed up in my hospital room with a Harmony acoustic guitar. One of the nurses came in and tuned it up and sang some Christmas carols. That was my intro to music and there has been no looking back. Now aint that special.

[sailaway]

Well, my parents made all of us kids take classical piano lessons beginning at age 6. My dad played harmonica and in our teens my brother and I were finally allowed to start on guitars. 'But don't youns play none of that Bob Dylan stuff..!' Didn't have a phonograph or 'hi-fi', but did have a local public library with a wonderful contraption where you could tell them what LP album you wanted to hear, and they would put it on and you could hear it thru special earphones. Heard a lot of Bach and old music that way. This thread brings back memories of my dad sitting out on the back porch playing all the old time songs on his harmonica.. Then I got my first 'record player'(1967)(which I still have) and could play alongside with albums any time I wanted. Now I'm on Imac/Ipod/Sony Minidisc, what a difference ! Thanks for bringing back some great memories.. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Billy Mack]

Sailaway, fond memories indeed. I had the most trouble trying to find and repeat measures on my old 8 track. Then my sister brought home this reel-reel thing from college. Now - my minidisc - such is progress.

[Michael H Geimer]

When I was a teenager first playing electric guitar, I found my dad's old reel-to-reel and hooked up a make shift Echoplex ... plex ... plex

[Mandolin Guy]

When i was learning i had walk 6 miles for lessons. Up hill. Both ways. No not really. I had to do the LP thing to. Never took lessons. When my grades got poor my mon & dad wouldn't let me practice. Bummer

[jongolin]

My first guitar was a no-name nylon string (didn't know there was a difference at the time) that my Aunt Mary-Jo gave me. I was way too young to drive and any music stores were downtown or on campus. After my first string broke and I had to play with 5 strings for almost a month I finally got to the store and bought the thickest set of Gibson strings they had. Those strings lasted over a year. Of course the top of the guitar bowed under the bridge and at the 12th fret was probably 3/4 of an inch off the fretboard. No wonder I had so much trouble playing barre chords!