Re: A word of encouragement (but maybe not)
I have been in and around music all my life, almost to the point where I can't remember not being able to play something, and I grew up in a setting (church and gospel) which encouraged participation rather than perfection, and the emphasis was on improv, trying new things, etc. My wife learned to play guitar as a teenager, but she on the other hand stuck pretty much to the chord chart and then stopped playing for several years. Over the last couple of years watching her return to music, and this time learning new instruments and trying new things, and starting to develop an ear and a feel for playing, has really allowed me the wonderful privilege of seeing music through fresh eyes. I realized that I have become jaded over the years, and that things like picking out a melody just by ear with no sheet music, or figuring out a chord progression without being told, or hearing for the first time how backup licks work with the melody, is truly a marvelous and exciting thing. It's encouraged me, always a keyboard/bass person before, to return to the guitar and take up the octave mandolin, and in so doing find a whole new musical world to explore. Even if we think we've "arrived," we should look around for that person who's still climbing the hill behind us and find inspiration from them.
-- Johnson MA-100 Mando
-- Eastman MDO-305 OM
-- 3 Seagull Merlin dulcimers (2GDG, 1DAD)
-- 1952 Harmony Roy Smeck guitar
-- Ortega Lizzie Ubass
-- Leigh Campbell electric violin
-- Pfretzschner violin
-- Glaesel viola
-- Ibanez acoustic/electric guitar
-- Misc: a cello, 2 cigarbox guitars, charango, djembe, slide dulcimer.
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