THESE Guitar Geek Experiences Change Your Life! Acoustic Tuesday 218

First

Actually the Dan Fobelberg album was an ear opener for me, as was James Taylor’s Mudslide Slim album.

Thank you for such wonderful memories. When I was a kid I wanted to learn to play an instrument but my father was so adamant about education that he bought me a violin and told me that I would need to study first and bring good grades before I could use the violin. Needless to say, no violin. So I would watch and listen to my sister’s accordion lessons and when she was not watching I would sneak and learned to play the accordion. The poor violin was left in the closet and it is still there unplayed. But I continued loving music and tried other instruments. I broke my father’s rules but I wish my father would have done what your father did with you. Love your story!

I received 'Rock and Roll Gearhead' (guitars and cars of Billy F. Gibbons) as a gift and found it very inspiring. I also have a copy of 'Guitars and Heroes' that talks about several famous and iconic guitars, most of them found on the soundtrack of my life in one form or another. As I progress in my own guitar journey, I find I am still inspired by my own guitar heroes as well as the "tools of their trade.' I look forward to seeing Eric Clapton's book. Thanks, as always, for sharing. Happy Holidays!

90.9 WDCB College of DuPage

I really was hoping that kid was going start yelling at the players and throw the clip board across the room.

Eric Clapton unplugged was my first introduction to 1920 and 30s country blues. It changed my life forever. I’m on acoustic guitar #14 😊

💕❤️💕❤️💕 30 years ago, a friend of my mom gave me a guitar and I have never touched until I have seen your ads popped up 5 months ago. Thank you so much for waking up the beauty of guitar’s sounds. 😘

Tony, I loved your story about your first guitar. I bought a new guitar for my son this year for Christmas. He is 24 and Music Major at TAMUC. Horn is his primary instrument, but he also plays trumpet and is an excellent drummer. I suspect that he will surpass me in guitar sometime in January 🙂

Rubber Soul from the Beatles.

to poor but I try, you should check out my latest drunk experience I am playing a TangledWood and an art, Quiet Riot and black sabbath with the chick in it, fuck that got stolen I had it from a kid but yeah my cousin show me Black Sabbath went to Jack music store in Orillia I was like 11 at when I started playing am not really good. and my first riff was the intro to purple haze cause I really like that song as a kid so I guess Quiet Riot black Sabbath and Hendrix. then my sister introduced me to punk rock. I took a two-year break for the guitar.¸My uncle Ale should me all the positions at once in one lesson, as I kid I would be the singer cause when I was a kid it was cool to write songs that shocked people (posing as a GG Alin) but then I started playing the guitar but if it was for my uncle and dave from CMHA (if you are reading this I still have it my 1959 harmony) anyways my uncle Al found out I like play guitar so he showed me the five positions and yeah check my channel.

Another great episode (with memorable stories to share) - and not just because I was the GUITARSENAL feature! Okay, that did make it more compelling than usual.

The best gift I got was from people who let me futz around on their guitars and offered zero help. It made me go find it for myself.

Now I get to give the gifts of helping new players get started and passing along playing to my daughter.

Tony, Hi! Question? I just received my new Martin SC13E. It is fantastic! On the headstock it has inlaid silver for "Martin & Co." but there is no "Est. 1833" at all.
Any thoughts or info on why Martin changed the headstock label? It could be a trivia question for the future. I thought if anyone would know you would. Thanks!
I'm signing up with you for your courses and I look forward to it. Merry Christmas.

Guitar gift that changed my life? That was last Sunday night. I sat in the front pew at a Christmas program presented by Doyle Dykes. I sat there about 12 feet in front of who has to be at least considered to be the best fingerstyle guitar players in the world. There were maybe 75 people at this program. I visited with him while he set up his equipment and I visited with him quite a bit after the program. This man is the real deal. He is as good a person as he is a guitar player. Watching him play, close up, is just plain awe inspiring!!

The gifts:
1: My cousin Dan. We are of an age, and he got the guitar bug to bite me by hook and by crook. My only wish is he could have accomplished this when I was seven, and trying to learn guitar the first time around.
2: My ex-wife. I discovered guitar and music was a better way to deal with stress than anything else I had to hand. Granted, she'd come in while I was practicing and say, "Must you?" sparking another argument. Yet she turned to drugs and alcohol. I value a clear head, so I came out of that fiasco of a marriage the better for it.
3: Celia. She dragged me up in front of people to perform. In retrospect, it was simultaneously overdue and way too soon. In any case, I discovered I could do it, and do so credibly.
4: Tim. I've been kicked out of many bars and one acoustic circle. Tim kicked me out of the acoustic circle because I had not learned anything new for months. I was upset at the time, but I had willfully stagnated. Tim brought me to purpose.
5: Desiree. There are certain genres I tend to avoid. Desiree brought me back to the joy of R&B with her spectacular voice. It's definitely a vocal game she excels in which I cannot compete, but given her voice my playing can go places it's never been. It was a revelation I'm deeply grateful for.

We moved to Florida when I was 11 years old so that was somewhere around 1963 or so. A couple of years later I decided I wanted to learn to play the guitar (girls like guitar players!!). Friends of my parents had a guitar and amp for sale for $100, it was an Epiphone Pathfinder 1x12 amp and a 59 or 60 Gibson Les Paul JR Double Cutaway, that was an awsome birthday. My next investment was the album, yes it was an album, Play The Guitar Like The Ventures. Walk Don't Run was the first tune I learned to play. I am now 69 years of age and have never regreted one moment of my guitar journey. Has it been frustrating, without a doubt, has it been worth the effort hell yes. I cannot imagine my life without the guitar, I have made lifelong friends as well as my wife of 44 years. Everyone I have ever played with is family and I adore each and everyone of them. I continue to learn, practice and explore new techniques. Being a TAC member and a regular Acoustic Tuesday viewer is just icing on the cake.

OMG hottie younger pic of you (Norlin Gibson era) with the cropped haircut! Appreciate the background on how you started playing; mine has been more roundabout. Wish my folks were more musical; my big album was Billy Idol - I won a CD from Z95 in 1988-ish and just got into it. Took until 2010 to finally decide to play guitar and the rest is history :-)

My guitar tought me that you can get divorced, and you dont need a shrink.

A friend my freshman year of college introduced me to Uncle Tupelo - March 16-22, 1992 album. That album blew my mind, and moved me closer to the acoustic guitar. To this day the song "Moonshiner" remains as one that I feel amazingly connected to...

I listened to music since I was a baby. My Dad was a professional musician and played guitar and banjo, and my Mom always played records on her big Zenith HiFi. I used to bounce in my bouncy chair to the music! I loved listening to all my Mom’s old 45’s! Kansas City, Tequila, Stagger Lee, etc. They were a big influence and my Mom was my biggest fan up until she passed away last year. I am thankful for the great memories! Luv Strange Brew! Take Off to the Great White North! It’s a beauty way to go!!! My favorite guitar is a Seagull Artist Mosaic from 2001! Yay Canada!

For me it was Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd. And the i listend everything of them :)

Neil Diamond: Going To America was the 1st song to ever catch my ear. I was 5 years old. 1978. Funny cuz the next thing I got hold of was my big bros black sabbath and it CRUSHED everything. So badass it hooked me in still to this day. But I also love all types of music cuz I looked up who inspired the dudes in sabbath. Django Rienhardt, the Beatles, and so on.

The guitar gift that changed my life wasn't a guitar gift at all, but a fiddle gift. I'm mostly self taught on guitar but have taken many courses over the years. What none of them taught me, but I learned from taking fiddle lessons, is to break things down into small pieces and then put the pieces together. What a game changer that is! Instead of going through a song and stumbling every time I get to a certain point, I concentrate on the part where I stumble until I stumble no more. I know Tony teaches this, but very few other guitar teachers do. Conversely, I've found that violin and fiddle teachers teach this universally. It has definitely made me a MUCH better guitar player!

Oh man. So many to choose from. But if I had to trace where I am as a player now back to one thing, it would be when my parents gave me Eric Johnson's instructional video Total Electric Guitar and got me the Eric Johnson Guitar Styles book that breaks down his techniques. In the video, Eric talked about Chet Atkins as an influence and did a demo of his style. That blew me away. (I later realized he mentioned Jerry Reed too). In the book, I learned Song For George and was completely taken in by it. I was so stoked when I got it down! Fast forward a year or so and my dad tells me "Hey there's this guy Tommy Emmanuel playing at the Kimo this weekend. Wanna go?" He showed me the newspaper writeup that said "Chet Atkins calls him the best fingerpicker on the face of the planet". I read that, thought "Well, via Eric Johnson I know Chet is pretty badass, so if he says that he must be really good. And that's a really had style to play. Yeah, let's check it out". We went (it was Tommy and Stephen Bennett), and I have never been the same since. That concert introduced me to Tommy, and through Stephen Bennett to bluegrass flatpicking. And it all came back to those Eric Johnson videos and books.