🚀 go-pugleaf

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Mark P. Nelson wrote:
> "~misfit~" <sore_n_happy@nospamyahoo.com.au> wrote in
> news:is1auk$7l1$1@dont-email.me:
>
>>
>> You sure do! I used to play with a guitar a bit but, after not having
>> one for ages, than picking one up with thoughts of getting another I
>> quickly realised that my fingers had forgotten how to make the chords
>> and, boy did my fingertips get sore quickly!
>
> I played long enough that my hands have the muscle memory to play the
> chords still without my having to think about it. Kind of like
> WordPerfect keys. I used them so long I'll remember those hot-keys
> still when I can no longer remember my own name.

Ahhh, yeah. Kinda like riding a bike yeah? I only ever dabbled so don't have 
that in-grained memory and, the last time I picked up a guitar it was like 
I'd never played. (Could be the senility and/or the drugs though...)

> Of course my fingers
> take a bit longer to shift from one chord to another, but that's
> getting better with practice. Fingertips still hurt after too short a
> time, of course!

Yup. It'd take a while to harden up again. I remember the first few weeks 
having sore fingertips..

>> What do you play (if you've already told me I plead senility)? I've
>> never been a serious muso, more a dabbler. I used to do soundmixing
>> and stage lighting for a touring band for a few years in my feckless
>> youth. In that environment it's hard to *not* pick up an instrument.
>> When there's three classic Telecasters there it's even harder! ;-) I
>> always said I'd buy my own Tele and Fender Twin Reverb (or
>> Super-Twin) one day.....
>>
>
> I play keyboards and guitar. I have a nice Ovation six-string and also
> love to play my wife's old Guild jumbo-body twelve-string.

I nearly bought an Ovation once but the salesman talked me out of it, sold 
me on a Washburn instead that cost twice as much. Trouble was I never did 
get around to saving enough for the Washburn so ended up without a decent 
acoustic. <shrug> If I did I'd probably still know how to play. <g>

(As I write this Neil Young's 'Old Man' comes on my office stereo [1K-odd 
songs on a single-purpose laptop playing on random, Winamp and Stereo Tool, 
plugged into an old Sony amp with JBL bookshelf speakers and a small powered 
sub]. I used to play a few of Neil's tunes on the guitar.... Good sounds.)

> I no
> longer own any electric guitars. I used to play bass, too, but no
> longer. I had several years of classical piano when I was young, and
> the theory I learned then has been so useful ever since.

Yeah, I know a few folks who started off their music careers with childhood 
piano lessons. Most of them say they hated it at the time... Odd thing was I 
always wanted piano lessons and used to 'play' with a nieghbour's piano as 
kid. Of course, coming from a background of poverty, lower-class English, 
piano lessons were but a dream. A saying I remember well from those years is 
"There's lots worse off...".

> I recently
> bought an electronic keyboard which has several hundred voices and
> have been amusing myself playing all the parts from Tubular Bells. I
> have always been amazed at what Mike Oldfield did with a
> sixteen-track tape machine (and he did his original demo on a single
> quarter-inch tape). Man, would that have been easier if he'd had
> today's technology.

*Love* Mike Oldfield! (At least, /did/, haven't listened to much for years.) 
My favourite of his was 'Ommadawn' and I still own 'Five Miles Out' and 
'Crises'. (The others have gone the way of a shed-load of albums over the 
years...) Heh! I liked Oldfield even more when I found out that we share a 
birthday. He's eight years older than me we share the day. :-)

> I'm mostly well, thanks, and glad to hear (from the other thread here)
> that you're feeling a bit better, if only temporarily--isn't it all
> temporary, though?

Indeed. Remembering that helps me get through the /not great/ times. F'r 
instance, it's 15.2şC here at my desk right now,
16şC outside (I have a cheap Chinese cordless doorbell that also has a 
in/out temp function), I'm freakin' cold, wearing fingerless gloves and 
several layers of clothes... There's no way on god's green earth that I can 
afford heating. But I get through it by telling myself that it's temporary 
(and there's lots worse off). It'll be warmer in the crematorium. <g>

> My sister came to visit from Scotland last month, bringing a nephew
> and niece I've never met. I took them for pony-and-cart driving
> lessons and we all had a lot of fun.

That's brilliant! I was rapt[*] when you told about meeting up after all 
those years apart. Good to hear. :-)

> All the best, mate.

You too buddy, you too. Be well.

[*] LOL, just found out that we NZers have our very own definition of the 
word 'rapt': http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rapt I used it in a combination 
of the NZ and the international senses. ;)
-- 
Shaun.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also
into you." Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche