Jam Sessions

On Friday I had a chance to jam with two friends in my basement.  There are only two ducks in this picture because it was getting late, so you'll have to imagine the third.  We'd been looking forward for a while to rocking out with electric guitars and making some positive noise.  It was a pleasure to engage in joint musical inspiration.  One of us would start playing a few chords or fingerpick a pattern, and the other two would figure out what we could add without overpowering the original idea or changing the mood drastically.  Probably the coolest feeling was how we would all without saying anything know when an idea had run its course, and slowly, spontaneously move together into different territory.  Of course to someone on the outside it might have sounded like just so much noodling around, but to be playing that way was satisfying and challenging.  I enjoy playing with people who are better than me, and I felt like that was the case here.  I could keep up, but I was pushing myself, which felt great.  Can't wait to do it again.

Unexpected Serenades

Yesterday my housemate cooked dinner and I serenaded him in the kitchen.  He enjoys cooking, and reassured me that he would like it just as much if I were playing and singing as if I were helping him chop vegetables, etc.  For my part, I had gotten home from work with a hankering to play the guitar and sing a few old favorites.  Yes, I did in fact have a music stand in the kitchen to hold the lyric sheets, and no, our kitchen is not so cavernously large as this hastily sketched drawing would have you believe.  My mom used to refer to me as a wandering troubadour when I would walk around the house with my guitar, playing as I popped my head into the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, and all over.  Unexpectedly being sang to, I believe, is a real treat, and one I like to bring to others when the occasion feels right.  And sometimes I need to do something in the kitchen, say, but I'm just not ready to put down my guitar quite yet, so I'll be standing in front of the refrigerator, trying to grab the milk and sandwich materials without banging the guitar into anything.  Assuming I succeed, I'll be all ready for a snack and a song (in between bites, of course)!

Funny-shaped Electric Guitars

Since I first picked up an electric guitar at age thirteen, I have been smitten with the instrument in ways that I can't explain to anyone but fellow devotees without sounding seriously, unhealthily obsessive.  I love everything about the electric guitar--the solidity; the feel of wood, lacquer, metal, and plastic; its smooth curves; its balance in my arms; the incredible range of sounds that can be coaxed and wrenched from the instrument.  One of the things that makes the electric guitar so interesting to me is the nearly limitless range of shapes in which it can be made.  An acoustic guitar needs to follow certain design parameters because its shape directly determines its ability to amplify the sound of the strings.  But an electric guitar relies on magnetic pickups and amplifiers for this, so it is freed to take on any shape you can imagine.  There are too many examples to mention, but some models of note are the Gibson Explorer and Flying V; the Ibanez Destroyer, Iceman, Xiphos, and JEM; the Peavey Mantis and Vandenberg; the B.C. Rich Mockingbird and Eagle; and of course custom guitars made for Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick (some with up to five necks on one instrument) and Billy Gibbons of Z.Z. Top (have you seen the white furry guitar?).  It's safe to bet this will not be my last post on the electric guitar--it's a lifetime love affair.