The Beauty of Guitars

When I was a kid, my best friend and I decided to start a band in his dad's shed. We didn't have much equipment, he had a beaten up old drum kit and I had a barely-working electric guitar plugged into my dad's old reel-to-reel tape recorder.

We practised hard and loved every minute of it. Eventually we became worthy of the title "musician" and graduated to better equipment. But we never lost the feeling of excitement we had when we began our musical journey in that drafty old shed all those years ago.

These days, I've got a small collection of lovely guitars and I appreciate their form and physical presence just as much as the tones they produce. I have some great photos of my guitars, as well as those of friends. I hope you enjoy them.

Painting an orange guitar

Photo by Dr H

Oil-can-guitar player

Photo by Steve Crane

Multi-coloured guitar on the street

Photo by aswinkb

Musicians Like To Party With A Vaporizer

One thing I have noticed while hanging out with other guitar players is that they like to party! I mean, we’re all people who have chosen to lead a non-conventional lifestyle. So we don’t feel constrained by society’s expectations. That means you might find us at the Roxbury at 4am on a Tuesday evening! Some nights start early and they just keep going.

Since I’m a musician with a bit of higher education, I try to keep the partying to a responsible level. I’m not saying I am straight edge – by no means! I do like to knock back some beers before, during, and after a gig. However, I don’t do it as much as I used to when I was younger. I’m not the guy using my vaporizer every night behind the club. I have found that it tends to make my playing a bit sloppy. I need to bust out some solos throughout the show, and they need to be locked down tight.

Dazed And Confused

The band is going pretty well lately. We have a very solid rhythm section. The drummer is really excellent, the guy can seriously shred with the likes of Neil Peart. I remember back when I was in high school, every drummer idolized Neil Peart. To be honest, I can’t name many other drummers, except maybe John Bonham from Led Zeppelin. I was just thinking of Led Zeppelin the other day when I was watching that movie Dazed and Confused. That movie was steeped in 70s culture. I don’t think people really knew how to use a vaporizer back then. Not sure if they were invented yet.

The main actor in that movie was named Jason London. I always get him confused with his brother Jeremy London. To be honest I really haven’t followed their respective careers much. I remember the kid in that movie was Wiley Wiggins. Not sure what’s going on with Wiley lately. That movie actually came out 18 years ago now. I was just looking at the IMDB page and I recognize a lot of the actors. Apparently Milla Jovovich was in it as well. Didn’t expect that.

Anyway, it’s back to practicing now. Gotta learn the mixolydian scale.