Lunch: Today, a small bowl of ‘Morrow’ which is a recipe from my Caribbean wife (who also loves Latin guitar music). It’s basically a rice dish with beans (you can also add things like nuts, or raisins etc if you wish). It is very filling and very nice. My wife likes to slightly burn the bottom of it in the pan and get a kind of crispy / chewy rice sculpture. Anyway, I cannot dunk this food in my coffee, for obvious reasons but I will not deny that the thought crossed my mind. It was followed with a nice apple and a bottle of water. Very nice indeed.
G&L topic: How did you discover G&L? Was it from a fellow musician? From just perusing the web? From an initial random stroll into an independent guitar shop? Your guitar teacher (if you had one)? From seeing them on TV? To my mind, G&L is like one of the best kept secret in guitars. As the saying goes….”people that know about fine instruments, know about G&L….” When did you pop your G&L cherry? I’m not convinced G&L does its best to get out there and promote itself so my feeling is many of us discovered them through word of mouth.
nonG&L topic: Guitar myths: I used to think I would not be good at the guitar because (i) I have relatively small hands and (ii) short stubby fingers (the nickname “tommy dickfingers’ springs to mind
). This is of course nonsense. There are plenty of players out there that have the same mechanical constraints I have and do just fine (Danny Gatton?). It is not a limitation to being a proficient player. So I think it’s a myth that you need long spider fingers (even though all the shredders seem to have these hand shapes). This myth probably comes from things like the finger length of players like Hendrix and Brian May. Hendrix had very long fingers and May’s are like tentacles. However, not every player is built the same way and we all have mechanical advantages and disadvantages and we should not concentrate too much on those that seem to confirm the myth at the expense of those that do not. Are you aware of any guitar myths that you commonly hear and know to be nonsense? Have you even been given really bad advice at some earlier point and if so, what was it? On a personal note – as a relatively new player, I find its my timing that’s a major limitation. I cannot get my hands to do what I hear in my head – so there is a delay. Also, lots of things can be going on to make the music sound cool including a kind of ‘broken rhythm’ (like in the blues) – where gaps of different time intervals and small accents are crucial to add the colour of the blues. Working this out is more of a limitation to me than my hands. Thoughts on this? What was the name of the old Jazz musician that lost some fingers and still continued to play (Django or something)? Now that’s overcoming a limitation.
Non G&L topic (ii) as the saying goes “If I don’t practice for one day, I notice it. If I don’t practice for two days, my fellow musicians notice it, and if I don’t practice for three days, my audience notices it.” OK – that was from a classical musician (I forget who) – but what is your practice regime? Do you still have one? I think once you get to a certain level on the curve the need to practice for hours and hours may become redundant to some degree – but if you don’t pick the guitar up for a few weeks – do you notice it? If so, in what way? I’m not talking about band practice – but your personal practice. Do you have a set regime or are you more relaxed about it? My feeling is very technical forms of playing require more of a regime – but I’m no expert.
Non G&L topic (iii) linked to the above in terms of a person over-coming limitations. Two years ago at Christmas I had to go to the local garden centre to get some bits a pieces for the family arriving at our home. The garden centre is huge and carried a whole manner of things. Low and behold who do I bump into in the plants section but Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath fame (he still lives in the Birmingham area). There he was – about 3-feet from me looking at plants with his wife / female partner. No one else hanging around seemed to be aware of him and he quietly moved around doing his thing. I saw him and as soon as I realised it was him I froze up, only in the sense that, I wanted to go up and say something nice to him, but also, I wanted to respect his privacy and leave him to his Christmas shopping. Anyway, he turned around and looked straight at me and I just said “Merry xmas Tony, have a nice one” and he replied “Cheers man, you to”. What a nice guy. It’s my only claim to fame. Tony, of course, lost the tips from some of his fingers on his fretting hand – but he overcame that and became a major innovator of his style of music. My question to you guys is, have you ever bumped into your heroes or a well known musician when you were least expecting it? What were they like? Unassuming nice guys? Total arsehole’s?
Non G&L topic (iv)Great famous live bands / artists you have seen. I have seen a lot over the years, obviously Clapton (many times), Bon Jovi, The Happy Mondays, Donovan, The Killers, Santana, The Stone Roses, Jack Johnson, etc. They were all great, but in terms of an evening of entertainment – Santana was surprising quite brilliant. The sound mix and quality was superb for the venue (not an unimportant issue for big venues) but it was the whole Latin percussion he had going on that was amazing. I have never seen so many drums. Very uplifting show and of course, the man can play. How about you guys? A famous live band that nailed it? Anyone seen the Rolling stones over the last few years? Have they still got it? Have they gotten better? Worse?
Also, I recommend you all check out the now disbanded “Stone Roses” – pure class from the Manchester sound stable.
On a personal note: I want to thank you all for joining in the discussions this week and making me feel that I had something interesting to say – it is much appreciated. This forum is generally a very friendly place and even those of us that might disagree on certain topics – seem to do so in a respectful manner, which is exactly as it should be. There is a lot of experience on this board and I have benefited greatly from being a part of it. I have read every post in the LRs this week, and even if I have not had the chance to respond to all of you, I thank you for the input. I am sure forum lurkers will be benefitting from your suggestions and thoughts as well – let’s not forget them.
I am going to try to respond to a lot of you over the weekend (those I missed).
I contacted some of you about replacing me next week as the Lunch Reporter as I did not want to be stuck with no one to follow up. I was operating a first-come-first-served type of policy. I would like to thank those of you that responded and showed an interest in picking things up for next week. However, I can confirm that next week’s reporter will be none other than “Bassman”. Good luck man, and looking forward to the posts. Apologies to those of you that did get back to me and were willing to take up the challenge, it was much appreciated. The early bird gets the worm and all that…(but then it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese…..ah well…).
The search for the perfect sandwich and dunking biscuit goes on…..if only G&L did biscuits……….
Made my weekend! 
