Belated Excitement!
Last weekend I went to Islesboro on Sunday to play golf with my mom. This was the first time in two years that I had played golf, because of my broken shoulder last year and the tendinitis in my hands the year before that. So that was pretty cool. But the REALLY exciting thing is this!
The guitar that once belonged to Jen's long-lost brother, which we all thought had been sold in a yard sale or given to goodwill! It turns out that my dad had been using it at the school the whole time. I once thought that it was a crappy guitar and left it on the island because I had no use for it. Well, after being tuned it sounds great! It's kind of small, so it's really light and easy to carry around. It's got nylon strings, so it's really easy to play and doesn't hurt like a lot of acoustics. Check out the crazy machine heads on the side!
The crazy thing is that my dad brought this guitar home from school the very same day I called to ask my mom to take a futile look around the basement for it. And even crazier, the day before I went to the island I just bought an acoustic at the Brunswick Flea Market for $25 AND was given one by Jason! So in a period of 24 hours I went from having zero acoustic guitars to having three!
I've been playing this all the time now. I even took it to the park one day and played and sang songs. I got cheered by a woman eating her lunch after my swing version of Basket Case and my acoustic-punk version of I Think We're Alone Now. I'm totally going to bring a tip jar next time! Any suggestions on songs that I should try to learn?
Also while at the Brunswick Flea Market, I picked up this little treasure:
It was sitting at the same booth as the guitar that I bought. I was just paying for the guitar and I was like, "What is THIS?!" It was the size of a trumpet, but had the workings of a trombone! Its simplicity was astounding! The guy said, "I don't know, it came in this morning with the guitar. I was asking $35, but I'd give it to you for $15." Oh Yeah!! Done deal! When I got to Islesboro, I pulled this thing out of my backpack to show my dad (who you may or may not know is a music teacher). I had already told him that I was going to be bring over something that would shock and amaze him. True to my word, I left him shocked and amazed. He had never seen anything like it before, and said that it was a slide bugle. He proceeded to play some arpeggios on it and began to figure out how to play a full scale. We speculated as to if it was a home-brewed instrument and found that it did have "pat. pending" on it, so it must have been produced on some level or another. I tried to get him to play it some more, but he got really reluctant - it looked like he was trying to not get too attached to it. Finally at the end of my visit we busted out the guitar and slide bugle and had a sweet acoustic jam on the deck. These two instruments totally make up for losing all of those keyboards in that dream.
Here's a picture of me pretending to play the slide bugle and looking very ska.
The guitar that once belonged to Jen's long-lost brother, which we all thought had been sold in a yard sale or given to goodwill! It turns out that my dad had been using it at the school the whole time. I once thought that it was a crappy guitar and left it on the island because I had no use for it. Well, after being tuned it sounds great! It's kind of small, so it's really light and easy to carry around. It's got nylon strings, so it's really easy to play and doesn't hurt like a lot of acoustics. Check out the crazy machine heads on the side!
The crazy thing is that my dad brought this guitar home from school the very same day I called to ask my mom to take a futile look around the basement for it. And even crazier, the day before I went to the island I just bought an acoustic at the Brunswick Flea Market for $25 AND was given one by Jason! So in a period of 24 hours I went from having zero acoustic guitars to having three!
I've been playing this all the time now. I even took it to the park one day and played and sang songs. I got cheered by a woman eating her lunch after my swing version of Basket Case and my acoustic-punk version of I Think We're Alone Now. I'm totally going to bring a tip jar next time! Any suggestions on songs that I should try to learn?
Also while at the Brunswick Flea Market, I picked up this little treasure:
It was sitting at the same booth as the guitar that I bought. I was just paying for the guitar and I was like, "What is THIS?!" It was the size of a trumpet, but had the workings of a trombone! Its simplicity was astounding! The guy said, "I don't know, it came in this morning with the guitar. I was asking $35, but I'd give it to you for $15." Oh Yeah!! Done deal! When I got to Islesboro, I pulled this thing out of my backpack to show my dad (who you may or may not know is a music teacher). I had already told him that I was going to be bring over something that would shock and amaze him. True to my word, I left him shocked and amazed. He had never seen anything like it before, and said that it was a slide bugle. He proceeded to play some arpeggios on it and began to figure out how to play a full scale. We speculated as to if it was a home-brewed instrument and found that it did have "pat. pending" on it, so it must have been produced on some level or another. I tried to get him to play it some more, but he got really reluctant - it looked like he was trying to not get too attached to it. Finally at the end of my visit we busted out the guitar and slide bugle and had a sweet acoustic jam on the deck. These two instruments totally make up for losing all of those keyboards in that dream.
Here's a picture of me pretending to play the slide bugle and looking very ska.
