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Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | And MWoody sez:
Friends don't let Friends pay Retail! Amen! :cool:
Back to "I Feel good playing" this one.
I really miss the Fedex-Destroyed 1121 Artist.
That wasn't a Loud guitar by any means. But it was light, and comfortable, it had a comfortable neck, and it sounded good to me when I was playing it by myself, for myself.
Another one that I wish that I didn't sell. |
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Joined:
April 2008
Posts: 1851
Location: Newington, CT | Originally posted by FlySig:
Originally posted by AlanM:
Further is it safe to say that the Concrete ones are the "I-FEEL-good-playing-here" ones, while the Abstract/Subjective ones are the "I-SOUND-good-playing-here" ones, and that THOSE are the ones we REALLY aspire to nail down?
I realize I'm kind of stating the obvious here, but I'm teaching my daughter to play and I want to be able to focus on more than just: "Here's a D-chord; here's an A-chord..." OK, I'll take a stab at this. Both the concrete and abstract have everything to do with how it feels. The emotion and pleasure certainly depend on individual priorities and perceptions, but I think that we can say that a guitar which mechanically fits and sonically pleases is important, but if it is butt ugly it won't please us to own it or perform with it.
When I feel great playing, I believe that I sound better as well. And when I sound great, I feel better.
As to teaching your daughter, you left out one really important part, which is the fun of it. Besides playing the right chords, and liking the instrument's feel/sound, it should be fun. Maybe she would have fun playing a red flame T, or the same model as her favorite artist, or one made in a particular place that she likes. What makes a guitar fun? Maybe it's the one that she could afford to buy herself even though it isn't objectively a high quality instrument.
I DO speak a lot of fun when my daughter and I play, and I DO try to teach her things that I think she will enjoy learning. As much as I teach her, I spend a lot of time listening to her in order to determine what will ignite her enjoyment.
It's a real balancing act, because I also don't want her to think that there is no effort involved. |
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Joined:
April 2006
Posts: 1017
Location: Budd Lake, NJ | Just a quick detour:
Men are better than guitars, because
1. Gertrude has never stripped a bed, washed the wall, and then mopped the floor when one of our children was ambushed by a stomach virus in the middle of the night.
2. She has never pulled a dipstick, charged a battery, swapped tires or filled a radiator.
3. She has never brought home a quart jar full of quince blossoms, just because she thought I might find them beautiful.
4. She has never told me I looked like a million dollars when the thought hadn't even occured to me.
But...(back on topic)...she has given me my most important lesson when it comes to selecting guitars: Recognizing what feels "right." As I get older, the comfort factor is slowly beginning to encroach its' way into all the other areas of evaluation. If it feels like it's going to hurt, there's no point in its' sounding big, looking beautiful, or intonating perfectly. (That's why the Jewel resides in one of my cases--all the factors convergent in one special little guitar.) Somehow, when they are "right," you just know it--and you know they are meant for you, too.
--Karen |
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It's all so complicated...
