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Guth

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I went through some health related issues starting a few years ago, the impacts of which took a toll on both myself as well as those that I care for and who care for me. One of the less drastic, but still notable impacts of my experience was that I lost almost all interest in many of the things that I have been passionate about for most of my life, including playing guitar. 

Well I've been picking the guitar up more and more often recently as it has become somewhat therapeutic again for the first time in a long time.  I even started working on creating a new tune for the first time in ages. The long layoff sure did not do my playing any favors, but I'm still having a good time with it. I tracked down my little Sony digital recorder that I used to record everything I did previously. Upon examining the recorder I realized that I had left the batteries in it before I put it away the last time, something that I've been very good at avoiding in the past. It was bad and I was really disappointed in myself, but what can you really do other than try to clean it up? It took me quite a while but I did finally to get everything cleaned up and working once again. That's when my second challenge hit me. I could not remember very much about how I actually used this device or how I got my tracks into my laptop and out to the Internet to share.

Since I'm nowhere close to having anything ready to record yet at this point, I decided to see what I had left in the recorder's built-in memory (a lot it would appear). I'm going to delete most of what I saved. However, instead of waiting until I had something worth recording I figured that I would see if I could get one of these old recordings transferred to my macbook, converted to a compressed file format and posted up to my website. I ran into a few problems. Some due to the knowledge I'd long forgotten and some due to software discrepancies. But in the end I did manage to succeed.

With that in mind, I'm just going to call this my Archive Project. Whether this is the only thing I find worth sharing or if there will be more I can't say. This particular recording was the very first one that I pulled up (folder 01, recording 01). To be honest I can't even remember how to play most of this tune any longer, just like so many other old tunes of my own creation it seems. I might be able to again some day, but I definitely fall into that class of person that if I don't use it, I lose it.

As is often the case when recording myself, I couldn't make it all the way though without flubbing it.  But what the heck, at this point I'll consider it to be documentary in nature and move on. I don't know if I'll find anything else that might be worth sharing. Hopefully I am able to finish up the new tune soon enough — again, the reason for digging the recorder out in the first place. But since I've been cooped up in the house for so long now I don't mind projects like this as it is helping me to pass the time, so I'll keep digging through the recorder's memory to see what all I can get rid of and what else might be worth sharing to help you all pass a bit more time yourselves.

With that in mind, here is archive piece 1 (like most anything I do, this is short, but if you manage to make it all the way through it will help you pass another 2 minutes and 29 seconds of your day):

J45TVarchives01

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Here's another one. This is a tune written by the man who taught me how to fingerpick 3 1/2 decades ago. His name is Michael Brill and finding this recording caused me to do some searching to find that he is still making music and performing in the mountains of Colorado. I owe a lot of my guitar-related happiness to this man. I was playing this song by memory, the original much better than what I pulled off here. I also played this at a tempo much faster than intended (a result of my nervousness while playing and a constant battle for me).

Anyway, this has turned out to be a nice way to pass some time and get my mind off of the heaviness of the world at this point in time.

Mike Brill Tune

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4 hours ago, Red 333 said:

Hope your health situation is improving.  We're all thinking of you.

Red 333

Thanks Red. I should be clear that I am doing good now — better than I've been in many years. I only really wanted to explain my absence from playing and the impact life can have on our creative outlets.

All the best,
Guth

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2 hours ago, Cougar said:

That's a good one!  I like that tempo!  I wanted to break out a washboard or something 😄

That’s cool, I’m good with washboards — very rootsy!

Unfortunately the second tune that I posted also calls out for a washboard by the time I finished with it. In it’s tempo as conceived, tides caressing the sands of the beach would have been much more fitting.

Maybe that second tune in it’s intended tempo would be another good project for me to focus on this year — provided that I can actually manage to recall how to play it once again that is. 

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4 hours ago, Lars68 said:

Oh man, I wish I could play like that. Super!

Heh, I wish I could too — the extended time away from playing has definitely taken its toll on my skills. Thanks for the kind words just the same.

I fully understand that my situation was completely different than what many are going through at the moment. However, if any of you currently find yourselves in a situation where you are simply wanting to spend some time playing guitar but are unable to do so for whatever reason (at a time when it would likely have a needed calming effect), know that you have my sympathies.

 

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