Hi all, This is going to be a rather lengthy post, so don’t say I didn’t warn ya.
I was born in 1954. My parents gave me musical toys to play with as early as when I was one-and-a-half years old, and I used to pick out tunes that I heard on the radio or on television. One of those musical toys was a little plastic guitar which I would tune up to a major chord. I was mystified by those little ridges on the neck which I later learned were called frets and that pushing the strings down behind those frets would let me go way beyond the chord that I’d tuned the guitar to. In 1963 I discovered the piano, and when my family would go to visit relatives or friends, the first thing I’d do upon entering their houses would see if I could find one to bang around on. Once I figured out the note relationships I could then try to replicate what I hear on the radio, on TV or in church. My folks got me started on piano lessons so in addition to learning a bit of Braille music I got an early education in theory. But by then I got bit by the rock ‘n roll bug and was fascinated by the sounds of the electric guitar on records by the Beatles, Stones, Dave Clark Five, the Kinks and the Who. I discovered some neighborhood kids who also played and loved rock music and we actually put together a little rock band with me on keys. We did our first gig at a bar mitzvah party in the spring of 1966 and gigged frequently throughout that summer. Dad bought me a combo organ and an amp and that was my rig for a number of years. Seems I’ve always had some sort of band to gig with both on keyboards and guitar and I’m still doing it at age 70. Anyway, back then in 1966 the guys would leave their guitars and basses down in my basement where we practiced, and I began to explore the guitar by ear and had all sorts of fun figuring out how they worked. Playing organ was lots of fun but I knew that some day I’d find a way to get my own guitar. In late 1967 two things happened for me that strengthened my resolve to get a guitar. I heard WLS out of Chicago playing Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love, and I’d never ever heard a guitar sound like that. Then, shortly thereafter my local station in Kansas City, WHB, ran their Tuesday night segment called Make It Or Break It, in which a brand-new single was introduced. If the audience liked it it would go into heavy rotation; if not, the DJ would break the single in half and throw it in the trash. On the night in question, the new single was Foxey Lady by Jimi Hendrix. . That was a total mindF**k for me and I said to myself, I wanna do that. I loved the power of Eric’s and Jimi’s guitar sounds BTW, Foxey Lady was broken in half and trashed much to my extreme chagrin. Fast forward a few months and my sister’s boyfriend’s brother gave me a 1962 Gibson SG Junior which I still have to this day and I was free to set about really learning the instrument. Trouble was, I learned it Jeff Healey-style, playing overhand with the guitar lying on my lap. My bandmates gave me grief about playing that way and showed me how to properly hold the guitar and proper fingering. From then on, I was off and running. It was much easier to play that way and imitate the likes of Eric, Jimi, Johnny Winter, Peter Frampton, Leslie West, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, all of whom influenced me in one way or another back then. I also picked up an acoustic guitar and learned a bit about slide guitar and also fingerpicking, plus different tunings used by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Stephen Stills, David Crosby and others. . That’s been loads of fun and challenging in the bargain. I guess to sum it all up, my modus operandi has always been to try to figure things out by ear and try to replicate what I’ve heard. If you’ve got the ear for it, grab your axe, tune into as much music as you can and woodshed, just play and play and play. Find some buddies to hang and jam with and go for it. It can be a tremendous learning experience and a hell of a lot of fun. Tom From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of CJ & AA MAY Sent: Monday, June 3, 2024 2:30 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: learning to play guitar and other stringed instruments as a blind person I learnt to play the guitar first when my daughter’s primary school teacher offered lunchtime lessons to parents and then I attended evening classes. I started with basic guitar chords used in popular and rock songs but then went onto classical guitar and only stopped when the others in the class started learning to read music and I could no longer keep pace with them. Alison From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Joshua Hendrickson Sent: Monday, June 3, 2024 10:07 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: learning to play guitar and other stringed instruments as a blind person I began learning guitar from a course from NLS called Don Hoffer’s Guitar method for the blind. Also a sighted person should have no trouble teaching someone who is blind the guitar. I took guitar lessons from someone who was sighted and had no problems. I also learned a lot by ear. Sent from My totally awesome iPhone!! On Jun 3, 2024, at 3:09 PM, Gerardo Corripio <gera1...@gmail.com <mailto:gera1...@gmail.com> > wrote: I imagine you're with the NLS BARD service? Because there's a bunch of material by Bill Brown. Hope this helps some! Gera Enviado desde mi iPhone SE (2nd Generation) de Telcel El 3 jun 2024, a la(s) 2:08 p.m., Dan <dbeaver...@gmail.com <mailto:dbeaver...@gmail.com> > escribió: HI all, I am asking this on 2 lists since I have seen posts about playing musical instruments on both. I am wanting to learn to play guitar, mandolin, etc. I have no sight at all so would definitely have to learn to play in a tactile manner. How have those on these lists who play instruments learned to do so? I have no one near me who knows how to teach a blind person to play so I may have to do this on my own. thanks for any help with this. -- Dan Beaver (KA4DAN) USA -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: mk...@ucla.edu <mailto:mk...@ucla.edu> . Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com <mailto:caraqu...@caraquinn.com> The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com <mailto:viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com> . To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/66b9ba97-7e92-4899-9a1b-d0d3b7d8b878%40gmail.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/66b9ba97-7e92-4899-9a1b-d0d3b7d8b878%40gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> . -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: mk...@ucla.edu <mailto:mk...@ucla.edu> . Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com <mailto:caraqu...@caraquinn.com> The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com <mailto:viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com> . To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/A425E1CC-D545-4F89-963F-BD8EBD31219C%40gmail.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/A425E1CC-D545-4F89-963F-BD8EBD31219C%40gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> . -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: mk...@ucla.edu <mailto:mk...@ucla.edu> . Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com <mailto:caraqu...@caraquinn.com> The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. 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Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com <mailto:viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com> . To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/001b01dab5fd%242da56ba0%2488f042e0%24%40gmail.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/001b01dab5fd%242da56ba0%2488f042e0%24%40gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> . -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: mk...@ucla.edu. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/006101dab60e%240e1908d0%242a4b1a70%24%40gmail.com.
