Me circa 1992

[ellyssian]

Me circa 1992
Originally uploaded by ellyssian.

Okay, so it's not a very recent photo of me - it's from June 1992, if I remember right.

But hey, it's a picture, it's me, and I'm not actually holding a guitar!

This was taken in Sudbury, MA at the grist mill near the Longfellow Inn.

Comments

[jenjiyana.livejournal.com]

you know, i always pictured you as some type of semi-preppy Lands End / LL Bean catalogue type of guy with short light brown hair...dont ask why...i dont know

your kids are adorable btw..how is justin feeling?

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

:: kicks Lands End and LL Bean catalogs under the couch ::

What, me? Nope, got me all wrong... I've only had short hair twice in the past 15 years (at least!)

He's okay, the HSP rash faded, came back a little, and is fading again.

[rowancat.livejournal.com]

Photo looks nice :) But tis true you don't quite match
mental image :grin:

":: kicks Lands End and LL Bean catalogs under the couch ::"

LL Bean catalogs really irritate me, all the best colours are used for the women's clothing.

No, i don't mean the "feminine" colours some associate with drab or cutesy conservative women's clothing but bright intense pure primary colours esp in the reds and greens.

The guys get washed out drab faded dull colours. And the company is scared to death of any black clothing, closest you see is a 1950s type charcoal.

Too bad because it's not what you'd call a cool or hip clothing outlet by any standards but the clothes *are* extremely well made.

Even some of the winter coats for women are much better looking, i saw one in *jet black* faux shearling with fake silver gray fur trim down the front sort of like an up to date afghan coat, even lined with some subtle
embroidery like afghan coats... ok, the overdone fur on the sleeves is a bit much for a guy but it could always be trimmed down a little to get rid of the slightly puffy look and it had no right over left closing like most women's jackets have...but it was tapered in at the waist too much so as to fit a womans figure, alas. Even the hat she wore looked like sort of a compact rave cap, all of her clothing totally unisex style... grumble

The guy standing behind her in the photo was wearing an ugly gray short jacket of course and one of those sweaters your grandmother would give you for xmas as a kid :)

I've always worn a mix of the best i could find from the hippie, punk, goth (understated) and student look but you have to grab multiples of clothing of really nice colours and styles before they move on to the next trend :grin:

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I actually have a few Eddie Bauer things - a sweater and some long sleeve shirts - but nothing from LL Bean or Land's End. I do - however - get their catalogs, although I prefer to look through the climbing/camping/etc. gear, and once in a great while I actually order some.

[tikireaper.livejournal.com]

You kinda look like Dave Mustaine.
Which isn;t a nad thing...I had a crush on himback in 89 or so. :)

[tikireaper.livejournal.com]

A NAD thing?
Wow, whatta Freudian slip.
That should have been BAD thing. HEE!

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Your slip was showing, and I completely missed it... =)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Heh. But Dave? Why not a better guitar player? =)

[celticess.livejournal.com]

Man I love your hair... My hair was sort of like that when I was young. But your's is long yet behaving mine is curly and I just get a fro if I don't dry it fast enough. :P

Speaking of guitars I still have to see if I can find my son one... Too bad I don't know how good ebay is for student quality 38-41"(6 string acoustic) ones.

[rowancat.livejournal.com]

Buy locally, you *have* to hear complex musical instruments,
esp guitars, in person... and feel how they play, etc.
Wrong guitar could turn your son off to them like totally
and delay any musical talent he has.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I agree - I started off with a very cheap acoustic and I hated it. Finally got an electric, and even with that, I almost lost interest.

Actually had it out and price-tagged in a yard sale, and then I picked it up, spent several hundreds of dollars to upgrade the electronics and get it refinished, and I spent most of the next 15 years with a guitar close at hand.

[celticess.livejournal.com]

Oh man would I ever regret it if he got a electric... LOL He tries very hard but I'm sure the neighbour(my house is a duplex) wouldn't be amused at the noise. While my son likes music he's not good at it at all due to his disabling stuff. I try to encourage him to play for fun though and also as an alternative to video games. :)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Trying is the most important thing.

I still remember this one kid I was giving lessons to when I was subbing for a teacher who quit suddenly because we didn't have a full enough schedule - this kid was about 6 or so, and had these tiny little hands, could barely span one fret on his 1/4 sized kids guitar.

I looked through the book the previous teacher gave him, as well as his personal music notebook. I hid my grimace, as the kid was working on some fairly intricate stuff, jazz chords I was just learning in the months prior to going to Berklee. I fiigured he must be seriously into jazz to get into difficult stuff like that.

"Okay, 12 bar blues in A minor, a 1 and a 2 and..."

Within about thirty seconds I realized the kid wasn't interested in jazz, and had no ability to play anything the previous teacher had given him.

I asked him what he liked, and within that half hour I showed him the opening riff of AC/DC's Back in Black. There's one bit that has a stretch of 6-7 frets (I don't remember it offhand), and I wrote out that way to play it as well as a simplified way that his little hands could handle it.

Next week, he played it the "right" way and had it down perfectly. Last I heard, more than 5 years later, he was still playing and was considered to be an extremely talented and serious young musician.

[celticess.livejournal.com]

Cool :) Re his turnaround not that the teacher before you was rough on the little guy. My sons hands are normal size. My son is actually 5ft 11 and will be 14 in Jan. His problem is low muscle tone so he is very clumsy with his hands and slow. The muscles don't wish to comply with movement very well. I have tried exercises with him since he was about 5 and that got him up to ability to print semi legable printing. He will never handwrite and even printing is very hard for him still. I have thought of putting a tensor bandage on him as it might give a bit more support and cut the achyness a little. He has fiddled with his foster respite brothers fretless base and liked it. He was nagging the heck out of me for one of those. Fantastic guitards but not easy for most people to learn so I've been told.(I've seen one and heard one but never tried it myself)

My son seems to like the Beatles and reciently he's taken to AC/DC which is better than what he has been into at points(he likes some sort of R&B which these days sounds suspiciously like Rap... I tell him it has a silent c in it. Not all rap is bad but quite a bit is about as yucky to me as most opera)

I was btw starting to teach him how to play part of the baseline from Smoke on the Water before we moved. My old roommate had a guitar so he'd let my son borrow it sometimes. My old roommate couldn't read music though and went by ear.(amusingly that roommate at one point was a roadie for Chilliwack and Boston I think)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Bass takes a bit more finger strength (generally), and if the action is lower it tends to buzz badly. The scale length is longer, so stretching can be tougher. The advantages are the string spacing is wider, so it's generally easier - I know a lot who say they play bass because of "fat fingers" and just find it easier to hit one note at a time.

Chords are generally off the bass player list of requirements - although the more virtuoso bass guys will certainly play them.

Fretless isn't a bad idea - it takes less force to sound the note, so it might appeal for that reason. Fretless guitars are available, but generally very rare and expensive.

I'd have to see him play, but if he says he's happy with a fretless bass, that might be the best bet.

You can get one with "fret" lines, so positioning isn't a matter of guesswork. That's probably the only thing I could even remotely think of that would make learning a fretless more difficult - faced with a blank neck with no sense of what note is where other than what your ear tells you.

[celticess.livejournal.com]

Yes I suppose. Btw I used to play alto/bari/tenor sax, flute/piccalo, and guitar amoungst other things and I was at grade 11 of my toronto conservatory before quitting.(injury to my left hand)

My son is mentally challanged and the guitar is mostly a toy for him which is why I had considered the ebay way. :P I may check Long and McQuade(used to be Ward Music here) for a used student one for him. He started trying guitar in middle school. He's not the greatest at it but it was fun for him and not a video game. His hands are messed up from severe fine motor disorder so he's not the greatest at cords but he will sit and try for the longest time. :)

Personally if I got one for myself it would be a 12 string metal and yea I would check for sound warmth. :)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I can give him a ton of exercises that can help build the technical ability - they're pretty simple, but make a difference for everyone from a first time player to a pro.

Let me know if you're interested!

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Mine, behaving? Oy, I don't think that word has ever been used to describe my hair - it has ruined at least one career in cosmetology!

But, yeah, that's why I picked that photo: one of the view where it looks like it just might be doing what I wanted it to do.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

I would check out Ibanez - over the years their quality ebbs and flows, but overall they tend to be at least decent, and usually affordable.

For reference, what I would consider a "good" acoustic would probably be in the $1000-2000 US range. A student quality might be found below $500, but quality greatly improves in the $500-1000 range. If he's in deadly earnest about being a guitar player, you probably don't want to go less than $150-200 - anything in that range is, as rowancat points out, disposable.

The acoustic I have would have cost about $189 back 10-15 years ago - can't remember exactly when I got it. It is somewhat serviceable, but also somewhat difficult to play. The acoustic I would have, if I could afford it, would be a custom Wechter Elite Florentine cutaway nylon string.

Does he already play?

[celticess.livejournal.com]

Eeep pricy these days eh? I knew the electrics could go quite high for a good Fender or something though. My guitar I used to have cost me about $80 in 1983. Unfortunately I sold it to the pay the bills early into my marriage along with my darkroom equipment. I was hoping I could find my son one at a similar price but in BC, Canada the range seems to be $149 and up for the sortof one I had. But that is new not used. You can find some rather nice used ones around. Though depending on what they are the price goes up vs down. But that is true of a few specific instruments out there. As for myself I'd like to get a midi keyboard but I doubt I'd find anything too fancy(a korg would cost me up to $5000 or so) as I'm on a fixed income being a disabled student and single parent. I've also considered a flute again but my arthritis is hell.(I love the sound of a base/tenor flute and have seen them for $150-350 new)

Anyways... Yes my son already plays. Due to severe fine motor disorder he has problems with hand placement for chords. He is also awkward with the pick. The main thing is he loves to mess with it and it is artistic for him which he's for years avoided due to his hand problems. He wont ever be a great or even a good player but he could improve a little and even if he doesn't he would have fun playing. :) I have enough musical training in my past to know though he couldn't carry his weight in a band and such. Even if I were to tutor him heavily and he'd probably resent the heavy tutuoring if I did it. :/ So as I said this is mostly just fun for him.

[rowancat.livejournal.com]

Prices now-ouch! In the sixties, girlfriend of mine had a Martin D series (forget which one) beautiful instrument,
cost her 500, she was very protective of it but let me fool around with it under her watchful eyes :)
Sound was incredible just touching strings and strumming a few notes!

Years later i decided to learn a bit on my own, bought a nice sounding Yamaha acoustic for 200-300 or so in a music store they had for a few years in the Garage (Hvd Sq) in the mid seventies.

Good sound, easy fret action, i dumped the nylon strings, picked up sets of flat wound steel strings
(for blues style sound and bottlenecking, bending notes and tamping strings)

Didn't bother with chords but experimented with scales
and tuning always fingerpicking (blisters and bleeding
lots tho-ouch!) Hated picks tho.

Tuning it to a Middle Eastern oud scale resulted in a lot of broken g strings ;)

Very shy about playing with others around but ok when alone or with a girlfriend, learned by experimenting
with John Fahey styles (saw him in 66 and bought all his albums) and taking off from there with total improvisations getting lost in the music, turning it upside down and inside out (Bach influence) a bit of Leo Kotke influence would also start long runs as well
as Indian sarod influences and early Velvet Underground, Richard and Mimi Farina, etc...

Never learnt formally (by book) and later had to sell it during a financial crisis-typical...

Electric? again Cambridge 1968, house where i lived
someone had one set up in the attic, picked it up and
tried Hendrix style (sound, not songs) playing just learning as i went, music in my head and let the guitar lead me.

Got totally into it, got carried away and people downstairs thought i had bought a loud stereo upstairs
with new music :grin: Just the right mindset at the time i guess.

Totally typical stage fright pressure situation when playing around others :)

One of those things where you need *no* distractions to break your moods while improvising and taking off from multiple starting points and back again via twisty side paths where one series of runs suggests another taking you in totally new directions yet it all flows and hangs together perfectly :)

Maybe will buy another someday (acoustic)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Short of the Wechter, I like Breedlove - another handmade custom guitar - and then high-end Taylors.

Duran Duran trashed a beautiful handmade Taylor when they did their MTV Unplugged - I shipped it off to them (playing it for a bit first, of course, just to make sure it was in working order! ; ), and it arrived back in pieces, literally.

I'd prefer a Taylor over most Martins - although Martins are good stuff (and local, just up the road from my work.) I've played Chris Martin's personal guitar, and that was an exceptional instrument.

If you get electronics in your acoustic, make sure they're Fishman Transducers - best stuff out there (and I'm not just saying that because I used to work there and know the guys doing the work!)

[opakele.livejournal.com]

I got the impression you were very tall. Long hair I got, but I expected your hair to be lighter than it is.

Hum. Interesting the picutures you build for your self of online people.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

It gets blonde streaks once in a while - or it used to. Pretty much shades o' gray now, at least as far as additional color is concerned.

This is from October:


And this one is from an October a handful of years ago, when I won "Best Illegal Alien" for my portrayal of an arrogant British neo-classical guitarist who was ticked off over the latest trends in music that celebrated talentless hacks and... funny, all I had to do was fake the accent... :

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

Well, you are tall and, once, ever so long ago, you were blonde. The first pic of you here may have been taken years ago, but you haven't changed much, so it is a fairly accurate representation.

[nhmetalchick.livejournal.com]

"Mine, behaving? Oy, I don't think that word has ever been used to describe my hair - it has ruined at least one career in cosmetology!"

More like 2.. Remember some of us dropped out of school! Ya want me to send you a bunch more of you in the mail? You can show them even further back then 92.. If I remmeber right these should be 88? I have a bunch of both, guitar and no guitar.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Actually, you were the one I was thinking of... who was the other??? =)

[nhmetalchick.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that I was who you meant.. lol, but just to clairfy things. It wasn't your hair that caused me leave..