Critique

One of my son's friends turned three years old a few weeks ago. At his birthday party there were all of the other parents with their kids and I got into a conversation with a man who has a three year old and a six year old. These little kids play the violin. He told me about a UT program for teaching strings to toddlers. I do my best not to compare my boy to others, but these things get stuck in my subconscious mind and start rolling around.

Ian turned six on Wednesday. We've been having fun with GarageBand making noises with my Fender plugged into their cool amp effects. I asked him if he wanted a guitar for his birthday and he said yes, so I decided to buy him one. Of course, he is small, so I thought I would look for something appropriate for his age.

I went to Toys R Us and bought this thing called First Act Discovery. It is a small electric guitar with an X shaped body. Pretty cool looking. The neck is about standard width, but the whole thing is shorter than a regular guitar with a small body and a built in speaker. I knew the sound wouldn't be that great, but what the heck. I wanted something small. It was on sale for $52.00.

Ian tore through the wrapping paper and looked at the guitar and smiled and then grabbed the next present and started tearing that open. He also got a soccer ball, some art supplies, clothes and two remote control 1/24 scale Lamborghinis his grandparents sent him. So he never really looked at the guitar, but despite the Lamborghinis, there is another reason for that.

The first thing I did was tune the guitar and this took a while because the tuning gears did not mesh perfectly. I was finally able to get each string to stay in tune.

Then I just tried a simple D chord. Awful. I expected a tinny speaker sound, but this was different. The chord was not in tune. No matter how many times I tuned the strings, that D chord never sounded right.

Is there a reason they can't make a kids guitar that will sound right? Maybe they figure that parents will just think, "Well, little Johnny is going to sound bad when he's learning, and that's the reason."

My wife made such a face when I played that chord that Ian said he didn't even want to try and play the guitar. I'm taking it back.

I asked Ian the next day if he still wants a guitar, and he said yes, so I'm going to take him with me when we return it and maybe we can find something that will sound good and he will like. Stay tuned.

I've been busy

I'm playing now with Myrna Cabello http://www.myrnarocks.com.

The band has been doing well. In October we had a two night show at The Long Center in Austin. Then we played Antone's, the world famous blues club. Pinetop Perkins was in the audience. I felt very comfortable on stage there. It felt like where I belong.

Last year at this time, Myrna was finishing her debut CD and she got some great players to be on it. My favorite was Jerry Martini, "Papa J" who played with Sly and the Family Stone. I got to meet him in the studio, and he is a very nice guy. I was surprised when he agreed to come back out from California to play at our CD release gig at the Long Center in May of 2009.

So we got to hang out with him for a couple of days. I hit him up for as much information as I could about how I could become a better saxophone player. The most important advice he gave me was about the mouthpiece I needed. I was playing a Berg Larson, 90/2. That means it had a gap between the reed and the metal, of 90 thousandths of an inch and the bore was a size two, which is pretty big. Jerry said I needed a wider gap to be able to hit the higher notes easier, and a smaller bore to get a brighter pitch.

I bought the new mouthpiece as soon as I could. It took me about three weeks to get used to it, then at the first rehearsal after I had been working on it, the band noticed a definite improvement. I can really hit those high notes better, meaning under pressure, and I've never had such a great tone.

Everyone should always keep learning. I feel like I have finally had the pleasure of getting a true mentor, and I'll always be grateful for the help Papa J gave me in getting the right mouthpiece for the kind of playing that I want to do.

Playing again

I'm really looking forward to playing in a band again. The part I like best is improvising a lead for a song. I like finding new melodies in there and bringing them out. That is what comes naturally to me.

The thing I find hard is reading notes off the staff. I'm sure some people are exactly the opposite of me and can read but not improvise.

Learning the technical aspects of music help me to come up with more interesting improvisations. The more I practice my Universal-Prescot, the better I flow with anything I'm trying to do. I'm sure my proficiency will increase more, as I find ways to make practice more fun.

The idea for finding a way to use midi to play a computer game came to me years ago. The concept for what that game will be came to me in meditation only this year. Now that I have an idea of where I can go with this, I am actively working on it.

Getting the itch to play again

I finally sold my audio board. And the guy I sold it to is a bass player in a blues band. We're going to jam Wednesday. I am really ready to get out there and play again. My band broke up a couple of years ago, and I've been spending my time with my new wife and son. It has been a wonderful time of life, watching Ian take his first steps and learn his first words.

I've been practicing a lot, and I'm ready to get out there and take a few baby steps of my own. I love the blues, and it will be good playing in a blues band.