Learning the guitar in the '60s and now

While jamming with a nephew using 2 acoustic guitars, he asked since when have I started learning how to play the guitar. I was taken by surprise as normally this question is asked of someone really good and I was just the opposite. Perhaps that was why he asked!

It is quite unfair to compare between us (33 years difference) as when I first picked up the Kapok guitar, it was in the ‘60s and we relied on classmates to show the simple 3-chord (C,F & G7) songs and the chances of us meeting were few and far between. When we needed exposure most, we had only black and white tv with ½- hour shows like Shindig and cartoon Beatles which could hardly be informative.

I still remember having to listen to radio, then tapes and records, over and over again, just to get the lyrics right. Chords were by ‘trial and error’, and notes were from ‘OK’ song books, using numbers from 1 to 7.

Suffice to say, unless one was really talented and determined, the likely scenario was someone who tried to learn and play for a period of few months, gave up, take up again, and so on. Instead of stopping at a level of plateau, it was more likely a case of being stuck in a trough now and again.

The truth is, I am still unable to play lead guitar without making mistakes and I play songs with major chords and ignore those with ‘sus’, ‘aug’ and so on.

Unlike the nephew, what I show him can be easily absorbed but what he shows cannot be easily followed by me. So the gap widens just like our generation gap. When I used that as an analogy, he was quick to point out that though I cannot take his ‘metal music’ he listens to and dig songs of our generation by Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin! In fact, he is also into oldies like Shadows and Byrds!

Now, guitar players are spoilt for choice with modern aids ranging from CD, VCD, DVD to gadgets which can slow down the tune to help in identifying the notes. There are countless ‘how to’ VCD/DVD produced by well-known guitarists to choose from, not to mention songs, lyrics, chords and tabs downloadable from the internet.

Here again, I wish to point out that though all the new gadgets are also available to old-timers like me, it is difficult at our age to learn new tricks unless we have the passion for it. It is past our ideal age for learning anything new. Availability is one thing, affordability is another, and there is the question of whether it will serve the purpose. If some knowledge is gained then the satisfaction is wonderful just like before.

My ex-classmate who has a passion for exploring the techniques of professional pianists, sent an email via a friend to me of his first recording experience with his ex-band mates:

I am still in Bangkok, we were quite near the bombsite. We were actually in MBK at that time, but could not hear a thing.

Wished you were with me during the 3 days of recording just one miserable song, Tequila, will forward to you when I get back to Sydney.

Recording is one thing, but the main game is the mixing session by the sound engineer. We had one day to practice, another day to record individually.

The first to record is the drummer who has to listen to the guide song for timing and when to do his drum roll etc., then the bassist, then the keyboardist, lead guitarist, lastly, vocalists.

I played 4 different sounds and 4 different tunes. The drummer had almost 10-12 mics, one facing each of the drum equipment, so that the volume and wave length for each equipment can be adjusted.

Playing "live" of course is very much easier, but recording...every mistake is very load and clear.

The sound engineer then has to mix all of the tracks together...this process took almost a day. Since Thomas wants to be perfect and each one of us want his own instrument to sound the loudest, it was best to leave the mixing to the engineer instead.

It was fun though, since it was my first attempt to record anything, but a huge learning curve for me and thankful for Thomas to show us since he has done this quite often in Singapore.

At night, we went to a studio (Arkakayar - I think) in PJ (recording studio was in Chow Kit area = Channel 11), to practise more songs for Thursday night gig at Duta Vista.

We did quite well actually at Duta Vista since the resident band was quite slow and sleepy and some Shadows songs thown in.

Ken