Getting Through the Bleeding Blisters

Yes Jimi Hendrix kindled a spark for me to be more interested  to play the six string guitar. First off I would need a better guitar and ideally it should be a fender stratocaster like Jimi's guitar. My reality arrived in the way of knowing I would not have the Fender too soon so I made due with the crappy "Zim Gar" guitar Uncle Joe paid for. After all, just with that I began realizing I was grateful just having a guitar so the new passion and fresh inspiration from Hendrix I began blistering my fingers until they bled. First thing was learning a few chords and already having a rhythm in me I began strumming.

"Jimi looking very happy!"

1st song I learned was of course none other than Louie Louie by the Kingsmen. Followed by Hang on Sloopy by the McCoys and Decembers Children by the Stones. Of course what I thought sounded OK actually sounded bad when I plugged into a friends amplifier. Now I needed an amplifier so I could hear how crappy I sounded and begin "listening to the sound and the notes". I began to notice that I could listen to a note and find it fairly quick thus began my ear training. It was astounding to me also to take the note and figure the stack of notes to go with it to form a chord. I was now at the point of getting through the bleeding blisters and developing permanent callouses on the fingers The pain was now an everyday experience but it had to be done. That is the initiation of wanting to play an instrument. Especially if it was a stringed instrument.   To Be Continued... Coming up next....Hey Joe.

I will continue with my story

I will continue with my story tommorow but for now please visit
my Divine Designs...thank you

Copy and paste
Divine Designs News - http://eepurl.com/Eo_1

It's a day off

Sunday was a good day not to write.  So on with the story. BTW this bio is a draft and the grammar will need plenty of editing.I'm writing in the way we would be having a chat on the stoop or street corner.

 So there I was playing the bass notes to any given song on a six string guitar and although it wasn't the proper  instrument to be using as a bass guitar, I was still learning and making music. The Beatles were the "craze" at the time so now everybody wanted to play now. I actually auditioned for a few bands but my equipment sucked and so did I. I just could not do it on a six string, I needed a real bass and that never happened.

Then one day I was walking around my neighborhood in Chelsea MA with a tiny transistor radio to me ear listening to the mainstream am radio stations at the time. A song came on and it was different than what was out at the time. The guitar playing was very different than the British and American pop artists I immediately knew what I had to do. That was to put six strings on that guitar and learn to play the guitar and I wanted to sound like the song I heard on the radio that day. The bands name was The Jimi Hendrix Experience and I believe the song I heard was Purple Haze.I ran out the first chance I could when I received  my weekly allowance and bought the 45" single of Purple Haze and the flip side of the record was Fire. Now I had to practice my ass off.

to be cont. tomorrow.

So what about the guitar?

    So... about the guitar. No doubt my family knew what I was headed for and especially since my interests with the arts began at a young age. My Dad never completed the 5th  grade. He had to leave his education behind so that he could work to help his parents financially by going to work at that young age. learning that without training or an education he struggled to make a living but working his ass off and did not want that to happen to his children.

Before we get into the guitar bid, here is a little info about a man who raise 7 children and knew first hand about showbiz. He too was very creative. He once told me he played piano when he was a teen and he had a baby grand piano. He and a friend wrote a song titled " Danceing with Tears in my Eyes" and presented it to a publisher in Boston MA. They were told the song wasent that good and that he would not publish it. They left his office devastated after the hard work they put into writing the song resulting with my Dad selling the piano to buy a car. In the 1930's it was hip to own a car for two reason...Women and work. Meanwhile because they left the song with the pubisher thinking it was trash, the pubisher actually sold the song. Later it was used in a few movies.

So he was not thrilled at the idea of my obsession to the arts. But my Uncle Joe, a very smart and funny man, decided to buy me a guitar instead of the drums because they were more expensive and too loud. My first guitar was a "ZIM GAR". I capitolized that because not only was it cheap, it also really sucked and hard for me to play.
So the next best thing I could come up with is to put 4 heavy gauge strings on it and use it to learn the bass guitar.

Heres where the story begins....more next post...thanks for reading and as you can see this is going to be a long adventure...bookmark my blog or rss it. ;-)

"ZimGar guitars were imported by a Brooklyn outfit and available for about $30.00-$50.00 from Kmart back in the 60s - usually short-scale, unabashedly cheap, and likely only of interest to a vintage Japanese import otaku (and there are more than a few), it was the "Esteban special" of its day. It's still probably worth $100 or so (in excellent shape) if you can find the right buyer.

Good News

Paragraph 1. If you have a Dream, a Vision, Goal or Desire --- go at it and go at it hard and heavy!! When I was 8 years old I knew I wanted to be Music. I began pretending to perform at 4-5 years old with fifties rock n roll. At 9 years old I had my first guitar and broke it because I used it as a bridge and walked across the neck and snapped it in half like a piece of one by three inch piece of pine wood. I cried hard. At 10 I was playing the drums. I became a snare drummer for a drum and bugle corps and it was a dream to march in the parades on Broadway. I was "Drums" I learned para diddles, rolls, flam's and was on my way to reach my  Dream...But that wasn't the case. I would play on my best friend’s kit to practice playing but then he began gigging. My parents at that time could not afford a drum kit for me let alone the thought of me rehearsing in my bedroom which already cramped with a bed, dresser, my pet chicken and myself.




2. I would drum anywhere with anything. I constantly drummed with my fingers at the kitchen table and used the heels of my shoes to get a kick sound and it drove my parents and the tenants on the first floor bonkers. My best Uncle Joe kicked in for me to buy a guitar. ((((Guitar?))))) But I love the drums. I can play the drums. I'm really good with meter, rhythm, hand and foot coordination. The finances just weren’t there in 1962. My Dad was already paying for me to attend a catholic school-which was the good “Old Italian” way and still is today. Great for some kids but I wished they used the money to buy me the drums.



3. I was a rebel at an early age. First day in kindergarden I crawled below the desks to sneak out because the teacher would not let me color at the same table with a girl I had a crush on and besides I didn’t see any garden there at all. My cousin Mary was waiting outside to pick me up and the rest is history with that idea. I was now officially a crowned rebel and it’s been that way ever since which by the way Kids…”do not try this at home” That’s my story..you can get your own.



So about the guitar… TO BE CONTINUED…