"Roger - It's a pretty long swim. I recommend you get one of these"
Margarator, I just had to save this pic! I hope it's okay. It's awesome!
Bill
2,376 2015-01-21 16:40:52
Re: CHORDIESTOCK III - 3/13/15 - 3/15/15 - save the date! (204 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
2,377 2015-01-21 16:36:26
Re: CHORDIESTOCK III - 3/13/15 - 3/15/15 - save the date! (204 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
I'd love to come, guys, but being new to a meet I have to ask: Where will this be? We've been to Panama City Beach and Ft. Walton. Would it be in that area, because there's a chance we could make it. Just a chance, but it would sure give me something to look forward to, being the recluse that I am. I think I'd feel really comfortable surrounded by guys and ladies with "axes". 
Thanks!
Bill
2,378 2015-01-21 13:48:12
Topic: The Song "Im So Worried" (2 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Good Morning, Y'all!
I just looked at this tune from Monty Python's Graham Chapman (I want so sing and play it for my son who worries too much!).
Both for simplicity and key's sake, I took it down to 5 semi-tones which seems to fit. This starts the song in Am and it makes me think about being destined to sing in the minor or lower keys?
How would I find out my range? This is something I ought to know and I took voice lessons, but can't remember the exercise.
Thanks for the help and I hope everyone's having a good week so far!
Bill
ETA: To add "The Song" in the title line because I didn't want you to think I was worried. 
2,379 2015-01-21 13:41:46
Re: Name Change?? (8 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Roger, I replied to your e-mail last evening with a new name. I'm sorry for the trouble. I know you're busy with other things, so I appreciate your time!
Bill
2,380 2015-01-18 17:01:52
Re: Name Change?? (8 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Hey Roger
There were only 8 songs and I wrote them down. E-mail sent to you!
I sure appreciate it!
Bill
Edited to add: I have a message from Yoda for you (I play Star Wars The Old Republic online). He says, "Laid back you truly are."
2,381 2015-01-18 12:04:44
Topic: Name Change?? (8 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Hi Everyone
I was wondering if I could change my siggi56, to something a little more "Bill-ish"? My choice is Wilhelm if that would be possible? If not, I understand and we'll just keep the ol' sigg-meister.
I hope everyone's having a great weekend! I'm feeling much better and taking care of my wife who now has what I had.
Thanks!
Bill
2,382 2015-01-16 17:06:16
Re: Jim Deeming Live Stream (4 replies, posted in JamPlay.com)
Hmmm. That must be a rare guitar, my friend, because I haven't been able to find one with zero fret although I did find a lot of that brand on a site called "Stuccu". Any chance of you posting a picture? Thanks again!
Bill
2,383 2015-01-16 16:50:50
Re: Jim Deeming Live Stream (4 replies, posted in JamPlay.com)
Thanks, dino48!
I'll give it a try. I use Icy/Hot on by back, but the fingers really only hurt when I chord, so haven't tried it there. I will take a look at your Esbana 335 (a new brand on me), and when you say "zero fret" you mean they're painted on, right?
Excuse my ignorance. I have good days and bad days and today I'm somewhere inbetween. During my high school years, one of my coaches asked my Dad, "Your son doesn't know a whole lot about sports, does he?"
My Dad replied, "know anything??? Hell, he don't even suspect anything!!!" 
Have a great day, my friend and thanks once again!
Bill
2,384 2015-01-16 00:04:28
Topic: Jim Deeming Live Stream (4 replies, posted in JamPlay.com)
Hello My Friends
Just watching the live stream and one of the question I asked was what he might recommend for a person whose chord hand is arthritic, and someone suggested playing slide (Chris, I think it was and if he posts here, thanks again)
So he suggested a slide technique site, and I lost the name, so can someone help me out?
I have never tried a slide and I have my ring finger and pinkie which are not arthritic, so how would one address this?
I spoke to a guy at the guitar shop and he said "chord normally, you'll find the more you practice, the easier it will get even though you have the arthritis." Very painful, that.
Strangely enough, my picking finger (so far) has only the middle finger involved (can't bend it so it looks like I'm flipping folks off), so I think I may could still learn to finger pick with the slide, maybe a thumb and then one of those backward plucking picks. Would this be feasible?
In closing, I really appreciate you guys being so good to me!
Thanks,
Bill
2,385 2015-01-08 02:42:46
Re: Dear Guys and Ladies (I will NOT say "Gals") (8 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Thanks, Amy. I went to the link and listened to all the songs there, but when I tried to close out, the site didn't want to let me go, so I had to close out of the whole computer.
No matter. I loved what I heard and have just one question: Has John Prine ever heard of you? And if not, WHY not?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXqFFfVpnhQ
Your fan
Bill
2,386 2015-01-06 19:16:56
Topic: Capo Training (3 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Hi Folks
Is there such a thing? When I was taking voice lessons along with my guitar, my instructor moved my capo down to "D" (I think. I have memory problems). Is there a site that will take me by the hand ("Capo for Idiots", maybe?) and show me when I need to use it?
Thanks VERY much!
Bill
2,387 2015-01-06 19:12:16
Topic: Avatars (2 replies, posted in About Chordie)
No complaints from the "German Boy", but I wanted to post an avatar of me playing my Takamine Jasmine, but you can't see me. Will there be a time in the future when we'll be given a bigger size than 60x60?
Thanks, folks!
Bill
2,388 2015-01-06 18:17:14
Re: Dear Guys and Ladies (I will NOT say "Gals") (8 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Still hanging in there. My doctor told me yesterday, that this crud usually stays around for three weeks or longer. I'm still staying in bed (do you ever play your acoustic or electric while lying down, folks?) and only up and around a little. Amy, I', watching you on YouTube right now. You're doing Blues Traveller and you have a beautiful voice. See comments and I'll be watching and leaving comments on the rest as well. Thanks for the smiles! ------ Okay, I've listened to all of them and left comments. Thank you for thinking enough of me to share your work!
2,389 2014-12-30 17:49:47
Re: Dear Guys and Ladies (I will NOT say "Gals") (8 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Thanks for the note, Amy. I have my BluRay dvd hooked up in my bedroom and it gets YouTube through my WiFi which is set up here in my computer room, so all I have to do is subscribe to y'all and I can watch you from bed! I've been watching Peter's videos for a couple of days now since I haven't felt like getting up and coming in here. It's really neat, because it's a big screen and I can see Peter's chordings really easy and when I get to feeling better, I'll be able to play right along with him, you or anyone.
Thanks!
Bill
2,390 2014-12-30 03:29:04
Topic: Dear Guys and Ladies (I will NOT say "Gals") (8 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Sorry I haven't written in a few days, but I am down with a really bad bug. I will spare y'all the details about what I am coughing up, but just know I haven't forgotten about you all, and that Peter Benson has a new fan. Pleas send me your YouTube Vid links so I can "FAN" Y'all as well.
Thanks for ALWAYS showing your fingerings of the chords with your playing! VERY important to an ol' drummer turned guitarist like me!
Love Y'all!
Bill
2,391 2014-12-24 17:48:33
Re: I LOVE This Place! (14 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Thank you bensonp, for your kind words and for what YOU are doing, new friend. I know it can't be easy for you, but I admire you so much for taking care of your wife as long as you could and being at her side every day. I don't you if you're already doing this, but your local Alzheimer's Association is a great place for support.
I also wanted to say to topdown, I'd love to be with y'all. Let me see what my wife and I can work up. If not, you KNOW you're VERY welcome here anytime and my schedule is VERY flexible (HA-HA), so let's please keep in touch.
For Unclejoe: I signed up on Jamkazam and after the holidays, I plan to check into an audio interface and do a little mores studying on what the site has to offer. I see they're still in beta (is that right?), so I want to be careful because I don't do too well with the techie stuff. I see they have a forum, so if I get stuck, I am sure I can get some support there or maybe here if you have time.
So. It's Christmas Eve and I have The good Reverend Horton Heat playing Christmas music (and my wife constantly yelling at me to turn it down), so I'd like to wish all of you new friends and those of you who may remember me from a few years ago, a Peaceful Night tonight and a great "slide" into the New Year next week.
Your Pal
Bill/Siggi
2,392 2014-12-24 01:29:57
Re: I LOVE This Place! (14 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Hi Rick!
It works for me, thanks very much. Also please see my comment on the show. You guys are great and that wasn't even ALL of you! I loved Copperhead Road the best of all of them. Rick, can I record the show directly to a cd, so I can take it into the music room and play it over the headphones?
I didn't know about copyright rules.
Thanks again, my friend! You ROCK and so do the rest of The Old Men...... "Genghis Khan, he could not keep - all his kings supplied with sleep." Another favorite.
Bill
2,393 2014-12-23 20:20:25
Re: I LOVE This Place! (14 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Thanks, rickyjack and guys. It sounds like I should hang here on a more regular basis! One of my problems (in real life, too) is that I want to be as little a burden to anyone as I can be. To my wife, to my friends, to my family and to you all as well.
It's no one's fault, really, but it has caused me to become a recluse except for the music. When I'm behind the drums or one of my guitars all of that just leaves me. But the rest of the time, I get this feeling like folks are saying, "Oh no. HIM again", and that is what I mean about being a burden. It's part of the disease process my shrink tells me and he advises to just "push through it".
So you guys - if you don't mind - will be "Bill's Magic Band" and if we can do this idea of mine, maybe it will help me out: Communicate with me and maybe tell me what songs you may be working on, and let me drum/strum along with you in my head off a cd/mp3 of the same tune. So although I can't have y'all here in real life/time, you can be my "ghost" musicians. Maybe give me an "assignment" every now and then and say something like, "Bill, we have a gig this Saturday night and we need you to have the chords to ___________ by that time, so let's "practice, man!"
Would that work?
Thanks again for the comments!
Bill aka/Siggi
2,394 2014-12-23 05:30:42
Re: I LOVE This Place! (14 replies, posted in About Chordie)
Thanks, Russell! One of the the things I have NOT lost (nor do I intend to) is my sense of humor. I was just looking back on my previous posts and noticed they have been very sporadic. Be that as it may, every one of them answered a need I had and it didn't cost me a dime!
I wish I could say I intend to lurk less and write more, but that may be writing a check that my "brain bank" can't cash. As I did when I stopped drinking 10 years ago, I'm doin' it one day at a time, so I don't commit to something I can't do.
One thing which would make me happy (for more than one day at a time, that is) is to have some guys over and play. I have everything that is needed set up and ready to play. 3 guitars (1 acc/electric) 2 basses, (1 acc/electric) a keyboard, 3 amps and a microphone. They all just sit there and gather dust. My beautiful wife allowed me the front room of our house (The "Living Room") as my music room and it's al just ready to go. No, the instruments and amps aren't top of the line, but we COULD get a visit from the police if we wanted to.
To conclude, your sig line says it all, my friend: It's NOT for sissies, is it.
All the best!
2,395 2014-12-23 05:07:08
Topic: I LOVE This Place! (14 replies, posted in About Chordie)
I just wanted to say that. I've been a member for quite a while and have lurked much of that time. "Lurk and Learn" -- that's me! If you'll do a search, you'll see I'm still alive and rockin', even though the Alzheimer's is now almost stage V (or so my neuro-shrink guy tells me).
There are a lot of things I can'do anymore (like drive), but I can still drum and I can still strum! And if I take the time, I can still make a rhyme.
The latest song I'm trying to learn is Wayfarin' Stranger, the Cash version. I've always thought our "Man In Black" left us with the legacy of tunes which although they're simply played (WF, for one), they still convey that "message", don't they?
Anyway, if you agree with me or not, Chordie has sure made it easy on this ol' boy to keep playing and singing, and I just wanted to say "thank you from the bottom of my heart" for what you do for me!
One other reason for writing you this evening is to ask if there might be others who are like me, mentally challenged with this crappy disease, yet keep on making music. It might be worthwhile for us to support each other here or by e-mail if you'd like to do that -- not pushing either way, you may be a little more private than me, and that is very okay and I respect you for it.
Thanks for letting me "check in" and talk a little music with ya'!
Happy Holidays and I hope 2015 is better for all of us than this year has been! I think the phrase "it sucked" is probably an understatement.
Edited to add: I'm gonna be 65 at the end of the year.
2,396 2010-01-05 00:05:21
Re: Hi (An Introduction) (24 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Hello!
Been a while, huh?
Since I last posted, much has happened - much of it with the dementia which, unfortunately has gotten worse.
I am very fortunate to have a wonderful support group which includes my wife, son and my brother, as well as the in-laws.
The holidays didn't go too well for me and I kept a low profile.
On Thanksgiving, I did go to a family get-together and played my guitar and sang Christmas Carols with the children, but I asked to be taken home because after I had put my guitar in her case, I wanted to go out to the porch and sit and talk with the "guys", but bumped my head right into one of those glass "storm doors". To make matters worse, when I DID get the door open and stepped through, I missed a small ledge and stumbled like a drunk onto the porch.
Since I "clown around" with the kids a lot, I recovered, went "Ta-Daaaaa!", but soon thereafter asked my wife to take me home.
The short-term memory is getting worse and unless I'm talking music, drumming, guitar-playing or cycling, I REALLLY have to concentrate on what I want to say/write.
Haven't actually attempted it, but scared my wife enough when I asked if it wouldn't be better if I weren't around, that she asked me to admit myself to a pyschiatric hospital in Atlanta and that's where I spent 4 days.
It was actually okay, because I had been forgetting to take my meds and so was really off-kilter with the depression-management. The dementia meds I take don't actually REVERSE the disease, they just try to keep it from getting worse.
So we got all that regulated and I also made some good friends - two of whom played guitar!
I DO pick up the Jasmine now and then, but it's really an effort sometimes, though I DO miss it.
So......
Just checking in to let y'all know I'm (mostly) still around, though as The Beatles say on The White Album, "I'm a little older and a little slower"!
So did YOU think YOUR holidays sucked?????;)
Did I just make you feel a LITTLE better about that????
As I said before, I like knowing this site is here (even though I do forget sometimes), and I feel a very strong bond with my fellow musicians here on Chordie.
Wishing all the best to you in 2010.
Thanks,
Bill (siggi56)
2,397 2009-07-24 05:48:12
Re: Keeping The Emotions In Check (15 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Southpaw,
Absolutely no disrespect taken!
Not EVER!
I asked the question and I needed a "both sides" answer.
I took voice lessons for about 6 months, and it was my teacher who told me I needed to get my emotions under control, or else I'd lose the "tone" of the song and maybe even go "off-key" if I could not recover, which would be an "insult" and an "arrogance": thinking only of myself and how the song relates to me, rather than how I am presenting it to my audience.
See?
I can kinda see her point, can't you?
I just cannot control my feelings when I sing and play those songs.
I only wanted to know if I am alone in this (I see I am not! ), and what, if anything, I can do to help it.
I really appreciate the replies, pro and con!
Note to KajiMa: Thanks for visiting the blog! As you can tell, I don't pull any punches, considering this might be the last chance I have to express myself, and who knows for how much longer?
That is why I love my guitar: It and the songs I play on it, require memory, in the form of which fingers to place on which strings to get the correct tone for my voice.
I also play "brain games" and World of Warcraft, but I love my guitars and singing the best.
Whew!
Dude, that was a lot of coding *LOL*, but as I wrote earlier, I thank you for the responses!
Bill/Siggi56
2,398 2009-07-24 02:59:33
Re: Keeping The Emotions In Check (15 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Yup: "Sam Stone", right? I am a Viet Nam Vet, and that one grabs me too, selso!
And thanks, Russell, the tears have never completely "shut me down", but they were evident, and I always warn my small audience that it might happen.
Maybe I shouldn't do that?
Thanks
Bill
ETA: to correct Russell's name. I hope I got it right this time. Sorry, man!
2,399 2009-07-24 02:02:06
Topic: Keeping The Emotions In Check (15 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)
Hey, Again!
Do any of you have this problem, and how do you handle it?
I am a Johnny Cash fan, and have loved his music ever since growing up as a youngster in Germany, but I have a problem lately being able to play some his tunes without choking up, and yeah, okay, crying!
Mostly, it's the "deep", meaningful songs, and especially the last ones he recorded, during which one could hear how painful it was for him to sing because of the cancer.
One in particular that I love to play, but cannot get through without getting emotional, is "We'll Meet Again" and another is "Legend In My Time".
Someone once told me that to get emotional during a performance was considered the height of arrogance, and an insult to the audience. Is that true? Am I being unprofessional when that happens to me?
"We'll Meet Again", I will admit, has special significance to me, because it is a Vera Lynn tune which she performed for my Dad's WWII unit shortly before we left Germany for the States, but others that I play of his, are just because I loved him and music, and they fit my vocal range.
So what's the answer?
Thanks!
Bill
2,400 2009-07-10 22:09:52
Topic: "800-588-2300" (0 replies, posted in Song requests)
My wife hums this jingle incessantly and drives me bananas with it, so what I'd like to do is stop her once and for all by playing it (accompanied by screaming feedback) through my 40 watt Fender amp with my Strat.
My little "music room" is upstairs. so it would really be effective if she couldn't see/hear it coming.
Anyone know the tabs and that final chord, and is that kind of thing permitted to ask here?
(I didn't fully understand the instructions)
Thanks
Bill