I bought my first guitar (a spanish nylon string ) with my pocket money saved at the age of 15 in 1973 .Before I used to play clarinet in the village brass band in Alsace (France) , this was a good way to learn to read music but it was not easy to play modern tunes with it .I wanted pop sounds and let my hait grow for a while.... I took my guitar with me to the school where I spent all week during 3 years, coming home for the week ends only.So I met other musicians learning to play guitar , it was cool to have music as a new language to meet friends. I swapped the guitar for a "folk" with bronze stringsand caught some Neil Young tunes that became the were the first really good vibes I could feel with this instrument by myself and also just because I could imitate his voice so well at the age of 17.... and my sister had made me the gift of the Harvest album. This actually helped me in these days to join a band palying dance music on saturday nights. We adapted Pink Floyd , Santana, Beatles, Deep Purple and so on , and it was great fun to do the session in that old farm with our group and groupies....although most of us did not understand the lyrics ( So what...!)
And to make this little story short, I still feel young when I have a guitar on hand, and music is a universal and simple way of communication . It is still the campfire's best friend and one man alone can make everybody feel fine by just singing along.... but I love also the electric actual sounds and appreciate the quality of a great Gretsch , Fender Strato or Gibson. Any town I go I always check out for the music shop...probably looking for the guitar of my dreams.
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