• From: Virginia, USA
  • Registered: 2009-06-12
  • Posts: 873

Topic: What Matters Most

About a year ago I signed up for the epiphany-of-the-week club. In case you’re unfamiliar with this club let me explain. It is a no-cost, quasi-random way to have ideas, aha moments, etc. poked into your life. This club is a more fun than the law should allow and has proven so effective that I occasionally must stop everything just to consider the possibilities. I can’t tell you how many times they’ve introduced and idea to me while driving causing me to pull to the side of the road and stop so I could ponder. In fact, they have the uncanny ability to catch me off guard every time but almost always when I am (or should be) doing something else: listening to a church sermon, studying, working, driving, and yes, playing the guitar.

Today while playing, sitting on my ottoman cross-legged quietly picking out notes on my guitar, EOTW slapped me in the face with this gem: what if all the conversations, debates, rants, and axle-wrappage over guitar brands, woods, strings, and guitar specifications simple didn’t matter? What if, at the end of the day, the sounds (for me), the music (for others), are the only things that matter? What if the only thing that mattered in guitar-playing was player and the listener - which could be the same person?

With this poke I put my guitar on its stand and sat quietly for several minutes. This thought is hardly new or even original but it was mine now. What to do with it? Play on; business as usual? Pick one guitar and sell the rest? Give up the guitar entirely and admit defeat? Buy more guitars? Introduce other non-players to the guitar and music? Write something? Sing something? Play something? Sit quietly? Hammer out a 900 calorie run?

The epiphany-of-the-week club is free and there are other variants such as epiphany-of-the-year/month/day/minute/second but I found the weekly frequency the best choice for me. I encourage all of you to consider joining this club. It is satisfying and rewarding, and you might just find the answers to many of the heretofore imponderables in life. Let me know how it goes.
dj

  • Zurf
  • Zurf
  • Blunt but well meaning moderator
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  • From: Virginia, USA
  • Registered: 2007-06-27
  • Posts: 7,522

Re: What Matters Most

What to do with that knowledge?  Why, get back to playing of course. 

Topdown's been saying it for years - if it sounds good, it is good. 

- Zurf

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude
  • zguitar
  • Don't call me Sir
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  • From: Mentone, Ca
  • Registered: 2009-01-10
  • Posts: 1,367

Re: What Matters Most

In a away I think the epiphany answered itself. Often when someone posts about a particular brand the final answer is what sounds good to them. So really, for most of us, that's it. $300 or $1500 doesn't matter.

Keep Rockin!!!!!!!!!!!
  • From: Madeira Beach, Florida
  • Registered: 2007-12-05
  • Posts: 3,312

Re: What Matters Most

Zurf wrote:

Topdown's been saying it for years - if it sounds good, it is good. 

- Zurf

LOL - I sure have been saying that for years - It's rule No.1

I think I'll make that my sig line!

Rule No. 1 - If it sounds good - it is good!
  • From: NY
  • Registered: 2009-08-26
  • Posts: 4,320

Re: What Matters Most

Rule no. 2 - if it doesn't sound good, have another drink.  wink

Art and beauty are in the eyes of the beholder.
What constitutes excellent music is in the ears of the listener.

mekidsmom's Website

  • From: Bellevue, WA
  • Registered: 2006-06-15
  • Posts: 3,336

Re: What Matters Most

mekidsmom wrote:

Rule no. 2 - if it doesn't sound good, have another drink.  wink

This is right in line with whatever genius said "The more you drink, the better we sound."

Someday we'll win this thing...

[url=http://www.aclosesecond.com]www.aclosesecond.com[/url]

jerome.oneil's Website

  • From: Frederick, MD
  • Registered: 2006-12-28
  • Posts: 851

Re: What Matters Most

I can't play and sound good alone....I'm a support guitarist.
I can't sing.
I can't construct a song on my own from chords...my theory is garbage.
Without my (delay) pedals to cover my mistakes I'd get sat down every sunday

If it was JUST all about the music...I'd be dead in the water.


=[
Dm

"Talent instantly recognizes genius,
but mediocrity knows nothing more than itself."

-Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle

Detman101's Website

  • dino48
  • Honoured Member
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  • From: los banos,california
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 6,801

Re: What Matters Most

Detman101 wrote:

I can't play and sound good alone....I'm a support guitarist.
I can't sing.
I can't construct a song on my own from chords...my theory is garbage.
Without my (delay) pedals to cover my mistakes I'd get sat down every sunday

If it was JUST all about the music...I'd be dead in the water.


=[
Dm

Hi detman,the solution may be in the above posts,Have another drink!

my papy said son your going too drive me too drinking if you dont stop driving that   Hot  Rod  Lincoln!! Cmdr cody and his lost planet airman
  • beamer
  • beamer
  • THE METALIZER. Naughty Rocker Boy.
  • Offline
  • From: WASHINGTON ST
  • Registered: 2006-07-29
  • Posts: 2,811

Re: What Matters Most

Detman101 wrote:

I can't play and sound good alone....I'm a support guitarist.
I can't sing.
I can't construct a song on my own from chords...my theory is garbage.
Without my (delay) pedals to cover my mistakes I'd get sat down every sunday

If it was JUST all about the music...I'd be dead in the water.


=[
Dm

Hey you sure you werent talking about me? big_smile  Im the exact same way!LOLOLOLOLOLOL

oh #2 is good Amy  and Jerome, your statement is cusin to The more I drink the better you look! lol

“Find your own sound.  Dont be a second rateYngwie Malmsteen be a first rate you”

– George Lynch 2013 (Dokken, Lynchmob, KXM, Tooth & Nail etc....)
  • From: Chillicothe, Ohio
  • Registered: 2010-08-16
  • Posts: 1,013

Re: What Matters Most

jerome.oneil wrote:
mekidsmom wrote:

Rule no. 2 - if it doesn't sound good, have another drink.  wink

This is right in line with whatever genius said "The more you drink, the better we sound."

The first time I used that line back in the early 80's, the bar I was playing at ran out of beer. (True story)

DE

I want to read my own water, choose my own path, write my own songs
  • Zurf
  • Zurf
  • Blunt but well meaning moderator
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  • From: Virginia, USA
  • Registered: 2007-06-27
  • Posts: 7,522

Re: What Matters Most

Dirty Ed wrote:
jerome.oneil wrote:
mekidsmom wrote:

Rule no. 2 - if it doesn't sound good, have another drink.  wink

This is right in line with whatever genius said "The more you drink, the better we sound."

The first time I used that line back in the early 80's, the bar I was playing at ran out of beer. (True story)

DE

I bet you sounded AWESOME!

Granted B chord amnesty by King of the Mutants (Long live the king).
If it comes from the heart and you add a few beers... it'll be awesome! - Mekidsmom
When in doubt ... hats. - B.G. Dude
  • From: Frederick, MD
  • Registered: 2006-12-28
  • Posts: 851

Re: What Matters Most

dino48 wrote:
Detman101 wrote:

I can't play and sound good alone....I'm a support guitarist.
I can't sing.
I can't construct a song on my own from chords...my theory is garbage.
Without my (delay) pedals to cover my mistakes I'd get sat down every sunday

If it was JUST all about the music...I'd be dead in the water.


=[
Dm

Hi detman,the solution may be in the above posts,Have another drink!

Lol...you're right.

Rule #2 would work for me if I drank...
But since I don't, no chance of it working for me.


Dm

"Talent instantly recognizes genius,
but mediocrity knows nothing more than itself."

-Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle

Detman101's Website