My Trip Out West

MarkM
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Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2009 8:26 am
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Sat Nov 20, 2010 1:37 pm

My Trip West

So I’m sitting here in San Jose airport. Gate 28. It’s 6:00 PST (local time) November 18th and my first of 3 flights is already delayed an hour. I suppose that is ok since I had a 3 hour layover in L.A. anyway before I got on my next flight to JFK (NYC). More on that later. Like I was saying I have a bit of time on my hands now. Where to begin? Well a few weeks ago I was on a conference call with a customer and was asked to come to a meeting in Sunnyvale California. Ah….OK that will work I think. I checked my calendar and it looked as though I could make it. The only other meeting that I had to get to that week was in Burlington Vermont on Friday morning.

After my call I swiveled in my home office chair to look at my “home” computer. Of course TG was front and center. I was probably reading another thought provoking post from Tony. It then dawned on me that Neil lives out in California. Once I remembered his town of Los Gatos (how could I forget a town with that name) I went on to yahoo maps and saw that it was only 20 minutes away. Well I figured that I would try and give him a shout and see if he had some free time for a quick visit from yours truly.

The next day, if memory serves, I was in NYC for some meetings and that evening I posted a PM to Neil on the TG site letting him know that I would be in the area on the 17th and 18th of November. A few hours had passed and I had PM’d Matt about another matter and let him know that I would be out in CA and that I tried to PM Neil but understood that he was probably too busy to see the message. Well Matt sent me Neil’s TG email address and told me to reach out to him that way and he would let Neil know of my incoming message. Well about 15 or so minutes later Neil sent a response stating that he did have time and that would be a good idea.

Back to gate 28 here at the airport. Hmm??? Do I eat now or wait to I get to LA in a few hours??? Probably wait to LA as I’ll need something to do anyway.

After a few days I had confirmed the meeting in California and then let Neil know that I’d be coming over to see him any time on the 17th (Wednesday). He said that would be good but wasn’t sure as to the time yet and asked me if there was anything I wanted to cover. Well I didn’t really have an agenda and wrote back that I wasn’t going to be brining my guitar so I had no expectations. I figured we could grab some lunch or dinner and that would be enough for me. I’m not sure how it came out but one way or another we determined that he had a spare guitar and that we could figure it out when I got there. Cool!!!

So two days ago (was it really two days?? Feels like a week ago) I flew from Manchester NH to San Jose by way of Detroit and Salt Lake City. Let me state that I never do multiple hops across country if I don’t have too. I had no choice this time and I don’t recommend any more than one layover if you can avoid it. Before I left I saw that Neil was online (5:15AM his time. Very early riser) and emailed him letting him know I was heading to the airport. I finally landed at 4:00PM local time in CA. Got the rental car and headed to my hotel.
After I checked in I looked at my email and saw that Neil had responded and said he would try and call me later. He thought we could grab an hour at his house the following day but wasn’t sure yet of the exact time. I then had some dinner in the room and proceeded to look around TG for awhile.

Oops. Power is running out on the laptop. I need to plug it in and recharge. I’ll be back later.

Ok so where was I………. It’s now 7:00PM local time and I’m starting to get tired. Long day. Got a longer night ahead of me. Hmmm. Some coffee would be nice about now. Maybe when I get to LA.

Ah yes. I was looking at TG in my room the other night. Wow did the TG team put out some great stuff the last few days or what? Not fair when you are 3000 miles away from your guitars and home. So after a few hours Neil got back to me and said that we should meet at his lesson studio the following afternoon around 4:00 and that he would call me the next morning. Wow!! I thought that this was a great opportunity for me to see his studio and was really looking forward to this. So instead of going to bed at a reasonable hour I decided to stay on TG a while longer and looked at all the Neil and Mike reunion video footage. I finally decided to hit the sack and get some sleep.

The next day, Wednesday, I got up and felt pretty rested as I got used to the 3 hour time difference. I had a bunch of stuff to do for work and spend the rest of the day doing email and getting on phone calls. Neil called and we agreed that 4:00 was good and that I would meet him there. Let me just say that that it’s pretty weird when you are looking at Neil’s lesson on Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant (I didn’t say I was going to work all day) and then you pick up the phone and there he is. I just thought that was funny.

Finally around 3:15 or so I left the hotel and took a ride out to Neil’s studio. I’ve got to say that I’ve never been to this particular part of California before. I’ve been a few hours north and spent some time in the LA area. Well it was beautiful around Neil’s place. I highly recommend getting out to the Sunnyvale area. The GPS found his place without any problems and then I noticed that I was a few minutes early. So I checked my messages and emails and then decided to get out of the car and walk across the street and look for the door. As I was nearing the building I hear “Hey there”. I recognized the voice right away and there behind me was Neil standing behind his car that he had just pulled in behind my rental. Yup. Hawaiian style shirt, shorts and flip flops. Awesome. The website guitar teacher extraordinaire that we’ve all come to recognize on the screen was right there shaking my hand. Pretty neat.

OK. They are calling a bunch of flights and stuff so I need to go and check them out and see if I’m still leaving at the right time. Don’t want to get stuck here tonight as I’ve got a meeting to get to in VT tomorrow morning. Yuck. They are playing a MUSAK version of the Beatles “You won’t see me” on the airport PA system. Nasty……..Be back later.

Time is now 10:20 and I’m in LA. Had a cup of coffee before I left and I was wired for the flight. Couldn’t fall asleep so I listened to John Lennon’s Mind Games Album and got half way through Walls and Bridges. Man is LAX a freaking zoo. Unbelievable. It’s been so long since I’ve been here I forgot how crazy it is. Well I’ve got about another 30 minutes to go before my next flight to NYC. Oh and I forgot how big those 747’s are. Man they are huge. Had one from Air New Zealand on my right and one from Quantas air on my left. Massive machines.

Now let me read up the page a bit and see where I was. Ah yes. Ok. Neil met me in the street. Yup. Well, he had me grab a guitar case out of his truck and then we headed upstairs to his studio. We were the only two there when we go there so he took a call and told me to take out the guitar. It was the one he just did the “I’ll Be Back” lesson on. Nice low action on this one. Once he got off his call we just chatted in what I would call the lobby of his place. To be honest I don’t remember much (it’s late and I’m tired at the moment) of what we discussed. Some Beatles of course, a little bit of our backgrounds. Regardless of what the conversation was about it was extremely comfortable. Very relaxed atmosphere. Now Neil didn’t know me from a hole in the wall and I only knew him from his videos and website. I must say he is as easy going in person as he is on the website.

OK so after a little bit we went into a side room where he gives his lessons. Nice little room. Video camera was in the upper corner (more on that later) a couple of chairs and his laptop. I think a desk as well now that I think of it. Well I started just noodleing around with the guitar doing some finger picking stuff that I was working on. Pink Floyd’s… (give me a moment here I’m having a brain cramp trying to remember the damn name of the song……) Ah ha… It was “Goodbye Blue Sky”. I wish I could say I tore it up and played it so well that Neil was in shock. Um ….. no… I doubt he was. I got through the first half and he showed me a few helpful hints on the double hammeron and the D bass notes. As always his tips clicked in my brain and I can’t wait to try them out when I get home….HOME….. About 18 more hours. Sorry I digress.

After that we got on to some conversation about a Doobie Brothers song and he showed me a chord and wanted to know if I knew what it was. Well folks that was the proverbial edge of the cliff, the point of no return, the place where I didn’t think we’d be going. The fret board………..”Well Neil” I said as I put my brain into super memory recall mode….. “Well that is a barre with the shape of an Am7” Ah ha I’m thinking. Pretty clever coming up with the Am7 part huh? He looks at me and says “well yes Mark it is in the shape of the Am7 but what chord is it barred at this fret?” We’ll I’m afraid I froze in my seat and didn’t have an answer. I felt like I was in school and I hadn’t done my homework. Out comes the piano keyboard or rather a piece of paper with a picture of the keyboard. “Mark do you know the names of the keys on the piano?” Nope.

Well we go into a crash course on the ABC’s and how they work on the fret board and the keyboard actually. All the while the video is recording this. You can only guess how foolish I was feeling. Neil was great though. He showed me the order of the keys on the keyboard and then asked me to show him from the nut to the 12th fret on the low E sting. E,F,G,A,B,C,D…… It was painful. Wait until you all see it. Once I got it he had me do it backwards. Then the 5th string forwards and backwards, the 4th, 3rd, 2nd and yes the 1st. Ah be we pretended the 1st was an F string because we already did E. Well he got me to think of the notes as a circle and not linear. Something like that. You may all just get a chance some day to learn from my pain……. Just kidding it was actually quite fun and it helped me understand quite a bit about chord formations. I can practice this as I’m driving and we’ll anywhere really. I’m sure we’ll discuss this again later.

Time check. OK it’s now 11:05 PST and I’m getting ready to board. I hope I get to sleep on this flight. 5 ½ hours is a long time and I’ve got this meeting in VT. So I’m supposed to land in NYC at 7:30ish and then get on another freaking plane to Burlington VT. I hope to get back to you all at some point on my flight or when I land in NYC. Until then………

Time is now 9:30AM EST and I’m aboard yet another plane heading to Burlington VT from JFK. The flight from LA wasn’t too bad. I pretty much passed out for about 4 hours or so. Had a large Starbucks in NY and I’m ready to go. Well at least until my meeting is over. I’ll catch a 3 hour ride back to Manchester NH where I left my car at the airport where this all started earlier in the week.

So back to the story. Yes the fret board experience was very humbling. I haven’t watched the video that Neil gave me yet but plan to as soon as I get home. After about 40 minutes or so we worked on a song that I wanted to learn. I’ll keep the name and Artist to myself for a little while. Actually it will probably be on the video anyway so you can get it there. So I know Neil has heard of this song before but may not know the chord progression and stuff like that. Well he puts it on the laptop and we can hear it playing through the speakers. All the while Neil is trying to determine where the bass notes are and what the chords are on his guitar. Very interesting to see. I saw him do this once before on a video that he posted with Matt doing a similar exercise. However to see and hear it in person was very impressive. In about 10 minutes he had the picking pattern with individual notes and the chord progression for the strumming part all laid out. Less than 5 minutes later and he had printed off a copy of the PFD he got through Guitar Pro and we were then playing the song to the recording.

We’ll the battery is dying again and we are having lots of turbulence. Got to go for now. Maybe I’ll get back to this on the car ride back to NH later this afternoon. Later………

11/20/2010 Saturday 10:52 AM EST. I’m back home and somewhat rested. Here is the last interruption to the story here. We finally landed in VT and it was 32F outside. A far cry from California. We had a great meeting and then I grabbed a 3 hour ride from my partner back to Manchester airport in NH where my car was. Finally got home last night at 6:30PM. I was so tired that I just couldn’t’ get back to this NOVEL on my trip to visit with Neil. So…….

Once Neil is done writing the chords down we run through it a few times while the song is playing in the back ground. I’m going through the chords and as he shows me where we are on his sheet so I can see where some of the picking patterns come in to play from time to time. We then wrap up the lesson and chat for a while back in the lobby for a while. During our conversation it comes up that I have about 4 hours of down time the next day after my meeting and before I have to get to the airport and fly to Vermont. Neil extends the invitation to allow me to swing by his house the following afternoon which will give me a place to change out of my suit so I don’t have to essentially sleep in it the whole night. Fantastic!!!

The next day (Thursday) arrives and after my meetings I find my way to his house but notice that I’m running a bit early so I pulled into a store’s parking lot not too far away from his house. I figured I could run through some email and phone messages from there until it was time go over at our agreed upon time. However I do email him and let him know where I am. About 5 minutes later he responds back that is free and to come on over. 10 minutes later I’m pulling up to his house and he is outside on the phone. (with Matt I later learned.) Unfortunately Matt was busy so he wasn’t going to be coming over that afternoon. Bummer. It would have been great to meet with him as well. (Maybe next time Matt). So we head in through his back yard and once inside Neil shows me where the bathroom is and I thankfully change out of my damn suit. I had about 45 minutes before I had to leave so we just chatted for awhile. It was pretty neat to be there and see where some of the video’s had been filmed. I recognized that fireplace immediately from so many of the things I’ve seen on TG. Although the lesson the previous day was fantastic, I’d have to say that my time with him at his house that day was as fun or more so for me. I was a bit more relaxed and it was just so comfortable talking with him. We discussed how much the site has grown, his home town, different guitar players, etc, and I actually stumped him on or rather found an album that he didn’t have that I surely thought he would. Steven Stills “Stills Alone”. The one with “Tree Top Flyer” on it. The time just flew by and before I knew it I had to get going to the airport. Little did I know at the time that my flight was delayed an hour.

So that kind of brings us back to where this whole thing started way back when I was at Gate 28 in San Jose. I can’t thank Neil enough for his hospitality. Oh I forgot to mention that when I was at his house he gave me a DVD with our lesson on it. Very nice indeed. I’ve only watched about 10 minutes of it so far and I must say it is very humbling. I’m sure it will be on the site before too long where, in the end, I agree that it will be a great teaching tool for folks like me that really are very weak on the fret board and how the notes are laid out. Back to Neil now. I’ll sum it up this way. Great guitar player. Great teacher. But most importantly, great guy. Thank you Neil for a time that I will not forget. It meant a lot to me and it is very much appreciated. Until next time………..

Now where is my guitar!!!!!

MarkM


AcousticAl
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Sat Nov 20, 2010 2:16 pm

Great stuff, Mark! I can sympathize with your fear over the fret board. I'd fail that test miserably!

Will we get to see your lesson in the 'fly on the wall' series? Would be cool!


d_dog
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Sat Nov 20, 2010 2:35 pm

Wow, what an awesome story Mark! Truly envious. Can't wait to see the lesson, I hope it gets posted.


BobR
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Sat Nov 20, 2010 3:51 pm

Mark,

That was an absolutely fabulous story. I am so jealous(except for the fretboard stuff :laugh: )that you were able to meet Neil. See, all that traveling you do really pays off big time.

I'd still like to get together some time.

Bob


wrench
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Sat Nov 20, 2010 3:58 pm

Very cool Mark, and thanks for documenting so well. It was an excellent read.

I'm not at all surprised to find that Neil is a stellar human being. It just exemplifies what we already know - TG is a class act all the way around.

Man, I'm greener than Tony's avatar.

EDIT: I can't believe you went to see Neil and didn't study first!


TGMatt
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Sat Nov 20, 2010 4:02 pm

Hey buddy..

Sorry I missed you, great post..and you got to see the new TG cabin...!!!

I am staying at Neils right now, as he is in LA, but I know he is wearing shorts despite 50 degree weather..

He claims Polish and Irish ancestry , I think it is a crock and he is truly Nordic..

Lets catch up next time your in Sunnyvale..


Lavallee
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Sat Nov 20, 2010 6:53 pm

Hi Mark, thanks for that detailed post. I also had a chance to meet the man and totally agree with you, a real gentleman.

Ain't traveling fun?

marc


6stringbostic
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Sat Nov 20, 2010 7:14 pm

that was a great read Mark thanks! sounds like a blast!


jayswett
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Sun Nov 21, 2010 10:14 am

Reading that post makes me once again long for a TG guitar camp of some kind. I realize the logiistics are daunting, but I can still dream.


Hydroman52
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Sun Nov 21, 2010 10:30 am

Hi Mark,

Great post! Written in very interesting context, too. You seem to have the right attitude for life. Since it takes so long to travel somewhere, you might as well take a side trip or two once you get there. Thanks for sharing this and I would be very interested in seeing the "Fly on the Wall" video and some of your conversations with Neil. Watching someone else learn is sometimes the best learning tool for me. It isn't always just about playing the guitar that makes me interested in playing the guitar. Does that make sense?

Hydroman52


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