Re:Please Introduce Yourself Here

[heyjoe]

MJ Wrote

Welcome aboard. Glad to see you here. I too stumbled across the site by accident and was very thankful for that accident. Great folks around here with tons of great info to share. Make sure to check out all of the groups if you haven't had a chance, as there are some very fun ones over there. Keep chipping away at Classical Gas, and you'll have it before you know it. Neil's lessons are tremendous.

Hi MJ, your right in what you say, I'm loving the site, and the way Neil teaches, the lessons certainly are tremendous. I'll get Classical Gas eventually, its just time, patience and 1 beat at a time.


Lavallee wrote

How do you like that APX 500 (I have the 900 which is similar but with a different pickup)?

welcome aboard

That classical gas, it is like drug, the more you learn the more obssesive you get about it

Hi Marc, obsessed is not the word, its my nemesis, but its teaching me so much, every breakthrough I make just makes me enjoy playing it more.
My APX 500, I love the sound, the way it looks, the way it feels. I chose it specifically because I had an APX4 a few years ago which I sold, and regretted doing, however, my APX500 is even better. The 900 is a larger body, I've played a few, beautiful guitars.


Bigbear wrote

Hi Joe! Thanks for introducing yourself! Glad to have you! I don't know that part of England very well. I spent some time in Newcastle (on Tyne?). Is that very close to you? I was heading up to the moors in Scotland! Starkly beautiful country.

Good luck with Classical Gas! I was working on it last night for awhile at about 2 beats per minute. Not too bad at a snail's pace. LOL!

Hi Bigbear, Sunderland is 15 miles south of Newcastle, so you were very very close. Newcastle is the main city up here. You're quite right, once you get out of the towns it is beautiful.

A snails pace is my pace on clasical gas. As someone famous once said, a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, something like that!


Chasplaya wrote

Hi Joe, Welcome to TG its a great place to be, I am an ex pat living in NZ from Carnoustie a little bit further North of Tyne and Wear. I do recall Newcastle Brown Ale though, was that your local brew?. Great to have you aboard

Hi Chas, "Newkie Broon" as some of the locals call it up here, is the local brew, then again, anything alcoholic is the local brew up here! Its certainly a distinctive taste!

Thanks

Joe

[grahamg]

Hi , my name is Graham and I am from Scotland, live close to a town called Lanark. I have been a target member for a few months and up until now have never really looked at forum stuff --- my loss. Lots of good info and support. I have two acoustic guitars, A
Martin HD28, A Yairi ( great for fingerpicking ). I also own a Les Paul but very rarely use it.

I play music with by brother and two singers who really now how to do harmonies, we play for fun at various clubs and do a wide variety of material - Neil Young, Indigo girls, Fleetwood Mac, Sheryl Crow as well as some folk material from Scotland, England and Ireland. Playing with people and in fromt of people really pushes you up the learing curve....

Cheers for now,,

[Chasplaya]

HI Graham, Welcome to TG its good to see another fellow Scot on the site. Its a great site with heaps of material for all levels. I used to like the Corries, they were underrated as musicians, I saw them live on several occasions and they could certainly play and harmonise the vocals. It was very sad when Roy passed on , although his legacy lives on in 'Flower Of Scotland'. I met them both several times and they were really down to earth. I belinged to a site run by Gavin Brown ROnnies son and for a while actually corresponded with Ronnie, a great singer.

[neverfoundthetime]

Welcome Graham..... er you should be welcoming me as you had the sense to get here first! We all thank Scotland for Al Stewart and Gerry Rafferty! Can you check for us why Chas had to leave and get as far away as he could to NZ? I smell a scandal...

[grahamg]

Hi , where are from in Scotland ? I agree the Corries have been extreamly influential in brining typical Scottish songs ( specificaly Burns ) to the 'masses'.. The vocal harmonies are what made them great and stand apart from the rest... you can detect their influence in any folk club. I recently did a gig with a bunch of folks based on the songs of Burns intertwined with the Jacobite story.. worked well and many of the arrangements where ripped of the Corries, but we could never get the vocals anywhere near as good.

In general the folks I play with do a few of these traditional songs but tweak them slightly into some non-standard tunings etc.. If you try the Jacobien Lullaby with one guitar in std and the other in open C it sound amazing and fun to do.Dougie McLean is exceptional at this.

[Chasplaya]

neverfoundthetime wrote:

Welcome Graham..... er you should be welcoming me as you had the sense to get here first! We all thank Scotland for Al Stewart and Gerry Rafferty! Can you check for us why Chas had to leave and get as far away as he could to NZ? I smell a scandal...

Don't forget Mark Knopfler Chris, NZ South Island is more Scottish then Scotland , you see more Pipe Bands here and tartan than I ever saw back home, A major city in NZ is Dunedin (Gaelic for Edinburgh of the South) all the street names are named after Edinburgh streets. Anyway you never leave Scotland you always have a part with you. Every one of my family thats ever visited loved the place because it wasn't to foreign to them apart form the climate generally being better.

[Catman]

Although I am a "bluidy Sassenach", my parents were both born in Glasgow...

[Chasplaya]

Catman wrote:

Although I am a "bluidy Sassenach", my parents were both born in Glasgow...

??? How can you be a Sassenach if both parents were born in Scotland you take your nationality from your parents, certainly in the UK you do anyway. And I think it goes under Scots law you take your nationality from your father.

[grahamg]

Hi neverfoundthetime -- what a great label much better than just a name , I shall have to come up with one for myself... Excuse my ignorance - I presume Chas is from Chasplaya ?. NZ what a great place to live ,,, some scenery simillar to Scotland but on a much grander scale ( thinking os some of the Lord of the rings scenes).

[neverfoundthetime]

@Chas:

Don't forget Mark Knopfler Chris, NZ South Island is more Scottish then Scotland

You mean it's more like it says on that Texan license plate: "I wasn't born here, but I got here as fast as I could!"