| Author |
 Topic  |
|
cgriffin
Aloha
USA
25 Posts |
 Posted - 10/09/2002 : 4:54:50 PM
|
I feel a bit embarassed to say that at age 23 I decided that I was too "over the hill" to play classical guitar, so I gave it up and focused on my studies. Yet I carried the guitar around with me as I went on with my life. Then earlier this year I heard my first Kihoalu music and knew that I was going to start playing guitar again. I'm not sure I'll ever be a great slacker or anything else, but I'm very grateful to this art-form for inspiring me to pick up my guitar again. And I'm only 32!
At this point all that classical music still sounds beautiful, complicated, and difficult. It's too dry for me, though. I'm on to greener pastures, and slack-key is where I'm going to start.
Thanks for sharing all of your stories, it's helped me to realize that I have a whole lifetime of playing guitar ahead of me!
Chris
|
--
Chris Griffin
|
 |
|
|
Pauline Leland
`Olu`olu
USA
783 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2002 : 4:57:46 PM
|
John, I think it's surprise mostly. I always feel like I'm the oldest at any gathering of players. Here, wow, I'm not! I'm the kind of person who prefers not to be the odd duck, at least not too odd. 
Aflack. |
Pauline |
|
|
|
wdf
Ha`aha`a
USA
1153 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2002 : 5:08:40 PM
|
Yes. You are all too old. So, very carefully pack up your ukuleles and guitars and send them to me!  |
Dusty |
|
|
|
marzullo
`Olu`olu
USA
923 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2002 : 5:20:04 PM
|
this is a fun thread. i'm 49.3175, have plunked around with the guitar since college, and got into slack key a couple of years ago. don, who only started this year, is being modest: he plays well and his repertiore is much larger than you'd expect for someone who has played guitar for such a short time.
turning this question around, i find it fascinating that there is something about the middle of one's life that wakes up the music in you. i had put my guitar in the closet when i was in my early 30s, and didn't pull it out again for over 15 years. the instrument stores are filled with people like me. i think that it's a "male menopause" thing in the general sense: once you've become successful in your career or your kids are off in college, you start to look to your earlier loves as sources of challenge.
teaching kids music is one of the most positive things you can do, but helping adults to rekindle their love of music and to play it for others is just as beautiful thing to do.
aloha,
keith |
Keith |
|
|
|
Julie H
Ha`aha`a
USA
1206 Posts |
Posted - 10/10/2002 : 02:52:14 AM
|
Ah Reid, I find that a nice glass of chardonnay takes the edge of the pain in those old joints and lubes the creaks in the fingers.
As for stage fright, I was an extremely shy teenager. So shy I would eat my lunch in the girl's bathroom so I wouldn't have to talk to anyone. Then in college I blossomed, I joined a rock group with my brother and fiance and two other friends. The stagefright gradually went away with repeated exposures to screaming rock fans and drunks in bars, but I quit that after two years.
Out of the spotlight for 30 years, I was once again thrust into it when I became a community activist. You can't be shy when addressing meetings, government boards and agencies. Especially not with people heckling and harassing you. I got a lot of exposure, I don't get nervous anymore. I just am myself and say what I need to say. Something like music, when you feel the need to convey a sentiment or a message, you just play from the heart. Let the music take you...
As for you, Mike, yes, that night in Ben Lomond I was on my way to an ukulele class just across the street. I did get to enjoy Barry Flanagan and Makana later. You rascal, don't tell everybody I was on the street corner with my uke. They'll think I'm a street musician.  And you're always so sweet with your compliments. Thanks a million. You know how to pick up someone's spirits. Sorry you didn't make it to my house for last months Ukulele Club meeting. Next time!
Aloha, Julie |
|
|
|
Bing
Lokahi
USA
100 Posts |
Posted - 10/10/2002 : 11:53:30 AM
|
Speaking of OF's I'm 66 and have been playing slack key for about 3 years. I find that being an adult learning to play music is neat because you don't have to practice,,,, you get to !
Bing |
Bing |
|
|
|
Turtle Song
Aloha
47 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2002 : 02:24:06 AM
|
Andy and Chris, you are babies, get off of this thread!
Let's see, I started Slack Key a little over a year ago, and just got my Native American flute this summer, and I'm (I can't believe it) 47. Is that RIGHT?!? Let's see, 1955. . . Yeah, that's right.
I don't understand ANY music theory, I learn Slack Key ONE painful note at a time. On flute, not quite so painful, I've actually written a song! Woo hoo. Well, sort of, I made up a song that I can play but I haven't learned those flute tabs yet.
I have to say, after reading this thread I'm both musically encouraged and feeling a tad bit younger than I was!
|
The seeds for the flowering of our personal peace are within our hopeful, but fragmented, selves. Reflection and silence compose the winds that nurture our simplicity that is the essence of beauty. - Frank Howell
|
|
|
|
Konabob
`Olu`olu
USA
928 Posts |
Posted - 10/16/2002 : 2:04:34 PM
|
| Me Too! I gave up music at about 20, and just listened to others for 26 years or so. At the age of 45 I moved to Kona, and on New Years Eve of 1998 I dreamed I could play the steel guitar. My mother-in-law sent me an old Supro that had belonged to my father-in-law. I began to mess around on it, and someone suggested I listen to Ken Emerson. I met him at a concert, and he told me how to tune it. I have been playing in public for 3 years now. Tonight I am playing at the historic Hulehee Palace in Kona. This is a dream come true - I will be 50 in February. I also came up with a slack key bass, and had so many requests, I was forced to lean woodworking too! Never too late for an old dog who is still interested in life! |
|
|
|
Sarah
`Olu`olu
571 Posts |
Posted - 10/16/2002 : 10:24:48 PM
|
Raymond,
Mahalo for the John Holt book recommendation. It sounds interesting. I guess at age 46 I can weigh in on this discussion.
I started guitar at age 41, and I felt very old to be a beginner. However, I can see that there are many of us older than me, so 41 is no big deal. What I do shake my head over is all the years that went by when I *could* have been learning slack key, if my life had been different! (I can't resist sometimes a pang of envy of all those folks who picked up guitar as a kid/teenager. Seems their fingers can do anything, now!) Nonetheless, I am truly blessed with having had the opportunity cross my path and having jumped at it when I did (and in having had a guitar provided for me in advance!)
aloha,
Sarah |
|
|
|
RJS
Ha`aha`a
1635 Posts |
Posted - 10/17/2002 : 01:17:42 AM
|
Sarah,
That "what would it have been like if I started as a kid" is a real killer. I once had the opportunity to speak with Carlo Maria Guilini when he was Co-Conductor of the Chicago Symphonie. (I was singing in the chorus and free-lance writing; he agreed to an interview.) He said two things that stuck in my mind. First of all, he said that the mark of a superb musician isn't so much the technical capabilities, although to be a true master one must have those technical capabilities, the real mark, however, is that he or she plays or sings every note with love. After the interview, as we were walking to rehearsal, he turneed to me and said that in his judgement the whole music business is making music topsey-turvey. Music never was meant to be about master performers and performances. (Although to hear one is an ecstatic experience, he said.) Music is about sharing what is most human and thereby making us all grow in our humanity. He winked and added, Auf herzen zum herzen. (Beethoven wrote that at the start of his 9th Symphonie, which we were rehearsing. It means from the heart to the heart. ) Every member of that orchestra and chorus adored Carlo Maria. Those words are burned into my heart and memory.
Raymond Stovich
San Jose |
|
|
|
ohanabrown
Lokahi
281 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2002 : 5:21:16 PM
|
Aloha,Taropatch Ohana's,
Im wondering if this would fall under this catagory.
Years ago,a friend stoped me and asked if any of my children was learning to play slack key. I told him no!(we have 4.) He then said, Why Not? And that started the ball rolling.
At that time our childrens ages was, 18,15,11,9. Well i tried with the oldest first.
I took him in the room, Sat him down, told him not to leave the room, until he practiced this tune. An hour later i went into the room, and he was gone!
My wife told me his friends came, and that he left an hour ago. I knew then, He did'nt want to learn. Went to the 2nd boy, And because he was fully into sports, He said he would'nt have the time. Went to the 3rd child (girl) She was into hula and would'nt have the time too.
So i told myself, Well at least i tried. Then my wife said? What about the youngest one?. I told her aaah! his to young to understand what slack key is all about. Theres to many things you have to remember like, Plucking the bass lines, while trying to play the melody lines at the same time too. He would'nt understand.
Well about 3 months later, I came home from playing music that night, As i walked into the house,MY YOUNGEST SON, ran over to me and said, Dad,Dad, can you play like that guy on t.v.? We went into the room and when i looked, There was the,Bankoh Kiho'alu Concert on t.v. I told him Yeah! I can play like that guy. Can you teach me? I said NO! your to young to understand. My wife said, You know what? All the other children did'nt want to learn, And the very one that ask you, You tell him NO! You did'nt even give him a chance! WELL!!! I told myself OK? I'll show them! I took my son in the room tried to teach him the HARDEST one, So i could tell them.... I TOLD YOU SO!... Well an hour later he ran into our room and said, DAD! listen to this? (he was 9 at the time.) He played back to me what i showed him an hour ago, I looked at my wife and she said WHAT? I told her, What took him an HOUR to play, Took ME! 2 days to do. We've been playing together ever since.
When he was in the 8th grade he had a chance to record his first CD. It was called "KALO MAN".
All slack key.(instrumental).( Not trying to promote it!) But a strong message behind this issue, And that is?...Giving yourself a chance, Know matter what age you are, With time and patience, All things will fall in place, And it can be rewarding in the end!...BOTTOM LINE?
YOUR NEVER TO OLD, or YOUNG to TRY!!!
Aloha,Pumehana!
Kevin
|
Kevin K. Brown |
|
|
|
kihoalukid
Lokahi
USA
289 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2002 : 7:49:45 PM
|
| ha, neat story, ive got the kalo man cd, wish i could do that when i was in 8th grade, heck i wish i could do it now haha, aloha. |
Lee |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
|
|
Topic Locked
