This is partly a celebration topic of how long the forum's been around and partly designed to try and kick of a bit of discussion and hopefully some old members who've been around on here as long as I have will come out of the woodwork....
When I came back here a couple of months ago not only was I amazed my account was still accessible (I even remembered the ****ing password after about five years of not coming here) but I faced an interesting dilemma: here was a kind of time machine where I could look back at the sorts of things I was doing and saying in my late teenage (I was 18 when I joined here) but then I thought: do I really want to? I might find that not only were my most sacred beliefs back then now laughable and embarrassing to me, but worse, people who were there when i said them might still be here....
But I couldn't resist and I looked. Some of it was awful and made me hope nobody who encounters me now is interested enough to go looking through my old posts, some of it made me realise I actually stuck to my guns sometimes because I'm still saying the sorts of things about playing guitar nowadays as well. Anyone else ever done this sort of thing on here?
The occasional embarrassing posts aside, I actually did find this sort of going back in time was useful, as I was recently cursing how I had some recordings of myself playing when i was about 21 and I really wanted them to compare to now but they were lost on an old computer, but looking at some stuff I posted on the forum (writing only) helped me remember what I was working to achieve back then, and low and behold in many cases I can now do the thing in question without thinking about it. Nice when that happens!
Okay, two things I got from this forum I want to share just because I feel like celebrating them and perhaps a few old faces who were around in 2002/3 might remember a topic or two. Specifically, I got to know about two bands through this forum:
[U]1: The Grateful Dead[/U]
A member called Incidents Happen gave me this band, this guy was obsessed with them and when I became interested I knew just who to ask the questions. I did find the topic, although I won't find the link right now, just search for the band and go back to about 02/3 if you want to see it. I posted in it about a few songs I downloaded and Incidents and I talked about American Beauty and I went out and bought a copy and we ended up talking about Friend of the Devil from that album.
I forgot about the Dead for years until someone bought me a record player for my birthday last year and I ended up trying some vinyl by them I bought from a local store, feeling like for a traditional sound medium I wanted what felt like a traditional band, and I now have something of an obsession with listening to the Dead live. Not quite sure why I suddenly like them so much, I didn't catch the bug back when I got American Beauty, I just 'sort of liked it,' as I often say, but that fact is they still do nothing for me in the studio and everything live, I guess because they were a lot more spontaneous and unafraid of long songs in front of an audience.
That and listening to them is often a nice break from the flashy, virtuoso music I often like listening to. Sometimes keeping it simple like Jerry Garcia does can be so brilliant and reminds me just to slow down and dwell on the tone.
Although when I don't feel in that sort of mood, there's the other band I got through this forum, and they are:
[U]2: Dream Theater[/U]
Couldn't find the exact post where I first got these guys from. I'd heard of Petrucci from a couple of magazines I'd bought but I didn't know he was a member of any band until someone connected the two for me in a topic on here....now I've got all their albums and two books of tab, I even met up with an Internet friend for the purpose of seeing them live in 2006 when they were on the Octavarium tour - I'd be happy even if I never end up seeing them again as this was just phenomenal material to watch live, even though it wasn't their best album I think that was the best setlist I've heard about from them, and I WAS THERE!
Dream Theater set a kind of bench mark for me, as I spent years not feeling like I could touch that kind of music as I had to build up my technique and ear with simpler stuff first, and I sort of thought that the man I'd come to view as the top dog of the so called 'virtuoso' guitarists was better idolised and not copied, but lately I bought a couple of books of the tab to have a go and although I cant quite reach the speed yet I feel like the way I've been playing in the last two years and the progress I've made makes it at least within my reach, and I could buy the books knowing that it was practical, worthwhile learning and no longer dreams that was making me do so.
And just to think, if I hadn't come to one humble forum I might never have started on this path.
Okay, that's it, I've written too much, perhaps some practice.
-C.
'There's no such thing as bad weather, there's only the wrong clothes...'
