Hi everyone!

alcaponedudu

New member
Hello guys. I would like to say a few words about me: I'm a rock n' roll lover and I like to create songs. I lead the project called Delicious Grace.

Hope we can get along great.
 

John Watt

Member
Okay, alcaponedudu, I'm having difficulty with almost everything about seeing your introduction.
Your perfect spelling and use of English isn't the problem, that's for sure.
And the name of your project called Delicious Grace has a nice resonance to it,
thinking of Grace as a spiritual aspect, and seeing Delicious as being about the enjoyment.

I'm looking at your name as being Al Capp one dudu, and I'm thinking doo-doo, not dude,
or even dudette. My next thought was Al Capone dudu, still not getting your use of font.

I'm going to impose a little of my own duality here, just having an idea.
I'm going to go advanced to display two photos of angels I took on the same night.
When I usually use these I ask which one do you think is real,
but I won't do that here, no, I won't, not even once, because I'll wait to see your comments.
You might even think one of these graphics could work with Delicious Grace.
And it's not me turning this first angel sideways.
The first night cloud angel is as I saw it, the second is a close-up that didn't get it all.

AC-DC Angel.JPGDec25'15'103.JPGDec25'15'99.JPG
 
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alcaponedudu

New member
Okay, alcaponedudu, I'm having difficulty with almost everything about seeing your introduction.
Your perfect spelling and use of English isn't the problem, that's for sure.
And the name of your project called Delicious Grace has a nice resonance to it,
thinking of Grace as a spiritual aspect, and seeing Delicious as being about the enjoyment.

I'm looking at your name as being Al Capp one dudu, and I'm thinking doo-doo, not dude,
or even dudette. My next thought was Al Capone dudu, still not getting your use of font.

I'm going to impose a little of my own duality here, just having an idea.
I'm going to go advanced to display two photos of angels I took on the same night.
When I usually use these I ask which one do you think is real,
but I won't do that here, no, I won't, not even once, because I'll wait to see your comments.
You might even think one of these graphics could work with Delicious Grace.
And it's not me turning this first angel sideways.
The first night cloud angel is as I saw it, the second is a close-up that didn't get it all.

View attachment 3908View attachment 3909View attachment 3907

Hi John. How are you?

I've been using this nickname for a while and the correct would be alcapone_dudu but I could not use (_) here I don't know why. Dudu is short for Eduardo in portuguese.

I liked your point about the name ''Delicious Grace''. Sounds like you got some it.

Looking foward to post some songs here.
 

John Watt

Member
Dudu, or Eduardo! I had a Portugese girlfriend I was dating in Toronto, Ontario Canada.
While she was very attractive, I was travelling in a road band at the time and could just visit.
I say girlfriend because she wasn't a boyfriend.
She worked as a waitress at a restaurant night-club we played.
This business, an expensive stop beside a major highway, had a really good lunch buffet,
so when we played I ate there every day, where I sat with her during breaks.
She said she came from a small village and wanted to get away from a strict society.

I had a girlfriend from Malta, maybe you've been there. She was a university student.
She had olive coloured skin with darker green skin, another very attractive woman.

I'm drawing a blank when it comes to thinking Portugese music.
I can't think of a movie that was made in Portugal.
The history of Portugal as a mighty marine nation with world explorers is ordinary history,
and I'm sure you were inflicted with the Spanish, if not Vatican, inquisition.

I don't know if you consider yourself a cultural, or roots performer,
or if you're doing sampled electronica, but I'm interested to hear how you sound.
If you ever make it big enough to start your own restaurant franchise,
I'd call it Deli-Shush, known for a quiet, romantic atmosphere.

Be prepared for some serious commentary if you post some songs here.
I never have. Just a minute, I've got an idea.

Here's a link to a 46 second video of me working on my newest guitar.
The DVD of the Santana reunion concert is playing in the background.
I called it Sand-tana.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUfxQSlgtqU
 
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alcaponedudu

New member
Dudu, or Eduardo! I had a Portugese girlfriend I was dating in Toronto, Ontario Canada.
While she was very attractive, I was travelling in a road band at the time and could just visit.
I say girlfriend because she wasn't a boyfriend.
She worked as a waitress at a restaurant night-club we played.
This business, an expensive stop beside a major highway, had a really good lunch buffet,
so when we played I ate there every day, where I sat with her during breaks.
She said she came from a small village and wanted to get away from a strict society.

I had a girlfriend from Malta, maybe you've been there. She was a university student.
She had olive coloured skin with darker green skin, another very attractive woman.

I'm drawing a blank when it comes to thinking Portugese music.
I can't think of a movie that was made in Portugal.
The history of Portugal as a mighty marine nation with world explorers is ordinary history,
and I'm sure you were inflicted with the Spanish, if not Vatican, inquisition.

I don't know if you consider yourself a cultural, or roots performer,
or if you're doing sampled electronica, but I'm interested to hear how you sound.
If you ever make it big enough to start your own restaurant franchise,
I'd call it Deli-Shush, known for a quiet, romantic atmosphere.

Be prepared for some serious commentary if you post some songs here.
I never have. Just a minute, I've got an idea.

Here's a link to a 46 second video of me working on my newest guitar.
The DVD of the Santana reunion concert is playing in the background.
I called it Sand-tana.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUfxQSlgtqU

Cool! You're a funny man in a good way. Is your guitar already done? I'd like to see what you came up with.

Sorry if I got you confused but I'm not from Portugal. I'm from Brazil.
 

John Watt

Member
Bra-zeel! Thanks for your funny man compliment. I'm always trying to have a good time.

Stan Getz, an American jazz man who played saxophone, was the first big-time musician to record with Brazilians.
He is credited with introducing "The Girl from Ipanema" as an intrumental. I had that record as a teen.
When I visited a jazz club across the border on the American side of Niagara Falls,
the band was the group of Brazilians who recorded with Stan Getz.
They invited my flute player friend and myself to get up and jam with them, and the owner liked it.
I had to sit down and play the guitar upside-down as a lefty, so I didn't get to dance around.

The drummer had a sense of humour.
Every once in a while he would be looking at his high-hat as if it was making him angry,
making different motions at it with his stick.
When he finally stood up with his stick in his fist and jabbed it, everyone laughed.

A few months ago, I was at the public library and heard a young couple talking with the same accent,
and after I asked they said they were new immigrants from Brazil.
I said I know the song "Girl from Ipanema", and they just looked like, okay, we believe you.
I said give me a chance, I really know the song.
I started using my hands to play the rhythm on the counter,
and started singing the song the way Stan Getz played it, really getting into it.
Both the man and woman started smiling away, saying that's very good, and we talked about Welland.

I just want you to know that as white men,
there never was any slavery in Scotland and Scotland never attacked or colonized another country.
Scots people always try to prevent the worst excesses of European colonization,
so I have an open soul as an authentic native upon the face of this earth.
There are Sons and Daughters of the Gael who speak Gaelic, northern island natives.
Bay-an-uck let, blessings on you.
I truly sympathize for the American military take-over of your country, as in all of South America.

However, every old song needs a lyrical update as our planet has changed so drastically.

Young and sun-blocked and covered to not burn,
the girl from Ipanema goes walking, and as she passes by, men verbally sexually assault her.
Oh... she looks online for dating contacts... and... as an end user her end always gets abused,
until she puts on her headphones to get, the kind of signal that she pays to hear.
Young and lost and feeling all alone, the girl from Ipanema stops talking,
as the skies above the mountains show her the real stars.
Oh... those life-giving waters we take for granted, are hers to swim in underground caverns,
as the wind that blows through the Andes, fills the breath of the local flute players.
Young and unable to get more education, the girl from Ipanema works for low wages,
but in her heart she still is free, walking this world like you and me.
yes... still waiting for her love to be.
guitar solo

Yes Eduardo, I can type very fast, typing with my own typewriter since I was fifteen.
And I'm changing my behavior this new year, not being into self-promotion,
but using links and photo attachments more, and... you asked.

Here's a link to a nine minute You Tube video where I explain my inventive new guitar.
I have a music domain online, www.gigsters.ca, where you can see more,
but I'm cancelling that at the end of this month, January, 2018.
I had my guitar working to continue experimenting with the sound,
but I took it apart to refinish it and am making a second one.
That's using up all my music money.
If you look at the start of the video, you see some of the city of Welland and the old canal.
Boats no longer go through the canal, Americans taking the all the factories away.
No more Atlas Steel, Stelco, Welmet, Hopkins Steel, Union Carbide and John Deere.
In this city of over 60,000 people, not one local musician is getting paid to play in public.

Old and banned from city hall functions, this man from Welland goes outside for exercise,
and as he rides his bicycle, he's breathing in fresh air.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP551D9DdA0

Now it's your turn to let the font flow and show something.
Pictures of your world would be very interesting.
Here's some photos from my Magle.dk photo library.
The first two are Niagara Falls, the second has the new night lights.
The third, taken at Point Abino, shows the last big point before the Niagara River.
Lake Erie didn't freeze that year, and this is all the ice that piled up.
The last photo shows the major highway through the Niagara Peninsula,
and as you can see, there is hardly any traffic any more.


rainbowEnd.JPGNightFalls5.JPGIMG_3128.JPG254.jpg240.jpgdownFalls41.JPG
 

John Watt

Member
Eduardo! I didn't have to edit that posting, so I'm adding something here.
When I say photos or your world would be interesting,
that's about where you are and what you're doing, inside and outside of music.
And when I say the highway has hardly any traffic, that's true, there aren't many cars,
but as you can see, there are no transport trucks or big service vehicles.

The beaches, some taking me over an hour to walk along between points,
are from Fort Erie, Waverly Beach, Crystal Beach, Point Abino and Sherkston Shores.
Sometimes, all day, I'm the only person walking along the shore,
unless a local, retired resident, it out there walking their dog.
Many locals don't swim in Lake Erie because they think it's too polluted.

The cloud in the pale blue and pink photo, where my camera is always on automatic,
is a shore-line occurance, and is slowly rolling, like a snake the moves south along the lake.
In the golden sunset photo, it's the low, darker line across the bottom of the horizon,
where it curves around where the next bay is.
The highway photo is looking towards the lake, the highway going to the bridge to the disUnited States.
Yes, even American truckers no longer use this highway as much as they used to.
 

alcaponedudu

New member
John, that was a great lesson you just gave me about guitars. Thanks for that.

Interesting story about ''The Girl From Ipanema''. Even though I'm not into bossa nova that much I can tell that those guys made a magnificent job. It's a very classy style.

You're a good guy but to make this conversation complete we need to drink, man. Whisky prefereably.

You are a professional musician?
 

John Watt

Member
Eduardo! I like to think I'm still a professional musician,
but then again, when it comes to women, I call myself a born-again virgin.
I'll probably feel that way if I ever get into a new band, and I only want to be new.
When I finish my guitar I have places to play.
I'm singing and playing everywhere I go, I just haven't been onstage to get paid for a long time.

For me, making this conversation complete would be jamming because I don't drink,
smoke tobacco, and I don't even use coffee or tea.
It's not easy for me to talk about all the players I've spent time with onstage and backstage,
because my career is more about who and what I turned down, instead of going along.
As far a being inventive goes,
a friend of mine was opening for Suzanne Vega when she was having her big hit single, "Luka".
Her husband, Mitchell Froom, and his musical partner, Tchad Blake, were there to back her up.
When Tchad said he was going outside for a cigarette, smoking inside being made illegal,
I asked if I could come out with him. He said sure.
I asked if I could see the ring he used that made his strings ring out like you were bowing a violin,
but he said no, it was too expensive, but he took it off and showed it to me.
It began as an E-bow, an inexpensive device you could order from magazines.
He said he paid a jeweller $20,000 to make it the device it is now.

He also told me about coming back from producing a session for Shery Crowe in California,
and before that, doing a session with Sting in England.
The way he talked about the equipment he used and how he got it together,
made me decide to hire a jeweller, who could grind a small interior piece for clearance.

It was also interesting to hear Suzanne Vega sing her song, with a sing-song, non-vocal part,
and then hear a hip-hop producer use a heavy back-up beat with an entirely different production.

You must be a good guy too. It takes one to know one.

Wow! You must be more than just a good guy, if you got me working hard for you.
I just spent almost a half hour looking at Suzanne Vega's You Tube page,
and I still didn't get to the bottom. The song I was looking for wasn't there,
and because I couldn't remember the name, I had to give videos a listen.
After that, and not wanting to give up,
I typed in "Hip-hop cover Suzanne Vega do-do do-do, do-do do-do,"
and I got to a "Dr. Fresch" version with Biggie. They just used a little Suzanne Vega at the start.
Suzanne Vega just sang this song by herself without any instruments, on her album.
I found the version I heard as a radio hit on this hip-hop page.

In person, Suzanne Vega looked like a tiny, perfect person. She was born in Egypt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWMToInrke0
 
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John Watt

Member
Hey! I was using a computer at the store this afternoon, typing away here,
when someone I know started talking with me and the computer timed out.
Now that I'm back at night with my own machine, I don't want to repeat what I said.

Yes, I do have a lot of stories, but that's more about being an older man.
Played hard rock, country, raggae, folk, Elvis, and many more kinds of bands.
When a family or part-time band got what they thought was a big gig,
sometimes they would hire me, thinking they needed a professional lead guitarist.

For example, when the Hinds family, with their band Drastik Measures, first came to Canada from Dominique,
they won the first prize for best parade band at the Toronto Caribana, their first year in Canada.
They came to the Niagara Peninsula where most of the migrant workers are, from the Caribbean Islands,
and started Palmgrove nightclub, closed for the winter when the workers went back home.
They asked me to be the second guitar player, and I played with them for two seasons.
They played traditional one-chop raggae, soci and soca, dance hall, poly-rhythmic and special Drastik Measures.
It was strange for me at first, used to making the band sounds onstage,
but once I got into hearing the band and the mixmaster through the P.A., it was really good.
It wasn't always good, getting reverse racism sometimes.
Well dressed thugs from Buffalo and Toronto would come in with a guitarist to replace me,
showing weapons, but the men from Drastik Measures would help them back out the door.
There were cutting contests, where other guitarists would try to outplay to get the gig,
but I was told not to worry, no-one else was going to take my place.
And I liked jamming, getting into the music with anyone who could play.

Henwood, the drummer, was 6'4" and all muscle. He had a custom set of big big drums.
When I walked in front of his floor bass it would make my pants ruffle in the breeze.
When we made a float for the St. Catharines Grape and Wine Festival,
Ashbon, the percussionist, would hammer in four inch nails with one shot of the hammer,
one after another. He's the only person I've even seen do that.

I've got a couple of phone calls I have to make,
and then I'm going to make myself some supper,
so I'm leaving you with this Niagara Falls Review article about our band.
A young keyboard player who just graduated from a two year college jazz course,
and his father, phoned me up to ask me to help them decide what keys to buy,
thinking an electric piano and a synthesizer.
I said if they wanted to, they could pick me up and drive around to some music stores,
and see what's there and see if I could get them a better deal.
That's what happened, and by the time the day was over we had a band.
This article makes us look better than we were, and we only played six weeks.
The drummer was Neal Pearts' cousin, Neal being the drummer in Rush.

The smaller ad for a gig in Port Colborne was later on, not the same band,
just using the stationary and contracts I photocopied out at the time.
And we weren't 60's and 70's, new wave and what is now called classic rock, with jazzy r'n'b.
However, we did take any request, even if I was making up most of the words.



Falls Review.jpg
 

John Watt

Member
alcaponedudu! This is just a quick opportunity to use a computer,
and keep our forum action happening, it's been so slow here lately I've been answering myself.

You're asking if there's any of my material online, so I'm going to be as friendly, professional and legal as I am,
always wanting to be open and honest, the only way to keep the feelings I need to be a musician and visual artist.
People around me are surprised that I'm displaying and demonstrating my semi-solid-body online.
It's a source of wonder and excitement here in real life, and when I appear in public with it, it's going to be big news.
What's my big reason for not being secretive, or trying to build more excitement?
First, I just liked doing that. During a sorrowful and difficult time in my life, it was something positive that I could do.
Second, I was going to patent it as an invention in Canada, and I was almost there, but I changed my mind.
I would have to give the patent office in Quebec my first guitar, what is my instrument, or build a second one and send that away.
At the time, being the victim of criminals, I had no chance to build a second one,
and if I did build a second one that worked, I'd want to keep it for myself, never having two stage guitars at once in my life.
It's still not easy being a lefty.
Being down on Quebec and their traitorous approach to Canadian politics, being a victim of enforced bilingualism in Ontario,
and this is the son of Sons and Daughters of the Gael speaking,
I wasn't going to send my invention away and then see the news where some "French man" in Quebec invented it.
That's why the unexpected letter from Robert Godin, president of Godin Guitars, turned me on so much, cutting through all of that.
Now you might think that's a heavy story, but as Clan Watt, we're talking about a musical instrument, and twiddling your fingers to play it,
not building an industry to help a nation right itself in this empiric and colonizing world.
My political experience has seen the federal government remove a law from their books,
and the Province of Ontario has created two new laws, one because of me, and the other because I asked.
You can see how "heavy" my life can be, when I'm just trying to have a good time and help others.
By myself, life is too easy for me.

At my age, that alone makes me more possessive, not secretive, about new songs and music styles.
Clan Watt were the first kings and queens of Scotland, when kings and queens were elected,
mostly for their abilities to sing and dance.
Their job was visiting people in their homes to socialize, and getting Saturday off was a biggie.
When I appear in public, playing, singing or dancing, or showing my artwork, people want to throw money at me,
and it's too easy to always be about me. Beyond that, people just want to give me money or ask what I want.
I'm not trying to put your head through, or just be boasting about myself, I really want you to understand.
Life can be more like that for you, even if you don't have an ancestral head start.
The more open and expressive you are, everywhere and with everyone around you, the faster your life moves ahead.
You have to control yourself, so others don't take you down by taking advantage or leading you to a dead end,
but you can do it.
That's why you won't see my giving any real songs or my singing online.
Here in my offline reality, I want people to come and see me and dance up a storm all around me.

I've "grown some late-night You Tubers", making videos to enhance my threads here at magle.dk,
but if you notice, I'm not showing my face or fingers, or using any real sound system, just the camera on automatic.
If I can create a new movement for live music in my hometown, now that criminals are losing their grip on public businesses,
and bring a new gig to the Niagara Peninsula, that's affordable for venues and rewarding for musicians,
I want to grow that with my new band, and see where it takes me. I need something new for myself.
I've got the guitar and virtuoso technique to do it.
That's also why you see me riffing offa songs that are already out there, just exercising my creativity.
When others respond to that, in my real life, I can take that into their world and help their band.
I don't ask to get paid for that, just happy to be part of a music community, an expanding music community.
If I'm going for any benefit for myself, it's free food and my favorite diet cola.

Part of my wanting to be a symphonic-electric lead guitar virtuoso, and making it big time,
is being able to travel to Europe and meet with the as-yet-untitled Frederik Magle, to jam with him,
and hopefully, have some input from him for any new recordings.
I hear he spends too much time in his office working with sheet music and legal paperwork.
He has been so generous with my use of his domain, I want him to get out and live a little.

Is this me jamming up the font big time, on this international, if not global publishing, that's'a for sure.
Fontissimo, if not fontfatta.
 

John Watt

Member
alcaponedudu! No... no... it wouldn't be cool because I'm always hot hot hot.
I'm not heavy into self-promotion, always looking over whatever offers come my way.
My parents always enjoyed the people who came to their house, looking for me.
When the mayor of Buffalo, James T. Griffin, had his secretary phone to arrange a call,
I asked him if my mother could talk to him, because we heard him on Buffalo TV.
She got a big kick out of that.

I say I play guitar with sounds like Jimi Hendrix, with riffs like John Coltrane, George Benson and Nicolo Paganini.
When I was visiting a new friend this afternoon, out in a big farm house his father built,
he put some music up on the 50" screen, so I used his Jackson and Fender Mustang amp to jam along,
getting into some how to play demonstrations with this English music store player,
and some Heart, doing Crazy on You as an MTV video and Stairway to Heaven at a Led Zep tribute.
What surprised him the most was how I could sing along and sing higher than everyone else.
That's my secret musical weapon, my singing.
There have been times where I never told people I could sing, not liking the gig enough,
and times I was the lead singer, wanting to play with other musicians who didn't have one.

My new friend tried to give me one of his oscilloscopes, what are very expensive machines.
You need one to tune the intonation scientifically for individual string bridges.
I said no, how about keeping on being friends and getting involved with my inventive guitar.
He really liked that, and was surprised I wanted a tour around the farm,
looking around the old barn at some very old farm machinery.
There was an old Lincoln rotting out, over-grown by shrubbery, seeing the ground through the floorboards.
But the fender chrome looked as new, so did the front and back bumpers, and all the glass looked good,
so I talked him into advertising that for some big bucks from some American restorer.

It would be a far better and more musical thing, if we got together and jammed.
What always surprises other players is watching me play "upside-down".
You have to be able to play your guitar right-handed, and left-handed upside-down,
to be able to play everything you can on a guitar.
Just try it.
Just holding the guitar upside-down, you'll find it so much easier to use your barre chord finger,
holding down or just touching all six strings.
And wait until you are reaching up and pulling down to bend strings, not just one, but two, three and four.
That's how I set my guitars up for tremolo action, as loose as possible.
If I'm bending four high strings, and an open bass string starts loosening up, going down in pitch, it's too soft.

Once I got into bass strings on the bottom with the highs on top, I know, what a concept,
I eventually stopped playing with standard string placement.
I'm saying standard string placement, but look at how you reach around to play violins, cellos and upright basses.

If I wanted to show off online, and I don't, saving it for offline experiences,
I'd use a backing track of bass and drums and jam on top of that.
Maybe some Miles Davis "Doo-Bop", Pali Gap or Machine Gun by Jimi Hendrix, "This Masquerade" as done by George Benson,
"Sonata in C#minor" by Beethoven, "Les Gymnopiedes" by Eric Satie, or Somewhere over the Rainbow and Play Misty for Me.
Jus'typin'.
But it's far better for people to come up to me and say they heard I'm a great guitarist,
and then play for real in front of them. That's what got my new friend to offer me one of his ocscilloscopes,
what cost him $2,500. And I'm a lo-to-no budget person, not even being able to afford a music store tuning.
Some people talk about going with the flow, but I know, for all of my life, I've been creating my own,
and it's always a good thing when other people like to float along with me.

Someone once sang "you got me floating, all around, always up, I'm never ever down,
and the amazing thing was you turned me on naturally..."
and if he didn't do that in person, I never would have got caught up in it.
If I can share that, yeah... that's more important than just playing a song.
Even when friends said here, I'll give you my four-track or eight-track,
when they got up higher in the tracks or went stereo, I just said no.
I'm a live musician and a dance band player,
and what I do with your guitar makes me a very scary guitar teacher.

That's just music.
My father, more than my mother, comes to me in dreams.
I don't want to take a chance on losing that spirit.
 
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John Watt

Member
alcaponedudu, with his dudettes!

When I describe the wealth of the Niagara Peninsula,
it's not as though I'm into it as a direction for my life.
No matter what anyone else says about their country or kingdom,
the six hundred mile radius around Niagara Falls is the wealthiest place on earth.
The first generation of commercial hydro electricity is the reason.
That's going around from Toronto to New York,
and I live right in the middle of the Niagara Peninsula.
People around here throw out electronics other countries don't have.
Hydro linemen are raised and lowered by helicopters for repairs, it's that big.

But, if there had been a vote about allowing all these satellite signals and wireless,
people around here would have voted a big no and never.
If I was younger, I'd have my residential ceilings lined with aluminum foil.
And no... I'm not joking around.

"amazing race, how code thou art,
to send such radiations down on me.
You once were siloed, but now you're embossed,
how hot a decoration you'll be".

Someone has got to update those old hymns.
 

alcaponedudu

New member
alcaponedudu, with his dudettes!

That was funny!

I'm not very into self-promotion either but that's just the way it's. If I don't show my music to people nobody is going to do that for me.

What I'm trying to do is to post my work only in places I think it's worth.
 

John Watt

Member
That's a good attitude to have, about places where you think it's worth.
There is a psychology about music, and a psychology about media,
and the combination of both has just as strong an effect on your mentality,
as being onstage in front of real people, even if the emotions are different.
That's where wanting to be a celebrity, more than a musician, comes from.

Appearing in public to get paid as a gig can be seen as your bottom line.
If you appear as new musical experience, unknown, and can make a great impact,
that's when you are in control the most, being first about every aspect of being there.
The way people talk about you after that can guide your career, and that's all about the real you.
And when someone says, how come you're not drinking, why aren't you going outside to smoke up,
you can say you never know who's here to see me to ask about a gig or be an agent,
so I have to be as professional as I can be.
If you aren't going around shaking hands and introducing yourself to everyone else,
spending a little time with them,
how can you expect them to remember you and your name to help make you famous?
Or get invitations to go out for some free food and drink later on?
I was hot on being a vegetarian and fasting one day a week, usually on Sunday,
until I was twenty-two, when I decided to make always eating for free a daily challenge.
Being on the road and always eating in restaurants is expensive, and that was usually by myself.

That started after a venue owner said I should show up in my stage clothes with my guitar,
and sit beside the afternoon buffet, saying I could eat for free if I attracted customers.
That was when deep fried shrimp with fries became a new bar food.
The summer before, 1977, was when Buffalo style chicken wings became a new bar food.
I bought the first portable electric amplifier you could hang from your belt,
making my own shorter cord and using a black seat belt with Straplocks to carry the amp,
and I would stand outside or walk around the streets of the venue,
with my stage guitar, playing away and talking with everyone about the band.
I could put the amp on something and do some moves to show off.

When I say shorter cord, using a 25' double-grounded cord was part of my stage sound.
The volume and softer tone difference between that and 15' and shorter is big.
A double-grounded cord is necessary to keep stage noise from coming out of your amp,
such as an ordinary cord sounding like a gunshot if you step on it with hard heeled shoes.
Jimi Hendrix talked about wearing moccasins to have soft soles, and I did that too,
until I had custom dance shoes made for me by a master shoe maker in Toronto.

A double-grounded cord is when you have your positive and negative, black and white wires,
wrapped with a shielded mesh that is a ground.
You cut the mesh back from one end so that it doesn't make any contact with either wire,
and then you solder the mesh to the ground wire on the other end,
and you can walk on that without hearing it through the amp.
That's if you're using a 100 watt head set low with 9-volt battery effects,
or a 50 watt head up high, getting up into the feedback tone zone.
That also helps keep radio sounds from outside sources such as cab drivers from coming through.

This is why magle.dk is the only music forums I have visited in over five years,
and why I like to post here.
First, it must be nice for Frederik Magle and his friends, having these forums,
and the private messaging system, to stay in touch as they travel around the world.
I shouldn't even mention the haters and negators you find in American forums,
because everyone here is polite and informative, if not personal, without a whiff of predatory conduct.
And I'm the one who isn't classically trained, or a symphony or concert organ player.
I've got all that in me, jazz to classical, but there just aren't the gigs for that around here,
the six-nighter bar band scene being a huge business for a long, long time.
I can say I played jazz and classical music, but only onstage in show-bands,
so I can only call myself a hard rock and show-band player.
That was also about playing TV and movie soundtrack music, depending on what was hot at the time,
or the advertising song from a local audience member, whatever it took to turn everyone on.
The average audience thought a band just had to play one original song,
just so everyone knew the band was a band and had one.
Working in original songs as slow songs is when they went over the best.
When people hear a song for the first time, it's not the same as if they know it and like it.

Even Jimi Hendrix would start with a couple of cover tunes that were big hits for others,
so you could get into his sound before he started giving you the full experience.
If you put some music up here, you can count on getting comments from very serious musicians,
and that's usually only if the like it.
A lot of new members just posting links to promote their music don't get one reply.
I used to write a music column a couple of times for the local newspaper,
and I still get into that even if I'm not getting paid.
I don't get too critical or insulting, not wanting to get the boot out of here.
And when an organist with fast feet on the foot pedals gives you the boot with full sustain,
you know it.
 
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