{"id":1150,"date":"2006-12-02T12:52:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-02T12:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog2\/2006\/12\/while-my-guitar-gently-sleeps\/"},"modified":"2019-10-17T06:35:27","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T10:35:27","slug":"while-my-guitar-gently-sleeps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/2006\/12\/while-my-guitar-gently-sleeps\/","title":{"rendered":"While My Guitar Gently Sleeps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nIt appears that I have given short shrift to a very important but lately latent side of myself: the guitar-playing me. My readers don’t seem to realize that I play. That is my Fender Stratocaster in the background of my latest belly dance photo, on two posts back. I bought the strat
\nbefore Benji was born, back when Max was three and Nat was five. But I’ve actually been playing guitar since I was seven. I started out learning chords and playing folk music, stuff like the Weavers (which I hated) and also Paul Simon and Bob Dylan (whom I loved and still do), and as I got older I learned cooler stuff like the Beatle’s Blackbird<\/span>, and some of the tablature to Roundabout<\/span> and Mood for A Day<\/span> (which is arguably the best Yes song of all time, even more beautiful in some ways than And You And I<\/span>, but And You And I<\/span> is a fuller experience, like Close to the Edge<\/span>, so I feel that all around it is a better listen. Do me a favor and listen to Mood for A Day <\/span>and tell me what you think.). I even learned some Bach and some Segovia stuff. I was pretty good, for a teen, I have to say.<\/p>\n

As I got more advanced, I remember reading stuff on\u00a0MusicCritic<\/a> about guitarist and what their gears are and all that stuff. Then I took a break from playing and haven’t played since.<\/p>\n

I did play a little in college. Our dorm had a variety show and one year I played Blackbird<\/span> with a friend, Paul Downs<\/a>, who happens to be NancyBea’s husband now! He played the flute, just beautifully while I did the guitar licks. And the following year I did not play guitar but my friend Dirk Ziff<\/a> did (of Ziff-Davis publishing, who also went on to play guitar for Carly Simon. Me and Carly, sure, we go way back!). I used to type Dirk’s papers and if I had known how rich he was, I would have charged more than one dollar a page! He also wanted me to break up with Ned and go out with him. I, of course, would not. And no, I do not regret that!! It’s the typing I regret. Jin Sung-Pak (now a higher-up in the Unification Church, a.k.a, the “Moonies”) was Ned’s roommate and our bassist, and John Hayden, another good friend, was the drummer. We were “Pat Senatar” and I was Pat, the singer. We did Hit me with your Best<\/span> Shot, and it was a huge success. I do impersonations, and I could imitate her very well.<\/p>\n

Then along came kiddos and other things not that much fun and I put away happy stuff like guitar while I suffered with depression and OCD and adulthood.<\/p>\n

But when I was 32, I started to come out of it. I fell hard for Eric Clapton. And as you have probably guessed by now, when I fall for something, it consumes me. So I bought an electric guitar and some of the Hal Leonard<\/a> books that give you the tablature for any guitar solo. I practiced a lot and could play the solos to a couple of Clapton things (slowly and badly), some slide guitar, some Allmans: Sweet Melissa, Ramblin’ Man, Jessica<\/span>. Also Bob Dylan, but that’s just picking and strumming, no solos. Once I get really good, I might experiment with pedals and effects. Browsing on\u00a0https:\/\/allaxess.com\/best-guitar-pedal\/<\/a> will show you just how many have been invented in the last 10 years. It would be silly to miss out on all the innovative sounds possible.<\/p>\n

I get discouraged because I can’t really solo the way you’re supposed to: making stuff up within the scales and making it sound authentic. I can’t improvise. I can imitate. So I stop because I want to be really good, like playing-in-a-band good, and a) I’m not; and b) I have no band.<\/p>\n

So my guitar sits in the corner for now, until I pick him up again… Or until it comes around again, on the gee-tar…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It appears that I have given short shrift to a very important but lately latent side of myself: the guitar-playing me. My readers don’t seem to realize that I play. That is my Fender Stratocaster in the background of my latest belly dance photo, on two posts back. I bought the strat before Benji was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-iy","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1150"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5535,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions\/5535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}