How I feel about slide guitar!

Most people who know me know that I used to play guitar! Infact I loved guitar so much that I made it a lifestyle! When I first started playing guitar I was really into heavy metal music like Metallica, and some lighter rock like Guns n' roses! I really based how I played the guitar on what I listened to at the time! Later I got into blues, some R&B, and Jazz which really shifted my style when I played. One specific sound of the blues that I enjoyed was slide guitar! anyone who knew me back when I lived in Elgin knew that I really liked the Allman brothers band, also Gov't mule! (both having slide guitar as sort of a sound that defined the bands them selves) Here are some of my favorite slide guitar artists. ( Warren Haynes, Duane Allman, Eric Clapton, Derek Trucks, Elmore James, Sonny Landereth) Just to name a few! People that know me now also know that I really just don't play anymore, I have lost that itch for good reason! (that's a whole different blog post!) Every artist that I've listed above has a completely different sound! (no one has the same sound) based on who that person is, what he has experienced in his life, mood, drunk, sober, happy, sad! (it all effects how a person plays) I believe the best can tap into that at any time! Slide in general is a very unique thing by its self, not constrained by the frets on the fret board, so to make it sound good you have to move the slide almost right over the fret itself and not between the frets like you would usually play the guitar! Moving the slide up and down the neck is a skill for sure , making sure your not getting a strange buzz or feedback! The type of slide that you use also matters! typically acoustic players will use a metal slide, and glass generally works better on electric. (but a lot of musicians mix it up) Going back to feeling, I gotta say that you really have to feel what your doing when playing with a slide not just using scales in a normal fashion, also chords. Because you have a slide on one finger playing chords can be a real chore unless you have adapted a style of switching back and forth or can mimic chords playing the slide with a beefy sound! A lot of guitarists like to change their tuning when they play with a slide! open E is a common tuning, but some including me use a standard tuning when playing with a slide! I don't listen to music as much as I used to either but I put on some Allman brothers the other day and was thinking to my self "Duane Allman's slide sounds really good! lol!" which led me to write about it a little bit! I've always wanted to play slide and guitar in general! I've put a lot of thought into what it takes to be a great guitar player also, and decided to move on to other things lol!

I still pick my guitar up every now and then but not like I used to!

The rollercoaster called 2012!

What a rollercoaster 2012 was! I started that year in Afghanistan, took leave in Feb. finished deployment mid year only to come back to my lovely wife waiting patiently for me! Jiyoung and I had alot of catching up to do from June to now! (we are fully caught up!) The Army has not slowed down one bit either. If we have our way then Jiyoung and I will be traveling back to Korea in 2013! Good bye America once again, this time for a more stable life!