Hello....Hello...Hello...It's been awhile but I figured I need something worthwhile to post. I will be using this thread to update the going and comings of the band we are putting together as maybe some insight on the daily ins and outs of whats it's like for a person to be in a band/starting a band. I will be forty in November so this is not a teenage garage band. I am no expert by any stretch of any imagination. I have been playing by myself in my apt for five years. So now I think...emphasis on think...that I am ready for a band even though I have refused to teach myself chords or music theory because they were too difficult thinking I won't need them. Well here is the first story on the first two rehearsals we have had. This will be in ongoing series......wish me luck...leave comments...advice...unless you all just hate the crap out of it...LOL.

So I link up with a drummer who we will call Mr C, who I am guessing is in his late 40's early 50's by mutual friends in a local reggae group called 4th Dimension. It takes us about six months before we link up. That meeting was last Saturday night in a "Studio"/"Lounge" on top of a grocery store in Miami. When I get there I see Mr C on the drums and we have a 70 year old guy on keyboards.......this can not be good. I plug in and tune up and the poor guy started playing and we could tell this was going to be bad. So as Mr C is Jamaican with a thick accent he goes "Whaa wrong witcha mon? Ya c'yant hold a beat dem?" and I swear I almost dropped my guitar when he says the next line.......I thought this was an episode of the apprentice...he goes "Blooodclaat Raaas...YOUR FIRED!" Well he cursed for about 15 minutes and everyone packed up after that....Mr C looks at me and goes..."Oh yeah Mon, we need a bass player...see ya next Saturday....

So now I get there on Saturday night and I am the first one there...I invited a musician friend that plays bass to join us....Mr C shows up and we are all plugging in when the need keyboard player comes in....He goes "Greetings and blessings...my name is King Zamunda" apparently he was a session musician with Bob Marley waaay back in the day and is a highly regarded producer now and is at least 55-60 years old. So I am skeptical of all of this. Now don't forget I think I can hold my own because I have been practicing in my apt for five years, can't tell me 'nuthin So we start jamming...drums, bass, keyboard, rhythm guitar, vocals....and me supposedly on lead and King Zamunda stops and looks at me and goes "Yah C'yant pick dem tings all night...play a c# strum mon." I look at him like what? Official panic mode sets in...I can't play chords.... they don't know this yet What's a C#? "uuuum I can play it if you play it on the keyboard...I play by ear" was my bright answer to my music theory ignorance. So he goes "yah need me ti play dem ting fuh yuh?" I kid you not...he asked for the guitar and proceeded to play my guitar and had me looking at him and thinking to myself "How the hell is making my guitar do THAT?...I can't do that...He goes "Play Dat"....I'm thinking.....I'm screwed...So I do my best impersonation of what he told me to do and just barely survived. So needless to say since Saturday night I have taught myself the A Minor pentatonic scale 1 & 2, the blues progression, and chords E, A & D....and working on the rest of them this week......soooo let's see where this coming Saturday is going to leave me........got lots of work to do.....

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Your Fender HSS Standard Stratocaster in Electron Blue was made at the Fender Ensenada Plant in Mexico in the Year: 2008.
Final Assembly Date: July 30th, 2008
Model Number: 013 4700 587
Serial # MZ8031252