I"ve jammed with a guy who has a moderately successful band here in OZ, He headlines at medium size places, Supports names you would have heard over there and from over there and has some super tricky as technique on the fretboard. The day i sat down with him i was totally perplexed, Seeing as he was coming to play blues with me i took the lead and naturally said lets jam in A,C,B, Major/Minor etc.....He just looked at me blankly and said just play i'll work it out... He honestly did not not know such a simple thing, I mean he must have on some level but he had to study where i was playing on the fretboard before he started playing. He obviously knew patterns, but that's how he gets by visually. Bizzare huh, It then got me thinking as he is into really metally stuff, When he does his progressions he just finds riffs with bass runs that don't necessarily follow rules but still work. Like Hendrix i suppose, And it works for his stuff, It sounds really dark and textured, He'll just sit there and bang away at it until he finds notes in his four fret box so to speak that don't sound too far out with his basic progression. It got me thinking he does not share limitations of what scales fit with what keys and so on and has a lot more to play with than someone like me that's thinking major, minor, 5th,6th,7th, Dorian,Mixalodian....blah blah blah...... Bizzare concept but hey it works. I just cant grasp having recorded several albums supporting big US acts and having to look at a hack blues guitarists fretboard to work out how to play in B....

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I am "directionally challenged". Especially east/west -- which really ought to be VERY simple ("where's the sun?"). You might think that statistically it’s 50/50, but not for me. When I have to make a call about turning right or left, my rate is about 40% (on a good day) for getting it right.

In my hometown, there's a lake to the east. Now I live on the west coast, and the water is to the west. I'm so confused!

Before you read the following story, swallow anything that might be in your mouth, or you might choke. Or have to clean your computer screen.

Some years ago, I was participating in a Time-speed-distance road rally school, and got so turned around that, as we were driving south on Hwy 101, you could see the ocean a little bit, and I said to the driver -- yes, I was navigating! -- that I didn't remember there being a lake there. The driver looked at me incredulously and pointed out to me that it was the OCEAN!

Now you might wonder how we did in the school, and the fact is that we did okay (I have a pretty darn good sense of time). And when my husband & I rallied together, he insisted on driving, even though his sense of direction is VASTLY better than mine. We usually did okay even with my navigational challenges (that time thing REALLY helped! That, and the ability to read and follow directions )

My solution for SoCal directions is to use "inland" or "towards the ocean".

In CA, most major freeway exits have the name of the city you’re heading towards (“San Diego”, “Sacramento”) instead of north and south. So, not only is it tough being directionally challenged, but if you’re geography isn’t up to snuff, you’re REALLY in trouble. (They are gradually changing the signs to indicate direction too.)

I now have a smart phone, and the navigator on it is VERY helpful!

Regarding axes: I have always been appalled when I see someone bashing it on the floor, etc. Even a poor ax is a work of art (just maybe not the highest form) that required someone to craft it into existence. And there’s just no reason to destroy a real instrument in the name of theatrics. You don’t want it? You don’t like it? There are a LOT of people in this world who would LOVE to have it, no matter if you think it’s junk. OK, OK, time to get off the soapbox.

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Shirley Has The Blues

Blacktop P Bass
mim Deluxe P Bass Special
mim P Bass
Ibanez BTB405

I'm a delivery driver, and I never think about where I'm going or discuss with the other drivers in terms of N S E W. It's all "go over the bridge, first left and the house you want is 3 houses after the pub on your right". Nobody ever talks compass terms.

Bravo!

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I remember when we were free!

I've been playing that way all my life. You mean there is any other way.
----Danny,

This is what I say about cardinal directions...

I live in Virginia Beach, literally at the bottom of the Rosemont Road exit on I-264. I can get on 264 West, and head down the interstate for about 5 or 6 miles, until I hit the I-264/I-64 interchange... where I can make a 90 degree turn, onto I-64 West.

So, If I were giving directions from my house to a location in Norfolk (which is roughly north of Virginia Beach), by your "NESW" system, I would tell them "head west on the interstate for about 6 miles, then make a west turn and head west. Oh, and by west, I mean north."

Sorry, but I much prefer directions such as "Coming from Norfolk, on 264, take the Rosemont road exit. Make a right at the bottom of the ramp, and you'll want to make a left at the third stoplight. If you pass the McDonald's, you went too far... turn around and take the first right after you pass McDonalds again." In my experience, a single "if you pass X, you went too far" is worth a hundred "north", "east", "south", or "west"s.

Knowing where to find magnetic north is far less important IMO than knowing your left from your right. If you have known your whole life that you're right handed, and you know which hand you write with, but you still turn left when someone tells you to turn right... you probably shouldn't be allowed to operate a motor vehicle in the first place.

That's MY $0.02... LOL!

So which way is Mexico, my right or my left

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I remember when we were free!

You are so silly! Mexico isn't to your right or your left - it's (up) above or (down) below you! I'm 63 now, but I figured that out a long time ago.

Where I live, Mexico is down there.

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

Your wrong dude! it's over there!

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I remember when we were free!

It astounds me that in this day and age of so-called enlightenment, people are more obtuse and brain lazy than they've ever been.It seems to me that more and more people are relying on computers for everything and glean all their information from it without retaining one bit of it in their own brains,they are literally relying on computers to do their thinking for them.That's not only sad,it's frightening.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.