My musical ADD.

I wanted to tell you a little bit about me, mostly about how my brain works. I drew a picture of it, but for some reason I posted it with a previous post. This really just goes along the line of what I'm trying to say: I have massive amounts of ADD. It's a little sad that I ruined the surprise of my drawing, but that's ok, I forgive you.

So, I have ADD!

In the last 15 months I have dropped roughly almost 800 dollars on different instruments. 

In the beginning, I thought "I want to play guitar!" What male between the ages of 15-105 doesn't think this at least seventeen times? So I bought myself a guitar. I had fun for a while, I took lessons, learned to play smoke on the water, and wowed my girlfriend at the time by composing a song for her. She either didn't notice, or didn't mind that it was basically one or two chords strummed differently.

I began to talk to my friends who actually played guitar as if I was on par with them. When they wouldn't include me in their little "guitar times" I began to wonder what the difference was. It was obvious immediately. They had more than one guitar.

So I bought another guitar. 

My logic astounds me.

In the months to pass, I started playing it less and less. Oh sure, every now and again, I'd pick one of them up and play some AC/DC song, or strum a C, but the magic had disappeared.

I really wanted to play something though, really badly, but all I could consistently do was sing, and this mostly 'cause it got me a lot of weird looks when I would march down the hall singing some Gilbert and Sullivan diddy. Then it hit me! I needed to learn an instrument that I could play with my lung capacity!

Bagpipes are expensive.

So I bought a set of harmonicas! I had one lesson with a man, who talked more about some war than he would about the small piece of plastic in my hand, but it was entertaining, so I barely noticed. I began to think that this was what playing the harmonica meant, I would gather my friends around for a small concert, and immediately tell them all about how I lost my leg in 'Nam, or my many years as a fighter pilot. I didn't get many calls for an encore, and no ladies ever bought me drinks...

After that I took a couple months off to "collect my musical spirit" and eventually found myself longing for odd and unique modes to make sound/noise. 

Thus begins my week long adventure with the saw.

Thus concludes my week long adventure with the saw.

Pretty much like that. I would "practice" for a little bit and then get bored and walk away. Now, when I say "practice" I really mean, "I would hit the saw with a spoon a few times while bending it between my legs."

So that ended.

Now I am in my "Banjo Piano" stage. Every now and then for the last few weeks I will buy a case of beer and go hang out with my buddy Joe. He's an amazingly talented musician, (and plays the piano for Cantankerous Folk, check 'em out) and loves his beer. So we trade, I bring beer, he teaches piano. Apparently I have naturally good piano posture, and I pick up on things very quickly, I'm having fun, but to be honest, when there is a case of beer right there, we drink it. Then piano playing gets more fun...strange.

Meanwhile: my sis and I bought a banjo for our father's birthday/Christmas. He's mentioned a few times how neat they are, and we figured he needed another hobby. (My father is such an engineering dork, the first thing he said when we handed it to him was "I bet I could build this, only better." I'm pretty sure the banjo is still in one piece but I don't ask for fear of finding out otherwise.) I decided that I would buy it a few months early so that I could learn a few fun things and teach him some to get started. I fell in love fast with the little beauty, and bought myself my very own banjo very soon after, her name is Miss Daisy. 

I played her like mad. I loved it, more than anything ever. Until I became a little bit too busy with work and just keep saying to my little beauty, as she slowly slips further and further out of tune "Tomorrow baby, I'm busy right now."

I'm so sad that our relationship may be ending, but I guess that's the way of the world. I won't give her up without a fight though, she already means too much to me.

This is how my life is, I become really attached to the object, not the activity. The noun, not the verb. A little bit of synesthesia here, a dash of adolescent whimsy there.

More stories of my mind to come.

Skot/Scott