I got my first guitar that Christmas for £5 from a second hand shop--("Good tone")--and I was, of course, totally ripped off. Made in South Africa, it had two Hawaiian dancing girls painted on the front, and was just about impossible to play. Two years later, I sold it to my mate Tony, who hung it on a wall over a radiator (a fitting end), but at the time I thought all guitars were like that, and I quickly got hooked. And I mean "hooked" literally. Playing the guitar was like taking a drug, it resolved all problems. Lonely teenage angst? Learn a few more chords. Pervading sense of uselessness and ennui? Spend weeks working out "Anji"-after all, didn't the Bert Jansch sampler notes say it was the gateway to fingerstyle? Have a taste for the gothic? Memorise all the verses in Matty Groves, then try to sing them in the right order... The girl thing turned out a failure, of course, although telling myself I had to practise gave an illusion of point to lonely evenings. But I'm still addicted, if not quite in the same way. I can't imagine not having music to think about, ideas to struggle with, moods to catch, and the acoustic guitar is always where I start.
There are millions of old farts like me, I know, all over the world. We'll never make any money or get any recognition or make one of the definitive records-the days such things were possible are long, long gone anyway---but we'll keep on keeping on, regardless. That was the point, wasn't it, of the old, militant folk scene? You made the music yourself, or made it yours.
People who don't rely on music for money have tremendous freedom, but so many just offer the same old same old---tired shapes, reheated lyrics, tunes dictated by chords. The real skill with anything creative lies in the editing; you don't learn that from how-to books and videos, but why bust your brain trying for some space of your own when it's so much easier to play someone else's tunes, or mimic their style?
I really hate so much of the acoustic music available now. Hell would be an Ipod, and the present glut of guitar specialists in particular make me want to weep. The recordings are horrible (too dense), the sounds are rotten (too many FX), and the tunes are...well, shite. Why anyone would want to copy them beats me. If it's to show off, that's a bad reason: if it's to learn lots of abstruse technique they'll never really master, then good luck---but there's always a faster gunslinger, and he's usually about 14 years old.
Occasionally, you come across someone who tries to be a bit original, and it's very cheering. It proves there is life in the old dog music yet, and that that life doesn't depend on fast fingers, or received techniques, or the optimal design for a thumb pick. Originality is possible, still: all it costs is a bit of effort, and a sense of travelling in hope. So that's the burden of this first post: if in doubt, make it up. Why not? No one's listening anyway.
