Leave Your Beatles at the Beep

Mr. Woody Bombay of Seattle, Wash., recently wrote to suggest that I should post some mp3 samples of my guitar work site. I had to remind him of a previous post in which I said that wouldn't be happening for quite some time so as not to make myself an object of ridicule and/or pity.

I can see Woody's point, though, since music is best when you can hear it, not read about it. But since what I do is still a long way from being classified as music, this space will have to be filled mostly with whining about how hard the guitar is and how bad I am at it.

But since I go way back with Woody, I decided to leave him a special message on his phone answering machine. At the beep I busted into "Day Tripper," a rendition that was so letter-perfect that Woody is probably convinced that George Harrison has arisen.

Woody, if that sounded anything less than stellar it's just because it was coming across a phone line. Really.

I learned a new vocabulary word through "Day Tripper" -- ostinato (Italian for stubborn). That's what you call multiple repititions of a musical pattern, especially one with a heavy bass line. Take my word for it (or Woody's), reading about ostinato was better than hearing me play it.

I was more than happy to go to the trouble of cutting that little swatch of "Day Tripper" for Woody because he's the best darned friend this blog has ever had. In addition to his frequent and insightful comments, Woody has submitted this photo of the Big Foot guitar, designed by George Marlin, that was on display at the three-day Miami Beach Guitar Festival in mid-April. The cutline that accompanied the picture said there are 30 million active guitar players inthe United States and I have to assume that I'm included in that number.