Playing through the micro strokes

The sofa was soaked in sweat when the ambulance arrived. I couldn't reach my phone, so I could only type in "Help" to a neighbor on Facebook. The room was spinning and I could barely sit up, and I was so sleepy, and the medical workers would not let me rest and even in the ICU. I had to stay awake for the tests. I learned later that my choice of using natural medical treatment probably saved me from a stroke that could have probably been much worse. Guitars are not supposed to be healing tools.


Lita Ford said in an interview that when she began playing the guitar, she bought a Gibson SG for a few hundred dollars and now they cost a few thousand! My first guitar was a Squier fat strat found at a pawn shop for just a hundred dollars, which I later sold. I missed the fat strat sound and later found a better Squier and it's my favorite stock guitar now. I've tried buying expensive guitars and they have problems too, so Phoenix guitarist Don Petersen told me to just buy a good guitar that stays in tune and if necessary, change out the hardware with custom gear. Missouri Blues legend John Evans said that you can tell a good electric even before you plug it in by the way it handles. Buying concert DVD's and CD music is a really good way to learn from the artists and not so much their songs, but their techniques. So many people drop out because they focus on learning on a song and they lose interest.

I've not learned one single song yet and I've been playing for seven years. Backing tracks found on the Internet is a good way to learn to play in a band and what your role should be. I know chord shapes and how to do bends, slides, and I love playing slow Blues.

Since getting out of ICU, I started playing more with finger slides, because I couldn't move my left hand fast enough on the fret board. Now five months later and daily practice, I can do hammer-on's and pull-off's, bends and more, but tapping is still not going to happen on the fretboard for a while. Maybe never.  A VA doctor told me that I'll keep having micro strokes and because I choose the herbal path, there is really nothing they can do. But pills nearly killed me and I figure that the music path has already extended my life.


Today, a friend asked what was wrong, because I seem different. There is no stopping the end of a song and the outro has to come sooner or later. There should be plenty of sustain until then and happiness is the key.