| Twice now, in the past year, I have packed my Martin | | | | In each of the two cases a few minutes of |
| acoustic guitar, headed over to two different friends | | | | commonality would pop out. In one case I asked the |
| houses where, in each house, there was a 14 year old | | | | young lady with her Strat, to play a few simple chores, |
| guitar player. In one case it was a 14 year old girl, the | | | | Am, F, D and G. I showed her the sequence, I started it |
| other a 14 year old boy. The girl was still wearing | | | | out on my guitar, she picked up the rhythm, and when |
| braces, the boy was about 6 feet, a thick head of long | | | | she seemed to fall into the groove I took off playing |
| hair, curly at the ends and very sultry looking. One | | | | the lead to Apache, one of my favorite guitar |
| house housed, in addition to the teenager, a Fender | | | | instrumentals from the early 1960s. Funnily, after about |
| Stratocaster, in the other house, in addition to the | | | | 90 seconds of sounding really good together, she |
| teenager, was an Ibanez electric guitar. | | | | could not maintain her interest or concentration and |
| I discovered early on in the attempt to jam with a | | | | lapsed into a power chord sequence from a Green |
| person more than 40 years my junior, that the | | | | Day tune. |
| Generation Gap was a very large gap. There I was | | | | With the young man and his Ibanez electric, the |
| playing nice open chords in the key of G or D and | | | | moment came when, after watching him wince in pain |
| there were my jamming partners playing grungy | | | | at this attempt to play together, I asked if I could show |
| power chords on out of tune guitars and playing them | | | | him some of my original songs on my Martin. He and |
| loudly! I would listen for a while and when they ran out | | | | his friend readily agreed and I took a few minutes to |
| of momentum (only for the moment!) I would suggest | | | | retune the guitar to dadgad tuning. He said he had |
| they play something a bit more melodic and then I | | | | heard of it but was not quite sure what it was. So, I |
| would try to follow along and provide some type of | | | | proceeded to play the two instrumental tunes I had |
| rhythmic accompaniment. This would draw a type of | | | | written and in the end, there was a few minutes of |
| blank stare, one that had an edge of teenage angst | | | | genuine musical appreciation. We had crossed the gap |
| associated with it. But, because in each case there | | | | and appreciated each other for the music. And even |
| was a parent present, they would attempt to | | | | later that evening, this fine young man made several |
| cooperate and eventually, within a few minutes, the | | | | references to dadgad tuning and I'm sure it's something |
| momentum would once again die down and there was | | | | he will fool around with on his own. |
| an awkward silence. | | | | If the opportunity presents itself to make music, and to |
| Eventually I would put my own guitar down realizing | | | | make music with someone across the chasm of |
| that this was not going to work out. And, little by little | | | | musical tastes, I highly recommend working at bridging |
| the respective teens would start playing stuff they had | | | | this gap. Musical appreciation can definitely bring the |
| practiced really well and felt comfortable with and I | | | | generations together. |
| would offer my compliments on fine guitar playing. | | | | |