Precious Old Thing..........

In 1962 I was working and studying at night in London when this lovely old guitar came into my life -

It is an arch-bodied blonde Hofner Senator (1958) - Acoustic/electric with steel strings.

I had gone to live in a bed-sit in Croydon in a big house where many other young bachelors, who were trying to make their way in the 'Big Smoke' , lived. One of them, John, had acquired this guitar - he also played the violin. I decided that in my spare time I would teach myself to play the guitar so I borrowed it regularly. Sometime later when John was promoted at work and was moving up North he very kindly gave me the guitar when he left saying " you play this far more than I do so have it as a present"

It has given me so much pleasure over those 45 years.

Progress was painfully slow for, literally, the first 34 years.  I was 'stuck' in the key of  C for quite a while and it was only by using a capo that I ventured away from C during that time. On the way I taught myself my own peculiar finger picking style and various strumming techniques, including the 'Calypso Slap' !!

I had no ambition to be an 'out front' soloist - I just wanted to quietly strum chords and pick little riffs while other people sang. However my knowledge of music theory was woeful which limited my progress severely.

When I married 'Joanski ' and before we had the children we used to spend our holidays in Ireland - and the guitar would come too !

At that time (late 60s,early 70s) there was a huge Irish Folk revival driven by the success of groups like the Clancy Brothers, The Dubliners and others - every pub had live music over the whole weekend. I knew many of the people in the groups. I would sit in with them regularly for practise and learnt a lot by observing and listening.

There was no shortage of singers - who would sometimes sing in the most obscure keys - and sometimes in the cracks in between !! . But there were some very good singers too and the rafters would ring with the popular balads of the time right up to closing time - and often beyond !!!

Afterwards we would often retire to a friends house and chat and sing until the early hours - happy days.

Later when the children came along we'd all load into the car and head for Ireland via Fishguard. There were times when I had difficulty finding room for the guitar and I would begin to wonder which of the children I could leave behind !!! (just joking..)

After that as the children grew up and I got busier at work there were long periods when I didn't play at all.

When I eventually retired I decided I would do something about improving my knowledge of music theory and for a few years attended a group lesson every week from a professional rock guitarist. He taught us so much about alternative chord positions, playing in the box and to be comfortable with bar chords I learnt for the first time about pentatonic scales. I still can't play very well but I understand how the system works - and that's half the battle. He loved the old Hofner and loved to play it at those lessons.

Although I've started to play the saxophone seriously again I love that old Hofner. It is now quite a rare old thing, and I pick it up, however briefly, most days and have a quiet strum.

It's the very least I can do -  we go back a long way..............................

Comments

[Colman]

Lovely stuff.

Funny to think you've had the guitar longer than any of us children.

[TomLR]

Any chance of a YouTube clip of it Harry ? I know you have problems with YouTube - we should both sort this out. I need to find out how to do it too.

[claire Gates]

Hi Harry, I bought my husband a guitar for Christmas, he hasn't really played it or even picked it up since - who was the guitarist you had as a teacher?

[Harry C]

Hello Claire - he is a guy called Mal Livingston and he was excellent. I don't have a phone number or address unfortunately. We could only afford him by getting a group of us together for a 2 hour lesson each week.
You could possibly pick up some teacher details from a guitar shop. Good luck to the budding guitarist though - it's a great hobby.

[Tom Spooner]

Excellent post Harry! I don’t normally frequent the world of blogging but was whiling away time in between my knee bends on t’inter and ended up here via Life in the Middle. You’ve inspired me to dust off my up old guitar and give it good old calypso slap! Now back to the physio!

[Colman]

Make sure you don't drop it on your knee Tom, or you Dad for that matter.

[Harry C]

Thanks Tom , and welcome - If you want to jam at any time, let's do it!!!!