Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I was just cleaning out a pile of papers from my bedroom table, where I found this little treasure that my son Aaron gave to me last spring:

"A RECIPE FOR MOTHER."

7,000 cups of Music
3,563 cups of rickinbakers (sic)
8 cups of blue burst
7 cups of kisses
53 cups of hugs

happy Mothers day.

Isn't that cute? I guess kids have a way of knowing the stuff you're made of, LOL!

It just made my day to find that....

Yesterday my little one was in the living room, playing the ES-16, counting, "1,2,3,4", as she alternated between Am and C. I promised her that I would teach her two more chords next and she'd be then able to play hundreds of songs!

My wife made a comment about "black" guitars. She said, "Mommy--those are Jetglo, not black!"

Isn't it great to pass along your love of music to your kids? Aaron had his mini-Strat out last night (it's the guitar he wanted, and got last year for Christmas). I told him that once he actually learned to PLAY it I just might let him use my 325 once in a while--I'm hoping that gives him the incentive to learn the 3 chords I've been trying to teach him! He likes to make a lot of noise with it, but he doesn't like to actually sit down and train his fingers to form the chords....

Of course, he will ONLY be allowed to handle my 325 under STRICT SUPERVISION, LOL! I may eventually have to find a "cheap" 320 or 325 (if there is such a thing!) that he will be able to call his own....

Make sure he wears something appropriate if you let him play your 325, Melissa. Don't want any color clashes, now, do we??

I keep suggesting to my son that he needs to concentrate more on real chords, not power chords and drop D tuning.... guess it's indicative of the music of his time, not mine.

....and don't let him wear a big belt buckle

Drop D tuning, Aitch? I just recently discovered the joys of playing in drop D myself, though I use it more on my acoustic than on my electrics.... The Comstock was MADE to play in drop D--those low bass notes sound incredible with the Comstock's percussive and resonant tone....

Aaron just likes to pretend he's a shredding lead player.... He says he wants to have his own band some day--I tell him that if he wants to have a band he has to know how to play, first! He's eight, by the way.

Patrick is 17 and into heavy metal. He plays along with Metallica, Rammstein, etc. He does it very well, but it's not my 'cuppa cha'!

I must admit that I've never used drop D tuning - maybe I need to get into the 21st century!!

Or beat 'em all and go for C#...

I think he's already been there!!

My youngest son Sheldon, who is thirty now surprised me one day when he was in his early teens. I was walking past his room when I heard some very nice melodic chord changes emanating from an acoustic guitar.

Being somewhat inquisitive I knocked on the door and was surprised to find that not only was my son alone, but that he was in fact holding one of my acoustics.

It floored me because even though I had encouraged both of my sons to take up music they were both very much into playing hockey, soccer and lacrosse. Over a very short space in time my son had taught himself to play guitar. He had mastered most of the major and minor chords and a few 7ths and 9ths in various positions.

I had no idea that he was playing guitar after school every day for a couple of months. My wife was not aware of his new passion either.

If I had not come home early one day I probably would not have known for months.

You have no idea how happy I was. To this day it is a force that binds us.

It's definitely a common thread for Pat and me but his tolerance of my preferences in music is low - as is mine for his (perhaps not quite as low). That changed a bit when I played the opening of "Fanfare For The Common Man" (a-la EL&P, not the original) on the Roland synth. That pricked his ears up! He'd heard it before - it's the theme for one of the football shows here!!

I'm lucky Howard,

My son loves the blues and 60 -70' hard rock bands and I like the indie rock and alternative stuff that also punctuates his repertoire. So we have much in common.

That's great, Brian. I'm so glad that you have so much in common - makes playing together a lot easier, too - lots of middle ground.

I recall that my dad and I didn't really have much in common until I got well into my 20s. By then all the teenage anti-establishment stuff was out of my system - probably washed away by copious amounts of the devil's brew!! LOL!

No Ric's in his arsenal yet though.

All Fender Strats and mostly Japanese at that. He has a nice Fender 12 string acoustic/electric courtesy of dad.

One day I am sure he will own a Ric. He loves mine so there's hope there.