What do you consider your biggest musical accomplishment?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MadAsAHatter
  • Start date Start date
I need to add one other thing from my post above, regarding a musical accomplishment -

That was getting my playing, my chops to a point where I could play whatever I had in my head. I practiced like mad, every day. Even on vacations I had a guitar even if it was just running through my daily practice routine. Years and years ago I had read where Steve Morse said, if he takes a day off it takes him two days to catch back up - something like that. I took that to heart.

So really from about '92 to 2012, all the bands I was in, I felt like I could do and play anything I wanted not to mention having the confidence to do so. I mean I was at NAMM one time ripping away in front of Guthrie Govan and it didn't phase me.

Right now, I play so little and I look back at that time frame, playing was a breeze. My existence on guitar was to get better. It really was the driving force of me being a musician. My last time on stage, I knew that was it. I knew this was as good as it was going to get for me and when I walked away that drive went with it.

But yeah musically, that time period, very proud of that.
 
So far my biggest musical accomplishment was releasing a demo on a Swedish label that had reissued a few cult classic FWOSHM bands I'm a fan of (Witch, Mistress, Overdrive, etc.) and my band's "contract" was even written by Janne Stark from Overdrive himself. Since then I had a sadly short-lived full-band lineup, and then went on to play Blades of Steel Metalfest even after losing all of my band members (long story). It was an honor to play BoS cause many of my favorite cult bands like Slauter Xstroyes and Cirith Ungol had played it, and I got to meet some new music connections.

Now I'm in Sweden and writing new material for an album that I will hopefully start recording when I get back to the US.
 
jabps said:
I need to add one other thing from my post above, regarding a musical accomplishment -

That was getting my playing, my chops to a point where I could play whatever I had in my head. I practiced like mad, every day. Even on vacations I had a guitar even if it was just running through my daily practice routine. Years and years ago I had read where Steve Morse said, if he takes a day off it takes him two days to catch back up - something like that. I took that to heart.

So really from about '92 to 2012, all the bands I was in, I felt like I could do and play anything I wanted not to mention having the confidence to do so. I mean I was at NAMM one time ripping away in front of Guthrie Govan and it didn't phase me.

Right now, I play so little and I look back at that time frame, playing was a breeze. My existence on guitar was to get better. It really was the driving force of me being a musician. My last time on stage, I knew that was it. I knew this was as good as it was going to get for me and when I walked away that drive went with it.

But yeah musically, that time period, very proud of that.
Click to expand...

That’s a wild journey.
 
jabps said:
Right now, I play so little and I look back at that time frame, playing was a breeze. My existence on guitar was to get better. It really was the driving force of me being a musician. My last time on stage, I knew that was it. I knew this was as good as it was going to get for me and when I walked away that drive went with it.

But yeah musically, that time period, very proud of that.
Click to expand...
I was watching "Decline of Civilization Pt II" and thinking most of these guys in the movie didn't get to enjoy huge success and captured a time.

That is why I started a band with buddies and ended up deciding to gig again. We all have great jobs and don't need to gig all the time. But it's fun writing songs together and playing them. I was having fun by myself years ago playing guitar in my room too. Creating music is fun. I'm going to be 55 this year. I want to do rock and roll as long as I can like Lemmy did.
 
I'm proud of the fact that I had my first gig video taped and it's on my YouTube channel, along with two other gigs. The drummer and I insisted for our first several gigs that we rent a VHS recorder from a video store. Trying to get each member to chip in their fair share of the $50 it cost to record each gig was the biggest challenge lol.

In 2009 I recorded a CD of mostly original material. I played all the instruments (except drums, which i programmed). Also did the vocals.

In 1992 my first band played 2 gigs at a local bar called the 4-10 lounge. They had strippers from 5pm to 9pm with hard rock/metal bands from 9:30 to 1am. It was cool to party and dance with the strippers. I felt like I was in Motley Crue circa 1986 lol.

Not that anyone asked, but here is my first gig. The cig smoking woman at the beginning of the vid was my girlfriend at the time lol. The song was named after her, Swollen Babe. Note the Pelosi mannequin in front of the bass drum.
 
Last edited:
alund said:
Sticking with guitar for 42 years, never giving up on improvement and accepting the fact that I’m not EVH, John Sykes, steve Vai and never will be..
Click to expand...
i been playing long enough I don't want to sound like anyone else.

romanianreaper said:
I was watching "Decline of Civilization Pt II" and thinking most of these guys in the movie didn't get to enjoy huge success and captured a time.
Click to expand...
No doubt but most of them were forgettable. I thought Seduce from Detroit was pretty badass but it wasn't very commercial sounding.
 
VonBonfire said:
i been playing long enough I don't want to sound like anyone else.


No doubt but most of them were forgettable. I thought Seduce from Detroit was pretty badass but it wasn't very commercial sounding.
Click to expand...
I met Dave Black, the guitarist from Seduce, when he was the demo guy for Friedman Amps. He signed my Decline of Western Civilization DVD set and was shocked when I knew who he was.
 
romanianreaper said:
I met Dave Black, the guitarist from Seduce, when he was the demo guy for Friedman Amps. He signed my Decline of Western Civilization DVD set and was shocked when I knew who he was.
Click to expand...
That's awesome reaper. They had a great sound and had better chops-technique than most of the other bands in that vid. Not surprising that someone like Friedman would have someone like that demoing amps. Killer players. Plus weren't one of those guys cruising around in the classic car giving the interview? Looking back, some of the people in that vid were hack musicians and straight up losers or were just putting on their best sex/drugs/rock n roll front, which aged badly, lol. Seduce was head and shoulders above those groups IMO. I'm gonna dig around for some youtube stuff from them this weekend. "Crash Landing", I still remember that jam from the film.
 
romanianreaper said:
I was watching "Decline of Civilization Pt II" and thinking most of these guys in the movie didn't get to enjoy huge success and captured a time.

That is why I started a band with buddies and ended up deciding to gig again. We all have great jobs and don't need to gig all the time. But it's fun writing songs together and playing them. I was having fun by myself years ago playing guitar in my room too. Creating music is fun. I'm going to be 55 this year. I want to do rock and roll as long as I can like Lemmy did.
Click to expand...
I say to anyone, do whatever you can as long as you can if it makes you happy.

Goal one for me was to be as good as I wanted to be on guitar, I accomplished that. Goal two was being in a band(s) making original music, I accomplished that multiple times with varying degree's of success. Bottom line as much as I still love it all, I don't have the passion to put the work in because for me it's all consuming. It's the only way I can do it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top