Surprisingly, after last night’s dinner of local Genovese beef au natural, we slept very well. After a pleasant Sunday morning hotel breakfast, we walked across the lobby to a meeting room for an appointment with new friends Massimo Traffano and Alica Careddu, a lovely couple who spoiled us with their excellent English. Franco had told […]
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After a wonderful evening downstairs in our hotel at the private reception Franco hosted for us following the special concert of Fabrizio Giudice, Jaci and I had only to amble over to the elevator, press “5,” locate our passkey and topple into bed. I woke (late) to Jaci working on origami, of all things. She […]
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In June 2017, my wife Jaci and I enjoyed another European trip, instigated in part on my musical interests and activities; on her part, it would be to see similarly interesting things, and for both of us, many friends. After a wonderful time in Scotland, we made the short journey from Edinburgh to Genoa, Italy, […]
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After our several days of AMIS musical instrument fun, we had desperately wanted to get out to the Highlands for once, but didn’t plan a bus tour in time, plus were worried about weather. And good reason, too. Our idyllic Scotland week was over and the steady, unrelenting rain (how is it that their water […]
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Last night we went down to The Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad for the final sold-out concert in the Harp Guitar series (Stephen Bennett). He was alternately captivating and hilarious as always. He asked me up to close the night with “The Water is Wide” as tribute to our friend Dennis Mitchell, who passed […]
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Star Date: Monday, June 5th, 2017. Location: Edinburgh, Scotland. What & Why: The annual AMIS Meeting. This was to be the last day of the 2017 Meeting of the American Musical Instrument Society, which had teamed up once again with the British Isles’ Galpin Society to double our musical instrument geek-out experience. The conference was […]
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Here’s an impromptu non-harp guitar-related post that I thought would be a treat for those into any and all of the following seemingly unrelated topics: Lead Belly ‘50s folk-pop music Edgar Bergen Therapy Dogs Hollywood The Dolceola Yes, believe it or not, they converge thusly: Within my extensive Dolceola section in the Fretless Zithers portion […]
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Greetings, fellow travelers! I now return rather belatedly to the series of adventures I had in Scotland and Italy last summer. (My excuse is that everything, including life, was put on hold while I concentrated last year solely on our harp guitar exhibit, catalog and October festival, not to mention releasing a 25 track CD). […]
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For those new to this subject, all you need to know for now is that Russian guitars typically feature seven strings on the neck rather than six, and are tuned not in fourths but to an open G chord. “Harp guitar” versions then add three or more floating bass strings to the equation. In all […]
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Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t yet read the new issue of The Fretboard Journal (#41, Spring 2018), you might want to do so before spoiling the surprise below. If you don’t have a copy, I’d recommend you run right out and get one (or better yet, just subscribe!). It includes a piece I submitted early […]
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