I’m traveling at the moment, and what with being jet-lagged, forgetful and exhausted this column is going to be very short today. But at least it’s happening. To be honest, if it wasn’t for the time difference nothing would be here from me, but as I remembered it in Ireland 9 hours before I actually remembered it in California it will hopefully scrape through in time and poor Rick won’t have to fish for something else to post.
Anyway, I’m in Northern Ireland learning to build guitars.
Well, actually learning to build one guitar in a month. Yep, it CAN be done. But not without serious wear and tear on a totally unprepared body. I think if there was any more sanding at all my arms would probably fall off. Luthiers will feel my pain when I say “driving the bus nearly killed me”. The rest of you should go out and learn to build a guitar so you know what I’m talking about. Actually, you should just go and learn to build guitars because it’s damn good fun.
Mind you, since I had never held a chisel in anger or pressed the on-switch on a band saw until August first, I’m feeling pretty impressed with myself. Much more impressed with the teachers at Lagan Lutherie though!I’m also impressed that they were perfectly happy to accept a novice, female, from Grand Cayman who just emailed out of the blue one day ans said “I have a dream…..” I wouldn’t have taken on a no-hoper like that but Sam Irwin did and I’m awfully glad he did.
Today is the last day of the month long odyssey. And we’ll make the get-it-built deadline, but only just. There were a few days when it looked doubtful tough. Sam turned a little grey around the get the soundbox glued up, get the neck on, and get it to the spray shop deadlines. But we did. (Well ok, “we” might be overstating my contribution to getting things done in time.) I left my guitar last night with 9/10ths of a nut and no saddle. But I have a good 7 hours today and so, all being at least a little well, I’ll put strings on my first born this afternoon. I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome that will feel!
I’ve learned all sorts of useful things about lutherie while I’ve been here, and I promise I’ll tell you all about them when I have more time. Today though, I just wanted to tell you how interesting it is to work with a really diverse bunch of musicians.
I think we forget, when we go to largely Bluegrass events, that even though the people we meet are quite diverse in many ways, they all have a fairly common interest. You know, in Bluegrass music. So it’s been pretty interesting to interact with people who have the common interest of building guitars (or lyres in one case, but we like him anyway) but who have diverse tastes in music. It has been really fun to hear non-Bluegrass musicians talk about what they are planning to play on the guitars we’ve been building together. We have a traditional jazz musician from New Orleans, Irish Trad and Irish Rock interests, some finger picking, some classical guitar and some “I just wanna have fun”. Everyone plays for the love of music, but some of them are professional musicians. (Note for Bluegrass folks, a professional musician is someone who actually gets given more money for playing than it cost them to get to the venue!) And then of course there’s me, who basically can’t even play guitar, but I WILL be able to now I have one.
The really amazing thing is that these different people can all relate to each other. And relate happily and cheerfully too. Not just through guitar building but also through their music. I went to a barbecue a couple of weeks ago and listened to a jam of jazz + Irish trad + golden oldies,played on tenor guitar, mandolin, dreadnought guitar and piano. And everyone had fun and the music was great. Somehow it feels as though we should all learn something from that. Perhaps everyone else has and I’m just slow to catch on, that’s been happening a lot lately.
It’s also been very interesting being the only female in the workshop. There have been a few go through the course before me but not many. I’m not sure why, perhaps women don’t want to build guitars (I doubt it but anything’s possible). Or maybe we’ve just all been too intimidated to step into a workshop and ask someone tot each us. I have to say, I’m extremely glad I did.
The “lads” were all very sweet to me. Helpful without being patronizing. And all very encouraging which was great. I really didn’t ever feel silly for not knowing how equipment worked, or which bits of wood went where. It has been delightful.
There was one small watershed at the end of the first week though. Being an Australian i.e. a race somewhat known for our foul language and bluntness, I was on my very best behavior-no swearing, no crude jokes etc. And being female, the men in the workshop were on their very best behavior so as not to offend me-no swearing, no crude jokes etc. It was quite explosive, and relaxing, when we all worked out we could just be ourselves and nobody would get offended.
So, this month has been a wonderful adventure that also reminded me of what music is all about. Be yourself. Don’t get offended. Help others learn. Listen to other genres, other opinions, other ways of doing things. Interact with people who are not carbon copies of yourself. And for goodness sake, enjoy the craich!
