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All three of my sons, plus one grandson, play guitar. My middle son had some decent chops but over the past decade, whenever he visited, he would make excuses saying, "I'm out of practice and lost my callouses." I'm not sure if it was my pep-talk or the fact he finally got a house with a dedicated music room but this visit there were no excuses. Oh, the pep-talk you ask? I merely told him, "You have correctly diagnosed the problem and you know the solution." We played a couple hours two nights in a row with me on the Gibson J-45 and him on the E10D-TC. We have always been pretty good at improvising together but this time around it was on another level. A few tunes we hit every note perfectly and actually ended on the same note after which we found ourselves laughing from the sheer joy of it. Well except there was that one time when I ended the song but he kept it going until he ended but then I kept it going and so on, but we were just messing with each other that time...I think. The second night I began a little jazzy progression while he played lead. At first I was letting my ego get in the way and playing too loud but then some interesting leads he was playing managed to sneak past all my racket so, in order to hear him, began playing softer and softer until I was just playing on the two bass strings. As I did that the first time, he got self conscious and also played softer. The next time I did that, he kept right on cooking and showed me what he was really capable of. Normally, we'll trade back and forth so I get my chance at playing lead but this time around I was more than happy to take a back seat and let him have the glory. That kid blew me away. After all these years he'd finally stopped holding back. I watched and listened as he bonded with that guitar. The next morning as he was headed out the door for the long drive home, I said, "Don't forget your early birthday present," then handed him the Eastman in the case.
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