A wedding story

by Philip Jones
(Reston VA)

I started guitar when I was 16. My mom bought me an old Kalamazoo (Gibson). Lucky for I could read music and my fingers were in shape (I played viola).

I learned everything I could from Mel Bay and pretty soon I could play along with "Blowin' in the Wind". Did mention this was 1962? In college I acquired a Goya G-10 because I was impressed with it's bass. That plus the Kalamazoo had never been set up properly and playing it was like fretting a barbed-wire fence.

About 1996 we attended my wife's cousin's wedding in Oregon. It was an outdoor affair. They had hired a guitarist to provide music. The first piece played was "Adelita" by Tarrega. When I was young I listened to this piece from a recording by Laurendo Almeda. I loved it then; at the it was warm wet nostalgia.

When returned home I went to the music store and pawed through the guitar books until I found "Adelita". I learned it plus some other pieces. In 2000 I started guitar lessons at the college level. I am retired now, semi-well-off and spend most of my time on music. I also bought a better guitar (Ramirez).