A Promise to My Children - "Unconditional" YouTube Video

Happy Thanksgiving!

I've been working a bit with my Kodak Zi8 video camera. My first two videos were unfortunately recorded with audio only on one side. So much for my technical wizardry. I've been fortunate to have some very good gear at my disposal. However, my solution to the one-sided audio problem looks more like something I might have tried back in junior high school. You do what you have to do:

That's an instrument cable into a 1/4" to 1/8" mono adapter and then a 1/8" mono to 1/8" stereo adapter. The Radio Shack near my house has a limited selection of cables and adapters, so I just found something that worked. I am still working with getting the right levels for recording with the Zi8. These are homemade videos made on an inexpensive camera. This will be sufficient for YouTube. We'll get professional quality when I go in to the studio.

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Forget the camera gear. On to more important stuff: I recorded my original song "Unconditional" since it seemed appropriate for Thanksgiving. I've many things for which I am grateful, but my amazing family tops the list. This song is a promise to my children that I will always love them.



This recording was made using my old 1970 Guild F212. This guitar is a joy to play, but I probably won't use it in the studio when we record this song next week. My Martin guitar really works better, but since this is just a little demo I thought it would be fun to use the Guild.

I am the fourth owner of this guitar. The second owner was a man named Howard Emerson who is a fabulous guitarist. It would be worth the effort to visit his website and listen to some of his recordings. Howard has since replaced this with an even older F212. It's fun to know a little bit of a guitar's history and I take some satisfaction in knowing a guitarist of Howard's caliber has spent some time with my guitar. But I'm even happier that it is now my guitar. This one is a keeper.

Thank you for listening. I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend.

~ Chuck Cheesman

Foreplay/Long Time

I was just driving my children across town when Boston's classic rock anthem "Foreplay/Long Time" came on the radio. The kids liked the space age sound effects. I started to explain to Casey about how much I liked Boston when I was a kid.

Then it hit me: Tom Scholz was recording Boston's debut album when I was my daughter's age. The Space Age has come and gone.

There's nothing like having children to remind you about the passage of time.

It's been such a long time,
I think I should be going.
Time doesn't wait for me,
it keeps on flowing.

- from "Foreplay/Long Time" by Boston

~ Chuck Cheesman

GCGS Presents Thomas Sheeley in Concert

Saturday, November 21, 2009 8:00PM
Coconino Center for the Arts
GCGS Presents Thomas Sheeley in Concert

Advance tickets $15, $18 at the door. Tickets are available at Arizona Music Pro, Cedar Music, and Custom Sound Instruments, and they are also available online at www.CanyonGuitar.org.

For additional Grand Canyon Guitar Society information contact Craig Yarbrough at 928-213-0752.

~ Chuck Cheesman

Vintage 1958 Gibson LG-1 Acoustic Guitar and Videos

Another new arrival:

The guitar I pulled from that box is a 1958 Gibson LG-1. As far as vintage instruments go, this is modest stuff. I'm not a vintage guitar collector by any stretch of the imagination. I do own a 1970 Guild F212, but really I just play these things.

In order to get this guitar I traded my Ken Smith Custom "BSR" Burner electric bass. That was a cool instrument but I just don't play bass a whole lot. The other party in this trade ought to be very happy. Unfortunately, I was not very happy upon opening that box. The guitar had been described as being in very good condition, but there were two very long cracks in the top. As I explain in my guitar demo video, it was clear these cracks occurred before shipping. After some initial disappointment I contacted the other party. He has agreed with my assessment of the situation and has agreed to repair the guitar. I can live with that.

On the other hand, there has also been a bit of a pleasant surprise. I made this trade thinking I would probably sell this guitar (again, I'm not a collector) and use the money for some other gear. But after playing it I've decided to keep it. It is simply a joy to play! I can give this guitar the loving home it needs, and I've little doubt about it giving back some good music.

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The LG-1 was one of Gibson's affordable student model guitars from the 1940's through the 1960's. The guitar is essentially mahagony with a spruce top and rosewood bridge/fingerboard. It's what we guitarists call short scale and it has a body similar in size and shape to a classical guitar - making it a very comfortable instrument for couch playing. One significant detail is that the LG-1 has internal ladder bracing. Most quality steel string instruments use some variety of X-bracing, and because of this the LG-1 and its sister LG-0 models are not as desirable to collectors. For this reason, it is still possible to find these guitars at affordable prices.

My particular guitar is in very good condition despite the cracks. Older guitars often have a better tone than new guitars. Guitarists call the process by which a guitar's tone improves over time opening up. Another new toy here is a Kodak Zi8 video camera, and this guitar gave me a good excuse to try out the camera. I talk a little about the guitar's "open" tone in my first homemade video:

This second video is a solo version of the song "One Silver Hair" - a tune we'll soon be recording for my next CD:

The guitar arrived here on Thursday night and we had a fun coincidence here on Friday. My friend Bill Rahr came by for a quick lesson. He was wanting to work up an old Willie Nelson tune and needed a little help with the picking pattern. Usually Bill brings a shiny new Martin HD-28, but for whatever reason Bill grabbed his 1964 LG-0, a guitar he bought brand new nearly 45 years ago! Here he is holding our guitars:

In addition to my Gruhn's Guide to Vintage Guitars, I found http://www.provide.net/~cfh/gibson6.html to be a helpful source regarding old Gibson instruments.

~ Chuck Cheesman

"One Silver Hair" copyright Chuck Cheesman - original words and music

Learning With No Shoes On! in FlagLive

Thank you to local writer Kat Nichols for a wonderful article in FlagLive about my partnership with Bookmans Entertainment Exchange in providing some music education in Head Start classrooms here in Flagstaff. If you pick-up a paper copy there's a photo of Milo and me.

My favorite quote:

“If your kids see you sitting on your bum not doing anything, that’s what the kids are going to do,” Cheesman says.

Yes I did watch This is Spinal Tap! recently, and yes I was referring to a bottom end as a "bum."


~ Chuck Cheesman

Grand Canyon Guitar Society Presents Rafael Aguirre - Saturday, November 14th at 7:00 pm

The Grand Canyon Guitar Society will be presenting Spanish classical guitar virtuoso Rafael Aguirre's Arizona debut this Saturday night at the Coconino Center for the Arts. Tickets are $12 in advance and can be purchased ahead of time at Arizona Music Pro, Custom Sound Instruments, and Cedar Music - or visit http://www.canyonguitar.org/ for more information. Unless the concert is sold-out, tickets will also be available at the door for $15. The concert begins at 7:00 pm and I hope to see you there.

Enjoy this video of Rafael Aguirre performning Prelude BWV1006a by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Visit http://www.rafaelaguirre.com/ to learn more about this outstanding guitarist.

~ Chuck Cheesman