What are your roots

[Cliff Rogers]

I grew up in the bush in Central Western Queensland & went to a little one teacher school.
My grade 7 teacher had an acoustic guitar that he would play when we had a music class, we would all sing along, that was HEAPS better than the bloody recorder.
He was good, he could play a good variety of sing-a-long stuff which was inspirational.
Every chance I got, I would ask to play his guitar & he taught me a few chords.
His old guitar was getting a bit out of shape & hard to play so he bought a new one.
He took the neck off the old one & glued it back on at a better angle & restrung it & when it was playable, he gave it to me.
That was 50 years ago this year.
The next year I had to move to town to go to high school so I was able to start guitar lessons.
The teacher was a Nun & she taught good old sing-a-long stuff, folk, Bob Dylan, Beatles, CCR & country.
By the end of the 2nd year I was playing bar chords & had managed to borrow an electric guitar & amp.
The next year I joined a band, we played lots of CCR stuff.
Some time during my 4th year of playing I could finger pick Neil Young's 'Needle & The Damage Done'.
Then I saw a kid 3 years younger than me who had only been playing for a bit over a year play it better than I could.... bastard.
I kept & played that old guitar for 5 years.
It got handed on & I don't know where it ended up.
I still have my first electric & the first acoustic that I bought once I left school & got a job.
Come to think of it, apart from that first one that I handed on, I reckon I still have every other instrument that I have ever owned.... all 26 of them.
Anyway, 50 years later & I am still learning.
I play 6 string acoustic & electric, bass, Uke, baritone Uke & bass Uke.
I can't read music, sheet music is just tadpoles hanging on a clothes line to me.
I can play fairly well by ear, first I figure out the key & then work out the chords.
I play mostly rhythm or bass but I still manage to do a fair bit of finger picking.
I like chords, lots of them, 3 chords are boring.
I like blues, I took a 3 chord 12 bar blues & turned it into a 13 chord 12 bar blues & then added some finger style as well.
I am really enjoying the bass, I have had one for almost 19 years but only got serious about 6 years ago.
I play in 2 bands & a Uke group.
Rhythm in the bands but can fill in on bass if required & bass in the Uke group.
The bands are Gypsy Swing & Blues.
The Uke group is hum & strum sing-a-long, a bit of anything & everything.

Guitar tragic.