Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Ear Infection, Ear training, and some Jam! Wut?

#1

I just got over a nasty ear infection. It was bad. I mean it was really bad. First time I’d ever had an ear infection in my life. Needless to say I was out of commission for awhile. Left ear drum ruptured, I still can’t hear anything out of it (still all clogged up) but I retained about 50% of my hearing in my good ear as of this past weekend. So it was time to pull the guitar out and work on my ear some more (haha).

Another Jerry Garcia guitar break. I guess I have 12-14 hours into working this out by ear. Today was the first day I could really say “yep, all you have to do is clean it up some and it will be good”…at least Jerry’s guitar break. Now I move onto either playing the mandolin break on guitar or just come up with my own. I left the mando part in the vid to show where I am at on it (really just started) and my ear kind of favors wanting to play what the mando does, or it says “just jam and take it home”…that’s what I was thinking on the mando part.

I am catching on the this “ear thing”…starting to move along a lot quicker working through songs now. I say it has been a wise investment over the last 2 months or so.

Sittin’ Here In Limbo’.

And as always - bad recording on an old laptop. Doesn’t sound that bad though. Top it off with my skinned fretting fingers and I am happy. I skinned my knuckles up about 3 different times today turning wrenches on one of my tractors…so my fingers are a little tender this eve.

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#2

Here’s the vid/audio I used to play over to this song…

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#3

Original Artist Version.

This is a great song by the way.

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#4

I don’t know what happened to this vid, but it is dragging now like crazy. That makes 2 of 3 videos I posted that something happened to the audio. Seems like this one is playing awfully slow.

#5

Just rewatched all 3 & they’re not dragging at all for me. You done good picking that Jerry style babbling brook notey break! I’m still working on song #3, got sidetracked big time, (more like sideswiped!!:confounded:) but hopeful to post a vid of playing along w song 3 soon…

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#6

@Oldhat2, sorry to hear about your 2nd ear problem, hope it goes away like it came. But you pick very well, or you have improved quite a lot! Keep it coming!

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#7

A) Nice picking!

B) Ear infections are not good. glad you’re recovering.

  1. I also noticed the drag & some blurring of the video. I checked the Settings on it and found your “quality” level was"Auto," but only 360p. It looked the same after I boosted it to 720p, so I suspect your camera was set to record at 360p during the recording. Maybe not, but it’s worth a look.

D) Nice picking on a nice song!

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#8

Sounding good!

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#9

Thanks John.

I’ve been pretty tough on these ears (combat). Hearing aides are one thing…ear infections are another.

Still feel like I have water in my ears (sounds like it due to muting) but even my other ear is starting to recover now so it’s a good thing.

The picking - this ear training is cleaning up my act a bit. Ears don’t lie, helping my tone immensely. The ear training is something that I should have started practicing on more 10 years ago. I envy those with god gifted perfect pitch, rest of us have to spend years and years just catching up to their superior ears.

Speed? nah…the ears are where it’s at.

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#10

I need an upgrade in tech.

Kind of funny - I sold a business and retired 10 years ago, wife is a Senior Director over 100 hospitals and we do fairly well financially…but I am just flat out cheap.

Growing up (poor) my mother always said to “Use it up and wear it out, make it do or do without”…been living with that saying in mind my entire life. Laptop is 14 years old, cracked screen and entire “top” (scree) is only hanging on by a thread on one side.

#11

Let me know when you are getting close and I’ll toss mine up too. I need to clean it up a bit though.

Yesterday I started working on Glen Campbell’s break to “Gentle On My Mind”. I’m logging time to see how long it takes. I am 6 hours into it and about to start working on it again today. Glenn was such and underrated picker…he’s up there with some of the best of them. I am hoping to get his break down well enough to play it within 20 hours of practice time.

Glen as so melodic/put out some really nice lines in his picking. I wish so want some of Glenn’s sound in my picking.

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#12

Hi Jesse, I think the laziness is what keeps one from ear training, at least in my case. In some occastions, it would be frustrating to do until you have all the fundaments like techniques, scale practice etc. To be able to translate what you hear and apply it into a scale pattern, position and technique you already know.

If I’m not wrong, @Mark_Rocka once mentioned chiropractic for ear infection or some issue like that. I think facial bones go out of whack as one gets older or when one eats too much and that impairs hearing. I think it also impact fluid flow. So if you gently press the bones in the face around the ears with your two hands with one hand on each side, it could help the water drain.

I would also suggest drinking something like a dry ginger/corriander/jaggery coffee like drink https://www.zifiti.com/aff-detail/aachi-chukku-malli-ginger-spice/296944/GS?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpMjdu-Tn7gIVGu3jBx2BYgBgEAQYASABEgJT3_D_BwE . Ingredients are given in the link. Also this soup type of drink https://www.zifiti.com/aff-detail/aachi-rasam-powder-200-gm/971952/GS?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItJnvmOTn7gIVgY5bCh3I5QZyEAQYASABEgJna_D_BwE. 200g should be $2.99 in Indian stores. Both are tasty and has medicinal value and it should help clear nasal and other congestion that in turn could help with the ear issue.

#13

@Oldhat2, I’ve got a few laptops for sale I’ve fixed up I’d you decide to retire yours someday!

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#14

Yes, Laziness and a bit of discipline problem always kept me from really working on my ear. After searching and searching for the secrets on how to play an instrument I came across someone (I forget now) that said to simply pick 10 songs, learn the melody on the instrument by ear, then go back and learn how to play at least 2 harmony parts on your guitar for each song…said when one finished accomplishing that they should be a pretty decent musician. Don’t know if that’s true or if I will go back and work out two harmony parts for each…but this ear effort has already helped me immensely.

Ears - You know I can indeed touch certain parts of my face/head and get my ear to “change”. It may not be for the better on occasion, but I can easily get the ruptured ear drum to vibrate/move. If I lightly cough or sneeze that can also getting it popping in and out. Getting better each day…now it’s about like trying to get my ears to get back to normal after flying in a plane.

Remedies - I was raised with a Hell Fire and Brimstone S. Baptist (minus the snakes) grandfather who loved to preach. Outside of preaching he was very wise on all the medicinal plants and their uses (came into his prime right as we entered the Great Depression - in the hills of Northern KY). He use to trade me when I was a little older (7-15) - If I’d read passages from the bible to him (he lost his eyesight in his late 80s) that in return he’d teach me all I needed to know about some of the medicinal plants, herbs, and potions. To this day I still use some of his old home remedies for various things when I am in a pinch…works most of the time. With that said I will check out your links. I will say that I am exceptionally fortunate with my sinuses and drainage. I bet I have not had to blow my nose in 30 years. I had my nose broke in the military while fighting a mean Cajun boy. One of my buddies grabbed ahold of it and straightened it back up for me. Never did go to the Dr…have not had a stuffed up or runny nose since.

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#15

Ha ha. May have to upgrade to 2010 tech at some point! My laptop is a 14-15 year old HP EliteBook 8460P. I owned 6 of them when I owned my company. When I sold the co I kept the laptops…been picking over the bones for years now keeping one going. I’m officially boneyard-less right now…upgrade coming soon!

I think I paid $2200 for a DX2 in 1994, and probably about the same for this laptop in 2005 or so. Those Elite Books have been pretty good computers. Basically outfitted the family for the past 10 years. I’m the last holdout though.

#16

Nice to know a bit more about you… interesting story. For someone who never had a sinus or cold symptoms for so long, getting ear infection looks strange. Yeah you can check out the links, or better yet, visit a Indian store nearby as it could be probably cheaper depending on your area and no shipping charges. Since you’re not new to Christianity and are accustomed to Christian faith, I would say this to you. If you’d be willing to incline your heart and ear to the true gospel, you could get your relief freely! :slight_smile:

Some drama at my work place last week and I have to find another project now. A global IT giant ended my assignment on a back-dated fashion in apparent violation of contract. I was instrumental for them in getting the contract! I checked with the the US client company and they enquired a few out of the several people I interacted with and they found nothing about me around my work and they were appreciative of my work. Some in client expressed their interest to have me on-board with them directly. Possible incompetency and lack of ethics at display. Hopefully the consulting company resolve it in the coming days as I see numerous violations at many levels.

#17

Contracts - I owned a small biz. I started a biz from my garage at age 29 while working in engineering/research for Kodak. Once I grew that business (B2B) I started dealing with all the various contract signing…didn’t take me long to keep an attorney on retainer.

U.S Gov was the worst from time to time in making sure you stuck to the contract line by line but felt they didn’t have to. At one point they were $400K (9 months worth of work) behind in paying me. That got ugly. When contract renewal was on the table I tripled the price to the gov…and they had to use me because I was the only one within 150 miles that could perform the work. If they would have just paid me on time vs squeezing me hard by not paying then their contract would have not increased. No way was I taking the risk again so I tripled the cost of the services. They objected and said they’d not renew and I was perfectly happy/content in not having to deal with U.S Gov moving forward. They couldn’t find anyone to do the work and came begging back. They were four months behind in having the services provided. That also cost the gov a premium for me to run a 2nd shift for them for a month to get them caught up. At the end of the day they paid dearly for not paying their invoices for 9 months.

Contracts are important, make sure you are properly represented. Attorney costs are minimal when it comes to contractual agreements compared to the potential downside w/out one.

I wish you the best in these trying times.

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#18

Thanks. I do not get big bucks in my current situation, maybe I should. Government is to be blamed for this situation too. But I’ll consider legal advice at some point. The consulting team does not have the necessary expertise yet to handle all issues, so unless the client team bails them out, they are going to be in trouble soon. In any case, my stand is on this Jesus’ promise. Consider the lilies and grass of the fields, they toil not, but they fed and dressed. When you seek his kingdom, all these things will be added unto you. So I don’t have to do anything, people who subjected me to all this have to break their heads now to do something about it. As big businesses now cannot advise people, big business cannot brag, in fact they should hung their head in shame for their unethical, illegal means to make and distribute money! Can’t they see they’re losing big!! :wink:

#19

Oh the numbers I threw out there may sound like “big bucks” but my profit margins were so thin that the biz would be lucky to make $25K net profit off the contract/yr that was estimated at $500K per year.

I changed that though. Once we renewed the contract on my terms then the money started rolling in. I viewed a $500K contract with the gov about like running a pay day loan company…they were not worthy of the risk so they were going to pay dearly. No bank would loan me money when they looked at my cash flow situation. All said “get the gov to pay and we’ll loan you whatever you want”. Home equity loan was the only way.

Put it to you this way - That was $400K out of my cash flow for 9 months. I had 18 employees. I had to take out a $250K equity line of credit on my house just to keep the biz open due to the gov not paying. Ha ha. I don’t miss those days at all.

#20

In that case, I can’t complain too much with what I get. :slight_smile: Sometimes back I did some reading about retainage in construction business and how contract guides the retainage with cause, how that money gets fulfilled, lien hold for money not paid etc. But as long as you finish the work, it is a guaranteed payment with the government, right? But I understand when they would be behind, it impacts your ability to run business, and you have to look for other sources. But cool, you had a business with a lot of employees!