Creating a Sound of Music

One of my favorite things to do is play music with my friends. My longtime friend and his wife spent the day with us yesterday. I shared my homemade instruments with him. We sat down and used them to make music together. It was wonderful to get together again. We learned to play the guitar when we were living on the same floor of the college dorm. That was fifty-seven years ago!

Below are some pictures from a neck rebuild on the first DeWalt guitar I made back in 2020. The first neck was not done well, and I had trouble getting the intonation right on it. This time I used a half post from the Habitat Restore so that the fret board would lay perfectly flat. I carved out the shape on my table saw and sanded it smooth. I use a couple of strips of walnut that I glued together to make my fretboard.  A stick-on Piezo pick-up on the inside picks up the sound very well. The other instrument in the picture above was made a couple of years ago as a baritone ukulele.

If you would like to hear how they sound, go to my Instagram page that is posted under my name.

Good friends

and good music

stay with you forever

Photos: Dwight & Ruth Roth

https://www.instagram.com/rothdwight/  click here to listen…

Soul Music

It isn’t the music that touches me

It is where the music takes me

My mind running in all directions

Chasing the illusive while in the present

Finding those notable melodies

Embedded forever in my consciousness

Triggers waiting to take me there

with every note

44 word Quadrille for d’Verse Poets Pub prompt of touch.

Posting on Open Link Night.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

Full Circle Lilac

‘city lilacs release their sweet, wild perfume then bow down, heavy with rain.’ -Helen Dunmore

Joni was in a wheelchair at the age of nine years old, from residuals of polio syndrome. She learned to walk all over again, and her left hand was left somewhat impaired. She learned to play the guitar by changing the tuning so it would work for her.

Coming into her flowering prime in the sixties Folk Revival, she became a household name in the music world. Her songs touched the hearts of her listeners endearing them to her.

After a brain aneurism, and a twenty-year hiatus, she came full circle in a wheelchair where she was awarded a Grammy at this year’s Grammy Awards. Singing her song, I Look at Life From Both Sides Now, she emerged the way ‘city lilacs release their sweet, wild perfume then bow down, heavy with rain.’  Joni Mitchel shows us what it means to dream.

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Today at d’Verse we are writing prose with a poetic twist in it. Kim introduced us to a wonderful Yorkshire poet, Helen Dunmore. She wrote a poem called: City Lilacs. From that poem she gave us the line, ‘city lilacs release their sweet, wild perfume then bow down, heavy with rain,’ that must be included in our prose. I wrote a short biography of Canadian singer songwriter Joni Mitchell.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

Music – You Tube

Riding the Time Wave

Time travel grabs some

Wishing another place // time

In a time-machine

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Not seeing false illusions

The present is our wormhole

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Memory is our trip

Beamed back and forward again

Zapped when each song plays

Painting: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, Lisa asked us to think about time travel and time machines. We are to write a poem about our journey. I believe music is the greatest of all time machines!

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

Visualization

Music makes the blind man see again

“This sunny April afternoon” made me think of Danny

He loved music and singing in the choir

Being blind did not affect his singing voice

His harmony came through loud and clear

Diabetes took its toll on his health, but not his voice

At age seventy-four he wanted to learn the guitar

A big challenge for me to help him

Getting fingers in position.. on the right strings

Playing chords came in time as we met each week

I could feel the music flowing through Danny

We spent a great year playing and singing together

Although it seemed like his “life in a bottle” was dark

his imagination and memory were sharp and clear

Then came Covid-19… isolation separated us

Health issues took Danny from us only a year ago

We all miss him greatly

Music made the blind man see again

Photos: Vera Payne

Posting for Punam’s poetry prompt, Music, on d’Verse Poets Pub. We were to include two of the song titles from a Linda Perry record album that she shared with us.  My quotes are in dark print.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

The Sounds of Peace

Soft notes roll off strings

Music passed from old to young

Teaching sounds of peace

Brings joy to all of our hearts

Crossing all borders with love

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Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Acapella Music

 

Acapella Music

Music was sweet and pure when I was a child

No “worldly” instruments with our Sunday Songs

Just sweet voices singing four-part harmony.

Now times have changed accompaniment abounds

But memories of four-part harmony still bring chills

To those of us us who were there.

Today at d’Verse, Linda asked us to write a 44 word Quadrille using any form or the word music. When I was a child, back in the 1950s, I grew up in a conservative Mennonite church. In our church musical accompaniment was not permitted. It was great sitting in a church full of people singing four-part harmony. I still find it very soothing to my soul when I hear it. The song above was one that became a favorite in later years. It is known simply as 606, the number of the hymn book page where it was found.

Join us at: https://dversepoets.com

 

 

Goodby Dear Friend

Today my good friend Danny passed away. It was very sad to get the news. He is the same age as me but suffered from health issues that shortened his life. He had diabetes that was difficult to control. Several weeks ago, he had to have part of his lower leg amputated from lack of circulation. In addition to that he was blind.

Back in 2019 his wife asked if I would try to teach him some chords on the guitar, so I worked with him along with his neighbor David who wanted to learn as well. David picked up playing very quickly, but for Danny it was a little slower. I was able to teach him how to hold chord positions, but he never quite mastered changing from one chord to another. We decided to have him play the home chord while David and I played the changes. He did well on keeping rhythm with us, so we sang and played together twice a week for the year before Covid. He loved playing with us and looked forward to our weekly get togethers. He favorite song was one his father in Barbados loved, Just a Little Talk with Jesus! Since Covid we have not been able to play together as his health continued to decline.

Goodby my dear friend

May you sing with the angels

and talk with Jesus

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Painting: Dwight L. Roth

Ukrainian Now

Tom Paxton and John McCutcheon have written a heartfelt, stirring song, “Ukrainian Now”, that touches us all. Noel Paul Stookey edited this beautiful video that includes Peter Yarrow, Bill Miller, Tret Fure, Holly Near, Joe Jencks, Emma’s Revolution, Rebel Voices, Crys Matthews, Carrie Newcomer and Christine Lavin singing with them.

Many of these folks are living shadows from my past! They came out of the Folk Revival of the 1960s and have been speaking through their music and lyrics ever since that time. This is poetry in song! This is a beautiful heartfelt song!

Homemade DeWalt Guitar

As many of you know, I love trying new things. This week my urges went into seeing if I could make a guitar out of a DeWalt drill case. I cut out the walls from the inside of the case and made a neck out of a piece of Maple from a tree that was damage a couple of years ago. Using my old Washburn guitar, I measured and copied the scale length of 25.5 inches. I marked off the neck to match and cut slits for the frets. I got the frets, the tuning nuts, the bridge and a cheap stick-on pick-up from Amazon. The neck runs through the case and bolts into the end. Since I needed more strength inside, I cut a piece of steel shelf leg and mounted it onto the neck.  On the outside I used a small turnbuckle to keep the neck from bowing.  It is a little tinny sounding but works and is tunable. With the amp it doesn’t sound too bad,

Music comes from case

Neck straight and bright strings vibrate

Drill stops its whining

Photos: Dwight L. Roth