Acoustic Guitar | Singing | Music | Lifestyle
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Hi! I’m Cliff Ford
I have been in the entertainment industry since about 1997 as a vocalist.This website is about learning acoustic guitar and singing – and what motivated me to take up acoustic guitar; and what resources have helped me to move forward with my skills.
Lifestyle is very important so I have added a ‘social’ section to include topics on how I stay fit and healthy. Of course, the focus is on learning acoustic guitar, recording guitar and vocals and information about the equipment I use.
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More About Cliff Ford:
Background:
I guess it was about 1997 that I was introduced to performing live, by a close friend who was already on the circuit. I remember those days well . . . . using 1/4″ cassette tapes which quite often got mangled during use “squirm”.
Then along came Sony with the Minidisc – which was a real relief for all artists using backing tracks. Of course, there was the Philips digital tape machine as well, and like lots of things I’ve jumped into over the years it was a miserable failure and I ended up buying a Minidisc unit.
For a couple of years, I also enjoyed being a member of the Hull charity singing group – “Society of MICE” (Men In Charitable Endeavors). A group I have great respect and admiration for; raising funds for many different charities.
I started performing as a solo artist in about the year 2000 and for several years my bookings were at hotels and clubs on the East Coast of Yorkshire and sometimes south of the Humber.
I created this website simply to share my experiences of learning the acoustic guitar.
Those moments of excitement when you learn something new and you get that feeling of elation! or those moments when you feel that nothing is going right!
Then, the realization that the key to success is to ‘bolt down the hatch’ and stick with it: tenacity and perseverance are the key qualities towards your success!
I have my own limitations I must admit! First of all, I broke my left index finger many years ago and the limited movement has made it difficult for me to stretch that finger across all the strings when playing barre chords. I have to ignore the lower 2 strings, unfortunately.
My other limitation (for which I have no real excuse), is that I could never get used to using a plectrum in all the years I’ve been playing. I therefore, use finger-style and that in itself is a hard journey in proficiency, and I’m a long way from ‘fluency’. So when I do upload some demos, they are with ‘warts n all’
But that is the whole purpose of this website! To show my progression, along that path to fluency and self-satisfaction in playing. Does anybody else have similar problems? Please feel free to add your own comments about your own learning experiences.
😀 .
I have to confess that a few years ago, I had the idea of taking guitar up and performing at gigs: unfortunately, I didn’t rehearse well enough and my performances were – how shall I put it – inadequate lol. Indeed, I lost gigs and only had myself to blame.
So not surprisingly, I developed a phobia about ever going live with the acoustic guitar again. However, after a few years break I took up the guitar again and have tried to be consistent in practicing every day with repetitive exercises for that “muscle memory” retention.
That gave me the idea of setting up a website for those interested in playing guitar. Quite clearly, the site is aimed at people just learning – or who can perform moderately well enough to join a group.
So there we are; a brief oversite of me as an entertainer. I hope that when I get my cover songs uploaded, they provide inspiration to others to have a go – you just have to keep practicing and practicing every day (without fail folks!).
PRACTICE IS KEY!