Greetings From Happy Ron

[HappyRon]

Hello everyone I am Happy Ron from San Diego. You can find my music at www.happyron.com. I'm 47 years old and I've been performing in San Diego since 1998 and have logged more then 1600 performances, mainly at open mikes. I do mainly fun sing along songs.
I was born without a socket in my left hip and this creates quite a bit of tension throughout my body. So much so that trying to any sort of music has been profoundly difficult, even though I have wanted to since my teens. When I turned 30 I found some meditation that helped quite a bit, but I've never been the type that would practice for hours, it was just too difficult for me. Fortunately I've developed a very raspy rough style that makes use of my natural tension and technical imperfections and performing is one of the great joys and honors of my life.

The products on this site are what I've been looking for since my teens - a breakdown of exactly how to practice without tension and the confusion it creates - both of which are, I believe, much stronger in me then in most people due to my situation. I've just gotten into these products, but my goal is to master all of them and bring a higher level of skill to what I am doing. I have the Principles DVD and book, The Rising Sun, The 6-1 Scales, The Virtuoso Mind, and The Chords and Rhythm Book is on it's way! I hope to get the rest as soon as I can afford them!

Unfortunately due to my situation, I can't actually sit with my left leg up and sitting with my right leg up causes more tension then simply playing with a strap does. I have though recently purchased an office chair that is several inches higher then a regular chair so it finally allows me to sit with my feet flat on the floor, which is much better then how I used to sit, with my feet under the chair. Still experimenting to see if there are better options then the strap, but I can't find one.

Anyways thanks to all for their great posts on this board and thanks especially to Jamie for her wonderful insight which has helped make this month the biggest leap forward ever in my guitar playing.

All the best

The Happy Man

[Jamie]

Hey Ron..welcome! You are very inspiring in the way you meet the adversity of your life. That is a wonderful and admirable thing.........especially for the sake of the guitar!

I will certainly do whatever I can to help you. make sure you post some video asap. I want to see what you have come up with as far as sitting. I'm sure we can improve the situation, and you very well may find yourself playing like you never thought possible!

[HappyRon]

Thank you so much Jamie, I don't have a camera right now but I should in a few weeks and will post video asap. As far as me "playing better then I ever thought possible" well that's already happening, thanks to the changes over the last couple weeks, but maybe I can now shoot for "Even better then Better then I ever thought possible". Always shoot for something higher.

Don't have any new videos but if anyone is interested in my music here's a good one to start:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKtmwVGO ... ature=plcp

All the best all!

[HappyRon]

So I finally got up the nerve to make a video going into the difficulties of my situation, having been born without a socket on the left hip.

Some more details not in the video: my legs have limited mobility, I can't cross them and I can't bend them up towards my torso as much as most people which is why i need a higher chair.

I'm noticing now as I moved my stap up that the whole structure seems stable. I also notice if I move my right arm away the top of the guitar wants to fall towards me and the body of the guitar falls away. Is this normal? I'm noticing in the past I would sometimes move my arm and lose stability but now my policy is to keep it against the guitar

Tapping my foot: taping my foot while playing has always been tough, because before my new chair they wouldn't be flat on the floor and it would increase lack of stability. With my new chair they are but there still is alot of tension. Since I just now moved my strap up more it seems to have helped losen them a bit and am going to try doing it more.

Thanks again for ANY insight


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MygW-MzpyHY

[Ted]

Hi Ron! Good to meet you.

Very cool stuff on your site. Thanks for posting.