My former guitar student and how music enriched his life

Hello, I'm George Kahler, T with George.com, and today's session of Get Real is a little

bit different.

We don't have a politician, we don't have anybody famous, we don't have a scientist,

we have a musician.

I identify with musicians because I've been one since I was a little boy.

My dad gave me a ukulele when I was about three years old, and I learned to play the

ukulele, then I went on to play guitar, and then I went on to play bass, and I taught

other young people to play guitar to play ukulele.

Our church organist was a little boy, and I taught him to play ukulele, and he went

on to other instruments, including the church organ.

He is absolutely fabulous.

We have with us today a little boy, where he was fifteen when I met him in my ninth grade

English class, and one day I said to him, Bruce, would you like to learn how to play the

guitar?

He said, yes, I would, Mr. Kahler, and I said, well, I'm going to teach you.

So today, about fifty-five years later or so, I have in the studio with me, Bruce Domenassie.

Bruce, welcome to the show.

I told you, when you were young, that the guitar would make a difference in your life, tell

me what life was like before you learned how to play the guitar.

You know, first let me make a little correction.

It wasn't, you didn't come to me.

I came to you to learn how to play guitar, because I discovered that you were in a band,

I was just learning how to play a guitar, and I didn't have any real directions.

So you were just the right person at the right time.

So for me, I was just, you know, then a farm, raised on a dairy farm, and my life consisted

of doing the daily chores, and the hay season, and milking the cows and whatever.

I did it.

That's pretty much it.

There was no real music in my family.

We had some records, but they're mostly a western, you know, kind of like a western,

like the Roy Rogers kind of stuff, you know, and I'm talking about my extent of music.

I mean, I, I may had a little, like, a little handheld AM radio, and I might have listened

to a few tunes, but that was more of the nostalgic, but it wasn't really in the music, but

that's, that was my life, music-wise.

What about social life?

Were you a big band on campus in school?

Or what was it like?

I was, I was, I was an introvert.

I think that's, that's the, that's the something I find important to talk about,

because I didn't have much of a life outside of the farm, you know, I, in family.

I was raised in the, I was raised in a, I was raised in a large family and a family of 12.

So we all got involved and pitched in with the chores and, and we all just kind of intermingled

with each other, you know, and we visited relatives and that was pretty much my life, you know,

I didn't have friends, you know, in schoolmates and all that back when I was around that age,

you know, I had one friend, I mean, one, one friend in particular, you know, he lived

on the road, his name was, you know, Joe and we were, we were, became best of friends.

The other net, it was everything revolved around the farm.

Before you became a musician, did you have any identity in school?

Is that, is that so?

Well, that's, I think that's a thing, you know, I mean, I mean, this is like, who am I?

You know, I'm just, I mean, I've, I've listened to George's interviews and, and talks on the,

you know, his, uh, things he would say on, you know, it's just, it's, it's so amazing.

There's this sit here and behind this microphone, after listening to all these, uh, things

that he's done on, on, on the radio, um, what'd you call it again?

It George has tea with George.

Tea with George.

That's right.

Tea with George.

Are you a subscriber?

Well, I get it.

No, I, I, I get it on the Facebook or YouTube, but I'm not sure.

I forgot now.

Right.

One of the other, I, I get it and I, I listen to it and I, I know you do the, uh, like the,

the, the longer interviews with the, with the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh,

attorney and a, uh, professional, yeah, the experts, yeah, the ones that are smarter and

you are.

Well, you know, you can subscribe.

Just go to teawithGeorge.com and hit subscribe and you can get me every morning.

Well, maybe I, maybe I'm subscribed and all I know is you show up and I just listen

to it.

So, okay.

Well, Bruce, at the time that you're talking about, I was an English teacher and I moonlined

at night, earn extra money and I had a passion for music and I think a lot of people have

a passion for music that they don't really know about.

My hobby is quantum mechanics and astrophysics, theoretical physics and one of the things

that we discovered, that the energy that makes up protons and gluons and quarks and

leptons and so on, there's energy patterns are a little bit like musical notes or chords

on a guitar, for instance.

And then the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis wrote, Oslong sang the universe into being

Oslong, of course, represented Christ and in Colossians 1, we read, Christ came before

mass, energy, time and space.

Christ created mass, energy, time and space and by Christ.

The universe is being held together and so the Hebrew word said and sang to the same.

God said let there be light, God sang let there be light, same thing and so I tend to

think that everything on the universe is made of music, including you, Bruce, including

most of our radio listening audience, they're made of music as well, everything is.

Maybe that's why we love music so much.

When you said you listened to Country Western when you were young, well that was, I'm a Roy

Rogers, sons of the pioneers, that was his backup group, sons of the pioneers and

they were so good.

You remember Festus Hagen on Gunsmoke?

He was one of the singers, you ever hear him sing, go to YouTube, tumbling weeds and

hear him sing.

Oh yeah.

Unbelievable.

He was a great singer, he was one of my favorite programs, that's why I enjoy watching Gunsmoke

and there's so many episodes, there's still episodes I haven't seen yet because there's

so many of them.

I love it.

One of the things I liked about Matt Dillon, he didn't put up with bad guys, I mean he

kicked butts and took names afterwards, I just love that.

The old phrase, get out of jobs, that's where it all started, he started saying that and

it became a popular phrase, get out of jobs is what people say to...

One of the things I like about Mr. Trump is that it reminds me a lot of Matt Dillon, he

doesn't take a whole lot of guff from the villains of the world, in fact just last week

he decided to, he had enough of the Ayatollah Kamani, who I think Kamani said death to America

once too often, so now he's just like Matt Dillon, hey I don't like that, let's get back

to music.

Oh okay, well I want to say one more thing about Matt Dillon, one thing I like about Matt

Dillon and you won't really notice until you listen to him a few episodes and so on,

he doesn't always respond to what people, people like try to get him into a conversation

or an argument or a demand a response, you know, and say it'll say something to him and

he'll ignore the question and say, you know, I mean he would just move on and do exactly

what you're under arrest, you know, and he won't answer the question of every conversation.

So what kind of music did you start off with then in playing at the music, was it rock

and roll country?

Yeah, I think, between my friend Joe and I, we, I try to think of, yeah I think I was

starting to get involved with listening to some music because we used to, because we

were starting to collect records and listen to, you know, converse with each other and

we both enjoyed music, it was around that time I think, my interest in playing guitar

really started with my brother getting a guitar for Christmas and we shared the same

room, so you wouldn't really play it that much or how they at all and it was stuck

under the bed.

So one day I pulled it out and held it upside down and started plucking it and playing

it and I said, man, this is interesting and I started thinking, well, and I was starting

to enjoy the music and listening to the guitar players and people like Terry Kath, you

know, I mean, all these great artists and then, you know, it just, the interest started

to perk up, you know, I said, man, this is something I, maybe I want to do.

And my interest started to flow and then you came along because you were in the, being

my teacher and I realized that you played in the band.

I think it was a, in Demions Children, I think it is, what, that was one of your bands,

but when I realized that and somehow we got to talk and then you offered to give me lessons

and then it kept on blossoming, you know, and it just also, that instrument became part

of me.

Now this morning you and I played in church and the crowd liked you and, you know, I told

them when I introduced you that I gave Bruce lessons and then he passed me like the speed

of light.

He, you know, I had big, hammy hands that were good for the bass, but not so good for

the guitar.

Whereas you, you're a big, strong guy, but somehow there's little strings.

You know, I don't look at it that way.

I just enjoy playing guitar and it's hard to look at it as I just, I just enjoy playing

guitar and I, I've tried to, over the years, I've tried to be competitive with it and stuff

and, and I have no, and I realize it's not what I, it's not what, who I am.

I mean, because I've, I've done some contests and stuff, you know, and I, it's just not

me.

You know, I just enjoy expressing myself on the guitar and I get a form of, it's a form

of communication with me and it's a form of joy and, and it's opened up so many doors.

You know, I remember, I mean, I, you know, I think I told you the other day, just one

little thing I did, you know, I spent time in China and I was involved with these engineers

over there and there's one guy, Mr. Yeah, he's an old guy and he loves singing.

And he, and one time we had this look, well, they had, they would have these little parties

for us and stuff and, and he wanted to sing and, and, and, and I just happened to have an

acoustic guitar from somewhere.

And so we got together and we worked out the song and we stood in front of all everybody,

the workers and, and my, you know, my co-workers that were with me, my team.

And we did this song and it was so, you know, I'm, net, we could never have done such

a thing, such a simple little thing, but it was so much fun and he got so much out of

it that, that this is what, that's why I enjoy about it.

I've done so many things with it, you know, not only playing in bands and doing weddings

and playing in church, you know, on worship teams and, and also for myself and special

events, I know it's just so many things I've done over the years with, with the music.

Music is written in the same language, no matter where you are.

I've played in bands in Germany, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya.

I played around the world pretty much in bands and did some recording and, but the music

is precisely the same, whoever is playing it, it's written out the same, everybody can

play it and it's our universal language.

You talked about communicating.

The audience is communicating back.

Do you ever get the feeling where the audience is energizing you that you feel them as you're

playing?

Oh, yeah, absolutely, you know, I think, I think when, um, when things are going well and

I, I can not worry about getting it right and all that and I start to look out and pay

attention to what's going on around me, which I have a hard time doing because I'm so

concentrating on getting that lead right, you know, getting the sound right, getting

the volume right, it's, I'm always, you know, and I sometimes overthink it, you know,

but my, I mean, relax and sit back and then look around and, you know, I've done, you

know, and especially these, some of the gigs I've did over the years, it's like you,

you get the, and people are watching and enjoying and you hear the, every once in a while,

people walk up and, and say, you know, and give me, give me compliments as, wow, what

did I do to deserve that, you know, that was my, that's always my feeling.

I give a nice thank you and I think, yeah, must must be, I'm, you know, people get some

joy out of listening to music and I somehow, I, I feel that role, you know, that moment

in their life.

So, you know, Bruce, I always thought of myself as someone who would help people forget

the real world for a while, that they could dance and laugh and remember and just enjoy

the moment of a live performance.

And I would be there.

By the way, now I'm playing a stand-up bass, not a bass guitar, I play stand-up bass

in church, I did with you this morning, something that knows about the stand-up bass is if

I make a mistake on the bass, the crowd just thinks I'm improvising and they love it,

I just made a mistake, but it doesn't matter, it's on a stand-up bass.

Well, Bruce, we're getting towards the end of our visit together today.

What advice would you give to young people who would like to pick up an instrument?

Well, because I, I wanted to kind of back up a little bit and talk about something that

I kind of wanted to add to this conversation and it kind of fits into what you're saying

because for me, playing guitar and learning, I'll play guitar back when I did, this is because

it's being a, working on the farm and not really doing much in school, just coming in doing

the classes, going home and not getting involved, and I wasn't involved with sports.

I wasn't had, I didn't have any interest in sports and I didn't have any interest in

all the extracurricular activity and, scholatically, I was nothing, I was no genius or anything,

so like a lot of kids, they fall through the cracks, there's no place for them and I

think that's one thing that happened when I picked up the guitar and started to learn it,

I started to become somebody and I did start to fit in to something and to a something,

I mean, I can never compete with all the people that were really in the, everybody's in

the sports, and even the, I mean, I had no interest in picking up a horn or a trumpet

or a tuba, I had no interest in that, and it's nothing wrong with it, of course, it's

a great thing, you learn how to read music and you become a musician and it's all fine

but I just had no interest in it and what guitar, now it wasn't a lot of guitar players

in school, so I became very unique, I was like, I'm the guitar player in the school and

in George would help us, like putting on, you know, some, what do you call it, it's

auditorium, a couple of those, where we actually were allowed to play during the activity period

or whatever it was that we were doing and played in front of the school assembly, I mean,

in a school assembly, yeah, and playing in front of everybody, it was a big deal, you

know, and my mom actually went ahead and, this is before we had video cameras and all

that was a long time ago, she would bring in her eight millimeter camera, you know,

movie camera, and with the big lights and stand up right there in front of everybody

and she would film us, but I still got, I got a little bit of a clip of, you know, us

in action, you know, and doing this huge event in my life and I'm somebody, you know,

not just to, you know, somebody just feeling up the halls, so that's why I appreciate

George, you know, I appreciate him pushing me forward and teaching me how to play, and

I give him more credit and he doesn't get himself enough credit, but he's done a lot for me,

so he still does to this day, he's my inspiration in a lot of ways. I appreciate that, Bruce, although

I'm not giving guitar lessons now. No, in other ways, I mean, you are, you're so involved in

a lot of things, you know. Well, I'm trying to save this country, and I'm an old man,

I'm going to be 82 very soon, and it's not about me, it's about my children, my grandchildren,

my great grandchildren, what kind of a country are we leaving for our kids, so that's why I do

tea time and this segment get real. Well, we're out of time, Bruce, and I really appreciate

you're sitting down with me and talking about playing guitar and what it's meant to you,

and it was an honor, an honor. Well, it's an honor for me to be here, and here's something else

that I'm an opportunity that being a guitar player brought me into, me in front of George,

and doing an interview about playing guitar. You know, my 15-year-old granddaughter,

Katherine Chamberlain is going to play with me this coming Friday night, and she'd like Frank

Sonotra and all that, she's going to play guitar, I'm going to play bass, and we're going to play

for a upscale senior citizen. It's going to be really nice, and I'm going to introduce her

to being a professional musician at age 15. We'll see how that goes.

Hey Bruce, I have an idea. I got a couple of guitars here, that's my old 1947 guitar that I learned

to play on, got an extra one here, one of the first songs I taught you. Don't let the sun

catch you crying. You play lead, I'll play rhythm, okay?

Well everybody, thank you so much for listening to Get Real. May God bless your day.

Sponsored by the Kailer Group Wealth Management in Lynchburg, Virginia. Call 434-455-7197.