Hi folks.
I’m a former music school jazz guitar grad, part-time guitar teacher and aspiring mixing and mastering engineer, based in southern Ontario Canada.
I’m consuming the Masters in Mechanics stuff ravenously, but have yet to put much of it into practice. I hope to change that, after starting some forum discussions on things that bug me about my own playing. I can’t be the only person here with five lifetime’s worth of instructional shit (books, videos, youtube links) and very little to show for it. At least digitally, my hoarding doesn’t take up physical space. 
But yeah, I always fall for that idea of “gee, this thing that’s on sale will make me great”. Uh, not if I don’t freaking practice it won’t.
I’m blind, as in totally, from birth, so hey, if you’re curious to know something, just ask. Ask a blind guy anything starts now.
To get some preliminaries out of the way:
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“How do you read this forum and use a computer?” I use a computer like you do, except I have software, generically called a screen reader, that turns text into speech. I don’t use a mouse. I rely on the keyboard, and whichever keyboard shortcuts are built into programs or the OS. I also use an iPhone which I am addicted to. No, my text-to-speech software doesn’t read tab or notation, so it’s a good thing I have a decent ear.
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“You’ve been blind your whole life… isn’t your hearing better or something? I’ve heard that when one sense is missing, the others…” etc.
This is a tricky one to answer. I like to say that my hearing isn’t better than yours, but that I pay attention to it more closely. If we were watching CNN or similar news network, you’d probably comment on text crawling along the bottom of the screen, and I’d say “dude, stop talking. didn’t you hear what that guy just said?”
Then again, when I finally got around to seeing an audiologist to be fitted for decent earplugs, I asked him about the super-human hearing myth. He said that my visual cortex has probably repurposed itself to other things, like hearing and touch. Neuroplasticity for the win I guess.
Anyway, I hate it when people either think I’m amazing and “inspiring” (vomit) or think I’m useless. The truth is somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
The fact that I have perfect pitch doesn’t help my argument about normal hearing though. LOL so yeah, I’m one of thoooose guys.
- “What about not being able to see the guitar neck?”
Yeah, that sucked initially. I do lots of exercises that shift positions, like running through triad inversions on a string group up and down the neck, to help keep my spacial awareness sharp. I’d like to think that eventually, it becomes an advantage not having to see the side dots. Music is about hearing, right people?
One of my guitars has no dots, and I love handing it to people at open jams. “Dude, I can’t find the twelfth fret!” LOL Never gets old…
- “Do you hold the guitar horizontally, like that Jeff Healey guy?”
Being from Canada, I get this one all the time! No, I play the regular way. Jeff used to tell people that when he first started messing around on an acoustic as a very young kid, it was far too big for him, and the only way he could approach it was to have it lying flat on a bed, kind of like a keyboard. So, he just started out that way and stuck with it. I’ve talked to other blind people who do this as well, so it’s not unique to Jeff. I’m not sure there are advantages though.
When I bought my first guitar at around age 15, I thought I would attempt that way of holding it. I had done some piano as a kid, so hey, it should make more sense, right? It didn’t. Besides, who wants to barre shit with your third (ring) finger? Not me! I took lessons and learned to hold the guitar the traditional way.
Ok, time to go post some technique questions…
Chris