I will never have the advantage of having started learning a musical instrument at an early age. It was always something I sort of felt was just too hard. Like almost everyone I had over the years picked up various instruments and had that feeling of being completely out of my depth.
Around 18 months ago a good mate loaned me a guitar so I could have a go. It sat on the top of a cupboard for quite a while gathering the very best dust on offer in Emu Park. I took it down a few times and promptly returned it to its perch to gather more dust. It was going nowhere.
Then one day I had another friend who played guitar over and we talked for quite a while about learning to play. Something sort of clicked and I decided to give it a serious go. Over the next couple of months my fingers hurt every day. Two of them were so numb I could hardly type on the computer. Various friends assured me it would pass quickly. They lied! At least as far as I was concerned anyway. It has been eight months and I am just getting over the sore fingers.
Dexterity had never been a problem to me with anything else I had done. I could do just about anything with my hands that I needed to do. Except hold down 3 puny strings at the same time on a guitar. It was very challenging and difficult. Not only did it hurt quite a bit but I could not get my fingers to spread where they needed to be.
Then a revelation, one should NOT grip the neck of the guitar with the thumb curled tightly around the back. The thumb should only brace the grip and mostly sit against the back. A lot of relearning and getting the grip right and I could at last reach across a couple of frets. Soon I had “D”, “A”, “G”, “A7″ working in a kind of fashion and was getting guitar like sounds. I practised every day and had not dared to attempt to work with a song. The guitar like sounds sounded a little more like guitar like sounds as time passed. I felt the as I practised each day the need to be able to get some chords right.
Eventually I typed a search with sore fingers into google. “Kristofferson guitar chords”, was greeted with dozens of sites that promised all sorts of his songs and the chords to play. It was all a bit strange to me and took a while before I realised what I was looking at. One curious detail was that many songs seemed to need different chords to the ones I had been learning. Something called an F sharp minor (or something like that) written F#m (I think) was completely foreign. The next stage of my learning was so steep, you could look up and get a strained neck. With a little help from my friends I eventually was armed with a few songs to start the next phase of my acoustic adventure.
One of the handiest things that was given to me was a sheet with a bunch of common open chords This was extremely useful for the first six months. I eventually gave it away to another learner and so far have not reprinted it.
Someone had told me the afore mentioned chords were possible to play many songs. This was probably correct if you played from the two main musical genres of “Country” and “Western”, but had not as much joy as I had hoped for the songs I wanted to play. I then learned an E minor and an A minor and a few doors opened. Eventually though, I had to bite the unpleasant “F” and “C” bullet so I could play a few more songs. There have been quite a few more chords along the way and I am told Barre chords open new doors. I discovered later that guitar players refer to the F chord as the effen F chord because it is hard for so many people to master.
No matter how hard I try I find it near impossible to hold down all the strings to make a barre. Maybe sometime soon that door will open.
The adventure continues every day. I practice at least 30 minutes unless a family emergency stands in the way. I may never be an exceptional guitarist or singer but I do enjoy the time I practice. When you pick up the guitar, open the practice book and start playing and singing, there is little else to occupy your thoughts for that time. It is probably as effective as many other stress relieving techniques such as yoga and tai chi.
A real surprise after a few months was the realisation that my memory was improving. I had heard of such an effect where people worked their mind with new tasks. I was not expecting this and it is a pleasant bonus. For now I will continue and see if I ever hit the “plateau” that I was once told I would eventually hit where there would seem to be no progress. It has not happened in the past eight months. There was this one day I really did not feel like practising, but that was just the one day and every other one I look forward to doing some practise.
If there is anyone out there reading this who feels they would like to learn an instrument, I would encourage you to have a go. You might even surprise yourself.
A little about myself. I am a computer technician who enjoys using and working with technology. I enjoy music and singing. I have an embarrassingly large collection of LED flash-lights, although many have been given away. I have an interest in photography and own several digital cameras. Sustainable energy is an interest and my wife and I are working towards making our own home as sustainable as possible. Our grid connect solar system provides around 80% of the power we use at this time of the year. We have solar heated water and gas powered cooking. We use highly efficient cooking techniques that use up to 80% less energy. Our car is a Hyundai i39 diesel model that uses rather modest amounts of fuel. Around (6.3l/100K) I would like to get the vege garden up and running soon and wish I could invent self mowing lawn.