I’m currently working my way through the Gibson Learn and Master Guitar course. After about a year I’m nearly halfway through it, although I did take about four months off last summer. Actually, I hit a point in the course where it got really tough and I kind of lost some of the momentum I had. I’m hoping that won’t happen again. I’m definitely committed to it and really enjoy doing something completely different than staring at a computer screen or riding a bike.
But, it’s hard as hell. I mean, think of how much music you listen to and for how long you’ve been listening to it. You know what you like and (hopefully) what’s good and what’s not. Then you start trying to play it and you can barely pound out the most basic version of Jimmy Crack Corn.
The other thing that’s frustrating, at least for how I’m going about things, is that I’ve been practicing a lot — I play probably 5-6 times a week for maybe 45-60 minutes each time — yet I can’t really play a single song. I’m spending most of my time learning the fundamentals and drilling them into my hands and my brain. I know this is going to pay off in the long run, but it’s tempting to just grab some tabs online and spend hours trying to learn parts of a few songs. But, I’m all about the long run. I’m never going to be in a band and will probably never play for anyone except my cats and Heidi, who’s usually cringing in the next room. It’s definitely all about the journey and the joy I get from seeing improvements and challenging myself. And occasionally producing something beautiful. If I can keep at it and stay dedicated, by the time I hit 40 I’ll have been playing for 5 years. And 10 years by 45. That’s a long time so with any luck I should be able to carry a tune by then. But, it’s scales and chord drills for now.
I’m adding a (short) new post just so folks still know I’m alive. Here’s a quick, off-the-top-of-my-head update on “what’s new.”
I’ve been riding bike my bike more lately, which has been a lot of fun. I think I’m averaging between 170-200 miles a week, which is probably 50 miles or so more than I was riding before. I joined two clubs a month or so ago: Swamis and Ranchos. I’ve been riding with Swamis on Thursday mornings and, occasionally, on Sundays. I’ve been riding with Ranchos on Saturdays. Both clubs are very fast and have been a challenge for me, which is why I decided to join them. I also bought a touring bike in early summer. It’s been really fun to get that outfitted with the proper gear. I’m hoping to post a lot more about the bike and our touring adventures in the near future.
Otherwise, there’s not too much else to report. Life is good.
I can’t believe I haven’t already written about this. I guess I’ve been tweeting most of my updates rather than blogging them. Should try to change that. At any rate, I was talking to one of my coworkers last November and somehow the topic of guitars got brought up. I launched into a sales pitch and was trying to get my friend to buy my Fender Stratocaster, which has been lying fallow for years. But the more I talked about it the more I realized how much I missed trying to play the damn thing. Maybe it was simply my friend’s enthusiasm that rubbed off on me or perhaps it was just awesome timing, but 5 minutes later we were on eBay searching for effects processors. A couple weeks later I had one in my office. More importantly, though, I had a renewed sense of purpose: once and for all I was going to learn to play guitar.
I think I started trying to play when I was a sophomore or junior in high school. But, that was pre-Internet and I didn’t really have any resources available except one instruction book and an old hymnal from church. Needless to say, it didn’t go very well and I was quickly discouraged. I made a second run at it in college, but once again didn’t stay on it. Which, looking back, is a major shame because some of my friends were awesome musicians/guitar players and I could have really learned something. But, it’s such a damn hard instrument to learn that if you aren’t really dedicated to it, you’re going to fail.
So, I picked things up with renewed vigor in November. Heidi got me the Gibson Learn and Master Guitar DVD course for Christmas and I picked up a beautiful used Les Paul on eBay. I’ve been playing about 6 hours a week for the last 2.5 months. It’s harder than hell and there are times when I get super frustrated, but it seems different this time. I can’t really play anything besides scales, a dozen or so chords, and some cheesy old folk songs, but it’s still been a lot of fun.
Happy new year everyone.
I posted a link to this on Twitter a while ago, but thought I should also add it here.
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