Guitar practice

I started playing the guitar in 5th grade.  I took some lessons that year and then played off and on until high school.  A few months ago when my son found my old guitar in the back room, I got it out and played it for him.  It reminded me how much I enjoyed playing it that long ago.  So a few days later I bought a new guitar and I’ve been trying to play it a little every day.  I didn’t realize how much I was enjoying it until a few days ago.  On Saturday I dropped it off at the local guitar shop to get new strings and a few adjustments.  When I got home, the room seemed empty without my guitar hanging on the wall.  And I missed being able to just come in and play it whenever I wanted.  It even makes the kids happy whenever I practice.  So after 3 days without it, I got it back this evening.  Now I’m ready to start practicing even though I’m tired and should probably get some sleep instead.

I came across this video a few weeks ago, and it is one of the best acoustic guitar solos I’ve ever heard.  My son loves to watch it, and then he tells me “Daddy needs to grow his beard long like the guy in the video and then play guitar real fast and sound real good just like that.”  I remember being a kid and thinking that my dad could do anything, so I guess my little guy thinks I can play just about anything too.  When I tell him I can’t play that fast, he says “That’s okay, Daddy’s needs to practice a little bit first.”  Smart boy.

A music group

I love playing music.  It’s been a part of my life since before I can remember.  My main focus was classical piano, starting with private lessons at age 5.  I continued these lesson until senior year of high school.   But playing solo piano pieces was rather lonely.  I also was in the band in junior high and high school.  It was a small school, with only about 30 kids in the band, and most of them were not very good players.  It was rather frustrating to not have anyone good to play along with.

During my junior and senior year, I participated in the all-state band competition, where each school sent their best handfull of players to perform, get judged and ranked, and placed in one of two groups:  the best players, and the next-to-the-best players.  I was in the best band both years, and was actually ranked first chair flute out of all the private schools in Mississippi.  The following month, I made second chair in all of west Tennessee, both private and public schools.  It was such an amazing experience to play with other talented musicians.  Each of those band experiences only lasted a few days, but it was very rewarding.  Since I never played sports or did any other group activity, it was the first time I remember having a feeling of being part of something exciting and wonderful.  I almost majored in music in college, but decided to pursue engineering instead.  I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I’d chosen music instead.

But my experience in engineering was kind of like my piano career.  Lonely.  I didn’t socialize with the other students very much, and everyone worked on their own.  It was rare to find another student who wanted to work together on homework or projects.  But I distinctly remember one afternoon during my last semester before graduation.  A group of 5 or 6 of us were working on a final project.  It was the first time we all helped each other out, each of us explaining the parts of the material we knew to someone who didn’t.  After several hours, we had a breakthrough, and we finished the project.  And that’s when I experienced that rare but familiar feeling of being part of a group, with all of us working together to accomplish something.

Recently my son had a friend (a little boy who’s almost 3) over at our house for a playdate.  My son was showing off his guitar (an old 3/4 size student guitar I had as a kid) to his friend, and I got out my new guitar.  My son handed the guitar to his friend and then climbed up on the piano bench and started playing and singing.  The little boy started strumming the guitar, and I played along, singing too.  And that’s when it happened.  I had that rare feeling of being part of a group again.  To anyone else it probably looked and sounded pretty silly.  But for me, it gave me hope that one day I’ll be able to play real music with my kids and their friends, and I’ll get to be a part of group sharing their knowledge and love of music.  Obviously at a different level than state competitions, but still music, in whatever simple but enjoyable form.