My Guitar #2

Hey, I just really like writing about my guitar.  

Here's the beginning of Justin Sandercoe's Beginners' Course for guitar. Dude is a legend. I would be nowhere near where I am with guitar without him. 

My guitar is important to me because it’s like a friend to me. I went to the guitar store in 2015 with my dad to go pick out a guitar for me. He had played guitar for over half his life, and he knew I was interested in music, so he wanted to teach me to play. I didn’t really know what to consider when picking out the guitar because I didn’t know anything about them, so I’m pretty sure he made all the decisions. When we got home, he tried teaching me to play chords for a few days, but I got frustrated and stopped letting him teach me. He taught me three chords, and said that “Hey Jude” by The Beatles could be played with those 3 chords, but he didn’t say which order they were in. I gave up so hard that I didn’t pick up the guitar for 4 more years.

In 2019, I was active on a Discord server dedicated to the famous 70s folk singer, Nick Drake. He was a very unique, idiosyncratic folk fingerstyle guitarist, so it’s no wonder that most people who listen to him are also interested in playing guitar. I made three friends on the server who were always talking about playing guitar, and it made me jealous and intrigued to finally pick my guitar back up and start learning. I had already written some songs without any idea about instruments, so I needed to start with some kind of instrument. The people on the server were confused at the fact that I had written songs without knowing how to play an instrument. But I was eager to show them what I could do once I would learn it. 

One of the reasons I hadn’t picked the guitar back up yet was because I despised watching video tutorials and I knew I would have to watch some if I wanted to learn an instrument. I got over this fear and I started watching a YouTube channel called Justin Guitar. He had some very good tips about practicing things you’re not so good at, mastering your chord changes, the most important chords you should learn, and daily practice routines. I watched his entire beginner course. I recorded an album of demos, mostly on guitar, after a few weeks of watching his videos and picking up a few chords. I showed it to those 3 friends, but I was a little disappointed with their reactions. The friend I cared about most didn’t even listen to it.

By the time I was done with Justin’s beginner course, I didn’t really talk to any of those friends anymore. However, I made a new friend on the same server who started messaging me and talking about music. We started sharing our own music/songwriting ideas. The moment after I sent him my music, he said that he liked it and that he wanted to collaborate on a song together. I was amazed that he thought that much of me as an artist, especially since I was self conscious about my guitar playing. We would often call each other and play guitar together and share ideas during those calls. 

He also told me about how he was self-taught with guitar and how playing guitar should be more of an exploratory process. His lack of having a schedule in real life goes into how he has no rules for playing guitar. I haven’t gone back to a structured schedule or lesson plan for guitar since then. I just pick whichever songs I like to start learning, because now that I have the basics, I can expand my skills into nearly anything of any difficulty and I will pick it up eventually with perseverance. By picking other people’s songs to learn, I gradually pick up on complex skills to put in my own songs. 

He has told me the most beautiful things about how the guitar is a part of you and you begin to feel it more as you spend more time with it and you will become better without even realizing it. You will realize your own style like every other guitarist has. Each guitarist has a guitar style as unique as their own singing voice; I’ve only noticed this after learning to play it myself. My guitar is important to me because those friends are the most important people I've met in my life and the songs are the most important things I’ve written; the guitar itself has been a companion and guide through all those phases of life.