Extremely Rough, rough draft of Ed. Narrative

Almost six years ago I was given a guitar for my birthday. A reddish-black sun burst Johnson in a black sturdy hard case; lined with a plush black lining soft enough that any guitar would be proud to call it a home.  It’s not the most expensive guitar money can buy, nor is it the cheapest. Honestly it’s pretty mediocre, an excellent beginners guitar. But the silk steel strings that line its neck emit a soft rich tone full of feeling that mimic those of the owners; strong yet often times soft spoken.

A good portion of the reason why I was given this guitar was because of a promise a good friend of mine made to me several years prior to getting this guitar. One of the last things this friend said to me before I moved back to the big city was, “Get a guitar. Call me when you have it, and I will give you free lessons.”

So I got the guitar. And I couldn’t be happier.  It had been a while since I had talked to my friend but I called him up none the less and said, “I got that guitar you ready to give me lessons?!”

Back tracking just a tad here to offer up some history, I sort of grew up playing music. As a child I played violin for two years, clarinet for three years, choir, and a year plus of piano.  My idea of fun growing up was not playing with my younger sister, but sitting for hours and practicing whatever instrument I was playing at the time. Often times playing the same piece of music over and over again until it was mastered and burned into memory so I could play it without reading the music. My band teacher in Middle School taught us the importance of listening to one another, and being able to hear the tones in our music to the point of being able to tell by ear if players were sharp or flat. To the point of stopping our 90 person band to go through whatever section, be it clarinet, flute, or drums, making each person play to find out who the culprit was. Girls often left his class in tears he was so serious and brutal about tone and quality of the music we put out as a class. But I attribute my ability to hear those fine details in any music I listen to now, to him. Because without him teaching me those skills, I would not be playing my guitar, nor would my passion for music be as great as it is now.

Now back to the guitar. So I’ve made contact with my friend “Brian”. Said, “Hey I got my guitar are you ready to teach me?” And he said, “I’d love too!”

I showed up at his house about 20 minutes away from mine, it was sometime in November. So it was cold and raining out. I proudly showed him my guitar, played him the half a song I knew how to play (only to find out I had taught it to myself wrong, cause of course he knew how to play it already!) and started learning.

We talked for a while about the different ways he could teach me. I told him that I was a very quick learner and that I had a good ear. And it was very shortly thereafter that we reached the conclusion that he would not teach me how to read music, but that he would teach me so that I could play on my own if I wished or with a group of people.

We could, more like I could, not decide on what sort of music I wanted to learn to play. And insisted that he teach me everything he knew. All I wanted to do was play my guitar, it didn’t matter to me what sort of music it was.  The first song he taught me was the one I had tried to teach myself before my first lesson with him. Except this time I learned it the proper way. It was Lyin’ Eye’s by The Eagles. He sat down across from me and just started playing. Ten minutes later I was playing the entire song chord for chord, strum for strum like I had been playing it my entire life, minus a chord or two here and there (that darn B and F chord gets me still to this day!).

Now that we had figured out a good way for me to learn, the songs came rolling through. During my peak playing I was learning to play a song a lesson. And I became better and better at picking up songs by just watching him play them a few times through.  It was so much fun, so rewarding, relaxing, therapeutic, and full filling to me. I knew prior to playing the guitar that my “knack” for things in life was learning and retaining information and experiences quickly but I did not know it was to this degree, being able to watch someone play a song and by the second time through knowing it in its entirety.