Final Draft: Learning to Play a Six Stringed Instrument

I am a very stubborn person. So when I believed I could teach myself to play the guitar, I wasn't about to give up. I first asked for an acoustic guitar for Christmas. When I received the Fender guitar I quickly found a website to help me on my way. Two of my three brothers play, but refused to teach me. One of them said he would "jam" with me after I learned, but he wouldn't help me.

After a week or two of going through lessons that were teaching me a few chords and scales. I got bored and frustrated. I felt I wasn't moving at a fast enough pace. Not to mention my fingers were so sore.  Eventually I gave up on the lessons.

So, my guitar sat in the corner of my room tormenting me. Whispering softly as I slept about how incapable I was in playing anything but a few chords. Collecting dust and the strings growing slack.

After about three months, I tuned my guitar and agreed to go to lessons with an actually instructor. I really wanted to learn this instrument and be able to sit around a campfire and strum a merry tune about someone else's adventures. I was incredibly nervous for my first lesson. A rather ridiculous reason being that I was worried my mother and I would get lost. It wasn't like the lessons were far away or anything, I just hate being late.

The first lesson went well. I must admit, however, I did not touch my guitar. Instead my instructor, an older gentleman with a baseball hat covering his balding head and glasses sitting on his nose, showed me all kinds of different ways to play the guitar while the cat stared at me from atop the piano. It was all so intriguing, all the different ways to play one instrument. I wanted to learn them all! I was especially interested in finger-picking. Before I left for the week he asked what artists I liked and the genres I like to listen to. I was looking forward to seeing what I had in store to learn the next week.

One week later I returned to lessons with my guitar in hand. On the music stand in front of where we sat were a few sheets of paper with horizontal and vertical lines made to resemble a neck of a guitar. There were numbers in certain places and letters labeling each different "neck." Four of the five necks were labeled, one with "G", one with "C", one with "Em", and lastly a "D." These were the cords required to play the song he had written the tabs for on the back of a different sheet. The song was by one of my favorite artists and was a song I knew well. After I got my guitar out my instructor started teaching me where to put my fingers on the neck and how many times to strum each chord. I already knew a few of the chords from my little time trying to teach myself and soon enough I was able to go through the song, but not at full speed. After a few weeks, I could play it easily.

The next song I learned was a Beatles song. The song was from a sheet music book, so it was written different from the previous song I had learned. The song used a lot of similar chords so most of the lesson was spent with me trying to figure out how many times to pay each chord. We played it with the song playing a few times, even though I could not keep up and made many mistakes. Before the lesson was over I was close to being able to play the song with no errors.

Eventually, the lessons got more difficult of course. But he wouldn't just teach me one thing anymore. Often he'd teach me scales and chords and then a song that may require different chords. Some times I'd even learn two songs at once. I was expanding my knowledge at a lot quicker pace then I expected. My fingers also became stronger and the skin tougher.

I wasn't just taught chords and songs. He eventually taught me some song writing techniques. I also got to explore more of the finger-picking technique had interested me so much. I learned different styles of finger-picking and a few songs with more complex patterns. Most importantly I learned that I was capable of learning to play an instrument.

I always figure that I couldn't be good at something that required so much rhythm and musical know how. My instructor told me often that I was a good student and a quick learner, but usually I would just tell him thanks and brush it off. Never truly believing it. I knew I was progressing. Every time I made a mistake, however, I figured I was doing awful and needed to practice more. But, instead of just the voice in my head telling me I could do better, there was someone with experience telling me I was learning quick and becoming a good guitar player. That was probably the best thing for me.

The thing I liked most about my instructor was that he was teaching me in a way that I could understand. He was teaching me in a mathematical way, which I could easily understand. He even told me that because I understood math easily, it could help me learn to play the guitar. Which was something I never thought would make a difference and if it did more a hindrance then an advantage. I guess that shows how much I know about music.

Learning the guitar taught me that getting help is okay. In fact it is usually beneficial. I'm not one to go out of my way for help, but sometimes it's necessary. Don't get me wrong, you can learn to play guitar on your own. There are plenty of people who have. But I could not. So instead of just giving up I got help. Which was a great decision for me. I also learned sometimes the things you think are going to create obstacles are actually beneficial.

I am still in lessons today and have yet to have that jam session with my brother. So, I guess I still have to practice until he finds me worthy, or more importantly I'm happy with my skills.