Subject: Why Do You Play Guitar? I'll Bet it's Not What You Think.
You are getting this e-mail because you subscribed to it on www.learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com. If you don't want to receive these e-mails any longer, go to the bottom of this message and click on "unsubscribe." Hey there Friend, Have you ever given that question any thought? What is it about guitar that made you want to pick it up? I'll bet if I took a poll, the answers would be as diverse as we all are, but my guess is there would be common themes in the answers. Here are some possibilities I came up with...
What's your story? What is it that compels you to play guitar? Your answer might look like one of the above, I'll bet that's not really it... A Long Time Ago... Let me take you back over thirty years to when I decided guitar was the weapon of choice for me. My initial brush with a musical instrument started a few years earlier with violin. I took formal lessons through the grade school I attended. Of all the instruments offered at that time, strings resonated with me more than any other. To this day they still do. I can appreciate brass and woodwinds when done well, but these were just not me. I think that's because for as long as I can remember, I've loved to sing. Long before there was anything like American Idol or X-Factor, my brother and I used to sing songs after we were put to bed. We would sing popular tunes from the time and pretend we were part of some singing contest. We would imagine winning the competition with the crowd cheering after we finished a song, just like a kid might imagine hitting the game-winning home run in the World Series. For someone like me, horns tend to get in the way of being able to sing. I took lessons and played violin for two years, from Second to Fourth grade. Being a kid and prone to distraction, practice was not something I enjoyed, at least not when you consider it was much more fun to be outside playing than inside practicing. My parents made me take responsibility for myself and tell my teacher that I had to quit because I wasn't doing the work at home. It's a wonder I ever got a guitar after that! Fast-forward a couple years. I was really into listening to music on the transistor AM radio my dad had given me. I also had a record player that I would spend hours in front of playing vinyl 45 rpm singles (for those of you too young to remember vinyl, a 45 had two songs on it, one on each side) I inherited from my parent's teenage years. I also had a couple of 33 rpm LPs (long plays) by popular artists or the time - don't laugh - Barry Manilow and John Denver. Don't judge me - AM radio in the mid-70's only played pop music. You had to have an FM receiver to really hear any rock music back in those days. It wasn't as easy (or inexpensive) to get an FM radio then. [Side note:] I had a cassette tape recorder I would use to record the songs off the records. I'd get so mad whenever someone walked in and made noise! My recordings had to be as clean as possible, so I ended up re-recording any time there was unacceptable noise - I re-recorded a lot! Thinking back on it now, I don't know why I never became an A/V tech at school. Well, you can imagine, as an early teen with little-to-no athletic ability (or real interest) and a propensity for geekiness, but with the same biological drive of every young animal, the likelihood of being attractive to the opposite sex was pretty slim. The most logical route for me was music, and of all the instruments that you would find on a popular song, guitar stood out head and shoulders above every other. It had it all - complex arrangements, I could sing while playing, guitar tends to take a leading position in songs and girls like singing guitar players. This was clearly evidenced by songwriters like James Taylor, John Denver, Jim Croce, Cat Stevens and The Eagles. So I jumped in as soon as I could. I even had it all worked out who in the neighborhood would be in my band once I had a guitar. Surprisingly, my parents got me said guitar for Christmas and I started taking lessons shortly after that. My instructor started me out on learning popular songs by John Denver and The Eagles, and this became my foundation. I worked on learning open chords and finger-picking patterns so I could emulate these great players. I don't remember too many details about those lessons, but in particular I don't remember getting much instruction on strumming. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I remembering listening to the songs I wanted to play and working on my strumming based on what I heard. It took some practice to train my ears to hear the strums, but that technique has helped me through the years. And did you notice the word - practice? Yeah, I was actually willing to practice what I was learning. It just felt cool to be playing a contemporary instrument and doing songs that I was actually interested in playing. There's a lesson in that - play the music that moves you. Learn the chords and the melodies so you can play along with the song. Practice will be that much more meaningful to you, and you will find yourself picking up your guitar more often. But Why Guitar? So why do you play guitar? Despite my story, which echoes the most common answers to that question, I'll present an argument that we don't typically think about: music drives us and the guitar is the instrument that resonates most with our personality and preference. To a musician, most music is enjoyable. Sure, to varying degrees we like certain styles over others, but if you ask a true musician, they will find something useful and worthwhile in every form of music. And for each of us there is an instrument that fits us better than any other. Whether it's voice, drums, piano or any other sound-creating device, we all have a go-to instrument. I'd bet you can't really put your finger on why guitar resonates with you. It's more an innate feeling that just makes sense to you. You don't think about it - it just is. At least that's the way it has been for me. I love the fact that guitar can be used to create extreme arrangements and played incredibly fast. That with guitar you have an endless supply of tonal options that you can't find with other instruments - try setting up an alternate tuning on a piano or saxophone! This versatility leads to vast, open possibilities of creativity and inspiration. Guitar is also incredibly complimentary to other musical instruments. You can pair a guitar and piano in a duo where either instrument can play a complex rhythm, harmony or melody, or they can easily harmonize with each other. But this still doesn't quite touch on why you chose to learn guitar - it's not the beauty of guitar skillfully played, or the technical accomplishment of playing it well. It's deeper on a psychological level. If you think a bit more about guitar and how it's commonly used, you may start to see why it "speaks" to you. I'll bet you can begin see how the act of playing guitar taps into many of your needs. We all have a need to be accepted for who we are and recognized for our talents and unique abilities. We're all complex beings with unique habits and idiosyncrasies. We have varying degrees of need to be the center of attention, to have the spotlight. We all crave interaction and acceptance - even the hermits among us need to feel some inclusion. And playing guitar fills some of these needs, or at least gives us hope that these needs will be satisfied. As a guitarist, you get to:
For what it's worth, I think taking up guitar helps us reach for a solution to something that we feel is missing in our lives. For some of us we need it as an outlet to give us peace; for others, we're a bit more needy and want to be recognized, or at least acknowledged for doing something more than "the average person." Am I reading too much into why people play guitar? Is it just because it's fun and nothing more? Tell me what you think? Peace~ Dave Dave "Eddie" Vance is a rock guitar enthusiast and gear nut. He has been playing guitar for over 30 years and enjoys tormenting the neighbors every chance he gets. When he's not slaving for the man, you can find him rocking out with his B.C. Rich Bich guitar, a cold beer and some sweet tunes. He also runs Learn-To-Play-Rock-Guitar.com, but you knew that already! Follow Learn To Play Rock Guitar:I welcome your feedback! Did you like today's message? What other topics would you like to see covered in my e-mails? Please let me know at: dave@learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com As always, please feel free to forward this email to a friend! I review products before recommending them. If you buy a product based on my recommendation, I will receive a commission. However, my emails also contain links that don’t require any investment on your part and are jam-packed with "juicy, guitar learnin' tastiness". We don't rent or share your name with anybody. Feel free to forward this issue to any friends you think would enjoy its contents. They will thank you. So will I.
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