Twenty years ago

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 17 July 2006 13:46:46

I got my first guitar.

I'd borrowed one from a friend and convinced myself that although I couldn't play it at all, if I got my own then I'd learn. So I hit the local pawn shop and got the cheapest electric they had. And learn I did. I was quite into libraries at the time and I remember borrowing every guitar book that my local library had, as well as trekking off to other libraries in the borough to find what guitar books they had too. I soaked up everything they had to say and, without lessons or any other guitarists around to learn from, I picked up the basics. It's amazing what a bit of determination can do, aided by the thought that playing guitar was my escape from the dull life that I saw bearing down on me. In eighteen months I learnt basically everything I know about playing guitar. Which is to say that I have learnt practically nothing in the eighteen years since then. I suppose I'd be really quite good now if I'd carried on learning at the same rate as I did then. But I didn't. I stopped learning and stayed, more or less content, at the plateau I had reached. Mostly I think this is a manifestation of my devotion to mediocrity, which I will write more about some other time, but while playing in a church service last night (no, honest, I was concentrating) it did occur to me that my limitations mean that I'm unlikely to distract any guitar-playing worshippers, whereas I often find myself distracted by unfeasibly good guitar players when I should be worshipping. Mind you, you may conclude from this that I'm very good at being distracted and if it's not the guitar-playing it'll be something else. You'd be right. Sorry, what was I talking about?