An Unexpected Journey Into Error

I think I was in my late twenties when I first got the idea to learn how to play guitar.

I had always been a pretty good singer, maybe even a great singer if I had ever taken proper training or sung in front of an audience before.

And so the thought occurred to me that perhaps the reason why I never took singing seriously was because I didn't have the instrumentation to accompany me.

I also wanted something that would get me off the couch and away from TV and video games.

I decided to start small - acoustic, six strings, and cheap.

My first attempt at going out and buying an instrument was one of those classic shopping stories where you walk into a music shop and everything looks like it's designed by someone who doesn't know what people look like.

It probably didn't help that I'd only ever played video games. Maybe real instruments weren't supposed to be all pointy and weird?

The first guitar I bought was shaped like an egg, which is probably why it was called a "fry-baby." This thing looked like it was supposed to be dipped in batter and put on a griddle. I'm sure it sounded terrible too but who cares? It wasn't for sound, it was for feeling! The act of strumming those strings was just supposed to make me feel good! And it did, for about two days until I realised how painful it was to hold (it kept sliding out of my lap) and how difficult it was to press down on the strings without hurting my fingers (my nails were too long). So after spending $200 on a hunk of plastic and metal, I went back out and bought a standard guitar with adjustable neck. That worked much better but this time, using the thing hurt my hands so much that I couldn't play more than ten minutes at a time before having to go soak my hands in hot water for twenty minutes or so.

The next problem was that no matter what size pick i used, my fingers always seemed too fat or stubby - whenever i got close to being able to play something, i'd catch myself trying to use two or three fingers together instead of just one alone. This meant that most of my playing ended up being with just two fingers on each hand instead of all four together as you see in most music videos. Even worse, after about a month of practice i found myself forming callus's between each fingernail - not exactly conducive to playing chords properly.

After another month of this suffering, i finally learned how to play something - albeit very slowly - but i knew i could manage some chords by now so it didn't really matter how long it took me to learn them. Maybe if i hadn't been so stubborn about learning with just two fingers per hand, then maybe i would be able to do more things? Who knows! Anyway - what mattered most wasn't speed or technique but rather patience and persistence - those are the things that last forever!