A Year of Fun and Learning

It was just about a year ago that I started playing with the group of guys I now refer to as "the band". I've already shared quite a bit about a lot of the fun and learning that has taken place in these last 12 months, but I had a real eye opener just this morning. At our last practice session, we began talking seriously about gigging. We all feel pretty confident in our abilities, and we are looking for the next step, to help us take it to the next level. One of the first things we did was to start talking about a set list. Our drummer, Andy, sent out an email with a list of the songs we play on a regular basis. To my suprise, there were almost 30 songs! He did not include the songs we have only played a couple of times, or the ones with which we are still struggling and tweaking. These 30 songs are songs which we would feel comfortable playing in front of paying customers. Add the other odd numbers, and we are at roughly 35. On top of that, I have a out 10 or 12 songs that I play on my own, but don't do with the group. So in short, I have gone in one year from not knowing how to play the guitar to playing nearly 50 songs, and most of them pretty darn well (at the risk of sounding a little arrogant).

So what's my point? By learning a few simple chord shapes, a couple of scales and finding a group of like-minded musicians to play with, I have been able to go from "guy who thinks it would be cool to play the guitar" to "guy who plays guitar in a legitimate band". It's far from impossible, in fact I wouldn't even go so far as to say it's even been difficult. I don't say any of this in an attempt to toot my own horn. I bring up the point to illustrate that anyone at any age can make the decision to pick up an instrument and start to play and have fun. For that matter, it's not even limited to music. If there is something you've always wanted to do, play guitar, get a degree, run a marathon, write a book, whatever, the only thing stopping you is you! Don't let fear and intimidation keep you from living the life you want to live.

In the mean time, crank it up to 11, and rock out!

And as always don't forget... Slow is smooth, smooth is fast!!