I should have been a rockstar. Or at least in a local band. Or even just a closet player. Instead, I am over 40 and just pushed the un-pause button on a passion from my childhood- playing the guitar!
I was 5 or 6 when the movie "La Bamba" came out. As a kid living in a border town, with a Hispanic heritage, that movie gave me some relatable characters onscreen. I am not sure if it was totally appropriate for my aunts to allow me to watch that movie at such a young age, given some of the more mature material, but what's done was done. It also lit a fire in my soul to learn guitar for myself, so even if I saw things a young kid should not have been watching, there were some silver linings.
I don't recall if I got my first guitar for a birthday or Christmas, but I do remember going to my teacher's house when I was in first grade. She was a lady from church and I would go there regularly. I remember her drills- learning the frets, how to read music, the pauses, the notes, and practicing scales. Towards the end of first grade, my dad was transferred for work. My family and I moved about 5 hours away, so I lost my teacher. I tried to continue teaching myself in our new town, and the next town, but was too young and had not yet learned enough to keep on top of it, so I lost my passion. There were a few other times over the years where I tried to teach myself or have a friend teach me, but each time ended in failure.
My daughter is a Girl Scout and sold enough cookies this year to earn a guitar as one of her prizes. She is also 7, so around the same age I was when I first started playing. I decided to try to teach myself so I could play with her. I am using YouTube this time around, and have been at it daily for over a month. I have learned 12 chords, posture, hand positioning, strumming patterns, and a few pieces of songs. Marty Music has been an amazing resource for me. One of the first things he said was to learn some of the common chords first, then go back and learn basics, that way you start to play songs early on. This makes the process stickier because you are having fun sooner. A couple of my buddies that play told me the same thing when I let them know I was starting up. It seems to be working.
The first song I have been able to play (poorly) is "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley. I have the intros to "No Woman, No Cry", "Redemption Song", "Brown Eyed Girl", and "Wish You Were Here" down to varying degrees as well. I am working on "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd as my second full song to learn. It is coming along at a fair pace. I have been recording myself (on a black screen) every couple of weeks to hear progress. I am due to record myself again this week and am looking forward to hear the differences. I want to find a good country YouTuber, but so far have not had any luck. Marty is a gem of a teacher. As I progress, I may do his subscription service to see if that would give additional access so I could get assistance with some of the songs I have not found tutorials for. Or maybe I will learn enough in the coming months to be able to read tab or sheet music and play that way.
Interesting side note- when I mentioned to my dad that I was starting to play, he told me he had recently started trying as well. He has a history of playing piano and other instruments in high school, so has a little more background than I did. He had never attempted guitar though. After we did our normal Saturday and Sunday CrossFit workout this morning, we had out first guitar "jam" session. I showed him some chords and had him playing a little bit of Bob with me. He wants to learn some Beatles songs and "Brown Eyed Girl", so I will start practicing those in the near future. I am really cherishing the moments he and I have been having over the past couple of years. Turns out we are a lot alike, after all. Some day in the coming years, Obi and his pops may become some old ass rockstars!
Anyway, that's how my weekend is going, and hope you all are having a great one as well!