Wherein She Milks a Biblical Metaphor for All It's Worth
Time is marching on, my friends, and I am but 2-1/2 months away from the moment of truth--i.e., my thirtieth birthday--which was the point by which I had promised myself I would know how to play the guitar. So the question arises: have I reached my goal? Am I anywhere close?
The answer is so much more complicated than that. It starts with the concept of "learning how to play the guitar," which seemed so simple to me before I picked the ole axe up again. Back then--by which I mean, last New Year's, when I made it my resolution to learn how to play before I entered my (oh dear god say it ain't so) fourth decade of this lifetime--I thought learning how to play meant, well, just that. The transition from a state of not knowing how to play to a state of being able to pick up the guitar and entertain my friends around a campfire.
The intervening ten months have proven, to my dismay, that in the kingdom of guitar there are many houses. (To paraphrase Jesus. Kind of.) First, there is the house of knowing a bunch of basic chords and being able to open a songbook and play the chords labeled there. This is the house I'd entered by, say, May--at which time I could pick up the guitar and commence a singalong. I thought back then that I'd made it: I knew how to play the guitar.
But then I had to go get all uppity. Feeling like I was a bit of a genius, but admitting I might have a few more things to learn, I had to go rustle myself up a teacher. Now, thanks to Bob, I have entered another house. More like a McMansion. Call it the house of the rising Desire To Play The Guitar Well. This is a house that is very large. So large it sometimes feels endless, like I'll never get to really know it. Like I could run right in through the front door and keep running for what seems like miles, and still not make it out of the foyer.
But never fear, dear readers. It's not as bad as all that. There is actually a lot of good stuff to be learned in the foyer. Like how to play "Blackbird" by Paul McCartney. And how to differentiate the rhythm Gillian Welch is strumming from the solo Dave Rawlings is playing on the melancholy and lovely tune that is "Revelator." And there's lots of music theory, which is actually less torturous and more potentially helpful than I would have thought.
So back to the question of whether I've yet learned how to play the guitar. I'm going to say no. But I'm going to say no with a caveat. So deep have I discovered my respect for music to be, that I now no longer think there is such a state as "having learned to play the guitar." It's more like, well, a really large house. And some people stand out on the front porch dilly-dallying, making up excuses for not making the effort to walk inside. And others take a deep breath and cross that threshold. They do it by picking up the guitar every day and, well, trying. And that's me. I've maybe not "learned how to play," but I definitely play. Yes I do, in fact, play guitar.
The answer is so much more complicated than that. It starts with the concept of "learning how to play the guitar," which seemed so simple to me before I picked the ole axe up again. Back then--by which I mean, last New Year's, when I made it my resolution to learn how to play before I entered my (oh dear god say it ain't so) fourth decade of this lifetime--I thought learning how to play meant, well, just that. The transition from a state of not knowing how to play to a state of being able to pick up the guitar and entertain my friends around a campfire.
The intervening ten months have proven, to my dismay, that in the kingdom of guitar there are many houses. (To paraphrase Jesus. Kind of.) First, there is the house of knowing a bunch of basic chords and being able to open a songbook and play the chords labeled there. This is the house I'd entered by, say, May--at which time I could pick up the guitar and commence a singalong. I thought back then that I'd made it: I knew how to play the guitar.
But then I had to go get all uppity. Feeling like I was a bit of a genius, but admitting I might have a few more things to learn, I had to go rustle myself up a teacher. Now, thanks to Bob, I have entered another house. More like a McMansion. Call it the house of the rising Desire To Play The Guitar Well. This is a house that is very large. So large it sometimes feels endless, like I'll never get to really know it. Like I could run right in through the front door and keep running for what seems like miles, and still not make it out of the foyer.
But never fear, dear readers. It's not as bad as all that. There is actually a lot of good stuff to be learned in the foyer. Like how to play "Blackbird" by Paul McCartney. And how to differentiate the rhythm Gillian Welch is strumming from the solo Dave Rawlings is playing on the melancholy and lovely tune that is "Revelator." And there's lots of music theory, which is actually less torturous and more potentially helpful than I would have thought.
So back to the question of whether I've yet learned how to play the guitar. I'm going to say no. But I'm going to say no with a caveat. So deep have I discovered my respect for music to be, that I now no longer think there is such a state as "having learned to play the guitar." It's more like, well, a really large house. And some people stand out on the front porch dilly-dallying, making up excuses for not making the effort to walk inside. And others take a deep breath and cross that threshold. They do it by picking up the guitar every day and, well, trying. And that's me. I've maybe not "learned how to play," but I definitely play. Yes I do, in fact, play guitar.
posted by Kelly at 12:21 PM
1 Comments:
GGGGirl is very modest. Her transformation from hesitant strummer to finger-picking concert singer in less than one year is amazing. And while I appreciate her relentless torturing of a Biblical metaphor, I offer another interpretation.
"Learning to play" is the process of discovering that you always want to play, that you have the drive and toughness to endure a painful and frustrating apprenticeship, and, finally, realizing that you will always play – even if months go by and you lose your callouses.
GGGGirl has learned to play the guitar, and she has built her house upon the rock.
UNM
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