Learning to Play the Guitar

In this installment of “finding positives in this unprecedented clusterfuck”...

It was March 12 when things went quiet in our house. It was right the middle of hockey playoffs. By 6:00pm Russ had just won the Winnipeg High School Hockey League D2 championship  and I left that arena to head to where Char was set to play game 3 of the best of 5 Bantam AA female city championship. You see, nights like this are commonplace in our house. Since Char also played for her highschool team and Jojo played as well, we had four hockey teams between our three kids. As I walked into the rink at 7:30pm, word had just been passed down that all games were cancelled. Over the next couple of days, the remainder of playoffs were axed as well. It ended that quickly.

All of a sudden we went from four teams to zero. In addition, most nights I trained Brazillian Jiu Jitsu after work if there was no hockey (which was also limited and eventually shut down). All of a sudden I had all my evenings and weekends free. I tried to get my BJJ fix by watching instructional videos and sparring in the basement with Suzanne (we bought some mats when I moved our garage gym down there last month). It’s ok, but just not the same.. And I still had way too much time on my hands. What could I do with myself? 

The next part of the story requires a journey back to my childhood. My mom will give me shit for telling it (and for swearing in my blog - she hates that). As a kid, I always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. I honestly think I would have made a pretty good rock star (or professional wrestler, but that story is for another time). My mom thought it would be a good idea for me to learn music theory/how to read music first, so she put me in piano lessons.

To say I hated the piano would be a massive understatement. I dreaded going to the lessons, and it was like pulling teeth to get me to practice. Remember the kid who had to practice the violin while his friends were outside playing? I vividly remember my friends coming over with a football to play and my mom told me I had to practice piano first. There I was botching my scales and chords as I could see them playing catch in my front yard through my living room window. One time while practising, I got so frustrated that I couldn't get a song down that I kicked an empty cardboard box beside the piano - half my foot hit it, and the other half the piano. I was positive I had broken my pinky toe. How many people do you know that have broken a bone practising the piano?

When I was a bit older we switched instructors (I was doing private lessons in peoples houses). I realized early that if I could get this guy talking about his other hobby (he built and flew remote controlled airplanes with his kids), an hour could go by without much of a lesson. After a while, my mom found out about my tactics and was furious (rightfully so - she was paying for the lessons after all). At the same time, I didn’t want to be there. So she said to me “Jared, you’re old enough to decide for yourself whether or not you want to keep taking piano lessons’. I don’t think the last word was even out of her mouth before I replied “I quit”. She reminded me that I didn’t have to make a decision right then and that I had come a long way (I had reached Grade 3 in the Royal Conservatory system”). Again, I didn’t hesitate before saying “I quit...”. However, this time I did add “but I want to learn the guitar”.

In my mind, this was a logical transition. Give up the piano, fire the piano lesson guy, buy a guitar and find a guitar lesson guy. Keep in mind, though, that my mom had just found out that she had wasted a bunch of time and money on the last piano lesson guy - so she wasn’t ready to jump in and start dishing out cash for something I may not stick to. Her response was to rent me a guitar and buy me a book about how to play it. In her mind, I’m sure she would have been willing to look into lessons if I showed any sign of self-initiated learning - which I didn’t. After a while, the guitar (covered in dust) was taken back to the music store from which it was rented and life went on. Meanwhile, I was resentful that she forced me to learn the piano (something I didn’t want to do) and was willing to pay for it yet wouldn’t cough up the cash for me to learn something I actually wanted to. 

At this point I was probably 11 or 12 years old. I gave up on my dream to become a rockstar and refocused on my dream to become a professional wrestler (again, a story for another time). Twenty five years or so go by and we’re sitting around as a family (I can’t remember how it came up) but I was recounting my version of the “great guitar ripoff” of my childhood. My mom shared her version of events - “the great piano lesson ripoff”. I guess she realized that I was still harbouring a little bitterness for never having been given a guitar because lo and behold, guess what she surprised her 35 year old son with that Christmas? An electric guitar and a little amp!

This was about ten years ago. My kids were little and it was before they had a lot of activities, so I had time at the end of the day to sit down and mess around with my new guitar. I was consistent enough that I got to the point where I actually felt like I was learning to play. For some reason (I legitimately can’t remember why), I stopped. I put the thing down and just never picked it back up. Since then Russ has gotten some use out of it when he took guitar class at school in grades 9 and 10, but otherwise it’s just sat there collecting dust like the rented guitar of my childhood.

Fast forward to today and the situation we find ourselves in. All of a sudden I have time on my hands, and it’s had a weird effect on me. For some reason, the underdeveloped artistic side of my brain found itself needing stimulation. I began wanting to play the guitar again.

After finding my guitar and during it off and tuning it, I started looking for resources on how to learn to play again. I gotta say, there are a bunch of amazing courses and apps to choose from. I went with the justinguitar app (it’s costing me $11/month I think - WAY cheaper than piano lesson guy, but no conversations about remote controlled planes). He takes you through video lessons and exercises to learn how to play chords and switch between them. He also has a HUGE database of popular songs that you can play along with as you learn. While I’ve only been at it for a week, I actually feel like I’m getting somewhere - albeit very slowly. Last night I think I ended up playing for almost two hours, and today the fingertips on my fretting hand are numb. 

I realize that I’m 44 years old.. But is it too late to switch my dream back to being a rock star (my pro wrestler dream doesn't look so good anymore)? After all... if you look at guys like Keith Richards, it’s something I can do until I’m in my 80s!

What do you have time to do all of a sudden that you didn’t have a month ago? What long-lost dreams that you gave up on years ago that you can devote a bit of time to chasing?