Life and The Guitar
At the risk of sounding cheesy, I kind of had a revelation the other day while I was teaching guitar.
Learning to play the guitar is a lot like life. When you first start, it’s exciting, but not as easy as you thought it would be. In fact, it’s actually quite painful. And the bad news is that the more you play, the more is hurts. It’s just so embarrassing because when you look around, everyone else makes it look so easy. Often you feel like you’re the only one in pain.
And then you ask for advice and the best morsel of wisdom given to you is simply that you’ve got to keep trying, that even though it’s painful right now, it gets better. In the end, it will be worth it. But that’s not what you want to hear: “It gets better. Just keep going.” No. You want something more concrete. You want a quick fix, a magical piece of advice that will make the pain go away instantly and the reward come along faster. And so, people try to advise you: “Tweak this a bit. Try it this way,” but ultimately, even with all of the best techniques in the world, what it comes down to is practice, an investment of time and effort, an endurance of pain and embarrassment.
But guess what? Eventually, if you just fight through it, the pain goes away. Sure, there are times when the soreness comes back and there’s the occasional broken string that brings you down, but really, in learning to keep going in spite of the pain, you’ve made it through the worst part. Yes, there are still many challenges to come, but now you’ve got the tools to conquer them.
Then finally, after years of practicing, it’s your turn to pass along your wisdom to a new beginner. You see them struggling, you feel their frustration. They come to you asking, begging for your advice. Strangely, you actually chuckle a bit to yourself because now you realize the best advice you can give is exactly what you despised when you were a beginner. Now you realize that the best advice you ever received was not a fix it all recipe in five easy steps. Not at all. You realize that even though this may not be what they want to hear, the best advice you can give them is: “Don’t give up. Just keep practicing. It’ll be worth it.”
Or as a little fishy once said, “Just keep swimming.”
Chau!
Laurel Bingman
P.S. A special shoutout to my beautiful mother for her birthday! Happy birthday, Mom! I love you so much! Thank you for always being there to remind me to just keep swimming 🙂
