This entry was inspired by my regular reading of IG’s Blog here at WordPress. In his latest entry he interviewed a guitar teacher, and mentioned the words, “guitar journey.” That got me to thinking about where my own musical journey has led me in relation to the guitar. After several minutes staring off into space, I had a huge realization about where I’m at guitar-wise.
I’m no guitar virtuoso, but I can do a lot of things with the guitar. It’s my primary tool for expressing myself musically; and that’s the gist of my guitar playing ability. I know it’s a bit confusing, but let me give you background. I’m the type of person that won’t waste any energy on things that don’t have any context to me or my life. I normally don’t try things out just for the sake of trying things out. Sounds a bit limiting, I know, but it’s not. I’m involved in a lot of different things – my very large family being the primary object of my attention – so I don’t have a lot time to “waste.” From that perspective, I’m fairly careful about the things I devote time to. So what does that have to do with guitar playing?
Well, I guess it means that unless there’s a context; that is, I have a reason to play and become better, I probably wouldn’t play guitar at all. To me, becoming better at guitar just to acquire technique isn’t any reason to become better. On the other hand, learning new techniques to help me express myself more effective musically is all the prompting I need. Luckily, from a musical standpoint, I’m always listening to different genres of music to incorporate styles and sounds into my music writing. As the guitar is my instrument of choice to express my musical ideas, I’ve been forced to improve and evolve my technique as my experience and knowledge broadened over the years.
Granted, the rate of improvement can be a bit slow when taken over a long span of time, but when I take a different direction musically, it forces me to adapt my playing. For instance, for a long time most of my music was written for the acoustic guitar, with fairly straight-forward tempos and chord changes. A few years ago, I started writing more sophisticated pieces that demanded a more “electric” sound, so I bought an amp and an electric guitar, and had to essentially retrain myself to play the electric. Before that, I never paid too much attention to modular forms and such, but playing electric guitar almost forces you to learn how to play up and down the neck. Add to the fact that I then started a band, and I had to learn how to comp on the fly.
But if I didn’t have the driving force of exploring musical ideas, I probably wouldn’t play guitar at all. I know, it’s weird. My 13 year old son is fixated on learning how to shred, but I’m always puzzled as to why. When I ask, he just replies, “Because I want to be able to play real fast.” I’m okay with that, but it’s just not for me…
So with respect to my “guitar journey,” my guitar playing evolves in direct correlation to where I’m at musically. In the last couple of years, I’ve written music in a bunch of different genres, so my guitar playing ability has really expanded. Before that, it was nothing special. I’ll probably top out in the next year or so, stay there for a couple of years, then find some new sounds that I want to be able to write and play. Then it’s off to the races. 🙂
Guitar Gear 
Really great thoughts GoofyDawg. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on your own “guitar journey.”
It sounds like you have reached a pretty good amount of maturity in the way you see yourself as a guitarist and musician. You know, to me, the guitar journey really never ends, kinda how your life is a journey. So, it is always good to see players like you who have evolved into a “music-centered” musician, versus a “guitar-centered” musician. You view the guitar as a tool to dig into your experience and make music and find peace. The exciting part is that you have tomorrow, next year, and the rest of your life to find out where your journey will take you and how much more exciting the journey will get each time you grow bit by bit.
Another thing that I think about is how embracing we must be of the young folks who get started and the different launching pads they take off from. Many times, you know, their journey starts with the virtuoso/flashy side of guitar, and you have to kinda be thankful that they started somewhere and now have the opportunity to grow as human beings and use guitar playing as a tool to learn how to grow well and gracefully, both in music and life really.
So, to me, really, a “guitar journey” is a reflection of your life journey in a way, and how you see yourself as a person and musician, and how you go about taking the opportunity to grow and serve the world with your life and your music and your spirit.
Thanks for the post man, it really means a lot to me that I somehow inspired your thoughts.
Now, go on and play some music! Cook some tubes! Spank the plank!
IG
Thanks, Ig.
As far as my son goes, you’re right… I actually had to train myself to not respond to what he wanted to learn because that is part of his own journey. I have hopes that he’ll be a much better technician than I’ll ever be. He certainly has the drive to become better, and that’s something that I’ll never take away from him.
For my part, I do my best to expose him to different guitarists like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, SRV, and John Mayer, so he gets a taste of different kinds of styles. I even introduced him to one of my all-time personal favorites: Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush… (I’m really dating myself). The important thing to me is that he maintains his love for the guitar, because it could be the longest love affair of his life.