Guitar Gear

If you’re a fan of Star Wars like I am, I’m sure you’ll remember the following clip from the “Empire Strikes Back:”

Try not… Do or Do Not… There is no try…

I tell you, Yoda had it right. Of all the sayings I’ve heard in the hundreds of movies I’ve seen over the years, these words have always struck a chord with me (excuse the pun). They’re powerful words, and have been somewhat of a guiding force in my life. As a former youth minister, I used to use these words often to help kids learn about the true nature of commitment. Let me explain a bit…

How we approach life has much to do with the language we use. If we think a certain way, we talk a certain way, then act along the same lines. With respect to the word “try,” I believe that it’s one of the worst words to use in our language. Why? Simply because it leaves us a way out. “Try” means “to attempt to do or accomplish;” the operative word being “attempt.” To me, success is all about commitment, and it’s black and white: You’re either in or you’re out; you either do it, or you don’t do it. There’s no middle ground, THERE IS NO TRY. “Try” indicates a lack of full commitment, of not being completely committed to what you’re doing, and that’s a huge problem for me.

To drive the point home further, what’s even worse is that the word “try” is passed off as an action (it’s a passive verb “to try”), and that’s the biggest farce of all! If you’re game, let’s take a test, shall we? Grab a pen and place it in front of you. Now, TRY to pick up the pen. If the pen is in your hand now, I didn’t say to pick it up. I said TRY to pick up the pen. Replace the pen and repeat, and only stop when you’ve successfully TRIED to pick up the pen. Remember, don’t pick up the pen. TRY to pick up the pen. As you can see, it can’t be done…

To realize the true nature of the Force, you have to be committed – 100%. This is true for anything in life. If you want to achieve any kind of success in life, you have to be committed to achieving success. You don’t just try – you have to do it. Of course, I realize that “success” is purely subjective. Far be it from me to tell you success from my personal point of view. But irrespective of how we might measure success, we have to DO the things that are necessary to achieve success in anything that we do.

So what does this have to do with playing guitar? Everything. If you want to be good at playing guitar, you can’t just try it out. You have to learn, practice, play, then repeat the steps – constantly. Playing guitar is a voluntary and deliberate action that requires knowledge and practice to gain proficiency. To me, “trying” to play guitar is like a monkey humping a football. It’s the right idea, but the wrong execution.

I wrote this latest entry in response to a couple of my kids wanting to “try” the guitar. Mind you I’m not really an intense, Type A personality. But I wanted to drive the point home that if they wanted to shred like Herman Li of Dragonforce (which is why they brought up playing guitar), they’d have to put in the time. It wouldn’t happen overnight. But I also added that everyone has their own pace of learning. Some take a shorter time than others; others take awhile. But whatever pace they go at, if they want to achieve that level of proficiency of technique, they’ve got to stick with it. We’ll see how it goes… 🙂