Insanity: A Guitarist Looks at Reformation

“Do what you’ve always done, get what you’ve always gotten."  And this from a bathroom stall at truck stop in rural Georgia. Yes, I purchased yet another guitar yesterday, a Martin LXM, a Little Martin. It is in mint condition having, apparently, spent most of its life shrouded in the nicely-padded, canvas Martin gig bag. It is an older model judging by the fact it has open-backed tuners and not the closed-back ones Martin uses on these guitars now. If I were a betting man I’d say it still had the original strings on it when I bought it.

Of course the first thing I did when I got home was install new strings. I stopped at a music store on the way to purchase the recommended Martin medium strings as I wanted to optimize and retain the Martin sound. I tuned it up and strummed a “G"  chord – who doesn’t? – and there it was, an audio delicacy filling the room and my soul. Instantly I was rejuvenated and inspired. No, really.

While basking in the afterglow of this latest purchase and as the “G"  decayed to silence I had an ear-piphany and decided something has to change. Otherwise five years from now I’d still be practicing the same way and achieving the same results and, worst of all, I’d still be talking about it.

Countless hours of scouring Craig’s List and eBay, and to a lesser extent, guitar forums have enabled me to become an expert of sorts on acoustic guitars. I know the woods, the bracing, and the values of guitars. If anyone needs advice on selecting a guitar I am a great resource. This same course of action has enabled if not caused me to have an ever-changing menagerie of acoustic guitars. It has revved-up my guitar acquisition syndrome (GAS) to levels unassailable by all the Beano in the universe, even when administered intravenously.

But all this activity, all this energy, all this persistence has done nothing to enable me to play the guitar or increase my enjoyment of music aside from providing me guitars – and allowing me to meet some interesting people during the buying and selling transactions. Fun? Yes. Productive? Yes. Was it relevant to my goal of learning to play and increasing my enjoyment of music? Marginally.

So what?

I’ve removed the Craig’s List and eBay bookmarks from my computer. I’ve removed the links from all the guitar manufacturer’s websites from my computer. I’ve placed my current guitar inventory – four, for those trying to keep track – on hold, no more buying or selling until at least the end of the year. All the time I would spend browsing, buying and selling will now be spent playing.

I will resume my well-intentioned plan to set aside time weekly to play with my work colleagues. (There are three of us.) I am the intermediate player of the group and therefore can learn and teach. I will reach out to other players at my church, etc to play with them so I can learn (and possibly teach) new things. I will focus on a couple of songs to learn all the way through and not just some lick.

I feel good about this decision and I consider it liberation from the comfortable, easily navigable but aimless rut I had created. I know I can count on my friends at Chordie for support. Who knows, maybe I can rise to the level necessary to contribute to a future Jam on the Shenandoah.

Thanks for reading this.

Your friend in music,
David

p.s. While this is the next chapter of my post “GET BACK TO PLAYING"  I felt it desired to stand alone.