So I came across these earlier today while we were doing some cleaning around the house…
I always feel guilty when I dig these up because they’ve followed me as I’ve moved from house to house (or apartment to condo to house to house!) for the past nine years, although I don’t think I’ve actually picked one up other than to move it once since I first moved to Florida. It’s a little weird sometimes to look back at how completely music used to dominate my life in high school, and now that’s sort of fallen to the wayside to make room for writing and computers and all of that stuff.
I always tell myself that I’d like to get back into it and start to play a little here and there, though my motives of being in a rock ‘n roll band would nowadays likely have to settle for picking around on an acoustic in the living room. I think part of it is that it’s really been sooooo looooong since I’ve done anything that I’m exceedingly self conscious about it – my wife has occasionally mentioned that she’d like to hear me play sometime, but thankfully doesn’t really push the issue because I don’t think I’d even know where to start anymore.
I tried leaving my acoustic out on a stand in my office for a couple of years, thinking that maybe I’d pick it up at random for a little break here or there, but instead all that got me was a really painful looking crack in the finish of that beautiful, red body of its! It doesn’t really show up in the picture, but it runs square in the middle from the bottom of the strings to the edge nearest where the strap connects.
I also found in a similar cleaning sweep a handful of my old books, including a bunch of the classical guitar guides that I used to love to practice – I think if I were to ever do anything, I might like to start dabbling around with those again because finger-picking always seems so much fancier than simply playing chords behind popular music, plus there aren’t any actual words so nobody expects you to try and limp your way through singing along. Plus a lot of those songs were always really pretty, too – there was a time when I used to play my acoustic way more than the electric just because I could make those acoustic songs sound nice all by myself without needing another guitar player, a bassist, and a drummer who never shows up half the time because he’s got a little bit of a drug problem…
*ahem*
I guess I really need to stop saying “maybe some day” and just pick one of the things up and noodle around for 5 minutes if it’s ever going to happen – after 9 years of celibacy, it’s not like my fingers have calluses on them enough to play any longer right off the bat anyways! I think I’m to the point where I don’t really expect any career changes out of it anymore, but it still was fun as far as I do recall. 😕