So far...

Since I just came from my first live performance, I thought tonight would be a great time for my first post, as a way to introduce myself and a little of my background.

Tonight we played two covers: Breathe 2am by Anna Nalick, and Say It's Possible by Terra Naomi. I play the acoustic guitar, and I'm also the backup singer. But it wasn't always like that. When I started playing, I could barely hold down the strings of my hand-me-down Washburn. It was on a whim that I started playing, and a stroke of luck that I even found the guitar: a friend of mine mentioned in passing that he was going to chuck his old acoustic, so I said jokingly that I'd take it off his hands if he'd teach me how to play. He gave me a chord book and a guitar pick; the only thing I was lacking was the strength in my hands and the resolve to learn. It was a very difficult first few weeks. I started off trying to learn just a few chords; I even marked the finger positions with colored tape, like one would on a violin. It seemed like every time I picked up the guitar, I could barely strum out a few notes before my hand tired out and my fingers started to sting. I would get frustrated, put it away, then pick it up again later in the day, thinking to myself, "I'm just being a drama queen, how hard can it be?"

The thing that held me back the most was my lack of direction. I knew that I wanted to play: I saw music as this amazing thing that brings people together, and I wanted to be a part of that. But for a month, I was stuck teaching myself chords, and it was honestly the most incredibly boring thing in the world. My next step was trying to learn some easy songs, but I was not nearly musically trained enough to learn to play by ear. And then at last, my friend introduced me to the greatest discovery of my guitar-playing career: ultimate-guitar.com. There I found the music for every song I've ever wanted to play. Now that I finally had a direction, I set my mind to learning how to play my favorite songs.

Along the way, I learned new chords. I learned how to listen from strumming patterns and chord changes, and recently I've learned how to sing while I'm playing. It's been a year and a half now since I've started playing, and I've never had a formal lesson. There are a lot of things I've learned as a self-taught guitarist, things you'd never learn in even private lessons. Things that can only come from experience-- like snapping a G-string.

As I continue to post, I hope to guide the beginner guitarist through some basic knowledge and techniques that I've picked up along the way, so your beginning is hopefully not as long an painful as mine was. I can't wait to share some of my favorite music, and some tricks for making electric songs sound great unplugged. But mostly, I hope this is an inspiration for anyone who's always wanted to be great at something. What I've learned so far on this continuing journey is that once you set your mind to learning what you want to, it'll come to you. If you approach it with love and with resolve, it's possible, whatever that it is for you.

-Kal