play it again, sam

I noticed it for the first time in months on my way to work… more like acknowledged it. My brother F didn’t have enough room for it when he got his first single apartment in the city, so naturally he decided to dump it on me. He never bothered to reclaim it, so it’s been with me for a few years now.

I had some time, and I was not in a rush. I walked over, opened the case, and settled it into my hands. My fingers went into positions I thought I had forgotten, though I still had to think a little before trying them out.

For the first time in months I ventured an open G chord. The “owowowow” and throbbing fingers I expected did not come after the initial downward stroke. Encouraging.

I am not good enough to be called an actual guitar player – I consider myself to be more of a guitar plucker. I know a few chords and “melodies” and riffs, but that’s about it. I’ve never had formal lessons, just some basic instruction from both my brothers. Hell, I don’t even know how to tune the thing properly – just that it sounds okay (and my brothers say it sounds okay).

Both my brothers have been in college bands. AA has also been in a few bar bands. I’ve never actually seen him play in a band on stage. I have seen F a few times. His band was good enough to garner some local modest reputation, although they broke up before any serious offer was made.

I have an entire set of cousins who are insanely musically talented. They can play multiple instruments will skill, they can sing, and yes, they have done weddings. One of them serves as a musical director for a church or two. Another one of them is down in Florida as a member of a band with a growing local following.

My musical non-career didn’t begin with the guitar. I had piano lessons, as did my brothers, for about five years during grade school. My mom learned when she was little, so she wanted us to learn as well.

In grade school, a few of my friends were thinking of forming a band. They wanted me to play lead guitar, even though I had never picked up the instrument before. I guess their logic was since I was (quite humbly) the best artist in the class, I must be pretty adept with my hands.

The first time I actually touched a guitar was in high school. It was my older brother’s electric bass… which really was no fun other than posing and looking cool holding it. My first impression was how much heavier the thing was than I expected.

I dabbled a little bit with the harmonica in high school – it isn’t a hard instrument to learn, but tough to master. I had a lot of fun with it. I learned that you had to take good care of the harmonica constantly, otherwise it could get quite funky.

I really didn’t start messing around with the guitar until college. One of my housemates had an electric that I would sometimes pick up when he wasn’t around. They would tell me later how they would be sitting downstairs then suddenly hear E’s guitar start playing – at first they were spooked and thought it was a ghost.

So F had left me his acoustic. I assume one day he’ll take it back. In the meantime though, it’s been there whenever I got the urge. Hard to believe I’ve neglected it for quite a while. Of course, by now I’ve forgotten most of my meager “playing” catalog.

It is nice there is silence at times. It is also nice to know that sometimes I can fill that silence with chords and sounds even if they are out of tune, off key, and usually made up.