I was a pre-teen when I first heard hard rock and metal music on the radio. I was hooked! A good guitar riff and a pure rock n roll voice singing lyrics that both resonated with you, and gave you goosebumps. There was nothing like it...there *is* nothing like it.
It started with rock band Styx and their two albums “Equinox” and “Grand Illusion”. The songs on both are stellar and have stood the test of time. And then there was the first Van Halen album. When I heard “Eruption” for the first time I was blown away, like many others around the world.
So with this backstory you’d think I would have gotten a guitar when I was a kid and many years later could now say I’ve been playing for decades and can shred like Eddie Van Halen...nope.
I was given my first guitar when I was thirty and after a few months of trying to learn how to play, I gave up. It’s one of my few regrets in life. But, it’s never too late and several years later I am now almost 18 months into my journey on learning how to play guitar.
It started off as a New Year’s Resolution. As the prior year was winding down I was thinking about what my resolutions would be for the upcoming year. I am always listening to music and regularly create playlists. Then the lightbulb went on - it was completely dumb that I was not playing guitar given how much I love guitar-driven music. That was it. On January 1st I would devote time every day to learning how to play guitar. What started off as a New Year’s resolution gained momentum during the pandemic. Business travel was on hold indefinitely. There was to be limited or no socializing with friends and family for long stretches of time. Lots has been written about pandemic projects people took on; doing puzzles, knitting, exercising, eating, binge-watching Netflix all became things people did during the pandemic with their newfound extra time. My journey to learn guitar became a pandemic project but didn’t start as one. I am so into learning guitar now that this is a passion and I know I’ll keep playing long after we get to post-pandemic life.
When I started I had little idea how a guitar worked let alone how to play. So that’s where I started. What are the differences between the six strings in an electric guitar? How do the pickups work? How do you tune a guitar? (Thankfully I discovered the Fender Tune app, early on). At the same time I was figuring out how to get started. Where/what do I even begin to learn?
Google - “How to Play Guitar”. Boom - several hits on where to start. At least I now knew the basics. As friends learned of my new hobby many said I should get lessons. Great idea...except we were in the early stages of a pandemic...no one is meeting up in-person. I kept researching online and learned about scales and guitar chords. And then learned which chords and scales were most prevalent in rock music. Great - the place to start. I kept coming back to lessons.
Now people were offering guitar lessons over Zoom (what couldn’t you do over Zoom now?!?!). One day I was talking to my nephew, who has been playing electric and acoustic guitar for over 12 years, since he was eight. He took lessons but found they didn’t helped as much as he hoped. YouTube he said! He learned everything from YouTube and there were thousands of videos available. Awesome - he was right!
It’s been a few months and I’m at the point where I am devoting time daily to practicing guitar. It’s a slow process, a journey, but each thing I practice I was seeing improvement over time. Validation that I was on the right track. Now I’m wondering if I can actually play a song, or at least a snippet of a song. Online I discovered guitar tabs; these are charts showing finger positioning of notes on the guitar neck, and they often show strum patterns. I figured out how to read these tab charts and played something that sounded like a song I recognized. My first breakthrough! Using these tabs I now had about four songs that I practiced regularly, along with continuing to learn scales and chords.
As I learned about scales and chords another thing kept coming up. How playing an acoustic guitar was different because the strings required you to press down harder and hold down the strings with more force. It was tougher but taught better basic technique. Epiphany #2 - I needed an acoustic guitar as well, and I should really be practicing on both. So I hit Kijiji, Ebay and Reverb, and found one in good shape for about $200. It came with a stand and an extra set of strings...oh and a capo! I picked it up and was all set.
Now I was spending time each day on both the electric guitar and the acoustic guitar. Acoustic guitar does require more force and pressure to make the notes sound right. My fingertips hurt at the end of each practice session. And, my fingers in general were tired after practice. All part of the journey. But after a while the fingertips developed the beginnings of calluses and the fingers started to strengthen. Most importantly I could recognize my playing as snippets of actual songs.
As I built up the strength in my fingers and the calluses on my fingertips, I had another epiphany. I am a huge fan of the band Van Halen and in particular the band’s co-founder and guitarist, Edward Van Halen (Edward passed away on October 6, 2020...Rest in Peace, Eddie!). Over several decades of touring Van Halen consistently played live shows that lasted about two hours. In comparison I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen play three hour live concerts. I always wondered why Van Halen didn’t play longer shows.
As I started to learn how to play and recognized that my fingers would get tired and my playing would get sloppy (sloppier…) after a while, it dawned on me. With Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band there are four guitar players: Patti Scaffia, Nils Lofgren, Little Steven and Bruce himself. The guitar solos are shared by Lofgren and LIttle Steven. In contrast - in Van Halen, Eddie was the only guitar player; during the Sammy Hagar era, Sammy would occasionally play some rhythm guitar. Eddie was playing almost all of the rhythm parts, all of the leads and solos, and the shows always included a guitar solo from Eddie that would typically last 10-12 minutes. Eddie carried the load entirely himself. He is considered one of the greatest and most innovative guitar players ever in rock music. I may be a novice guitar player, but I now understand why Van Halen shows lasted two hours long!
The end of the first year of my guitar journey was approaching, and it was time to set another New Year’s Resolution. By this time I could play portions of about 20 songs. My playing was slow and sloppy, and so there was still lots of work to do on my basic technique. Improving my technique was part of the resolutions for the New Year. But I needed more. Playing the same things over and over can get monotonous. People online warned me about guitar player’s ruts...getting stagnant. There is a need to keep refreshing and looking for breakthroughs to keep the motivation up. So my resolutions for the second year of my guitar playing journey include learning and being able to play all or portions of 70 songs by the end of the second year.
I made a playlist - “Learning to Play”. January 1st of Year 2, I got to it. A few weeks into January I was on YouTube and discovered power chords - one fingered power chords such as E, A and G and two fingered power chords along the 1st & 3rd frets, the 3rd & 5th, the 5th and 7th and finally the 7th & 9th frets. Holy crap! Epiphany #3! One finger power chords unlocked obvious songs like “Smoke On The Water” and “Fight For Your Right To Party”; two finger power chords unlocked songs like “More Than a Feeling” and “Rock You Like A Hurricane”.
I got to mid May of Year 2 and now had about 40 songs in my novice repertoire. A decent catalog to hack away at. Then it came time to slow down. So for the next six weeks I didn’t start learning any new songs and focussed on improving technique and really learning how to play the songs I knew, much better.
I’ve met many people along this journey so far and each one of them has been thrilled to meet another amateur guitar player, and especially a beginner. Nostalgia immediately sets in for them and they recall their own journey learning guitar. 100% of the people I have met like this have said that learning a guitar is a never ending marathon. Keep going, keep enjoying it, and you’ll never be bored. So true.
There is no time for coulda, woulda, shoulda...it’s never too late. I have a plan, I’m sticking to it and I’m loving every minute of it. I now play every day for at least an hour. I’d like to be able to pay a proper tribute to Edward Van Halen at some point. It’s motivation enough to try and honour the King of Five Fingers and Six Strings.
Thank you for investing time in reading this post. Questions and comments are always welcome.
Shail Paliwal
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