I have always liked to tell people that when it comes to playing the guitar,
“I come from the ‘Neil Young’ school of guitar playin’: ‘if it squeals, smack it harder!‘”
however, i feel i have not grown much in the last few years as a player. Part of this is due to the excruciatingly painful tumor i had in my finger for over ten years (well DUH!), but i have to admit that this is also due to severe laziness.
Anyone who knows any Ohioans will know that we are a notoriously apathetic bunch.
Rustic bohemian aesthetic aside, I have always not-so-secretly wanted to be able to play like Prince, who is IN FACT the greatest guitar player alive. (Greatest dead guitarist? Hendrix, hands down.) I also wouldn’t mind being able to play slide like George Harrison.
This in mind, i am now teaching myself how to play the guitar.
Unfortunately, i have all the grace of a hippo, no dexterity, and was born tragically missing all but a faint vestige of left/right coordination.
However, the effect of woodshedding, when you run across a really good exercise or technique that levels up your chops, is much like Neo suddenly knowing kung fu after having jacked in – only it does take some work, after all. But, like quitting smoking, i am finding that playing faster with accuracy is a little bit easier than i had expected.
