ENTRY #2 - IN MY EXPERIENCE: Learning to Play Guitar

We all have our stories of learning how to do something, and for most of us musicians, we all talk about the one thing: how we learned to play music on our instruments.

ENTRY #2 - IN MY EXPERIENCE:

Learning to Play Guitar

     For most of us, we all have that relative or friend that knew how to play and that's what inspired us. For me, that wasn't the case.
     I was sheltered from the majority of music growing up, listening mostly to gospel, Petra, and the Imperials - all of which are cool and I still love them to this day, but aren't necessarily inspirational for a young pup looking for a calling in life. But with this in mind, I had minimal exposure to guitar. My dad is an excellent self-taught drummer, and my biological mother was a beautician by trade. Even my stepmom is an amazing vocalist and an aspiring pianist - but no rockers to be found here. I guess you could count my dad, but he had turned his life away from rock music when he came to God.
                                So where did this love of music come from? Good Question.

Domingo, my first ever guitar, with some alterations

to the fretboard and pickguard

     I really must point to God and say He is the reason why I play, how I obtained the desire to play, and how I play. I remember sitting down with a radio I had received as a gift, listening to my local station, WGTS 91.9. A song came on that always made me feel happy inside called Dive by Steven Curtis Chapman. Why is that significant? Well, at the time, SCC was into guitar-heavy tracks. It was fun to listen to and left a lasting impression in my mind. Another track/band that really aided me when I was battling depression for 7 years was "Sea of Faces" by Kutless. An epic Christian ROCK BAND that had one of the most touching songs ever that really spoke to me where I was at and I know now was God speaking to me through music. Talk about huge.
     Fast forward several years to 2004. I'm now in New Hampshire, living in the rather quiet lakeside part of town in Strafford. It's a town that had only a few thousand residents at most, lots of unadulterated woodlands, and no lights at night. Yep, you guessed it - it's country, but in the northeastern United States. As a City kid who lived in places like up & coming Northern Virginia and Staten Island, New York, this was my idea of desolate isolation. You mean I have to walk almost 2 miles to get a slice of pizza? Yeah, me neither.
     One day, while I was cleaning the yard, I had found a good Christian radio station and after a certain hour, it would start playing Christian rap and rock - basically anything Christian that wasn't contemporary. Bands like Skillet, Red, Thousand Foot Krutch and Pillar start cranking through my beat-up old ghetto blaster a fried gave me. Whoa, talk about a metal rearrangement. My youth pastor was big on 90's Christian Ska groups like the Insyderz and the O.C. Supertones as well as groups like Audio Adrenaline and DC Talk (all of which are still favorites of ours). Some of my classmates started playing Christian Music I had never even knew was possible, let alone finding out it had been in existence for over 30 years at that point. Then acoustic groups like Sean McDonald appeared on my radar, and I was hooked. Michael W. Smith? Old News now man, haven't you heard of Stellar Kart? Matt Redman? Naw, breh. Jesus Culture.
     Yeah, Music began flowing in my veins. And then my brother got a cheap guitar from somebody -  and then an idea bloomed.

One of my inspirations for Guitar, Carl Tuttle,

and the custom built Chamberlain Tuttlecaster

     Not gonna lie, I owe a lot to my stepmom. She was the one who went out and had me get lessons to learn how to play and together, my folks bought me a guitar. An Ibanez acoustic - one i still have and play to this day - 10 YEARS LATER. (Later on I would eventually get Roxanne, my first electric guitar.)
     I started learning to play tablature - an alternative to music theory that only works for bass and guitar utilizing numbers and lines (I'll eventually do a piece on how to understand it). It was painful stuff. For one thing, acoustic strings are heavier, more dense and are made of bronze and steel. Tough on the hands is not the way I would describe it. But I didn't care, since I would play until my hands were numb. I would be playing off and on for a few years until i finally started identifying as a musician and really began pursuing it as a lifestyle choice, not just a hobby.
     I started playing at church with my youth group and really practicing hard at home to not only learn the songs, but also how they should feel -  a practice that I still do to this day. While it was tough learning how to play F and B chords, it became more and more rewarding as I went. I stopped taking professional lessons and began training myself on methods and scales (Props and credit to Matthew Lister for getting me started - can't thank you enough for all the time we put in together. Recommend him as a teacher if you live in the Seacoast area of Maine and New Hampshire) It became more and more rewarding to play and then, it became a form of worship.
     See, as I mentioned earlier, I was battling with depression and a lot of inner demons for a long time following the aftermath of 9-11, where my mother passed away. I had dealt with all kinds of hate and pain that I really didn't know what to do with. (My whole story and testimony can be found at www.siegfriedelric.webs.com/911myside.htm) When the Lord reached down and redeemed from my mess, saved my soul, and brought back into the newness of life, I had a rekindled purpose for outreach and the love of God. Music was on the back burner until I started playing guitar again as well as bass (a different story for a different entry) where it really blossomed into a passion.
     There would be days where I would just play music, and you could just feel the presence of God come into my practice space and just be serenaded right back. My love for God grew and so did my love for music as a mode of worship. Anybody can sing and dance or do whatever, but only a few can play an instrument of any kind. And as I said in ENTRY #1, being a musician is a ministry that we are given by God because He knows what we can and ultimately will do with it. some become selfish, but for those of us who have truly felt that presence of God and that just overpowering Love that really is indescribable, we know that our gifts are not for our own pleasures, but to encourage others, to connect people to God and to glorify Him.
     So that's really how I came to learning to play guitar. I had been exposed to amazing artists and bands, had great people lead me and guide me and ultimately it was all God's planning.

a snapshot of Prudence, my ESP EC-1000 Deluxe that I named after 

the model from the anime BECK MONGOLIAN CHOP SQUAD

Thanks for reading guys! i hope you all enjoyed this little slice of life, and i'll see ya next time!