On the eve of my 51st birthday, in two days' time, my mind goes back to the day of my 49th birthday, and a present off my children, Owen and Molly. A voucher for two lessons with a guitar teacher in Leamington Spa. Had always loved guitar music - The Smiths, U2, Simple Minds as a Bridgnorth teenager. Then on to Oasis, Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics. I even had an old guitar sat gathering dust on a stand in my front room, but I'd never played it. The vouchers gave me the kick I needed. Pretty much every week since the end of August 2018, I've been having lessons with Paul. I always looked forward to my mug of tea on a Monday night in Paul's teaching room - until Covid-19 intervened. Albeit with cheat chords, I started to play Wonderwall. I could just about find my way through Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. My personal nightmare was the D chord. But we got there, eventually. Big issues for me have always been finding time to practice, and getting to grips with a metronome. But the biggest challenge (ongoing) is to improve the speed between chord changes. I know the chords, can see the chords, but struggle sometimes to land the chords. But at least I've cracked the basic strum... I've always got time for my lesson, and always enjoy it. Then life gets in the way. I need to have a better plan. I also have a camp fire dream (not that I ever sit around a camp fire!). Someone passes me a guitar and says 'play us a song John'. One day I'll get there. Maybe this blog entry is a start...
Been working hard on Dirty Old Town. Paul challenged me to attempt it without a backing track. Still think I could add a touch more swing to the strumming, but I'm pretty pleased with this first solo attempt. Almost getting to the point where I could post it publicly and not feel embarrassed, rather than unlisted! As I reach the fifth anniversary of playing guitar, with Paul leading the way, still can't believe I've ended up being able to do this (whatever "this" is). Thanks Paul.