Rediscovering my Passion for Playing the Guitar

Who would have known that years after giving up learning how to play the guitar, I would be playing Polyphia riffs!

I had started learning the acoustic guitar with a tutor at the age of nine but lost interest in it rapidly. The thing that discouraged me the most was not enjoying the songs I was learning and not being able to play the songs I liked. I took classes for nearly a year and barely managed to learn anything significant. For the next five years, the guitar sat untouched in the corner of my room, collecting dust.

Fast forward to the early days of the pandemic. After watching my friends share clips of them playing their instruments and out of sheer boredom I decided to pick up the guitar again. While I was randomly strumming and picking open notes I accidentally played the first few notes of ‘Nothing Else Matters’ by Metallica, a song that I really liked. I sat and figured out the next few notes by ear and eventually landed up looking up the tutorial on YouTube. Those accidental notes landed up being the best thing that happened to me because in the next one month or so, I managed to teach myself the intro to ‘Nothing Else Matters’. The success of finally being able to play a song that was close to my heart flipped a switch inside of me, and I felt an intense desire to learn new riffs and techniques. I had rekindled my interest in playing the guitar.

At first, it was slow-going. My fingers were rusty, and I struggled to remember the chords. Looking back, my playing probably sounded worse than a dying cat but my progress motivated me to keep going. I was hooked. I spent hours every day practicing, learning new songs, and experimenting with different techniques.

I noticed that most of the songs that I was interested in learning were either rock or metal and so about six months in my parents got me an electric guitar. I particularly liked how the guitar allowed me to experiment with different tones and effects. It completely transformed my experience. My playing and technique improved rapidly. Before I knew it, I was able to play faster and execute more complex licks.

Playing the guitar is not just about the way it sounds or the technical skills or the satisfaction of playing a song from start to finish. It’s about the way that playing the guitar makes me feel. It served as a break from the monotony, boredom and uncertainty of the pandemic and kept me gainfully occupied.

So, to anyone out there who’s ever given up on something, I want to say this: it’s never too late to start again. Sometimes, all it takes is one moment of inspiration to reignite the flame. And who knows, that one moment could change your life forever, just like it did for me.

Related posts:

Ethical influence in business negotiations at first blush sounds like an excuse to pull a fast one. But let’s not forget, we’re talking about ethical influence. It’s a fancy phrase for persuasion…

Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms in recent years, with over one billion active users worldwide. With such a vast audience, it’s no wonder that businesses and…

Spells for a Strategic Twist: Mystic Motors brings something new to the table with the introduction of spells. This exciting feature allows cars of varying rankings to compete more equally and…