Learning New Strings

By Brian Montano

To be completely honest, I never had a musical bone in my body growing up. Instruments would cry whenever I touched them, and my singing was enough to make angels weep. So, it was a surprise to everyone (especially myself) when I decided to take on the acoustic guitar. I’d played around with my sister’s nice Yamaha before, but she’d always stop me before long. My sister’s always been the musical person of the family, with years of choir, piano, and guitar under her belt. I imagine she had to have felt frustrated whenever she saw me cluelessly plucking strings. My fingers would dance haphazardly along the fretboard. I knew nothing about what “frets” were, except for the fact that most of my favorite guitar-playing artists would move back and forth on them a lot.

            My first guitar was the cheapest acoustic kit I could find on Amazon. I have a habit of fixating on new interests and hobbies, but I was sharp enough to not spend too much money on something that I could easily drop after a short time. I was lucky to find an “Acoustic Guitar for Dummies” guide with my package since, at the time, I couldn’t even figure out what to do with the tuner. I forgot that tuning your strings is something you’re supposed to do with a guitar, and it’s something you do a lot. I felt like my first guitar deserved a name, so I named it “Delilah” after the first song I learned to play: “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White Ts. I’d played some single-string tunes while I was first feeling things out, but I wasn’t about to name my guitar “Smoke On the Water.”

            After learning to play a few simple songs, I quickly realized that there was much more to learning the instrument than I realized. It was difficult. My fingertips would ache in those early days before I built up the toughness in my skin to play for longer. Many of the songs that I wanted to learn used barre chords, which seemed like nigh-impossible feats of finger flexibility to my novice self. Not only that, there was so much more to learn: hammer-ons, pull-offs, quick transitions, key-changes, and more. I was just a hobbyist who would practice using YouTube videos in his dorm room, so I found myself quickly overwhelmed with how long the road to Jimi Hendrix level proficiency would be and underwhelmed with my progress over months. 

            I was always on and off with the guitar. For months during the early days of quarantine, Delilah would clothe herself in dust and stare me down mockingly from the corner of my room. When you fixate on new things, it becomes a habit to want to dive right into things and learn everything all at once. Learning an instrument forced me to accept something that never came to me too readily: sometimes, you have to take things slow. One step up the fretboard at a time. By figuring out the strings and basic open chords, I learned the logic behind chord shapes and switched between them more naturally. Learning new chords meant that I had gained access to more songs. Before I knew it, I’d gone from “Achy Breaky Heart” to “Here Comes the Sun,” and the very process of learning became the magic that made me want to keep going. I still can’t sing, I’m no expert on music theory (but neither were the Beatles!), and I probably won’t be anytime soon, but I’ve learned to be a bit looser with myself. Focus on the fun and adventure of learning a new hobby, challenging yourself with taking on something new, whatever it might be. So take your pick, and don’t fret the sour notes. Stay in tune and rock on!