Guitar playing is an interesting task.  There are so many different kinds of guitars that when someone gets the idea to take up playing a guitar, just what are they going to choose?  There are acoustic guitars (those wooden looking ones with/out electronics) BUT WAIT!  They do electrify acoustic guitars..so now what do you do?  Then there are those thin ones with different shapes and sizes that get plugged into an amplifier, that most people call an "electric guitar".  Then there are 12 string and 4 four string (tenor) guitars to contend with.  Now we have classical guitars....those are commonly seen with the tuning key (at the head of the guitar) facing downward instead of outward as a regular guitar.  Then one of the best kind of guitars which I had started to learn to play and eventually it became overwhelming and I never got as far as I wanted to and an opportunity came up that I traded my pedal guitar and some of it's equipment for some other sound equipment I felt was needed to be acquired.

I admire watching a good guitar player that plays notes that make sense to me.  A rapid flurry of notes that make no sense is not pretty.  Someone like Chet Atkins playing ANYTHING is a blessing to my ears. There is a download that I shared on my FaceBook page of an trio of guitarist (lead, rhythm, and bass) that are playing in a farm shed with a tractor being used as the rhythm section.  This is AWESOME!   It is at Jan 2, 2013.  Check it out...this is a great example of ingenuity at it's finest!  The guitarists are real good ones to pull this off.  Just for the record, I tried to download it to this blog, but I'm not Hi-Tech enough to figure it out.  If someone can Facebook me with how to do that, I would appreciate that.

We all have to start somewhere and sometime with anything we choose.  We do not become good at anything right away.  It all takes time to develop our skills at whatever we are trying to be accomplished at.  For me guitar playing is a form of expression.  It is a way for me to relax and to grow in my enjoyment of singing.  Personally, I am glad I was not depending on my playing and singing to earn a living, as I don't feel I am THAT talented to support a family with my musical skills.  However, I feel a great sense of calmness when I can lead worship in music.  Notwithstanding the fact that reading music is still beyond me, but once I know what key to play in, I can practice through the chord changes and will get the message of the song across to the congregation or wherever I am playing.  Through the years, as I have written before, being with basically one group of friends and accomplished musicians in the Celebration Music Team, I did get spoiled.  We were more family than a bunch of musicians getting together every Tuesday evening at church to practice upcoming songs.  Through eighteen years of singing praises to God, and enjoying being with each other, I think we developed a lot of respect for each other and actually loved each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.  It is because of a common love and that is MUSIC.  So after so much time together and learning together, and experimenting musically together, and most importantly . . . we understood each other....we got to be pretty darn good!
I will always think back on those days as a blessing for expanding my understanding and enjoyment of music, and friends.

Back to guitars.  I prefer acoustic guitars and have only a couple at this time.  My main guitar does have electronics installed in it, but if I am not plugged in, one would know by looking at it.  If needed, I can amplify it, but with what I am doing now, it has not been necessary, but its nice to know I have that option.  My classical guitar is un-electrified because I don't think it is necessary.  I wish I could have purchased a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar for many years, but never got around to it or gathered the dollars to do so, which is probably closer to the truth than "never got around to it" ha ha   As you have perhaps noticed in a previous postings, I owned a twelve string guitar at one time.  It was an interesting sounding guitar as the strings were set in pairs.  The first two (high sounding) strings were tuned together.  The last four were tuned an octave apart which gives it a very full sound.  The neck is a touch bigger to make space for all the strings, but the size of the guitar was not much (if any) bigger than my main guitar. The pedal steel guitar is totally different than you would expect something with "guitar" as a name.  It is a flat, horizontal playing surface supported by four legs and has a number of pedals attached to the strings at the top (underside mechanics) and to a channel screwed to the two front legs. The guitars come with either 6, 10, or 12 strings (single neck) or times that times two if you have a double neck.  The tunings are completely different than a regular guitar. It is played with a metal bar in your left hand and with your right hand fingers.  What a beautiful sound it has when it is played by someone who has practiced a lot.  I got to be a fair player, which is a step or two under good.  I didn't practice enough.  Wish I had it back now.  Oh well.

The point to this story is:  We all can find something that we have a passion for. Mine was, to some extent, Music (singing and guitar playing).  When we have a passion for whatever it is, we will enjoy doing it.  It could be reading, playing a musical instrument, collecting thimbles, matchbox cars, real cars, and the list goes on.  What would it be like if we all had a passion for living our life for God?  We have practice every Sunday and our Jewish friends hold practice on Saturdays.  We can become passionate, read, research, and put into practice what we learn, in how we live our lives.  It is that, that is noticed by others.  How we live our lives.  Just when you think you are alone, someone ALWAYS seems to see the "ugly" side of you don't they?  I know it happens to me all the time.  Playing a game on my computer sometimes frustrates me to no end, and then my wife hears things that I shouldn't even be thinking, let alone screaming! ha ha.  But that is what I am trying to point out.  No matter how HUMAN we are, we can ALWAYS (there is that word again) ask forgiveness and practice harder at our passion of living a Christ like/God pleasing life. Nobody is perfect that is living now on earth.  There was one at one time, but they crucified Him.  So with all our faults and extra baggage, we can still have a passion for living as Christ/God wants us to live.  We will learn through practice, just like learning music.  There is hope, so don't give up your practice.

Keep singing, keep practicing, keep smiling.

Blessings
Gary