When you think your life is over, it ain’t, move on!

I was reading this morning on From The Woodshed blog about how Joe, the guy behind the blog, works his way on the guitar by structured techniques and not just by ear. That kind of made me think for a minute. I remember when I started programming, I didn’t know a lot of stuff, but I used to keep a paper and a pen on my desk and used to write down all the new terms I was hearing around me and then searched for them on the internet and in the documentation. That helped me a lot since I learned a lot when doing this. If I think about it, this is a form of organizing yourself, which, to be honest, is not one of my forms of expression, if you know what I mean…

I proposed to myself to also be more organized in this area of music and guitar. It is not difficult to do it, just that you need a bit of dedication. I think I should also write down what I want to learn or practice and take it one at a time. I want to practice more scales, well, put it down on paper to see it and remember it.

Personally I would like to work more my tapping techniques. I am not a tapping and arpeggios guitar player. I love power metal and heavy and Satriani and stuff, but I was never able to put enough time to study this properly. The fact is that while at a party in my university years, I had a stupid accident that left me with a cut tendon on my left hand.

I had surgery for this (the doctor say that if it wouldn’t have been my guitar playing she would have let it like this since it is not a major thing! Damn it! It’s good I play the guitar!!). After the surgery I had to recover but my little finger on the left hand didn’t fully recover the same mobility like before so I couldn’t manage to use it properly for arpeggios so I just managed to play an other way.

So, to those thinking that guitar playing is over in such cases, well, trust me, it isn’t!You just need to find other way of expressing yourself. Music is not just about technical skills but about expressing yourself.

Regarding this thing with my finger, in that period I was in the studio with my previous band, Kapela. We were recording a demo album that was never released,unfortunately. However, I felt terrible, I was really pissed off about this thing with the surgery. I had a large (literally: LARGE!!!) bandage on my hand with a wooden stick inside it, to keep my finger on the right position. Well, imagine me going to the studio with this thing on.

I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to record anything since I had only 3 fingers to use (I don’t count the thumb so even at that time I had 5 fingers, really!) My part in the band was rhythm guitar and the guys were really cool to understand me and support me back then. I managed to record my parts after more takes, with a bit more attention.

I do have some pictures from the studio back then, with my monstrous bandaged finger, all my friends used to laugh at me back then, I was the only one not feeling like laughing, really.

Anyway, time passed and now I am loving every moment playing my guitar, even if I don’t do those elaborated arpeggios. But I don’t stress myself about it, music is about feeling and expression. By the way, I do solo guitar and I don’t complain, my fingers work very well, thank you! Including that little finger. However, no arpeggios, OK?

PS: This post started in a direction but led me to an other one. That’s OK for me. OK for you?

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