Walz Guitar - Finding Purpose to Playing

With the economy and things like it is, a few people have halted guitar lessons. That started me thinking about starting and stopping guitar in general. As a player turned teacher, you see people start and fizzle out.

No purpose. When you begin something, you have to think about why. Starting into music is often an impulsive decision. You get a guitar as a present and seek lessons, then some other part of life redirects you. Or, your freind plays and you want to follow along; ditto previous reason. Excluding used guitars, you can buy into the musical habit with around $100--which is an in range of an impulsive buy for many people. But, why are you wanting to get into guitar? There is a learning curve. Practice must be frequent. It might hurt your fingers. Whining aside, what do you want to do with guitar? A reasonable answer would be to entertain yourself. There are other obvious answers, but those often lead to the fizzle. Think about what you want to do, many guitar players are music gods sitting in their basement plucking away. And, that's fine.

My wife got me a guitar a few years ago and that rekindled my love for guitar. That's the guitar in the logo at the top of the page. Since I was in my 30's I decided that I should delve into reading music again and diversify. Dead Kennedy's and Slayer only cover so much of the musical spectrum. So, I remembered a book of classical music I'd bought when I was 15. That simple decision led me on a path that's opening up new perspectives on music and, more importantly, playing guitar. That was my new purpose--which led to me typing what I hope someone might read. Knowing that purpose has helped me stick with learning new pieces and songs and even playing some engagements.

I think it's from the 7 Habits, but start with an end in mind. Not *the* end but an end. Playing Beatles and feebly singing along is a healthy passtime. Playing along with songs from Rock Band--I mean *really* playing along--is a healthy passtime too. Starting with a vision will help you stick it out and have a 6 string accomplishment.