A quick aside about Playing the Guitar

I was shocked reading back over the early pages of this blog to realise how long it has been now, since I started trying to improve beyond my lifetime of chord thrashing, closeted away in secret so no-one could hear me! That was in about 2014, so 5 years ago already. So, have I improved?

Undoubtedly, yes, but sadly I don't feel like I am 5 years "better"! I have loads more knowledge about the theory of what I am doing now and can play much more complex music.

The biggest improvement has been in my confidence and ability to play with other people. Over the last few years I have gone out of my way to find opportunities to play at festivals or in mini groups etc and have found some great friends through doing that. We even have a kind of folk band thing going and even played some stuff at our recent wedding!

I have received 3 very sage pieces of wisdom on my journey:

1. Buy yourself a great guitar - it will encourage you to play as often as possible. (Thanks Kris Stringz.)
   I bought myself a mid-range Martin DRSGT, which I adore - rarely a day goes by that I don't play it.
2. Practice regularly and intelligently. Practice things you are bad at, not what you are good at. If you practice every day for 20 minutes, you'll get better twice as fast as if you only practice for 10 minutes. Likewise, if you do 40 minutes a day, you'll get there twice as fast again. (Thanks Justin Sandercoe and Martin Simpson)
   I have failed on this one over the last year, but am getting back into the habit as we speak - do it at the same time every day if you can and have a routine that takes you where you want to get to.
3. Play with other people. Stretch yourself. Create deadlines that you HAVE to practice for. It makes you so much better if you don't want to let other people down. (Can't remember where this came from, but it works for me.)