2026-05-04: back to basics

i've been taking guitar lessons for many years. i started off on classical, moved into electric and slide, back to classical, and i'm now starting to pick at some electric stuff again, after almost a decade away. i've had the same teacher for the last nineteen years. i'm always learning, but more recently, the lessons have more been about accountability, giving myself a reason to practice when i'd otherwise probably not, given that i just play for myself, and don't play out. they're self-driven. i work on stuff, i come with stuff, we work on stuff.

i've been increasingly aware, starting with my teacher's health scares a year and a half ago, that he's not going to be here forever, whether that means physically here-on-this-earth, or just that he's retired. he's in his early 60s. he's talked about what he wants to do after: sell the house, move somewhere outside the city, slow down. every year for the last year i've wondered if it's my last taking lessons.

so i'm going back to basics in a way, working on holes in my technique that've persisted because the guitar in all its forms is a vast instrument, and you could go your whole life playing one form of guitar and never touch another. i'm not great at strumming and flatpicking. i've always suspected this is due to being left-handed, playing guitar righty. fingerstyle guitar was immediate and intuitive. i suspect that's why i like classical guitar so much, and slide. working with a pick has always been work.

i'm starting with strumming, working on strum patterns and doing this as a continual motion, rather than the stop-start i've always fallen back on. get a little better. i don't have to be perfect. & then go from there.

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