MUSIC LESSONS IN GUITAR STORE FROM AMATEUR TEACHER

Music lessons come with the territory when the territory is a music store.

Was it strange that I was the teacher? A little strange, yes, but well received.

I had ordered a guitar from the store and stopped in to check progress since I got an email stating the order was canceled.

But I didn’t cancel it.

Someone in shipping dropped the guitar? Or someone checked the order and found the guitar they’d been wanting for years?

The excitement of playing a big Yamaha acoustic with onboard effects faded fast. My anticipation took a dive. To ramp it back up I went to the guitar room and started in on another acoustic. A Yamaha.

And it had onboard effects. It was smaller than the one I wanted, but sounded great.

Another guy in the room was playing some tricky stuff. When he took a break I asked him to check out the guitar I was playing. He’d never heard of the Transacoustic.

He held the guitar and dropped into the guitar-squat like a farmer grabbing a handful of dirt.

That’s the stance good players take, and he was good.

In short time he played it hard, liked the neck, didn’t like the tuners, and said it was too expensive.

Music Lessons In The Rear

“I don’t think another guitar sounds like this,” I said when he handed it back.

My moment of guitar greatness was at hand while I played a slow version of Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

It’s an easy song that sounds more difficult than it is. It goes from G to Em and back with a resolution from D to G and starts over. Nothing to it for even the rank beginner, but that’s not how it sounds.

“Do you know this song?” I asked.

“It’s one I’ve always wanted to learn,” the good player said, which gave me a pump because he was about to learn it whether he wanted to or not.

After the music lessons he said, “I had no idea it was so easy.”

“Sounds great on this guitar, too.”

“At one time I had over seventy-five guitars at home,” he said. There weren’t 75 guitars in the room.

“Did you have a wife and 75 guitars?” It was a fair question from this married man because it seems like it’s either one or the other, 75 others.

“No.”

I ripped through Foggy at full speed and handed him the guitar.

Instead of playing my song he showed me a I-IV-V progression in A that slipped and slid around in amazing ways. Sounds like a fair trade? It was.

As he left the room I played Foggy some more and reminded him to break it out. He said he would. Then I played the tune he showed me. We could have been a duo and started band practice next week.

I was focused on the guitar when a group of people came through the room and settled into the other back room and shut the door. The singing and playing started up and instead of sounding timid, they were great.

Would they mind if I dropped in some secret lead? I joined in with some eavesdropping guitar. They wrapped up and came out of the room; I stayed focused on playing.

When one of them picked up a banjo I lured it in by playing Foggy. They didn’t pick up on it. I was set to leave, but they were still there. I complimented their playing. They said it was a family effort, and their son played in the church band.

“Well get him back in here to play this guitar. It’s got onboard effects.”

The kid came back and tore it up.

Maybe this was the guitar for me after all?

I headed over to check out to learn more about how the big Yamaha that got canceled. I walked past guitars in floor stands, amps, a wall of guitars, and one guy fingering around on Tele.

My big Yamaha dream was broken, but the smaller one waited for me. It checked all the boxes and it wasn’t $1400.00

My mind was made up, so back to the acoustic room. The guy that was playing the Tele was in there with the smaller Yamaha. He put it though it’s paces, held it, and looked at it like a buyer would.

The way he handled it showed care and love. The way he played showed care and love. Did I tell him to hand it over, or wait for him to hang it back on the wall and grab it?

No.

Did I show him Foggy Mountain Breakdown? No, I didn’t want to interrupt what looked like a special moment for music lessons. Besides, he was doing just fine by himself.

Do I want the same guitar a good player made out with?

Couldn’t hurt, but it’s all about timing, and the moment passed.