MUSICAL ENDURANCE CLASS FOR THE NON-MUSICAL

Musical endurance means hitting the same note over and over the rest of your life.

Sounds easy, right? Because it is.

If you were one of the gifted, the lucky, the special, you started early and have been doing it your whole life.

However, if that’s not you, play the blues in E.

That’s your song, the big string on top of five others, and it’s little brother A string.

1 , 2, 3, hit it.

If you’re right handed, use your right thumb.

What’s your left hand do? Nothing.

E E E E, A A A A, E E, A A, E E E E

This is your song to repeat every day from now on.

Some days it will sound different, sometimes like:

E E E E, A A A A, E E, A A, E E E E

Or sometimes like:

E E E E, A A A A, E E, A A, E E E E

Sometimes fast:

EEEE, AAAA, EE, AA, EEEE

Sometimes quiet:

e e e e, a a a a, e e, a a, e e e e

Sometimes open-stringed, sometimes muted.

It’s what blues players call the song of life. Yes, they do.

If I were a bluesman I’d say it.

Pick up that guitar, buddy, and pluck the progression. G’head.

If you do it today you will double the time you spent when you do it tomorrow.

By day three things start to change.

Day Three Of Musical Endurance

By day three you’re exhausted.

Your neck hurts, there’s a blister on your strum thumb, and your guitar is gouging your ribs.

If that’s you, congratulations, you’re right on track.

You feel your guitar in your hands, against your body, vibrating it’s secret message through metal strings, nylon strings, and tone woods.

What’s the message?

You, my friend, are now a guitar player.

Three days takes one more to round up to a week, two weeks and a day round up to a month.

Now you’ve been playing a month. Can you believe it?

Play it with authority.

E E E E, A A A A, E E, A A, E E E E

Play it with a beat.

E E E E, A A A A, E E, A A, E E E E

Play it with rhythm.

E E E E, A A A A, E E, A A, E E E E

Listen to the guitar in the case? Nothing.

Now listen to it while you play.

“E E E E,A A A A,E E,A A,E E E E“

What you won’t hear while you play your song, and it is your song while you play it, is criticism.

It’s not too loud, not too fast, not too anything, but just right.

But what is it, really?

It’s a launch pad to making and keeping a connection between your brain and your body, a different connection, one you can share if you’re the sharing kind, which is what happened last night.

After a day in the backyard with a bundle of running toddler we went inside for a bite to eat.

I played Old MdDonald in G. It put baby to sleep.

Dad and granddad poured a glass of wine while she napped and brought out another guitar.

They sat face to face and finger-picked in E. What did it sound like?

“E E E E, A A A A, E E, A A, E E E E“

The band rounded out with the arrival of three more members, also known as baby’s mom and her parents who don’t play guitar. Now they do.

We passed guitars around one at a time and talked about musical endurance without saying musical endurance.

It was part family bonding, part guitar lesson, and all fun.

We sang songs about the dog made up in the moment, songs about baby, songs about each other all on open stings.

Another glass of wine? Why yes, thank you.

That’s when I started preaching about kids getting shamed away from music by adults who don’t want to hear a beginner saxophone squeaking through the scales, by friends who can’t play anything and never try, by their own impatience.

I ended by saying how happy I was that we could all participate with enthusiasm.

Baby boomers playing the old hits is one thing.

Last night we laid the foundation for new hits.

And a one, and a two, and a three:

“E E E E, A A A A, E E, A A, E E E E”