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I picked up the guitar when I was 12. I had been a boy soprano in church and in youth choirs, to some local notoriety and even got paid to do so from the local Episcopalian Church. When my voice started changing, and lots of other things did, I grabbed a classical guitar that had been gifted to me by my big brother. I immediately made the tragic and common mistake of replacing the nylon strings with steel strings, that are meant for dreadnought and standard acoustic guitars. This raises the action (the distance between the strings and the fretboard to an almost impossible height, and the tension made the high strings cut into my stubby little fingers like a dull razor blade that just wouldn’t give up before the skin tore off, blood flowed, and eventually calluses were achieved (something every guitar player needs if you are going to play any song that lasts more than a minute and 30 seconds. It made me work hard to play — hard. So I’m a bit grateful I made the mistake. When I finally bought a cheap copy of a Fender Telecaster it felt like the strings were dental floss and my calluses were four sturdy pillows, able to play for extended lengths of time. I often recall my mother banging on my bedroom door at 7pm realizing I had not left my den of study, practice, and musical meditation for the entire day, and I had forgotten to eat anything (wish I had that problem now). I distinctly recall two times she banged on the door and the remarks she used to try to coax me out of my sanctuary. “It sounds like someone is dying in there,” and “I know you know how to play something pretty.” These both and anything else my mother said regarding my new “passion” made me laugh, because I could not have asked for a more supportive parent. Back in church, when I sang, my mother saw me light up, make friends, feel a part of something bigger than myself, and receive praise and even sometimes adulation for my innate skill at carrying a tune.
The first song I ever learned on guitar all the way through was “The Wind Cries Mary.” I had purchased a tablature book of Jimi Hendrix songs and dove into it as if I was studying for the bar exam. Tablature is akin to sheet music for those who can’t read music, and for those who already can read standard notation it’s still really beneficial. However my classical guitar with steel strings made it almost impossible to bend notes — again, the string tension was nothing less than obscene. I knew not what the words meant in this beautiful and poetic song, and although I had smoked my first joint roaches (to little effect) at the tender age of ten with a friend underneath a railroad bridge I still wasn’t quite sure what “Mary” meant.
Once I had it really learned, everything changed in my life for the better. I had focus, I had purpose, and I was good at something. I started buying every guitar magazine I could get my hands on. I hoped than when I reached my age I would never be the type to say, “back in my day” but — back in my day I had two choices to learn a song that didn’t have tablature: put the needle on the record before the phrase I wanted to learn, and then drop the needle over and over again until I could play the part, or to basically to the same process with fast forward and rewind buttons on my boom box cassette player. That being the case, guitar mags where a wealth of education and even if Eddie Van Halen or B. B. King was on the cover there would be articles and tablatures on hordes of styles. I would attempt the classical pieces, the jazz pieces, the country “chicken-picking” articles, and examples of anything I could get my fingers on. I can only imagine the joy with which a young guitar player today approaches learning guitar on their own. With the advent of lessons and songs available for free on YouTube, literally anything is at their fingertips.
Which brings me to today.
I have a number of “crotchety” friends who look at TikTok with a “get off my lawn you damn kids” attitude. I think it’s often jealousy for their being able to learn so fast at a young age, and nostalgia for their long lost passion for learning and creating new music. “Those kids on there suck!”
No, they don’t.
I once was talked into starting a TikTok and quickly got to 1,000 fans, the necessary and arbitrary number the platform decides you need to begin broadcasting live, and after the first time someone put digital sunglasses and a purple hat on my while I was playing, I went off as quickly as I got on. For me there is just not enough time to be a songwriter and do TikToks.
But the kids are so good, and the adults too! Anyone can be a star (for a minute anyways). If they don’t write their own music, they do the most creative things with other’s songs and music. They duet songs, they build a song playing all the instruments, they re-interpret and they bring new life to songs that are brand new and from days of old. It is truly inspiring.
I used to say, “I wish everyone played guitar.” Because it’s really not that hard, and it’s so gratifying, and you can just keep it out next to your couch and play anytime. It’s a companion, teacher, and friend. Well, be careful what you wish for. Now everyone plays. Or at least so many people do. I didn’t mean they should all do it for a living! It really has caused me to wonder if it’s “cool” to be a guitar player anymore. I mean, I know it is to me, but I’m not cool anymore. Back in my day (there it is again) I was one of maybe four kids in my high school who really played guitar. Four people who really took it seriously. We were outsiders. We were different.
Nowadays I notice the reaction when I tell someone who knows me not from Adam that I am a professional musician. Although I have never, and will never second-guess my decision to pursue music, I am more often than not greeted with an “ah-huh” look that makes me smirk and really wonder what people think of going into a profession that is so common now. I’ve even had moments where I wondered if I should go into another facet of the art world, because the point for me is to express something, in my own way. Not in a way that everyone and their nephew, niece, and even grandparents are expressing themselves.
The answer is, it’s still cool. But I really wonder if I was in high school today if I would have gravitated towards guitar, or something else that isn’t so common. Maybe I would have. Singing and writing have always been just as important to me. And many may now cease to wonder why I am spending so much time trying to add piano tunes to my set. Besides, there were a lot of poets who came before Maya Angelou. Thank goodness she didn’t think it was too common a profession!
SEP 10 SAT Starbutus House Concert @ 7:00pm Duncan, BC
SEP 11 SUN Plank at Palindrome Port Townsend Event Center @ 7:30pmPort Townsend, WA,
SEP 21 WED Songbird North Songswap @ 7:30pmVancouver, BC
SEP 23 FRI Plank solo return to Bez Arts Hub! @ 7:00pmTownship Of Langley, BC
SEP 29 THU Plank's solo return to Natalie's @ 7:00pmWorthington, OH
OCT 1 SAT Molly's House Concerts @ 7:00pmLincolnwood, IL
OCT 2 SUN Music In The Gazebo @ 6:30pmFerndale, MI
OCT 4 TUE Plank at The Dakota Tavern @ 7:30pmToronto, ON
OCT 5 WED Plank in Buffalo! @ 8:00pmBuffalo, NY
OCT 6 THU House Concert sponsored by Bop Shop Records! @ 7:00pmRochester, NY
OCT 7 FRI Plank show w/Neil Minet, Raedwald Howland-Bolton opening @ 8:00pmSyracuse, NY
OCT 9 SUN Plank at Southgate House Revival Room! @ 9:00pmNewport, KY
OCT 14 FRI Plank Trio Victoria, BC @ 7:30pmVictoria, BC
OCT 30 SUN Plank's Trio at Gruene Hall! @ 1:00pmNew Braunfels, TX