11 years since I started to play guitar


I didn’t realize until now that it has been 11 years since I began learning to play this instrument. It was in 2014 when I decided to take practical classes, motivated by my friends and social circle.


At that time, I took a break from my college courses, and, as you can imagine, I had a lot of free time. My first guitar classes were a bit strange; those first chords played on the classical guitar felt like knives on my fingers as I struggled to position them correctly.


At home, I had a guitar that I barely played, but I knew a bit about the instrument because my friends had been playing since our high school years, and rock music greatly influenced my taste in music. Those initial classes, mostly one-on-one, taught me the basics of what I was about to discover. Those first chords soon evolved into basic melodies, and I began to learn to play some of my favorite songs.


At the beginning, my progress was noteworthy. I could play some songs and started to engage in more advanced practice. I fell in love with how my guitar sounded. This hobby allowed me to escape and relieve many stressful days when I returned to college.


My friends and I would gather to play music together, during which I would ask questions about the instrument or music theory. I started to feel more connected to music and my friends; I was now one of them. We talked about guitarists, musicians, and bands we loved.


I remember in 2019, when I bought my first electric guitar. I had saved some money after finishing my college degree, and, with my mum's help, I purchased a beautiful red Stratocaster, complete with a distortion pedal and an amp. Playing the classical guitar greatly improved my techniques, but playing the electric guitar was on another level. I could now do vibrato, bending, pinch harmonics, and many other techniques that I couldn’t do on my classical guitar.


Nowadays, I play both types of guitars, though not as much as I did in years past. While my progress has stagnated, I still enjoy playing the music I love. Playing guitar has been a significant breakthrough in my twenties, and now, in my thirties, I want to continue this passion.

 

S.

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