I teach guitar classes to senior adults at a local retirement center. Most of my students are over 50 years of age,
many of them are in their 60's. I find that so many of them have
physical or emotional hurdles to overcome to even learn to play the
guitar as a beginner in the most elementary way.
Many of them encounter joint problems in their hands or fingers. I
even had one or two students who had parts of fingers missing from
accidents. There are also many of them who wish that they had started
playing guitar earlier in their lives. A couple of them have parents or
siblings who play, and so some of them are starting to play to be able
to either impress or to collaborate with their family members. I've
been told by several of my students that they feel that starting to play
guitar so late in life decreases their chances of being successful.
I began to play the guitar at age seventeen. I remember how tough it
was to concentrate and focus, and how terrible the pain was in my
fingers at night, when I went to bed after practicing my guitar that
day. It seemed that the calluses hurt forever, but actually it wasn't
long until the pain went away, and it wasn't so bad after all. But even
after the physical pain left, there were so many mental bridges and
walls that I had to cross over and break through in learning the guitar. It seemed that every successful step that I took
carried along with it another obstacle to overcome. As I tell my
students, there is a learning curve in which your guitar begins as your
enemy, when playing is almost always a struggle, but eventually it gets to
a point where your guitar becomes your lifelong companion and friend,
and playing is a joy of your life.
While I
cannot entirely relate to all of my students' situations, I would like
to write a book that not only tells my success story, but also seek to
find others (especially in their age group) that have overcome obstacles
to learn to play the guitar. My favorite guitarist in the world, Phil Keaggy (www.philkeaggy.com) has a missing finger that he lost in an accident at age four. He, like famous Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia,
has played guitar all of their lives with missing fingers, and it has
not seemed to bother them in the least. However, I'm sure that they had
to work at it and overcome some mental blocks to be able to get to this
point.
There is also a guitar player who is a
paraplegic, he has lost both of his arms, so he plays the guitar with
his feet (no joke!) There are videos on YouTube showing him doing this,
and while he cannot play in the same way as the above guitar players
who are missing only one finger, he is quite still amazing to watch.
I would like to write a self-help book that would incorporate stories
and testimonies of people from all age groups and walks of life, who
overcame problems and disabilities to be able to play the guitar. I
think that this would be a great encouragement to any guitar player, but
especially beginning players. Perhaps this could also include a
companion video (DVD) which would feature these players in interviews and also show them playing the guitar.
Thanks--Bob =)
© 2014 Bob Wingate/GuiTarHeel Music
