Everybody loves music. Probably the only time one would hate music is when they are reminded of something unpleasant or things or persons they would rather forget. Music has become an integral part of everybody’s life that we often associate our feelings, thoughts and experiences to a particular song that somehow reflects what we feel, think and go through.

There are those that are gifted musically, either a golden voice for singing or inclination or superior ability to play musical instruments. Some even have both.

I am just a music lover. “Just” because I am not blessed with any of the musical gifts I mentioned above. All my life, I contented myself to just appreciate the joys that music brings to a listener like me. Until… I decided to do something about it.

I am not taking voice lessons, if that’s what you think. I know early on that I don’t and won’t have a golden voice. Come to think of it, I don’t even have a decent singing voice. And our bathroom has always been the unwilling, silent victim to my vocal torture.

I own a guitar, which has been with me for the past three years. You might probably say that I am the only one you knew who owns a guitar but don’t know how to play it. Because of time constraints and ever-changing interests I wasn’t able to learn anything. Recently, I decided it’s high time for me to at least learn how to play it instead of it sitting in one corner and is nothing but a wallflower. I even bought a beginners’ guide to guitar enthusiasts so that it won’t be that difficult.

Learning to play the guitar is easier said than done, most especially for my case. Reading the book, I was a little disappointed to have encountered such technical words like staccato, glissando, dominant seventh, diminished seventh, augmented fifth and so on. A beginners guide to guitar enthusiasts? Yeah right! I almost gave up and told myself to stop such non-sense when it crossed my mind that guitar gods Hendrix and Santana, string masters Frusciante, Gallagher brothers, Corgan, Iha and Wretsky, Lennon and McCartney, all had started the same way. I really wanted to learn so I guess I have to start somewhere.

Reading the book, just reading, might be a good starting point. I applied my ‘read first, then analyze and apply later’ technique this time. This was the methodology I used reviewing for the CPA board and I guess may produce the same result.

Reading and analyzing is easy, but actual application of what you just read is an entirely different thing. The most difficult part of the learning process is memorizing the ever-complicated chords, most especially those chords that has full bars, where in your index fingers is pressed down on all the strings and your other fingers is stretched out to its fullest extent to the other frets. Strumming, learning guitar strokes and plucking is not that difficult to learn but memorizing a hundred chords with millions of finger positioning is such a tedious thing that really requires a LOT of patience and determination. It is REALLY HARD, I am telling you. Even harder than passing the CPA board.

My only consolation if this current ‘fling’ turned out to be other than a success is that my sisters are all showing a genuine interest in learning how to also play the guitar. One of them is even way ahead of me with regards to chords already memorized and has the knack for shifting one chord to another. I guess learning how to play it is really a gift. But I really, really wanted to learn. It’s just that the difficulty of it makes me think other wise. I just hoped that my fickle-mindedness would not manifest and my infamous short attention span wouldn’t be that short this time.