Stringing myself along...
Jun. 4th, 2003 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ursangnomeIt is staring at me.
It sits there, surrounded by the excesive clutter of my room, among the detrius of books and papers that builds up from insufficient need to clear the deck. It stares, with a slightly disapproving, slightly impatient eye. It waits, covered with a thin film of dust, leaning right where I left it specifically so it would stare at me.
It is a guitar, though not a particularly impressive one. It's an inexpensive, three-quarter sized acoustic, with nylon strings, originally purchased many years ago as a possible form of physical therapy for my brother. It didn't work very well for that, so it was set aside for other things without really being used. My brother eventually passed away. When I was home for X-mas, my mother asked if I wanted the thing, 'cause if I didn't she was going to toss it.
So, it's not a highly valuable thing, either in dollars or in sentimental terms. It's staring at me simply because I don't know how to play it.
There are a number of barriers here. One is simple activation energy - learning to play a musical instrument isn't a small task, and it takes a bit of oomph to start. Another is that it seems like sitting in my room along with a book or web page plucking at strings would be a remarkably boring, lonely, and uninspiring way to approach the task, but I cannot afford to hire a teacher. But, perhaps most of all, guitars are cool.
I don't respond well to "cool", or to peer pressure. I learned a long time ago that if I pick up a thing because of it's "cool factor", I ended up disappointed, but only after expenditure of time, effort, and/or money. The rule holds for books, TV, clothes, musical instruments, pretty much anything. I eventually learned a sort of aversion to cool things. My personal tastes are generally on the geeky, uncool side of things, so if I avoid coolness, I tend to find stuff I enjoy.
But occasionally there's a case where the thing my own tastes lean towards is also cool. Guitars are about the coolest musical instrument in our culture. My brother plays guitar. Many of my Lady's friends play guitar. So, do I want to pick the thing up because I'd be joining the crowd, or because I love the sound of the thing and would get satisfaction from making that sound with my own hands. If the former, I'm gonna spend a goodly amount of time with it, but eventually get bored and put it aside without gaining much from it. If that's how it's going to be, I'm better of using that time reading good books, or doing something constructive.
Toughie. I've felt it staring at me for about a month, now. How much longer do I wait to see if that staring feeling goes away?
It sits there, surrounded by the excesive clutter of my room, among the detrius of books and papers that builds up from insufficient need to clear the deck. It stares, with a slightly disapproving, slightly impatient eye. It waits, covered with a thin film of dust, leaning right where I left it specifically so it would stare at me.
It is a guitar, though not a particularly impressive one. It's an inexpensive, three-quarter sized acoustic, with nylon strings, originally purchased many years ago as a possible form of physical therapy for my brother. It didn't work very well for that, so it was set aside for other things without really being used. My brother eventually passed away. When I was home for X-mas, my mother asked if I wanted the thing, 'cause if I didn't she was going to toss it.
So, it's not a highly valuable thing, either in dollars or in sentimental terms. It's staring at me simply because I don't know how to play it.
There are a number of barriers here. One is simple activation energy - learning to play a musical instrument isn't a small task, and it takes a bit of oomph to start. Another is that it seems like sitting in my room along with a book or web page plucking at strings would be a remarkably boring, lonely, and uninspiring way to approach the task, but I cannot afford to hire a teacher. But, perhaps most of all, guitars are cool.
I don't respond well to "cool", or to peer pressure. I learned a long time ago that if I pick up a thing because of it's "cool factor", I ended up disappointed, but only after expenditure of time, effort, and/or money. The rule holds for books, TV, clothes, musical instruments, pretty much anything. I eventually learned a sort of aversion to cool things. My personal tastes are generally on the geeky, uncool side of things, so if I avoid coolness, I tend to find stuff I enjoy.
But occasionally there's a case where the thing my own tastes lean towards is also cool. Guitars are about the coolest musical instrument in our culture. My brother plays guitar. Many of my Lady's friends play guitar. So, do I want to pick the thing up because I'd be joining the crowd, or because I love the sound of the thing and would get satisfaction from making that sound with my own hands. If the former, I'm gonna spend a goodly amount of time with it, but eventually get bored and put it aside without gaining much from it. If that's how it's going to be, I'm better of using that time reading good books, or doing something constructive.
Toughie. I've felt it staring at me for about a month, now. How much longer do I wait to see if that staring feeling goes away?
no subject
Date: 2003-06-06 09:26 am (UTC)Personally, I've tried about a dozen different instruments. The only one I've ever gotten even remotely competent at was the hammered dulcimer. Partly that's because I had a use for it (occasionally playing dance music), but mostly it was because I found myself enjoying the activity for its own sake, as a good way to blow off steam. The hammers just work for me as a meditative tool. OTOH, I didn't find that out until going through a bunch of other instruments (including guitar) that didn't actually float my boat enough to stick with them.
My recommendation (based on what worked for me) is to pick a duration -- a month, maybe -- and prod yourself into playing with it semi-regularly for that long. At the end, see how you feel about it. If it's work, then it probably isn't the right thing to be doing. If it's fun, then it is...