Guitar Playing | Flashlights

Archive for the ‘guitar playing’ tag

The guitar has got to be about the most well known musical instrument. Or maybe the simple drum is really the most well known musical instrument. There can’t be many people who have never seen a guitar and don’t know what a guitar is.

One thing that makes guitars so appealing is their accessibility. Unlike a Piano, or a drum kit, a guitar is portable and almost anyone can pick one up. But creating a tune on a guitar can be a struggle.

I’ve met some exceptionally talented people who, within weeks of picking up a guitar, were good enough to start a band and begin to gig. But there are plenty of guitarists like myself, who’ve been playing for many years but still learning.

But it is for these reasons taht guitars are such an engrossing hobby. There are always new tunes to master, new guitars to buy or new guitar gizmos to try out. Learning to play the guitar is a massively rewarding hobby but be warned, it can take over your life.

In recent years I’ve become something of a guitar collector. I am a great lover of vintage resonator guitars. These are a form of acoustic guitar that uses a resonator cone made of spun allumnium to give the guitar extra volume. The resonator design comes from a time before electronic amplifiers were commonplace. The sound of the resonator guitar is very much the sound of the blues, the music that I love.

If you know any guitarists you may already know how obsessive they can become. Playing guitar, collecting guitars, listening to guitar music and going to gigs to see guitarists play can often take over their lives. And if you are unfortunate enough to have a guitar playing wife, husband, boyfriend or girlfriend you may find yourself feeling that you are less important than their obsession with guitars.