Martin Acoustic Guitar
The Guitar is the damnedest musical instrument. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s a wonder that anyone ever learns to play one at all.
In most instruments, you have a single place or button or finger-combination that plays one note. Most famously, maybe, is “Middle C” on the piano. If you’re motoring along in a piece and are commanded to play Middle-C, you have to make your way back to that one exact key. Nothing else will do.
But on a guitar, you can actually play that specific note in several places. On the second string, if you’ll put your finger behind the first fret, you’re golden. But you can also find that same note on the third string, fingering behind the fifth fret. But we’re not done yet! Move over to the fourth string, and you’ll find Middle C up at the tenth fret. Move to the fifth string and you’ll find Middle C at fret fifteen! And on it goes….
We guitarists talk about moving “up” the fretboard. But as we move “Up” our fretting hand is actually losing altitude in the room. It’s getting lower! We talk about the first string being the highest, but it’s the one usually closest to the floor. The lowest string is actually closer to the ceiling. How are you ever going to get a grip on that?
It may be one of those things like play “Go” where they say it takes a short time to learn and a lifetime to master. I’ve been playing since 1972 and have a long journey ahead of me toward any kind of mastery.
But I do love it. You can play soft passages to make a girl fall in love with you, and loud emotional chords that motivate people to get up off of their feet and change the world. Classical music, jazz, blues, country and always, always, rock-n-roll. The guitar lends itself very well to all of those genres. And you can take one with you in a canoe with your sweetie—you can’t do that with a Concert Grand piano or a full-on drum kit.
Six strings, at least twelve frets, but often twenty or even more. You can depend upon just having air to put in motion and play an acoustic model or you jack-into an amplifier and effects pedals that will color and distort and torture the music in ways Beethoven never imagined… but Chuck Berry did. And Elvis. And BB King. And Eric and George and Gary and Jimi and Stevie Ray.
Good times. Great oldies. Get yourself a guitar. I recommend it.
