Something I'm bad at

It's always easy to write about stuff I'm good at. Today I'm covering something I'm bad at.

One of items lost in the shipwreck was my pack guitar. Today I finally got around to replacing it. A friend of mine had a smaller guitar in excellent condition for sale for a reasonable price. It's nice to have a guitar again -even though I'm not very good at it.

Sure, I can finger a bunch of cords and strum along, but I'm not going to lead any campfire songs. My singing voice is pretty bad. A decent singing voice goes a long ways towards covering up for marginal guitar skills. In my case marginal guitar skills are all I've got.

So why squeeze the budget to purchase something I'm not very good at? In spite of my limited skills I enjoy playing. It's therapeutic for me and healthier than a couple glasses of scotch.

My lovely wife, bless her soul, claims to enjoy listening to me play. Yes, I tell that woman I love her every day.

Back before the days of records and radios people had to make their own music. Most households had at least someone who could play something. It was pretty common for whole families to pull out instruments and jam together. While the selection and quality of music has gone up, something was lost.

For me, unless the musicians are really terrible, live music is a better experience than recorded. Some part of the human element is lost in a recording. There's nothing more real than being able to produce your own music, even if it's far from professional quality.

Another good thing about having a guitar is that there are plenty of people around who can play better than I can. It's nice to be able to say, hey check out my guitar. Before you know it they've played a bunch of songs and we've all had a good time.

-Sixbears