I started playing guitar when I was 16 years old. The previous year, I had asked for piano lessons. The teacher said that I was “much too old for music lessons and that it was too late to learn an instrument.”
So my friend Laurence taught me some guitar chords. I discovered that ‘Get It On’ by T Rex required an E Minor (an easy chord for a beginner) and a hypnotic, pulsating rhythm which my friend taught me.
I subsequently found out that most blues songs only had a handful of chords (quite often, only three, i.e. E, A and B7). This revelation and the fact that Robert Johnson’s songs made the hair stand up on the back of my neck and sent shivers (and shimmers) down my spine, turned me onto the blues.
I went onto play semi professionally for many years. There was a time when the gigs were paying more than the day job. I still play guitar most days. Acoustic and electric. Playing music has given me friendship, a life time of learning and endless joy.
Now, I wonder whatever happened to that music teacher, from all those years ago?
It is never too late to learn. I know, because I am in my fifties and I have been learning German for the last three months.
Pass me that guitar, will you? I feeling like playing again.