My entire childhood was of music. You’d think I would have started early on this journey, but that’s not the case. You see, I had no confidence and took others negative opinions of my singing at an early age to heart.
My father and his entire family of 8 children and parents all played multiple instruments, all by ear. They all played the guitar. My grandmother played piano and accordion. My father played the guitar, harmonica but mostly the violin.
We had a restaurant in the 60s and 70s, and a pool room with arcades in the 80s. So I grew up with a jukebox blaring night and day. Some of the songs I’m learning on guitar now are engraved in my brain since four or five years old.
I always dreamed of singing and playing guitar but I felt or misunderstood that you had to have a god given talent to be any good. Throughout my life I thought about it but never found the funds to actually take lessons. Then Covid hit. The pandemic did a number on me. To my head, to my psyche. It made me realise that time is short. No more time to lose.
It all started July 11, 2020. My coming out. I burst through my shell and never looked back. It was a Saturday, hot, muggy and raining to beat the band all day. I was house cleaning and singing to YouTube videos when “It’s a Heartache” from Bonnie Tylor came on. So I sang it. I don’t know what came over me, but I decided to record my singing over the karaoke track of this song, just my voice not my face, and after listening to it, decided to post it to my Facebook page to get some feedback. Many said I had a nice voice. Many didn’t believe I was the one actually singing.
Emboldened by the positive results, I sang another song, audio only, of “Stand by Your Man” by Tammy Wynette.
I felt the need to prove I was the one singing, and knew I needed to post a video, and I had never videoed myself ever. My biggest challenge yet. So a few weeks later, I posted my first video of me singing, “Too much love will kill you,” from Queen. Everyone loved it.
But I didn’t want to post covers over karaoke tracks. I wanted to play them with guitar and/or piano. But what to do? I couldn’t play. And I felt really down thinking it might take me years, like 5 or 10, just to sound good.
Then September 10, 2020, I googled: Best Free Guitar lessons on line. And Justinguitar came up. I went to r/guitar (reddit), and it was unanimous: Justinguitar.
So I said to myself, who is this justinguitar guy?
I went to the website and went through his beginner grade 1, Module 0 and Module 1. The excitement I felt was beyond this world. I knew for sure Justin could get me where I wanted to go. I jumped in my car, drove to the music store, bought a guitar, a stand, a capo, some picks and started with the D chord that very afternoon. And I’ve practiced and played every day since - well that’s not true - I took a few days off when both my precious kitties were sent to heaven.
Well, enough for this evening. I shall continue this story another day.
