Let us say that one can only play the guitar like a trained monkey, one has no ear, and no talent, but one has trained oneself to plink out tunes given sheet music without an excessive number of flats and sharps.
How long would you say it would take that person to get back to that pitiful state, given they did not touch their guitar for one entire pandemic?
“No time at all, ” you say, smugly. “Muscle memory does not go away. “
Okay, maybe, but you know what does go away? Knowing what each of the six (SIX!) strings is named. Then how to tune the guitar. Then picking out a basic scale by ear – no – by looking at a chart on the internet, then eventually by ear, then singing out each note as you play it. And then after that, re-learning the staff, and connecting that note on the staff with where that note is on the strings.
Two hours and forty-five minutes later I was able to play the easiest song ever, David Bowie’s gift to beginners: Space Oddity. Ground Control to Major Tom, here is a song, put your helmet on … to the tune of these two notes.
After that, I was able to play Maggie May, and the song that does seem to be in my bones: Jupiter the Bringer of Jollity / I Vow to Thee My Country.
So, it’s either sad it took me hours to get back, or it’s encouraging that it only took me hours to get back.
5 responses to “I Return to the Guitar”
Definitely encouraging; if you had played guitar extremely regularly for many decades (or for just the age-10-to-age-20 decade, probably), to the point where everything was smooth and required no concentration and then a year or two past that at least… it’d still require a little bit of readjustment.
KC – I was surprised to realize that my fingertips only hurt the slightest bit. That was a relief.
Oooh, congratulations! Yes, calluses are also something that go away to some degree with time and disuse, but they *do* take quite a while…
KC – I don’t know if I would take up the guitar again if I had to start over without calluses.
… fair.