Some day I’ll be able to play the guitar well enough to write songs that are what I want them to be, rather than what I am limited to playing. It’s always frustrating to hear something in your head and not know how to translate it to an instrument.

I bought my first guitar in March 2007, but without a teacher I wasn’t really sure how to get started. You’d think that a few minutes of searching online would have solved that problem, but for some reason I got either intimidated or lost. There was a brief period (maybe a month?) when I was pretty motivated to learn within the first or second year. I started by learning how to play “Miss You” by Incubus, occasionally even taking my guitar to work and practicing in the break room.

It’s interesting that I was brave enough to learn a song like that in the very beginning, because these days I tend to avoid trying to play other people’s songs. It’s partly out of a true desire to write my own music and partly out of fear that it will be too hard. That kind of fear has stunted my growth for a long time and in several ways.

It may be a bit ambitious for me, but I’d like to make a lifelong habit of either learning or writing one song per month. I think that kind of focused practice time would really benefit me. With summer vacation coming up next week, I imagine it will be relatively easy to get started. Let’s see how long I can keep it up, especially with a new semester and a crazy rehearsal schedule starting in September.