Anyone Can Play Guitar

Everyone should play at least one instrument. Music is the antidote to technical society and counterargument to people who fiddle with phones and attentively respond to need and noise like the most vulgar slaves.

You can start with pop(ular) music. Pick a few of your favorite songs and get the notes or guitar tab. The instrument is navigated by means of relations -- any system that communicates its relations is a language -- and you'll have to learn the details of geographical and sonic connectivity for yourself either way.

Most pop songs are just a few notes and should be easy to learn. Play them an hour a day and in a 2-3 months you'll be good enough to play shows.

However, the details of musicianship are more delicate. Silence frames signal. Dynamics develop dimensional range. How should a sound begin, end, or sustain? What does a bend on or off change? How do accents alter phrasing? What are the essential aspects of the communication and how should they emerge? How should layers coexist? Only good taste makes good composition.

Notes are just a sketched framework, and technicality just a physical detail. It is the artistry of a good performance that is worth a lifetime of perfection.