My 40th birthday gift from Kristi Joy .
11 years ago, Kristi planned a surprise birthday party for me for my 40th. And she got me good. So many people showed up at our house in Pinson, catered by Dreamland BBQ - she knows me so well. It was incredible! But that wasn't the real surprise. At 40 years old, she got me an acoustic guitar. I had never played one. I knew no chords. I knew nothing. I was thrilled but at the same time wondering what in the world will I do with a guitar. I knew a little piano from lessons I took when I was in elementary school, so I knew A thru G were the white keys and the black keys the flats and sharps. Other than that, I was clueless. But she knew I loved music and loved watching people play music, on any instrument.
As a preteen, I was enamored with the guitar wizardry of Eddie Van Halen. I had no clue what he was doing but I had fun watching it. Again, I never even considered trying to learn or copy what he was doing. So at 40 years old, she drops an acoustic guitar in my lap in a house full of people, so yeah... the pressure is on now to learn it. I did just like Bryan Adams sings about in "the summer of '69" where he got his first real 6-string and played it till his fingers bled. It really does hurt until you get the calluses.
Kristi encouraged me daily, over and over, again at 40 years old, to learn something new - something she knew that once I got just a little taste of success with, I would run with it. And she would ask me to play for her what I learned. I had fun with it and learned that most multi-million dollar songs are usually 4 to 5 chords and simple to play. I liked learning Mumford & Sons as a challenge and I really liked not looking up chord charts and just seeing if I could pick it by ear. She opened up a whole new world for me when she got me that guitar. And as any person that plays guitar will tell you, one is never enough so she got me an electric and an acoustic electric on other special occasions.
After some time, she encouraged me to play with the church worship team. I knew 5 chords well and the others I had to look up constantly. But she pushed beyond what I thought were my limits. I had to ask Jan to not pick anything with key changes because that meant I had to quickly move that capo so I could keep playing the same 5 chords I knew. I would tell Jan "I don't do flats and sharps!" On many songs I would strum the chord I knew in hopes it would last past a chord I didn't know and I could skip it. I had all kinds of tricks. Then the Christmas program came up...
The video linked is from the reworded version of the song Hallelujah. It started with me playing alone, and ended with me playing alone with some keys and bass thrown in there to mask my mess ups, and Jan singing the song. I still hear the parts I messed up on in this song but more importantly I hear Kristi in my mind telling me I was doing great and she couldn't believe how well I was catching on in such a short time and seeing the smile on her face with a hint of "yeah, I did that" but mostly how proud she was of me. This...playing a guitar in front of actual people... was not me. I would have never done this on my own. She always pushes me out of my shyness, beyond my abilities, and past my fears. I just hope I have done the same for her. I don't play this song here for you to say "good job Scott!" So keep those comments out. I play this so you can see that this would have never happened for me had it not been for her.
Playing a guitar is calming, therapeutic and fun, at least it is for me. When I pick up Betty (the name I gave that first 40th birthday guitar) and play from now on, I will still be playing for her because she enjoys it more than anyone.
Thank you Kathy Goodwin for reminding me of this video today.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10153696373741855&id=828136854&mibextid=Nif5oz
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