Last fall I signed up for a guitar class at New York City Guitar School. They’re the largest guitar school in the city, and they have a branch in Astoria, Queens, which is where I live. So it worked out well.
I had played a little guitar about fifteen years ago, when I was in my twenties, and I really enjoyed it. My brother John gave me lessons at the time. I wasn’t great, but I learned a few major chords, played a few popular songs, and generally had a good time.
Then life took over, my career and address changed, and I pretty much stopped playing. That was it for me. No more guitar.
But about three months ago, I saw an ad for NYC guitar school online. Somehow, somewhere, deep in the recesses of my mind, I realized I still harbored rock n’ roll dreams. I wanted to play Stairway to Heaven. I wanted to play Hotel California. I wanted to play Under the Bridge. I wanted to play the entire U2 cannon. I wanted to do it all.
The only thing was, I’m a writer, and a struggling one at that. So I was reluctant to shell out the $349 for ten weeks that the class cost. I mentioned it to my mother, who as always supports me in everything I do, and she offered to pay for it. So I was psyched.
I initially signed up for the “near beginner” course, figuring since I had some prior experience I shouldn’t take the complete beginner course. But after one class, I realized I needed to be in absolute beginner class, because the rest of the class had already mastered the eight key basic chords, and I had like two, maybe three at the most.
So there I was, on a Tuesday night in December, at the Astoria location of the NYC Guitar School, joining the Absolute Beginner class as they met for week 5. This turned out to be just about the perfect level for me.
The instructor’s name was Ken, and he was a young twenty-something dude with long hair and a goatee. He was a typical Astoria guy, nice, friendly, and decent.
The students included Sarah, a slightly heavyset but still very beautiful brunette of about 30. Then there was Rachel, maybe 25, who looked to be Thai or possibly Vietnamese. There was also Eduardo, a really young Hispanic guy with bad skin who was very gentle and who helped me locate a few chords while we were practicing.
Those were the main players. Over the course of the next four weeks, we worked on major chords, including A, G, C, D, E minor, and CAdd9. We worked on transitions from one chord to the next. And we worked on “Best Strum,” which is a rhythmic way of strumming the guitar that involves playing the strings from top to bottom first (down), then bottom to top (up), and then following a pattern that plays down, down, up, up, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up.
It may sound a little weird, but it really adds a lot of power to the chords and gives more heft to the music.
At my first class, we played The Troggs’ “Wild Thing,” a 60’s classic that is simply E minor, A, D, repeated over and over. It’s a really awesome song, and I felt like I was actually getting somewhere by playing my first song.
Every few minutes or so Ken, the instructor, would introduce a new chord or a new song by invariably holding his guitar straight up erect and just absolutely letting it rip, with rapid-fire chord progressions, precision finger-picking, and perfect transitions.
He was incredible, and I found myself wishing with all my heart that one day I would be able to play like him. I pegged him at about 25, and when I asked him how long he’d been playing, he told me 13 years.
Wow. I guess it really does take a long time to get to the level of proficiency that some of these incredible rock bands you see in arenas and on TV have.
Other songs we played over the next few weeks included “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison and the intro to the Cranberries’ “Zombie.” Zombie in particular is one of my all-time favorite songs. It was released in 1994, when I was living in Japan, and it’s about the Irish Civil War, also known as The Troubles.
The lead-in to Zombie is all power chords and bass, and I absolutely love it. When I got home after that night’s lesson, I played Zombie for a good hour. It’s a mesmerizing song, and lead singer Dolores O’Riordan, who tragically took her own life last year, is a total dynamo as she rocks the guitar and wails against war. So I was psyched to be playing their music.
During our classes, we students would chat a bit. I found Sarah to be very sexy, and I was trying to figure out a way to ask her out. Heather was cute too, if a little young and innocent, but I would have happily welcomed her into my bed as well.
As we neared the final two weeks of the class, Ken told us we had to pick a song to play for the “recital” during our last class. We would play in front of a small audience and the school would record our performance and put it on YouTube.
Ken suggested “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses. Now don’t get me wrong, Sweet Child O’ Mine is an awesome 80’s song from my childhood, and Axl Rose is a badass par excellence.
But I still like Zombie better, and I told Ken that. Eventually, though, the consensus from the other students was that we should do “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” so that’s what we settled on.
Over the next two weeks we practiced the song on our own and in class, and when week 10 rolled around, we played the song in unison a few times and practiced the chords in the classroom. Then went out to the main room for our recital.
Lisabeth, the school administrator, a perky twenty-something Filipina, took out her camcorder as we arranged ourselves in a semicircle with the sheet music in front of us on metal stands.
Ken counted down, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then we let it rip:
She’s got a smile it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I’d stare too long
I’d probably break down and cry
Oh, oh, oh
Sweet child o’ mine
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Sweet love of mine
As Axl belted out those iconic lyrics, we students banged out our chords, glided through our transitions, and used best strum to give it the rhythm it deserved.
And you know what? We sounded pretty damn good. It felt great to be playing in unison with my fellow students, and to have come through this journey together. I felt a sense of camaraderie, love and peace that I hadn’t felt in quite a while.
Finally we finished the song, Lisabeth stopped the tape, we all clapped and congratulated each other, and we were done.
So that was it. A ten-week beginner guitar class in the books. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and one of the best things I’ve done for myself in a long time.
So thank you NYC Guitar School, thank you Ken, Sarah, Rachel, Eduardo, and Lisabeth, and thank you Mom for supporting me and enabling me to take the class.
Next stop? Intermediate guitar class.
Because I want to play Stairway to Heaven, and nothing and no one is going to stop me now.
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