The Learning is the Fun
About to purchase my first “real” guitar in 2005 - Gibson SG Standard
Photo credit: My Dad
When you finish learning a song, how often do you go back and play it? Now, I’m not talking about a song that you have 90% perfect where there are still a few pieces to go back and shed; I’m talking about returning to a song that you can play perfectly, from start to finish, because you’ve put in so much time with it. Do you ever revisit those ones? Do you sit there as you play it over and over and bask in the glory of having learnt it?
I asked myself this recently and I realized that no, I’ve never really done this. But why? Why is it that I put in so much work into songs to be able to play them, and then when I finally get it under my fingers and achieve the thing I was ostensibly trying to do, I’m already knee deep into the next best thing, ready to move on? A series of answers rooted in self-doubt followed: perhaps something is wrong with me and my internal reward systems; perhaps I’m uncomfortable living in a state of pride after having accomplished something because of how I was raised to interact with success; or maybe I have a short attention span due to years of being online and interacting with modern technologies. Some of these may be true to varying degrees but none sit quite right as an answer to this specific question.
There is an experience that my friend and I reference often while talking about our current-day mannerisms that we have lovingly name it: The “Thunderstruck” effect. When I was first beginning guitar in 2004, I was obsessed with AC/DC, wanting to learn all of their greatest hits and all of Angus Young’s solos. But one song in particular drew me due to its perceived difficulty: “Thunderstruck.” Unfortunately, for my ability levels at the time, it was much too difficult for me to be able to play in a way that at all resembled the recording. So, I did what I could with it, and then abandoned it while I continued learning more accessible songs and improving my general abilities. Eventually though, the time came (just over a year later) when I thought I’d have another go with it. I picked up my guitar, pulled out the TAB from my teacher, and started picking. Low and behold, I could play it within 5 minutes. I proceeded to learn the rest of the song and the solo over the next month, and then, that was it. I was done with song. I would play it once in a while over the next several years just to see if I could still remember it, but I never played it for fun, to enjoy the fact that I had accomplished something that once felt insurmountable.
There was so much excitement and eagerness to move forward with new songs and techniques at that point in my musical journey that I didn’t think too much about all of this. However, reflecting back on it as an adult, I can recognize that what I enjoyed most in the process was facing the challenge of a new song, technique, or musical idea, and then overcoming it. My goal was never to sit and show off songs to my friends and family, nor did I have an end goal of how much I wanted to be able to do with the instrument. Unsurprisingly, I was also the kid who tried to collect all of the Pokémon and level them all up as much as possible rather than having one over-levelled Pokémon with which I always played. For me, the source of fun was the learning, collecting, and improvement, not the ending achievement.
And that is still true today.
So no, once I have a song down, I rarely go back to play it and instead allow myself to forget it and move onward, taking only with me what techniques and concepts were useful. And as long as there is more to learn and absorb, I will continue enjoying music and the guitar. Luckily for me, there is more than enough out there for a lifetime or two of musical learning which equates to a lifetime of fun, since the fun is the learning.
(By the way, this Saturday we are having our 6th monthly online meetup - the last one of 2024. Sign up here if you want to come hang and chat about music and the guitar.)