My guitar is sleeping…

When I was 14 I bought an electric guitar. I went to a music school for a year and then I started playing on my own. I used to try to play with my guitar the music that I was listening to as my personal experiences were always followed by a soundtrack. It is difficult to learn how to play guitar by yourself and a year later I was lucky that I met a friend that loved playing guitar. We met from an advertisement as he was selling some cd’s that he had twice and we became close friends. He showed me how to play the most obscure rock bands and he made me really love my guitar.

Just before I leave Greece in order to study, I bought a black big guitar case in order to be able to move my guitar across countries. It was always difficult travelling with my guitar and all these suitcases but there were always nice people that would help me in the airport. I continued to play even though having an electric guitar an amp and plugs in a small student room was uncomfortable. Then a year later, my friend Howard bought me an acoustic guitar for my birthday. That was really unexpected as the present arrived anonymously (because he knew I could not accept it) and I discovered a year later that it came from my friend.

Then in my small room I had two guitars. I played in a project with some other friends and it was the first and last experience that I had from a recording studio. What I realized was that I could not play alone anymore as music needs to be shared with others. It was so beautiful writing songs and music in a collaboration with people that cared not so much for the instrument ability but for the messages conveyed through the lyrics.

In my last year in England I lived opposite a park. There I met a singer and guitarist from a local band that almost every day was sitting in the park playing his acoustic guitar. He invited me to play with him and we would meet every weekend if the weather was good to play. I learned more from him than I learned all my life. He used to download songs that I had never heard and he taught me how to play and sing close to my voice.

Since then I have stopped playing guitar. For me the important thing was never to be good at playing guitar or knowing techniques. The important thing was to share with someone the music, writing lyrics and sing not for a purpose but for expression. It makes me sad that I don’t feel like playing guitar now but I think the reason is that I started seeing this instrument as something that it involves other people. And the people that I loved to play with are no longer in my life as some live far away, others have moved on and for this reason my guitar is sleeping in my closet. Maybe it will wake up again in the future…

(art by jaysu)