jpfeifer
December 8th, 2011, 04:00 PM
I have to admit that I am just as much of a gear hound as anyone, and have my regular bouts with G.A.S. as I find new things that I become infatuated with on my quest for new sounds.
But today I did something just the opposite for a change. I gave something away, and it felt pretty good although my wife probably thinks I'm a little crazy :-)
When I was a kid in junior high, I'd just started playing guitar through a guitar class at my school. My folks didn't have enough money back then to buy me a guitar so the school loaned an instrument to me to take home over the Summer break, so that I could have something to practice on. I really appreciated having that guitar to work with, and practiced a lot with it that summer. There wasn't much else to do in a long Arizona summer when it's 110 degrees outside, and so I played a lot of guitar.
I'd never forgotten that experience.
Recently, I noticed an inexpensive Ibanez guitar that has been hanging on my wall for sometime. I bought it back when I thought I needed it for some specific sound but now it's just collecting dust. I hated to see this guitar on my wall everyday thinking that there may some kid like me out there, needing an instrument to play like I did years ago.
So I contacted my friend who teaches guitar at the local high school and asked him if I could donate a guitar to their music program, just in case some student needed an instrument to play. He said yes, and invited me in to give a short demo of the guitar and talk to the students. I delivered the guitar to the high school today, and spent about 1 hour going through some demonstrations of the guitar, playing some songs and telling them how much guitar playing has meant to me over the years, and how I wanted to repay that favor my school extended to me all those years ago.
It felt really good to do this. Hopefully this makes up for some of my G.A.S over the years. :-)
--Jim
But today I did something just the opposite for a change. I gave something away, and it felt pretty good although my wife probably thinks I'm a little crazy :-)
When I was a kid in junior high, I'd just started playing guitar through a guitar class at my school. My folks didn't have enough money back then to buy me a guitar so the school loaned an instrument to me to take home over the Summer break, so that I could have something to practice on. I really appreciated having that guitar to work with, and practiced a lot with it that summer. There wasn't much else to do in a long Arizona summer when it's 110 degrees outside, and so I played a lot of guitar.
I'd never forgotten that experience.
Recently, I noticed an inexpensive Ibanez guitar that has been hanging on my wall for sometime. I bought it back when I thought I needed it for some specific sound but now it's just collecting dust. I hated to see this guitar on my wall everyday thinking that there may some kid like me out there, needing an instrument to play like I did years ago.
So I contacted my friend who teaches guitar at the local high school and asked him if I could donate a guitar to their music program, just in case some student needed an instrument to play. He said yes, and invited me in to give a short demo of the guitar and talk to the students. I delivered the guitar to the high school today, and spent about 1 hour going through some demonstrations of the guitar, playing some songs and telling them how much guitar playing has meant to me over the years, and how I wanted to repay that favor my school extended to me all those years ago.
It felt really good to do this. Hopefully this makes up for some of my G.A.S over the years. :-)
--Jim