Picking up the Guitar

I learned to play the guitar when I took a year off from college in order to teach at a friend’s kindergarten in Nakuru, Kenya. That was one of the best years of my life as I so enjoyed my time staying with the Kassiri family! My dear spiritual sister, Shahnaz, taught me some of the basic chords and I was hooked. You see, being a piano player can be frustrating at times (usually when I’m on holiday and don’t have access to playing one)! That year in Nakuru was the perfect time to pick up the guitar as I didn’t have access to a piano. When my family first moved to Hong Kong, we didn’t have a piano for a whole month and I remember walking into a music store and as I started playing the piano, I was surprised that I was moved to tears – I felt like I was finally home!
So playing the guitar was a relief as I could practice and perform anywhere. I enjoyed it so much that I found I couldn’t put the guitar down. Since then I have composed several pieces on the guitar that were recorded on ‘Melodies of the Nightingale’ – ‘Be Thou Content with Me’, ‘Create in Me a Pure Heart’ and ‘Seize Thy Chance’. On ‘Fire and Gold‘, I only composed one piece on the guitar, ‘Prayer for the Departed‘.
In the last few years, I have played and composed much less on the guitar. I’m not really sure why – maybe because I found that I wasn’t improving and usually if one is not progressing, one is regressing! I finally decided to pick it up again and start playing. I look forward to taking some lessons and composing some new pieces on the guitar!
Thought of the Day: “Music, sung or played, is spiritual food for soul and heart”. -Abdul-Baha