Twenty Years

It’s been twenty years, man.

Twenty years since Andy walked in to the tiny studio, a small closet, really, still smelling of carpet glue and cheap paint. He was the first official guitar student.

The sky settled down into a comfortable gray over those next few weeks, and the rains came, the town settling down to work after the blaze of summer. Green Day’s American Idiot album was hot on the airwaves, so we all learned “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, songs I hated for their simplicity. Now they’re nostalgic.

I can almost smell the new guitar shop smell when these songs spin today. We all gathered in a fresh room, looking for the spark of something. I thought it was music. Then excellence through music. Then someone to talk to. And then all of it.

One day things clicked, and a kid caught on fire. The information seemed to hover in the air, a grenade. I pulled the pin, and jumped aside. His eyes lit up, looking into the distance and the Answer, and he understood. I shut up, waiting off to the side until he got it, and was playing what he had learned. That was cool. It’s hard to do that, to set it up so the answer will be there, and harder to get out of the way so people can actually learn it.

Some of the folks went on to get married, one got signed to Sony and is on tour, some have found their way as artists and engineers or contractors or graphic designers or EMTs. I owe a few of ‘em a call. Some have died, and I still grieve them.

I look in my new walk-in closet, almost as big as my first teaching studio, and spot a T shirt that was a gift from a student. It’s got a picture of an avocado making the rock sign.

“GUAC ‘N ROLL.”

Green Day’s walking down a lonely road in “Boulevard” is only artistic expression now. Twenty years of memories–of learning scales and talking life, of diving into the history of Blues, playing Ozzy songs, and figuring out what matters.

You know, the space between the notes.

Thanks, guys.

-Josh

I gave the strangest Christmas gifts. Here’s an old motivational poster that the Guitarmy got in 2010.