Minor Scales

When I was thirteen I received my first guitar and it was magical.

The moment was magical, not the guitar itself but that would have been cool too.

I do not remember a time that I was not wooed by face melting guitar soloes reminiscent of the era of big hair and spandex. I always wanted to be Marty Mcfly knocking the socks off his parent's sock hop.

So I cheated.

Learning any instrument always starts out with learning boring scales and playing boring music because that is all your limited ability can handle. You are supposed to put in the hours of learning the boring stuff so that one day you get to play the really cool stuff but I was too impatient for that. I never wanted to play a four bar version of "Ode to Joy." I wanted to play insane guitar soloes. 

I convinced my guitar teacher to show me the minor pentatonic scale because I heard that it was fundamental to the art of face melting. It turns out I was right.

He obliged and showed me the shape my fingers would have to move and in a few days I had it down. It was the best shortcut I could have learned because when I played it really fast it sounded like I knew more than I actually did. I could play that one scale up and down and just adding a little distortion made me feel like I was about to dethrone Mr. Clapton himself.

The problem is that when I go to pick up a guitar almost a decade later I immediately start playing the same minor pentatonic scale. I may change it up a little or bend a few more strings but it is basically the same thing I have always played over and over again. Instead of graduating to guitar hero status I am still the guy who only knows how to play one minor scale.

I found a short cut that ended up being a dead end. 

This was never my intention. I planned on dedicating copious amounts of time to learning the intricacies of my beloved instrument but just like in living life playing on a minor scale is incredibly easy to do and hard to move away from.

Once you find what works it is hard to move to something better, especially when what's better requires more work.

Early on in life I thought I figured out Christianity and I knew all the steps to becoming a super Christian. 

I figured out the motions that generated the quickest results and I stuck with them and I have been playing minor scales ever since. I still read the same kind of books, say the same kind of prayers, and associate with the same kind of people.

I want to pray differently than I have always prayed before. I want to hear from God in crazier ways than I have heard from Him before. I don't want to live out my life the same way I have always lived it. It is about time I started living on a major scale doing the things I have always postponed for my future self.

This takes a little self reinvention that might feel like the awkward middle school years all over again. Middle school is where you are supposed to figure out how to smoothly transition from child to teenager in the midst of raging and  staggered hormones. It is the necessary step that transitions you from where you were to where you are going and it is the epitome of awkward. It was this transition that compelled me to wear rainbow suspenders and dye only the top of my head platinum blonde. For me, my awkward middle school years have lasted most of my life and so the idea of starting over and trying to figure out who I am again is not one I really look forward to.

But I don't want to play minor scales forever.

I want to learn more and grow.

Even if that takes me starting over and committing to learning the things I skipped over before.

Have you been playing on a minor scale?