My Personal Guitar Hero

Most of you who read this blog know that I occasionally play guitar for the praiseteam at Palm Valley Church (that is until Derrick Logan came waltzing in with his tall, spiky hair and soul patch, and showed the world that there are far better guitarists out there. Just kidding buddy -- you rock major big-time bad).

What many of you don't know is that I owe just about anything I know about guitar to my fellow praiseteam member Jason Palmer (shown above shredding some insane licks on his axe). I am really a very "special ed" type of guitar learner (MiMR for you educators out there). It has just never been something that comes naturally to me.

Ever since right after college, Jason has slowly shown me how to play guitar. It all started when we played together for Sunday Night Alive (a contemporary service trying to make it in the Presbyterian world -- don't ask, please). He led the band with his bass and I was the [snicker, snicker] lead guitarist. Basically, we started playing songs that only used the notes G, C, and D -- and we played them at about half-pace.

As time went on, I entered into the magnificent world known as, "Notes Other than G, C, or D". From there, I journeyed through "The Land of Bar Chords", a place full of inward cursing and kicking things out of frustration. We also visited "Tempo Town" and "Rhythm Ridge" from time-to-time. Finally, after all my travels, I began to resemble an actual guitarist. Then the contemporary service went bye-bye.

Years later, I joined PVCs team and grew as a guitarist a little more each week that I was on. About 9 months after that, Jason and Nikki started coming to Palm Valley and I prodded him to join the team. He was leery at first, but finally relented. Now, we get the chance to play together semi-regularly and he continues to help me refine my skills.

My newest venture is to become more adept at the electric guitar. It is different in many ways than playing an acoustic. Sometimes it feels like I'm starting over again. But I know that I have the best guitar teacher I have known helping me along -- and that makes me feel more confident when it comes time to melt some faces!

Thanks Jay. You rock!