One of the goals that I set for myself for the year was to spend more time playing guitar. I’ve been playing on and off for over 10 years now, but last year was particularly hectic with work and Europe and I barely picked up an instrument at all. So a few weeks ago I went to pick up new strings. I had noticed a new guitar shop, Danche Guitars, in Oak Park and decided to pop in and check it out.
When I stepped in, I was immediately transported back in time. The smell of wood glue, sawdust, and fine wood reminded me of the harpsichord workshop of Peter Redstone, an old neighbor from Virginia.
I was charmed by the shop and the proprietor, an older Croatian gentleman who evidently took tremendous pride in the workmanship of his luxury guitars. He was even nice enough to let me play one of them, but I have to admit that the $15,000 price tag of the guitar I was holding made me more than a little nervous.
After half an hour of talking, as I was selecting my strings, he pointed to a flyer on the wall and said that his son was taking students if I was interested in signing up for lessons. I should point out that while I take tremendous pride in being self-taught in nearly everything that I do, I had realized some time ago that there were fundamental flaws in my physical approach to the guitar, and these were preventing me from doing certain things that I needed to do. So I swallowed my pride and gave him my name and number.
Now, every week, I’m studying under the patient tutelage of the incredibly talented Goran Ivanovic, and I’m seeing tremendous progress in a very short time.
By the way, if you’re interested in hearing some of my music, I recently uploaded some songs to Last.fm. Just look for “Dust and a Shadow“.