| Proverb 3:6 -“In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” |
My friend, Russell Scott, (back in November), asked me if I would be willing to entertain at the Spring Fling at our church. This banquet is for our Prime Timers, which may now be 55 years and up. I am one now. I told him I would think about it and get back to him. A few weeks later, I told him I would. I wasn’t sure about my skills. I had not picked up my guitar but a few times in the last 20 years. I played in 2 bands with him (“Lonely Hearts” and “Elmwood Court”) but gave it up to focus on my family, which was a wife and 3 sons. I have time for it now, but am pretty rusty.
I began to practice again. The first thing that happens is sore fingertips on the left hand. Eventually that gives way to calluses. I dusted off 4 songs from my repertoire and learned one new one. I had forgotten the chord progressions. I had to get the path re-established in my brain. I had to get the lyrics cemented in my mind again. I had to get my fingers back into the rhythm again. So much to work on. But, as it is with the proverbial bicycle riding lesson that you never forget, it is slowly coming back to me
My Alvarez steel string is now 50 years old. I bought it the month I graduated from Norman High School at Keytar Guitar Shop. I wandered around the shop and played every acoustic he had. I did not regard the price, but just listened to the sound, the tone. I went back to this particular Alvarez. I thought it sounded so good. $200, and $35 for the plush case. To this day, I haven’t played one I thought sounded better. She has gotten lonely in her case over the years, but she is loving the attention she is receiving lately
I am enjoying getting my skills back. Being able to sing and play and relax and enjoy it. It is good therapy for the soul. I let go of stress through the music she and I produce together.
When I was 10 years old, my dad got in our station wagon to drive us home from an Easter luncheon. Our host gave him a guitar. He held it over the seat and from the back I grabbed it. My mother bought me a chord book. And a Woody Guthrie (or was it Pete Seeger) song book. I learned C, D, D minor G, E, E minor, A, A minor, F, and B7. I learned “Skip to My Lou”, “Home On The Range” and such. In the beginning I spent a lot of time holding out notes while my fingers worked to catch up with my singing. I wasn’t very good, as I was self taught, and self knew nothing about playing the guitar save for one little chord book he read. My finger picking was very crude, so mostly I was a strummer. I didn’t use flat picks, as they were hard for me to handle.
When I got to college, I became friends with Danny Gregg. He was quite a guitar player, and he taught me the Travis 3 fingered pick. He showed me the pattern, and then told me to practice by repeating it a million times until my fingers could do it without the help of my brain. Danny went on to Nashville after college.
I eventually went to California seeking fame and fortune. I wrote songs and sang them with guitar accompaniment. After 4 years, I decided it was not the right path for me. I wanted the trail that included a wife and family, where I was home every night. I went back to my accounting training and gave up the music dream. It was still back in the recesses of my dreams though.
Russell asked me about 30 years ago to play some songs for a church banquet (sound familiar?). I put it on cassette tape and he played it at the banquet. They had a mixer glitch of some kind, and his band did not get to perform. He later asked me to become part of his band. I did and spent 10 years on and off in it. Off as much as I was on. Having a family was too much of a responsibility to carve out time for practicing my guitar, so I made a choice. I think it was the right one.
So, here I am, a senior citizen, playing for my peers, for free, and loving it. It is my speed. I talked to Russell about us playing at senior communities in the area. Such as The Vantage where my mother lives. It is not Carnegie Hall, or Madison Square Gardens, or AT&T Stadium, but it is the right path for me. I passed on the fame and fortune, and in return I got a wife, three sons, a daughter-in-law, a grand son, and a grand daughter any day now. I have friends coming out my ears. I have a church family that is dear to me. I teach Bible class, I work full time for Richardson Independent School District. I was even a substitute teacher during the pandemic when we were short handed. We have a home sweet home, and I love being there every night after a day at the office.
I listened to my conscience and it told me to do what God would want me to do. I sometimes wondered if I was going the right way, but I stayed the course. I have learned to wait on God. He gives me what I so desperately need, and most of the time I have no idea what I need. I have some things I want, and usually they get me into trouble if I go that way.
Father in heaven, thank You for that guitar with the crack in the back. Thank You for directing me in using those talents in Your plan, in Jesus’ name, Amen!
– Jeff Beall
