A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned an email from a chap called Tino.
If you didn’t see the email, he basically replied to me moaning and patronising…
All the beginner guitarists out there in the world who can’t yet play a C Major chord smoothly.
He also mentioned how his wife, who was NOT a guitarist, could pick up a guitar and play a C chord straight away.
I said, yeah, she might be able to put her fingers there but playing the chord smoothly and changing to and from it immediately ain’t going to happen so let’s not kid ourselves.
Well, Tino the chirpy fella that he is, emailed back with the following…
“Tino the terrible” here. Hi, I read your email that mentioned my email and I just wanted to point out a few qualms I had with your response.
Me – Okay, let’s hear it…
“Firstly, we were not speaking about playing a chord progression or anything, simply holding down 1 chord and playing it.”
Me – Guess what, some people struggle with this for a number of reasons.
It takes time for beginners to develop these skills so Tino, why do you want to belittle someone who is possibly new to guitar, cannot yet stretch their fingers, and hasn’t been taught the importance of technique? What use is that to the world?
“Secondly my wife took severe offense to the fact that you think that a woman could not be shown how to play a C chord and nail it right away, that’s pretty sexist in my opinion.”
Oh, wow, this is another level and totally laughable.
You can see my original reply HERE.
If I said a woman can’t do it or anything like that, that would be sexist, but I didn’t mention gender at all.
What a snowflake he is.
Gender has nothing to do with it.
Many very successful students in my membership programme and in my studio over the years have been female.
The funny thing is, Tino doesn’t realise I would have said the same thing if he had a husband or a wife. It was not about the gender but about the B.S. he was giving me about someone playing a C chord like they’re Cat Stevens or something in about a minute.
“So basically you attacked a defenceless woman about her ability to play a basic chord. Again 1 chord not a progression, but I bet if she knew something slow she could do it, and I bet within a couple days I could have her playing a Cmaj7#11 or any other more complex altered chord for that matter.”
Me – Jeez, “attacked”. Tino has a penchant for melodrama by the look of it.
As for this, I would like to see him try. Honestly, if Tino is reading this, do it. Record yourself teaching your wife how to play Cmaj7#11 (not some cheat “implied” version that sounds pants but a proper version).
Oh, and please teach it to her in a practical chord progression where it will be useful because a chord on its own is pretty useless unless you have a one-chord song to teach her too.
I would be delighted to see this and you know what, send me the video, I’ll record a rap version of “Simply the Best” in your honour while playing my guitar and for fun, I’ll even get my son Archie to beatbox while we’re at it.
Okay…
…But for more real-world guitar lessons which do not require the power of a unicorn, or the magic of Gandalf, you may want to check this out…
Fingerstyle 101 – a step-by-step guide to beautiful fingerpicking guitar playing
…But if your name is Tino, avoid it. You’re best saving your money and spending it on a fantasy novel.
Anyway, I hope you found this humorous (I did) and it helped those of you who needed to hear a little more about the reality versus fantasy of guitar playing.
Enjoy your day…
Dan Thorpe
Guitar Domination
P.S. This post was originally taken from Dan Thorpe’s private email list. To get blog posts like this sent to you which are full of great tips to make fingerpicking, strumming, and learning guitar more enjoyable (especially if you are over 40) join Dan’s list. It’s 100% free, HERE.
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