Overcoming Life’s Fears
23. Apr, 2010 
6 Comments
Music Villa’s good friend Dickie Nelson has agreed to do some writing for the MusicVilla.com Blog. He’s an excellent writer and a very cool guy, with an interesting insight on the music world and life in general. Leave him a comment below. Enjoy!
Golfing, Skiing & Fingerpicking: Overcoming Life’s Fears
I avoided golf for a long time because I thought every time you hit the ball, you would spend a half an hour looking for it, then give up and use a new one. I finally tried out and ended up not being so afraid of it. I found that driving around in a golf cart, drinking margaritas looking for balls was not such a bad pastime on a summer day. I am not a good golfer yet, but at least I am not afraid of it anymore.
I avoided skiing for a long time because I thought going down a slick surface tied up to two other slick surfaces was a recipe for disaster. After the first ride up the bunny lift and learning how to make a “Pizza Pie”, it opened up new worlds of enjoyment for me. I am not a good skier yet, but at least am not afraid of it anymore.
I avoided fingerpicking for a long time because I had convinced myself that there were two distinct groups people – those that could coordinate their fingers to do this and those that could not, and that I fell into the latter group. I honestly believed that no matter what I did, I would never be able to get my fingers to work together in harmony because of some pre-disposed genetic condition. I was in Music Villa one day and heard Blaise playing some cool melody and said “I sure wish I could learn to do that”. Blaise said “Its easy! Just get Stefan Grossman’s Fingerpicking Guitar Techniques DVD – that’s all I did.” Blaise seemed like a very sincere fellow so I thought I would give it one more try, thinking I could give the DVD away to some young kid if it didn’t work out. I spent the next afternoon on my back porch just trying to get the first couple of measures of “Shake that Thing” down – over and over and over again. To my complete surprise, I finally got it.
I am not that hot at fingerpicking yet, but it has given me a new joy of something to accomplish in my 50s. Thanks Blaise! Unfortunately my brain is deteriorating at such a rate that I can’t remember a song all the way through, but half a song is better than none.
The moral of all of this is not to be afraid to try anything you want to do – whether its playing banjo, finger-tapping or learning to record yourself at home. If to take the first step to try it that is 90 percent of the battle, the next 10 percent is spending 2-3 hours to immerse yourself in it. If you accomplish those 2 steps, the rest is where the fun begins.
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Richard Nelson was well known in certain circles in the 70s, 80s and 90s for attempting to become a visual artist. When that did not pan out he decided to switch to becoming a musician because it seemed a little less messy. With Grace Slick now painting, it seemed like the right thing to do to keep the universe in balance.
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Like this story? or have questions for Dickie? Leave a comment below.
Interested in writing for the MusicVilla.com Blog? Contact us HERE.
Thanks for keeping the universe in balance!!!
Thanks to all for your kind words of encouragement.
Love the blog, Richard. Almost makes me want to try golfing, skiing, and/or fingerpicking again.
Fingerpicking is a great thing. Like anything, it just takes a little time. Once I learned to fingerpick I started learning alternate tunings and opened another proverbial can of worms. Great post Dickie.
I can’t agree with the “attempting” part in the bio, but the article was grand.
I can sympathize with the part where you said you thought a genetic condition predisposed you to not being able to pick; I find myself thinking the same thing sometimes! Then I catch myself and try somethin’ new.
Love hearin from ya,
Stu2
Dickie! You’ve hit the nail on the head my friend. But, practice that hammer swing carefully…you don’t want to smash a finger and have to learn to pick with your toes!
Jimmy C