PRESENCE - Volume 82
Inspiration For Guitarists
This past Friday was one of those days.
I taught our Office Hours group call, and the second it ended, I was out the door to pick up my daughter, and that's really where the chaos started. I was solo parenting this weekend, running behind on everything, and I had a gig at 6:00 at a beautiful park up here. I knew in advance that I was going to arrive at the buzzer. Then my dog Marjorie decided to bust out of the front door and take herself on a tour of the neighborhood. By the time I got her back inside, any cushion that I had was gone.
I pulled up to the gig just 20 minutes before downbeat. I popped the hatch of my car to start unloading gear, and that's when I realized it: No Pedalboard. Yikes!!
Ever since I had an amp die on me at a gig 20 years ago, I've always kept some sort of backup rig in my car. These days, it's a small case with extra cables, extra strings, and an HX Stomp. That case has been riding in my car unused for so long that I genuinely forgot it was back there.
But there it was. I opened the case, plugged in, and played the gig.
Thank you, past me.
In that moment, at the back of my car, I wasn't thinking about the chaos, or the dog, or the day that I'd had. I felt relief and gratitude for a past version of myself, quietly packing a case I hoped I'd never need.
That's the thing about preparation: it doesn't pay off in the moment that you do it. It pays off later, usually on a day you didn't see coming.
This Is Exactly What Practice Is
It's really the same with guitar. The reps that you put in on a random Tuesday, when nothing's on the line and no one's watching, aren't for that Tuesday.
They're for the moment you actually need them: whether that's a Friday gig, a jam session with a friend, or finally keeping up with your favorite song in the living room. Present You rarely feels the benefit of the work. Future You does.
This is really what the Essential Skills that I often talk about are built around: not flashy licks you'll show off tomorrow, but the foundational reps - the timing, the technique, and the frameworks that quietly sit in the trunk of your playing until the day that you need them. On that day, you won't be thinking about the practice; you'll just play, and it'll be there.
Build the case now. Future you is going to open that hatch someday and be very glad that you did.
- Dustin
P.S. If you want to start packing your own backup case, the fundamentals that show up for you when it counts, that's exactly what the Essential Skills course is built to do.