Haight Ashbury Music Center

How long have you been imagining your fingers running up and down steel strings, flashing at the speed of lightning, as thunder escapes your amp? How many times have you picked up your air guitar and started headbanging to the music you knew you wanted to be performing? Don't tell me you have never woken from a dream of holding a concert at a stadium in front of thousands of people. We all know it is a lie. We all know that each person has a secret desire to be the rockstar that rocks the world to its very foundation.

So you want to be the next Tommy Emmanuel. Or maybe someone you have been looking up to for a while. You can already imagine yourself in front of hundreds of fans that have camped out for days just to hear you perform live and take in your genius as they sob to your melodies. There is just one big problem: You have close to no knowledge of guitars.

When you feel the rhythm of a song driving you, making you dance faster or run faster, it is usually not the lead guitar that causes this. Neither it is the drum set, surprising as it may seem. The true culprit for your feet going a certain speed is the bass guitar. The tones, thick as honey, that cover your brain and make you move to the music without you ever realizing.

Let's get real. What is the most hardcore instrument out there? If you guessed guitar, you need to rethink your priorities. The drumset is the correct answer to this. Why? Because it takes more than the occasional finger bleed to play the drums. The entire body needs to be in constant motion. Your feet, arms, hands and most importantly - head.

Everybody who has been playing guitars or knows anything about it will tell you that there is so much more to a guitar than just a guitar. And I am not talking about talent and will to succeed and all those feel-good stuff. I mean literal things you need. And YES, this might not be as inspiring of a post as "All you need to become the next Jimi Hendrix is sheer will power", I think this one is more practical and will get you closer to your goal than that BS (excuse my abbreviated French).So, let's talk business.