I always wanted a weeping guitar

Since high school I always wanted to be in a band and be the lead guitar player. I spent hours playing my air guitar to the music of Journey, AC/DC, The Who and other groups from the 1970's and 80's. 

It was not until my freshman year at the University of Puerto Rico that I started to play with the idea of acquiring a guitar. I was determined and talked to other freshmen about taking guitar lessons and what would be their advise on this while I watched them played theirs in the Estudios Generales' stairs. I was resolved to learn how to play a guitar. My enthusiasm to learn had no limits at that time, every Friday I visited a book shop in Old San Juan where I bought Carlos Montoya's tapes for 3 USD each; I spent hours listening to these tapes on my daily commute from Rio Piedras to Toa Baja.  

After looking at different newspaper ads, in Fall of 1984 I visited Casa Margarida (a music shop) located in Plaza las Americas. The guitars section was at the end of the store where they had a lot of brands and kinds. I grabbed a Yamaha C-170A and played it a little, just a few chords that I learned watching others played at Estudios Generales. Definitely this was the guitar that I wanted. It was a classical guitar and its colors were bright and it had varnish.

My guitar teacher was a Music Master Student also from the University of Puerto Rico. His studio was located at Dr Stahl Street in Baldrich. I enrolled in his study program and I lasted with him for two years. Although I was eager on learning new songs, most of the time he spent it playing tunes with my guitar or asking me to follow his lead with some chords. I remember that the first song I learned was Tengo unos ojos negros. It was one of the most boring songs I ever played because it only has  two chords as most of the songs I learned from him. The only songs that I learned and enjoyed playing were Dust in the Wind and Spanish Romance, an easy version. He never taught me to read whole notes or the scales. After two years of classes I told him that I will not continue taking any more classes. I felt disappointed and discouraged at the same time.

I never tried to look for another music professor or for books to learn by myself; I did not know where to look anymore. My Yamaha C-170A laid in a guitar case forever. Sometimes, I took her out and played the same old tunes. If guitars were meant to feel pain and sorrow, probably mine would have felt that I abandoned her completely.

26 years I met another Yamaha and a Fender Acoustic and these are my best companions. This time I did not made the same mistake, this time I am playing music and reading notes the way it should have meant to be. This time, a young teacher is teaching me how to play music for real; specially medieval, renaissance, and baroque.