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seedling, seed, growth

Planting A Seed…

6 Comments / Motivation, Uncategorized / By
plant, sow, grow

The last thing most people expected to see or hear from me was an article about gardening… but the last couple of weeks I’ve been spending a lot of time in our garden and having loads of fun doing so. My Grandmother had the most wonderful garden and veggie patch, and I have many fond childhood memories with her digging holes, catching worms and planting seeds and all sorts of mischief in the garden (often involving picking kumquats and turning them into projectiles).

I don’t know why it took so long for me to get back into it gardening but recently I’ve decided to give it another go and haven’t looked back since.
 
While this may seem totally out of character, and totally unrelated to guitar playing, my experience as a guitar teacher and watching my students ‘grow’ is teaching me many valuable lessons.
 
A month ago we bought a raised garden bed from our local hardware store planted some seeds. We eagerly assembled the beds and planted some seeds, watered them every day or two, and made several attempts at keeping our dog out of the garden beds (before finally building a makeshift fence from shipping container pallets) and then planted some more and watered some more.
 
After two weeks, some of our plants started poking through. After a month several more sprouted up through the dirt (much to our delight). We’ve even got some veggies that aren’t expected to pop up for another few months and will remain hidden under the ground for a while longer yet.
 
I’ll tell you what, It sure is frustrating having to go out and water every day only to find that some of the plants haven’t sprouted yet, and that the ones that have grow so slowly that we barely notice a difference.
 
But if I look at a photo from a month ago, or week to week, the progress isn’t just obvious, it’s amazing.
sunflowers, growth, life
It then dawned on me that this is the exact same thing guitar players go through when first starting out,  so if you’ve ever planted a seed and tried to  grown your own plants, you know that it takes time and effort.
 
Learning guitar is just like growing a plant from a seed in both process and payoff.
 
  • First you plant the seed, and then you water it.
  • Then the next day you water it, 
  • Then you water it again,
  • And the day after that you water it again, 
  • And you keep on watering it every day.
 
It might be a week before you see the sprout poke up through the dirt, or it might be 6 months.
 
But the point is you might need to put in daily effort for a long period before you can SEE the results.
 
This doesn’t mean that during this time nothing is happening,
 
It just means that you can’t see the progress that you’re making because it takes place below the surface.
 
But when that seedling first pokes up through the dirt, it sure feels good to know that all your hard work and effort has amounted to something.
 
So if you’re putting in lots and lots of effort and feel like you’re getting nowhere, just think of the seed, and know that even the tallest tree first started life as a seed.
 
Your guitar playing ability will eventually grow as strong as a great tree is tall, you just need to give it consistent attention over a long enough period of time to allow it to grow.
 
Really great trees, like the tallest gums take decades to grow, while others only need a few months to a few years before they start baring tasty fruit for you to enjoy.

Just Remember...Never Give Up!

Just remember: Don’t give up, and don’t stop watering the seed before it has the chance to grow. Even if you can’t see the improvement and it doesn’t feel like you’re making progress, your seed is growing under the surface and is getting ready to break through!

As long as you keep on investing time into your guitar practice you’ll eventually develop the skills you can only dream of having now! Never stop learning, and never give up!

essendon guitar teacher

About The Author

Michael Gumley is the owner and head teacher at Melbourne Guitar Academy, the creator of Guitar Dojo Online and the founder of Guitar Ninjas; a modern method and teaching curriculum for accelerated learning on guitar. While he isn’t much of a gardener, he is the Best Guitar Teacher in Melbourne and has the largest collection 5 star Google reviews to prove it. If you’ve stalled in your guitar playing progress get in touch with Michael to book a free lesson so that he can help you overcome any hurdles in your playing and start helping you move forward.

6 thoughts on “Planting A Seed…”

  4. kitchen

    I’m amazed, I must say. Seldom do I encounter a blog
    that’s both equally educative and interesting, and without a doubt,
    you have hit the nail on the head. The issue is something too few people are speaking intelligently about.
    I am very happy that I stumbled across this in my search for something relating to this.

    Reply

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