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We’re talkin’ about practice

Practice doesn’t have to make perfect. A story of guitar picking, drumming, embryonic journeys, and learning to be here, now

Jim Esch
10 min readJan 9, 2022

In Spring 2019, we bought a Martin guitar, a budget priced DX1RAE dreadnought. For the money, it’s nice sounding — sweet, resonant, clear, rich with harmonic overtones. I determined at the time to not let this guitar sit unused. It wants to be played.

But after a couple months of honeymoon bliss, we were taking it out of the case less often. Insert work, responsibilities, and hangups. The Martin stood silent through it all, waiting.

Around the same time, I was deep diving into the garage and psychedelic music of the 1960’s, and I started to truly appreciate the music of the Jefferson Airplane. As I gathered up their albums at library sales and used record stores, I finally realized what a good band they were. I used to think their sound was “dated.” No longer. I had to learn to bypass the knee-jerk reactions (“music too archaic, out of fashion”) and the “hipper than you” postmodern appropriations (“hey man, retro 60’s flower power is back…groovy…wink wink”). Like DEVO sang, I’m through being cool. I’m at a point where I can settle in and enjoy the music from that era on its own terms, without the bravado and baggage.

“Heavenly Body” by Stacy Esch

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