Did this a while back with a record I've 'known' for twenty years and heard a countermelody in the second verse that I'd somehow never once noticed. Twenty years. It was just sitting there being beautiful without me.

Ennio Morricone, full stop. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly taught me more about melody than any lesson I've paid for. Two notes and you know exactly where you are and who just walked in.

Guitar at 35. Everything online says start young or don't bother. Three years in, I'm mediocre and completely delighted. Mediocre at something you love beats skipping it, every time.

'One bad month and some shoes' is the most accurate description of consumer debt I've ever read. Mine was one bad month and a slightly used amplifier.

Half agree. But some albums are studio constructions that were never meant to survive contact with a stage — you can't gig Pet Sounds with four guys and a van. The studio IS the instrument on records like that.

Week two update will be posted whether it's a victory lap or a confession. Accountability by forum.

Update: lesson money officially deployed. My teacher asked what I want to work on and I said 'everything' and he sighed like a man at the end of a very long week. We're starting with rhythm. Apparently I needed to start with rhythm.

Tried this for a week after reading your post and can report the notebook has already talked me out of two purchases. Turns out I can rationalize anything to an app but I cannot lie to my own handwriting.

'being a beginner in public' is exactly the fear, and it evaporates about two weeks in when you realize nobody is watching

Half tempted, but I'll be honest, the one thing the apps still do for me is catch the subscription I forgot existed. The pencil only knows what I confess to it.

occupational hazard version: mine get stuck in my hands. I'll be noodling a riff for twenty minutes before my wife names the song and ruins my evening.

Congrats! Also 'before I could meet it' is the realest phrase in this post. Money I never see is money I never argue with.

Naming the account something fun is underrated advice. Mine is called 'Future Amp Repairs' and it has genuinely stopped me from borrowing against it, because stealing from Future Amp Repairs feels like a crime with a victim.

The speech was always for my wife and she never once believed it. She'd just say 'nice guitar' in a tone I felt in my wallet.

MMMBop. I'm a guitarist, I'm contractually supposed to say something with a nine minute solo. It's MMMBop.

Vinyl fixed my listening and wrecked my wallet. New pressings run forty bucks around here — my whole streaming sub costs one record a month. And yet the forty dollar one gets listened to properly and the infinite library gets scrolled. Can't explain it, can confirm it.

Achilles Last Stand. Ten and a half minutes, no radio station was ever going to touch it, and it's some of the best playing Page ever committed to tape. Deep cuts are where guitarists show off for other guitarists.

eleven people with impeccable taste though