A Horse with No Name

A long time ago, when I was trying to learn the guitar, my elder brother, the tutor had told me that one of the simplest songs to learn on the guitar was “A horse with no name” by America. Apparently the whole song is played with two chords, just two. Of course, he tried teaching it to me and lost all his patience and gave up on me. I did want to learn but wasn’t necessarily committed to it. I wanted quick results, dreamt of becoming a guitar player overnight. Needless to say, it didn’t work.

Fast forward fifteen years and here I am again-trying to learn this instrument. I have been taking guitar lessons for the past few weeks. So far, I have been to 3 sessions and I am loving every moment of it. I enjoy the teacher, a young lad in his twenties who plays classical music on the guitar. So you can imagine how good he is with the instrument. He sounds wonderful when he plays, even if it is for a couple of minutes. And he has been quite patient with me. Not that my older brother wasn’t. I admit, I drove him to lose his patience.

I have been practicing a couple of chords in my free time. And at the last session, the teacher asked me if I was interested in picking up a song. Oh, yeah!!! I want to play every darn song I know on the guitar. No, I didn’t exactly say that to him - didnt want to sound arrogant or overly confident. But I did narrate to him about how my older brother tried teaching me a song eons ago and how he ended up losing hope! The teacher also readily agreed that it is indeed one of the easiest songs to learn on the guitar.

Hence, for the past couple of days, I have been strumming “A horse with no name" on my new guitar. It feels so good to hold the instrument and be able to play a song. I haven’t mastered it as yet- have a long way to go. I sound quite choppy and my fingers sometimes get stuck when I change chords or strum but I am certain that with a little more effort and practice, I will be able to play it comfortably.

Gosh, that surely will be the day!!