🎸Middle-aged Guitarist Series ⑤ As you get older, you shed tears, but you also start losing your edge. A story about a middle-aged guitarist.

It's time for us middle-aged guys to turn this into a joke.

When I play guitar and it starts sounding pathetic,
and I find myself tearing up at every old song,
I realized, 'Man, I'm really showing my age.'

But then I realized something.

——If I can turn all these phenomena into a joke, don't I win?

Once you pass 50 in life,
you naturally acquire the skill to convert pathos, tears, and sadness into 'laughter.'
This is a feat achieved through experience.
It's a trick I absolutely couldn't pull off when I was young.

So, today,
a 50-something middle-aged guitarist talks about,

'How to sublimate pathos and tears into laughter'

which I've put together.

■ No. 1: Just get through it by saying 'It's my presbyopia'

Lately, I can't see the sheet music.
There's no need to lament that.

The moment you can laugh and say, 'It's just my presbyopia,' the pathos automatically vanishes.

It's a convenient phrase.
Probably the most peaceful excuse in the world.

■ No. 2: Pretend the phrases you couldn't play 'never existed'

When I was practicing a ZIGGY solo and my fingers couldn't keep up,
the old me would have been depressed.

The current me is different.

I confidently say, 'There's no way I could have played a phrase like this back then.'

Then, it's strange.
It starts to become funny.

Actually, I can still play it now, though! Haha

■ No. 3: When you're sad, 'play a joke with your sound'

For example,
if you're about to cry listening to Crowded House's 'Don't Dream It's Over',

Play in the wrong key on purpose.

The moment you make a mistake,
your sense of sentimentality starts to feel ridiculous.

It's surprisingly recommended.

■ No. 4: Insist that "I sound better now than I did back then"

Whether it's the truth or not doesn't matter.

The important thing is to "insist" on it.

Then your friends around you will say this:

"No, you had more energy back in the day."

Laughter is born from there.
If laughter is born, you win.

■ No. 5: Sadness is actually most interesting when turned into a "story"

When humans calmly talk about their own sadness, it becomes funny.

"Lately, I just cry when I play the guitar."
"Huh? Why?"
"I don't know. But I just cry."
"No, that's scary!"

This makes for a complete conversation.
A sense of pathos is converted into laughter.

■ No. 6: Realize that your 50s are a "treasure trove of material"

When I was young, being laughed at was embarrassing.
It's different now.

If you're laughed at, you gain. If you make others laugh, you gain even more.

Your 50s are the age when
your body, your memory, and your guitar skills
all start to show signs of wear and tear in just the right way.

In other words, material comes up infinitely.

If you can enjoy this, you're invincible.

■ Conclusion

It's okay to cry.
It's okay to look pathetic.
It's okay if you can't play well.

If you can turn it into laughter in the end, it all becomes 'fuel for your music'.

When I was young,
'Can I play this well?' or 'I have to try not to cry.'
I didn't have the composure for that.

It's different now.

Playing guitar while crying,
and packing it away while laughing.

This is the true privilege of a guitarist in their 50s.
(Today, maybe I'll play Hillbilly Bops's Midnight Run...)

And tomorrow, once again,
I'll turn on the amp,
and play with a little smile.

That's good enough.