Finbar O’Hanlan posted a link on Facebook a little while back. This article, from the Washington Post, was on the demise of the electric guitar… It’s an interesting article – written mostly from the perspective of the manufacturers and retailers.
I have a young friend who picked up the guitar and really threw himself into it for a few years and actually got quite good, pretty quickly. Then, suddenly he dropped it. Went into road-bikes instead. I think there are so many options for kids (teenagers) nowadays… The guitar is up against three things IMO:
- breadth of options for kids with some get-up-and-go about them,
- the sit-on-the-couch generation who are stuck in absorbing, rather than doing, and lastly and probably most critically,
- the guitar is for the most part, a ensemble instrument – which means kids have to learn to work together. In this self-obsessed, ego-stroking, safe-zone-tolerant world, working in a compromise-ready and listening intensive environment, isn’t a comfortable fit.. which means it isn’t for them. Kids are all about convenience and comfort nowadays. The guitar takes work, effort and patience, especially when working in a group.
Learning to work together is still the reward of the instrument… long may it live.
