Rockstars Are Not Always Famous Anonymous

I was sitting there frustrated, so I closed my notebook, shut my laptop, and placed my guitar back in the corner. How could I think teaching myself an instrument was possible? If I couldn’t play music, I was going to listen to some instead. I went to my room and turned on some typical rock and roll songs like "Dani California" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and "Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows. All it took was the one minute solo, adapted from the immortal Jimi Hendrix’s intro to "Purple Haze" and craftily positioned right at the end of "Dani California," before the hairs on my arms stood tall and I got the chills. I was motivated.

Little by little, I began to improve. That feeling of satisfaction when I play through a song with the correct rhythm and hit every note with precision is uncomparable to any other feeling in the world. It is almost addicting. It makes you wonder what you can learn next in the endless world of music. I decided next to learn a tougher song by my all time favorite artist, Zella Day. But I remember thinking to myself, “how can I learn this when I can't read sheet music and she is too much of an insider's weapon to be on guitartab.com?”

I decided that the answer was to watch her play hundreds of times,...