Met a guy at a bus stop in Austin who fixed my whole approach to guitar

I was messing around on an old acoustic waiting for the 7 bus near South Congress. Some guy sat down next to me, asked if he could show me a different way to hold the pick. Turned out he was a session player from Nashville who moved here last year. He spent maybe 15 minutes showing me how to angle my wrist and it stopped the buzzing I'd been fighting for months. Now I play cleaner and faster, all because I didn't have earbuds in that morning. Has anyone else learned a skill tip from a random stranger that actually stuck?

3 comments

3 Comments

webb.ben25d ago

Read a study saying random encounters boost learning.

gavin69218d ago

web.ben the "random encounters boost learning" thing makes me think of that time I was stuck at the DMV for three hours. Ended up next to this older guy who kept complaining about his lawn mower, and somehow we got to talking about how to fix a carburetor. I never needed to know that before, but now every spring when my mower acts up I remember exactly what he said. So yeah, random encounters definitely teach you stuff, just not always the stuff you planned on learning. Sometimes it's just a weird skill you never knew you needed.

uma_martinez25d ago

So my random encounters mostly boost my social awkwardness...