Six things about six strings

I began learning guitar in my mid-20s, paying a patient tutor 30 bucks an hour to watch me play in a manner that can only be described as musical sacrilege. For months (okay, years) I endured the typical frustrations of buzzing strings, slow chord transitions, and an inability to sing along with my playing, due to the difficulty in managing multiple tempos and dynamics with different body parts. Over the past decade I’ve taken dozens of private lessons and classes, with teachers of many styles—and while I’m still embarrassingly mediocre, my experience has taught as much about learning guitar as it has…